White, green, purple and lavender – heirloom eggplants offer color and food

Do ‘Rosa Bianca’, ‘Pandora Striped’ , ‘Casper’ , and ‘Apple Green’ mean anything to you?  These are just a small sampling of heirloom eggplant varieties that you can grow in Florida.  The number of different eggplant varieties available to grow has expanded well beyond the large deep purple fruits that most people are familiar with.  There is huge assortment of heirloom eggplants that offer color and shape to please any gardener.  Eggplants (some do actually resemble eggs) were first introduced by Thomas Jefferson and the rest, as they say,  is history.

Eggplants were around well before Thomas Jefferson started to promote them in 1806.  In fact, the eggplant is native to India and Pakistan and has been used as a crop for at least four-thousand years.  Well-known in Asia, the Middle East, and Europe, the eggplant has traveled the world and, as a result, is available to home gardeners.  Heirlooms, by definition, whether eggplants, tomatoes or some other cultivated plant, must have been in common use for fifty years, come true from seed, and be pollinated by natural means.  Generally heirlooms have great flavor or some other noted characteristic, but not necessarily disease resistance. 

Eggplants like full-sun locations with well-drained soil enriched with plenty of organic matter.  On average, most varieties take from sixty-five days up to around eighty-five days from transplant to the first harvest.  For our fall/early winter gardens, eggplants can be planted from August through October.  They are sensitive to frosts, so be prepared to cover them as we enter early winter.  Eggplants can also be planted in the late winter/early spring garden after the weather has settled.  I have successfully grown them during the summer as well.  Space the plants twenty-four to thirty-six inches apart in rows thirty-six to forty-two inches apart.  Pick the fruits when they are young and shiny as over-mature fruit can develop bitterness. 

As for what heirloom eggplant varieties you select, it all depends on your particular needs and tastes.  A few green cultivars to try include ‘Apple Green’, ‘Louisiana Long Green’, and ‘Thai Long Green’.  For white-fruited eggplants, try ‘Casper’, and ‘Japanese White Egg’.  There are a number of long, narrow purple-fruited types such as ‘Fengyuan Purple’, ‘Long Purple’, and ‘Ping Tung Long’ ( I have grown ‘Ping Tung Long’ twice with good success).   For eggplants of a different color, look for lavender-pink fruited ‘Rosita’ or the purple-white striped cultivars ‘Listada de Gandia’, ‘Pandora Striped Rose’ or ‘Rayada’.   If you like the classic, large, bell-shaped eggplants stick with ‘Black Beauty’, ‘Florida Market’, or ‘Florida Highbush’. 

Heirloom eggplants are colorful, interesting and tasty!  For more information on all types of vegetables that you can grow in our area, please call our Master Gardener volunteers on the Plant Lifeline on Mondays, Wednesdays and Fridays from 1 to 4 pm at 764-4340 for gardening help and insight into their role as an Extension volunteer.  Don't forget to visit our other County Plant Clinics in the area.  Please check this link for a complete list of site locations, dates and times - http://charlotte.ifas.ufl.edu/horticulture/Plant%20Clinics%20Schedule.pdf.

Resources:

Ozores-Hampton, M. (2013) Heirloom Eggplant Varieties in Florida.  The University of Florida Extension Service, IFAS.

Christman, S. (2004) Solanum melongena.  Floridata.com, Tallahassee, FL.