Big surprise for me when I moved from Queensland to Hobart is how well eggplants grow in Hobart. I had more success here than we ever did in Brisbane. You don't need a greenhouse as these varieties will grow outside.
Eggplants need the same growing conditions as tomatoes (though they do like heat just a bit more!). Unlike tomatoes if you have a greenhouse or very warm sunny spot indoors you may be able to get fruit from it over more than one season.
The trick to getting fruit from eggplants is hand pollination. The flowers are tricky for bees and other pollinators to pollinate.
Like most fruiting annuals keeping picking them. Once they set seeds they will stop producing.
Fresh eggplants are delicious and well worth growing. The plants are beautiful and look good in the garden.
We have 2 varieties this season chosen for their suitability for the cooler shorter Tasmanian season. However both our varieties produce smaller fruit rather than the really big fruit you see in the supermarket. These varieties produce a lot of fruit. We have grown both and had success with both.
Casper
- the most successful variety we have grown. Personally each time we've grown it it has produced large amounts of eggplants.
- French heirloom
- fruit up to 5 x15cm (though tastier when smaller)
- quick producing
- heavy producing
- very mild flavour. Not bitter.
- European eggplants were originally white hence the name eggplant
Rosa Bianca
- lavender and white pear shaped fruit 10-15 cm long
- superbly flavoured creamy flesh
- Italian heirloom
- plant height 60-90cm
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