Varieties and types of eggplant for your beds

The list of species and varieties of garden plants on the beds of summer cottages and household farms is expanding every year. If not long ago a rare gardener decided to grow eggplants, today this and many other crops are quite common and give good yields in various parts of the country. Cultivating tomatoes, cucumbers, sweet pepper, plant a few bushes of your favorite eggplant variety in the garden to please your family with delicious dishes.

When the basics of agricultural technology are mastered and the first purple fruits are harvested, it's time to choose varieties and types of eggplant for planting next season. And there really is something to see, especially since thanks to breeders from all over the world, eggplants have long ceased to be only "blue". Now in the beds among the bushes with traditionally purple fruits, you can see white, green, variegated, and almost pink eggplants.

There are plants that produce yellow, orange and even red fruits that outwardly differ little from sweet peppers or tomatoes, but inside they remain real eggplants.

In addition, today you can choose eggplant varieties and their hybrids:

• forming tall or compact plants;
• giving the usual cylindrical or surprising round, ovoid and long serpentine fruits;
• striking in yield and size of individual fruits, up to 2 kg in weight;
• different ripening periods;
• for growing in greenhouses, greenhouses or in the open field;
• resistant to diseases and unpretentious to growing conditions in the middle lane.

The choice of varieties and types of eggplant is so great that it is not difficult to get confused. If experienced summer residents know how to handle many varieties of plants in the beds, then for beginner gardeners it is more reasonable, having familiarized themselves with the characteristics of all kinds of eggplants in advance, to choose a couple or three early-ripening varieties in order to guarantee themselves tasty and healthy vegetables.

Eggplant in a purple outfit

Traditionally, in Russian gardens, purple eggplants are in the lead in popularity, and the palm tree almost throughout the country belongs to two varieties of eggplants.

This is the Black Beauty variety, attracting the attention of gardeners not only for its unpretentiousness and the possibility of growing, both in film greenhouses and in the open field, but also for its decent yield and quality of fruits. Dense brown-purple eggplants weighing 200-350 grams do not have a bitter taste, are well stored and are not susceptible to common diseases of this culture.

The second in the garden popularity rating is the Almaz eggplant variety, which is distinguished by 200-gram deep purple fruits. The shape of the fruit is oblong, even; the pulp has a pleasant taste without signs of bitterness.

In addition to these well-known varieties, other varieties are worthy of attention of gardeners:

• giving a lot of medium-sized, oblong fruits, weighing up to 150 grams, the Violet Miracle variety;
• eggplant variety Banana with elongated fruits that can be stored for a long time without loss of quality;
• large-fruited variety Black Beauty with fruits up to 900 grams, bright black-purple color.

Adherents of the traditional pear-shaped shape will like the productive Albatross variety, which forms compact bushes from which large, up to 450 grams in weight, blue-violet fruits with dense greenish pulp are removed.

Round eggplants, which are gaining popularity, are convenient for stuffing, canning and stewing, therefore varieties and hybrids that produce fruits of this shape are becoming more and more in demand.

An example of a plant of this type is the Black Moon variety of domestic selection, which gives almost ribbed spherical fruits of a dark purple color with a glossy surface and light green flesh without traces of bitterness. Eggplants weighing 200 to 350 grams can be harvested within 110–115 days after planting, and the ovary forms even at low temperatures, and the plant bears fruit for a long time.

The high-yielding early Bourgeois hybrid also produces round eggplants with a glossy black-purple surface and an almost white delicate flesh. Fruit weight reaches 400-600 grams.

For cultivation in film and winter greenhouses, you can choose an eggplant Gorodovoy F1 of medium ripening, characterized by a high stable yield, excellent taste and transportability of fruits. The plant is powerful, reaching a height of more than 1.8 meters, it bears large cylindrical fruits up to 0.5 kg in weight.

The eggplant variety Airship is in no way inferior in yield, whose fruits weighing up to 120 grams can be harvested in 125-135 days from the moment of emergence. Due to the dense crown and the abundance of foliage, yields may drop, therefore, plants of this type of eggplant require thinning and removal of excess stepsons and leaves.

White eggplant

If a few years ago eggplant with a white peel could surprise neighbors in a summer cottage, friends and acquaintances, today these varieties of eggplants have won deserved recognition and are loved by many gardeners. This became possible not only because of the exotic appearance and unusual, as in the photo, the color of the eggplant, but also thanks to the delicate, almost seedless, white pulp without any bitterness and taste, according to gourmets, reminiscent of mushroom or chicken.

Domestic gardeners who decide to try themselves in growing white eggplant should pay attention to early varieties and hybrids that give good yields even in not the most favorable conditions.

