Eggplants are a very capricious crop, so when growing them, it is necessary to carefully care for the plants, water and fertilize them on time.
The instructions below will help you grow healthy and juicy eggplants.
Eggplant sowing dates
Gardeners advise planting at one time, Internet users - at another. Who to believe?
It is logical to assume that the timing of planting eggplants, like any other garden crops, should depend on the climatic conditions of the region.
Preparing seeds and soil for planting
Healthy seeds will produce healthy fruits - this is logical.
Therefore, for planting in the ground, you should use young seeds that have not yet reached the age of four years.
Before planting, you need to make sure that the seeds are viable.
First, you should discard empty seeds. This can be done in a special solution (to prepare it, you need to dissolve 1 tablespoon of salt in 1 liter of warm water).
The seeds must be placed in the prepared solution. The healthy and strong ones will sink to the bottom, and the empty ones will float to the surface.
Eggplant is a rather capricious plant, so the logical solution would be to speed up its ripening using any growth stimulator for this purpose (for example, Heteroauxin or Zircon).
If there are no stimulants, it is permissible to use proven folk remedies, for example, aloe juice. Eggplant leaves should be placed in the refrigerator for 5-6 hours.
After this, you need to squeeze out the juice using gauze, and then soak the eggplant seeds in the juice. After a day, the seeds can be sown.
The prepared seed material is usually germinated.
For this purpose, it is wrapped in a damp cloth and left in a warm room for 3 days.
In addition to fabric, it is permissible to use woven towels.
As soon as the seeds swell and begin to hatch, they need to be sown.
Suitable soil for sowing eggplant seeds can be purchased in special stores, but it can also be prepared at home.
To prepare the soil mixture, you need to mix turf soil (1 part), humus (2 parts), dry peat (2 parts).
Add a little wood ash to the resulting mixture. The soil mixture is ready!
To reduce the chance of plant disease, the prepared soil mixture is watered with boiling water or a warm solution of potassium permanganate.
Rules for sowing seeds
Containers for growing eggplants should have a volume of at least 0.25 liters.
3 (sometimes 4) seeds are sown in one container at a depth of 1.1 centimeters. Seedlings usually appear by the end of the second week.
It is permissible to cover the container with the crops with polyethylene film - in this case the process will be accelerated. The film must be removed when the first sprouts appear.
After the sprouts appear in each container, you need to thin out the soil, leaving one of the healthiest and strongest sprouts.
It is highly recommended not to pull seedlings out of the ground. This can damage the roots of healthy plantings. You should pinch off the stems of weak seedlings directly at the ground.
If you follow all the above rules and advice, then after some time the seedlings will grow into strong and healthy seedlings and will soon produce juicy and tasty fruits.
