By Umar Nsubuga
The eggplant is an oriental vegetable grown for its fruit and is related to the potato, tomato, green pepper and chilli families.
The eggplant is a delicious vegetable which enriches and adds flavour to soups.
Climate range
Gideon Zakke, an agronomist says the eggplant prefers warm to hot areas but may require supplementary irrigation during the cropping season (flowering and bearing fruit period).
Varieties
-There are several varieties like, the Florida high bush, an ideal export variety.
-Black beauty is a variety with large very glossy round fruits. It has a long shelf life.
-Early long-purple. This has long club-shaped fruits almost black in colour.
Planting
He says the eggplant does not germinate well when directly sown. It should, therefore, be started in the nursery. You will require 350-500gm/ha of seed. Depending on the area to be planted.
“Sow the seeds in well-prepared beds each bed should be about 1m wide and of convenient length. Transplant when seeds have attained at least four leaves,” he says.
Spacing is 60-90mx45cm within and between rows. At planting time, add two handfuls of manure per planting hole where possible add fertiliser of diammonium phosphate of 20gm or 1 tablespoonful in the planting hole and mix well with topsoil, he explains.
Harvesting
“Eggplants mature at five months and harvesting continues for two to four months. It is worth growing,” he says.