In 95-105 days after the seeds are hatched, the domestic variety of eggplant yields a crop Taste of mushrooms, which can be cultivated both in open ground and in greenhouses or film greenhouses. As you can see in the photo, the color of the eggplant is really milky white. Cylindrical fruits weigh 200–250 grams and stand out from a number of analogues with a pleasant mushroom smell, delicate pulp and high marketability.

The Icicle variety bears fruit a little later, after 110-116 days, and not only the color, but the type of eggplant is surprising. The long fruits truly resemble an icicle, taste good and are great for all types of culinary processing. Another eggplant variety has a similar, saber-shaped fruit shape, in the photo, white color - Pelican. Gardeners can also take a closer look at other white-fruited varieties, for example:

• to the Swan variety with fruits of a classic cylindrical shape;
• to eggplant Iceberg, which produces fruits in the form of an oval or egg;
• to round ping-pong eggplants.

Lilac eggplant

In addition to purple and white eggplants, breeders have obtained many intermediate forms that have striped, pink-white or lilac fruit color. From an eggplant variety Lilac to wait for fruits after 98-106 days. The plant forms a compact bush no more than 60 cm high, while the fruits have an elongated-cylindrical shape, a lilac surface and a weight of 150 to 250 grams. On a cut, the fruit is white, dense. Good-tasting pulp can be used for all types of food and canning.

Fans of amicable abundant harvests will appreciate the Balagur variety, which forms up to 7 fruits on the clusters. And the value of the variety is not only in this, but also in the early stages of ripening, the excellent commercial quality of 150 gram elliptical eggplants and their excellent taste.

The Pink Flamingo variety belongs to medium early eggplants, which grows up to 180 cm in height under the conditions of heated greenhouses. Fruits, as in the previous case, are formed on clusters of 3–6 pieces. The weight of one eggplant is 250–450 grams. Especially the pink-lilac color of the eggplant, as well as the white, without bitterness, flesh draws attention to the variety.

Round eggplants, as a rule, are large in size and impressive fruit weight. Bumbo is no exception. Its spherical fruits have an interesting white-lilac hue and weigh up to 700 grams. The best results are obtained from growing in a greenhouse, where the plant forms powerful bushes, showing consistently high yields.

From a number of lilac, pink and purple counterparts, the Matrosik eggplant variety shown in the photo stands out for the spectacular striped color of oval or pear-shaped fruits, weighing 100-150 grams each.

Green eggplant

In Southeast Asia, small round eggplants with a solid or variegated green color are very popular. In Europe and the USA, eggplants with the same color as in the photo are usually called Thai, but Chinese types of eggplants of this type are also known. For example, at the stage of technical ripeness, the fruits of Chinese green eggplant have a light green color, but when ripe, they change it to golden-bronze.

Domestic breeders have not forgotten green eggplants either. The Zelenky variety bears pear-shaped green fruits weighing from 250 to 300 grams. The pulp of such eggplants does not contain bitterness, has a white or barely greenish color and a wonderful taste of natural mushrooms.

The Emerald eggplant variety shown in the photo belongs to the early maturing, can be cultivated both under the film and in the open field. On unpretentious, cold-resistant bushes, large, cylindrical elongated fruits weighing 300-400 grams are formed with a creamy white pulp of medium density. Eggplants of this variety are tasty, do not taste bitter and invariably delight with high yields.

Red, orange, yellow

Eggplants of yellow, orange and purple color are almost impossible to find in our gardens. And yet, these types of eggplant exist.

The bright sunny fruits of yellow color and oval shape are given by the eggplant variety Golden Eggs presented in the photo, obtained by Dutch breeders. The eggplant pulp of this variety is rich in carotene, and the rest of the vegetable is similar to its more familiar garden relatives.

Being of African or Middle Eastern origin, Turkish eggplants are distinguished by their miniature size and orange-striped fruit that appears as they ripen. Young fruits of this type of eggplant are green, fragrant, without traces of bitterness, but gaining color, they begin to noticeably bitter. These thermophilic plants are popular in South America, where they came several centuries ago with slaves, and are valued for the lycopene contained in fruits, which is used to obtain anticancer drugs.

Red, more like miniature tomatoes or pumpkins, eggplants are grown both for small fruits and as an ornamental plant. The plant forms sprawling bushes. The leaves of this type of eggplant and the trunk, covered with sparse thorns, are often burgundy or purple in color. The fruits hold well on the stalks, on the cut they resemble jalapeno peppers, they are quite edible, but when mature they can taste bitter.

The best varieties and hybrids of eggplant - video