Glossy and exotic, eggfruit (also known as aubergines or brinjals) could be classed as a gourmet veggie.
They are essential to Mediterranean and vegetarian cuisine, often combined with tomatoes, peppers and zucchini, as well as being delicious in curries and other spicy food. Whether on their own or with other ingredients, eggfruit can be grilled, fried, boiled or baked. Grated egg fruit is a great meat extender too.
Good to know:
All this easy to grow veggie needs is full sun, fertile well drained soil and regular watering. However, it is a long crop, taking 85 to 100 days to harvest, so seed should be started in seed trays indoors or in a warm place. Plant out seedlings after the last frost.
What about pots?
The ideal soil mix for pot grown eggfruit is 50% homemade mature compost, 25% washed river sand, and 25% vermiculite or palm peat brick. Use the biggest possible pot, at least 30 – 40 cm in diameter.
Growing tips
- Preparing the soil with plenty of organics will provide sufficient nutrition until the plant starts flowering.
- Eggfruit are thirsty plants that need plenty of water, especially when they are producing fruit. Plants in pots should be watered daily during very hot weather. A water stressed plant is susceptible to aphids.
- When the first fruit starts to set, fertilise with an organic 3:1:5 or 5:1:5 fertiliser like Vigorosa every three weeks. Plants in pots should be fed weekly with Margaret Roberts Organic Supercharger diluted at half strength. Dropping flowers is a sign of a potassium deficiency.
- Stakevarieties that produce large fruit.
Harvesting
Don’t leave fruit on the bush because over-ripe fruit tends to be bitter. As soon as fruit loses its glossiness it is over ripe.
Try these:
‘Black Beauty’ is a traditional heirloom variety with large dark purple almost black fruit that is very tasty and delivers consistent quality.
‘Oriental Fingerlings’ are finger-shaped eggfruit that come in an array of purple, green and white with tender, non-bitter flesh. It’s sweeter than other varieties and should be harvested young for extra flavour.
‘Rosa Bianca’ is an Italian heirloom that produces round white fruit with a rosy hue and mild flavoured creamy flesh. It’s an early producing plant, taking 85 to 90 days to harvest.
Good companions for eggfruit are nasturtiums, oregano and chives repel pests and attract pollinators, lettuce and Swiss chard thrive in the shade offered by eggfruit, carrots and beetroot aerate the soil, and beans fix nitrogen in the soil.
Get started with a seasonal seed box from RAW seeds that contain five seasonal heirloom vegetable seed packs that change with the season.
Garden Tasks
- Water seed beds and seedlings every day and established veggies once or twice a week.
- Encourage earthworms by spreading a layer of compost topped with mulch.
- As the days get warmer control aphids, white fly and other pests with environmentally friendly insecticides.
- Stake and support tomatoes, eggfruit, sweet peppers, and cucumbers while plants are still young.
Veggies to sow now.
Summer rainfall regions
bush/runner beans, beetroot, brinjals, cabbage, carrot, peppers, cucumbers, celery, lettuce, melons, marrows, mealies, peas (in cooler areas), pumpkins, radish, rhubarb, Swiss chard, tomatoes.
Lowveld and KwaZulu Natal coast
bush/runner beans, brinjals, peppers, cucumbers, mealies, and radishes
Winter rainfall regions
bush/runner beans, beetroot, brinjals, carrot, peppers, cucumbers, celery, lettuce, melons, mealies, pumpkins, radish, rhubarb, Swiss chard, squash, tomatoes.
Article and images supplied by Alice Coetzee.