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Post by Laura_in_FL on May 14, 2012 14:08:27 GMT -5
I have a Black Beauty eggplant which is really, really healthy. It's loaded with buds, blooms, and setting fruit. Only today I noticed that the color was starting to lighten and dull on the first fruit that it had set, indicating that it was beginning to ripen and wouldn't grow any more. So I picked it.
It weighed only 3 oz, and is just a little larger than an egg. Black Beauty is supposed to make big fruits.
This fruit came from the first blossom to open on the plant, which bloomed all by itself almost two weeks before the next blossoms. Could the small size be from inadequate pollination? Or do I need to thin the fruit to get bigger ones?
I've never heard of thinning eggplant, but I am scratching my head that I got a puny little fruit from a giant bushy monster of a plant. Can anyone shed any light on this? Thanks!
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Post by gulfcoastguy on May 14, 2012 16:36:59 GMT -5
Once it stops being shiny it is overripe. For best taste pick it before that stage. It is entirely possible that you got a pack of mixed seed. That happened to me 2 years ago, I bought Thai Long Green and I gave 2 plants to a coworker. One produced purple fruit and one produced green. Your might have been from a smaller variety.
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Post by Laura_in_FL on May 15, 2012 9:43:53 GMT -5
Right, GCG - that's why I picked it - the shine was just starting to dull. Hopefully it's still good (planning to eat it tonight, so I will know then). This particular plant was a transplant I bought at a big box store (forget if it was HD or Lowe's). Could have been a mislabeled plant or a seed mix-up, though. I searched and searched and couldn't find anyone, anywhere recommending to thin eggplant fruits, so I am going to leave the plant alone. One site said that lack of pollination could result in small fruit that drop early. I wonder if that could be it since that was a lone blossom and I wasn't seeing much bee activity then. I guess I will have to wait and see if later fruits turn out bigger. Patience is not my strong suit, so gardening is good for my character, right? Even if it does turn out to be a small-fruited plant, there are plenty of good recipes in which I can use lots of little eggplants. As gardening problems go, this one is pretty minor. I was just wondering if I had slept through part of "Eggplant 101."
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Post by gulfcoastguy on May 16, 2012 12:29:38 GMT -5
Yep I have no idea how big my Arumugums get so I'll have to do the same thing.
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Post by Laura_in_FL on May 16, 2012 15:30:37 GMT -5
Hmm...it's too early to know for sure, but there is another fruit on that plant now that is growing fast and already seems a little larger than the first one. Maybe the first one was a fluke - inadequately pollinated?
I'm seeing a big fat carpenter bee on that plant a lot lately, so hopefully pollination will not be an issue from now on. I'll post back when I see how big the next couple of fruit end up.
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Deleted
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Post by Deleted on May 18, 2012 12:38:48 GMT -5
Last summer my Black Beauty made so many eggplants on one bush that I did thin a few fruits off it. I have one ripening now on a very small (less than 2 ft.) plant. I think maybe the plant itself wasn't mature enough to produce a larger fruit. Time will tell!
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Post by Laura_in_FL on May 24, 2012 10:23:54 GMT -5
Fruit #2 turned out to be about 8 oz. That's definitely smaller than the normal size for this variety, but big enough to stuff or get a few good slices for grilling.
If the rest turn out about this size, that would be okay with me, especially considering how many fruit are on this plant! I'm starting to think I would rather have a lot of half-pound fruits than a few 3 lb monster fruits anyway; I'd get to eat eggplant more often.
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Deleted
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Post by Deleted on May 29, 2012 10:05:53 GMT -5
I grow eggplant every year, and I have found that my homegrown ones never get as big as the ones in the supermarket (mayber they're fed steroids!), which is ok with me. Once they start making a lot of seeds, they don't taste as good. Someday I'm gonna figure out pictures!
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Post by Laura_in_FL on May 30, 2012 10:08:39 GMT -5
Heh, yeah.
Unfortunately, it looks like I have some more teensy ones maturing now.
I think I am going to thin it out a little - both baby fruits and foliage. The plant is really, really dense, and I am getting some yellowing leaves here and there. I think the plant could use some more air circulation.
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littleminnie
Pro Member
Gardening should be fun.
Posts: 264
Joined: February 2011
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Post by littleminnie on May 30, 2012 22:29:20 GMT -5
Pollination either happens or it doesn't. Just like you can't be partially pregnant. I don't think you can thin to get bigger ones like you want (this is how giant pumpkins and tomatoes are grown but that is not what we are talking about). However when you leave any fruit on the plant past maturity such as for seed saving, you can get less fruit after. This happens a lot with beans if you don't pick them.
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Post by Laura_in_FL on May 31, 2012 9:38:53 GMT -5
Minnie -
I didn't follow up on this, but this plant has been adopted by a carpenter bee. He/she wasn't around (that I saw) for the first bloom, but has been working the plant constantly since. It's still throwing small fruit, so you are definitely right: pollination isn't the issue.
Also, there hasn't been any fruit left on this plant to maturity - the latest stage at which I've picked a fruit is somewhat dull - not completely dull, and definitely not bronzed at all. So hopefully none of them were sufficiently mature to signal to the plant that it had succeeded in reproducing. It's still blooming and setting fruit like mad.
Speaking of that, almost every single blossom sets fruit, and the plant is loaded. It's even setting clusters of fruit, which I've never seen before. (In previous years, the biggest blossom in the cluster would set and the others would drop.)
I did do some thinning yesterday. Mostly I thinned leaves near the bottom to get rid of the yellowing/spotted foliage and get some air into the center of the plant. It was an impenetrable mess before with leaves rotting under there in the sauna. I was afraid the plant would develop a serious infection if I didn't clear it out. (This also helped me find some fruit I would otherwise have missed.) I picked any fruit that showed even a hint of dullness, no matter how small they were. I also thinned the clusters to one fruit each. So I ended up picking well over 20 fruit, over 4 and a half pounds. They varied from large grape size (1 oz) to just under 8 oz.
It's still a big plant with lots of leaves, flowers and fruit. But now I can see the stems at the bottom and there's some air circulation inside. Whether it makes any difference in fruit size, thinning it out was probably good for the plant's health.
(I was going to post pics, but Photobucket/NJT are giving me fits this morning. I keep seeing the "moved or deleted" error message even though the pics haven't been moved or deleted.)
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