A Comprehensive Analysis of Key Eggplant Cultivation Techniques

Eggplant can be seen on dining tables, at street market barbecues, in restaurants and canteens alike. Since eggplant is so popular, what are the cultivation techniques for eggplant?

1. Select eggplant seeds for sprouting and seedling raising

Take out the eggplant seeds you have stored; if you do not have any, buy some from the street. Before sprouting, the seeds need to be soaked, and the soaking time should not be too long. Soaking the seeds in a gibberellin solution can make them sprout very quickly. Generally, in 3 to 4 days they split open and show white.

Next, prepare a seedling tray. Choose a suitable seedling tray, fill the cells with fertile farmyard soil, sow the sprouted eggplant seeds that have split open and shown white evenly in the center of each cell, placing two seeds per cell, then cover the seeds evenly with a layer of fine soil, and water appropriately just to moisten the soil.

2. Transplanting eggplant seedlings

In fact, after sprouting and then raising seedlings, they sprout, emerge from the soil and grow true leaves very quickly. From sowing to emergence with two cotyledons generally takes about seven to eight days, during which we do not need any fertilization, but should sprinkle water moderately to keep the soil in the tray moist. This is because under conditions of sufficient soil moisture, eggplant grows and develops well; when moisture is insufficient, the soil hardens and flower bud differentiation is delayed, leading to unevenness.

Eggplant has very poor root regeneration ability, and new roots are difficult to regenerate, so we must transplant quickly when the seedlings have 2 to 3 true leaves and flower bud differentiation has not yet begun, and of course transplant them together with soil and roots into the land where they will be planted. Before planting, deeply plow the soil, rake it level, and make high ridges 60 cm to 65 cm wide and 15 cm high, then open two shallow furrows on the ridges, water thoroughly at the base and apply base fertilizer. Plant the eggplant seedlings at a spacing of about 30 cm per plant.

3. Management after planting

After eggplant is planted, it should be watered to help the seedlings recover, and watering is paused until the first eggplant flowers, then when the first eggplants have generally grown to about 3 cm, water and fertilize again, preferably by applying decomposed human and livestock manure, or ammonium sulfate fertilizer can also be used. After the seedlings recover, the first application of water and fertilizer should be somewhat larger in amount, and when the eggplants begin to swell, give them a second application of fertilizer and water, and thereafter apply fertilizer and water once every 10 to 15 days. In the middle and late fruiting stages, they must not lack water or fertilizer. During this period, nutrient uptake is very large, and it affects the yield level and quality advantages of the eggplant.

4. Prevention and control of eggplant diseases and insect pests

2. There are many eggplant diseases, but the common diseases include Verticillium wilt, damping-off, and Phytophthora blight.

For Verticillium wilt, we can drench the roots with dexon, root rot ning, or wilt ling solution, or disinfect the seeds before sowing.

For damping-off and Phytophthora blight, we can spray or drench with Previcur, Sandofan, Lixuoshuang, or metalaxyl-mancozeb solution.

1. Eggplant insect pests include tobacco cutworm, thrips, red spider mite, and others.

To control tobacco cutworm, Aruibao emulsifiable concentrate, Mengweiling, or abamectin can be used for control

For thrips, 5% thrips-aphid enemy solution; imidacloprid + Haoniandong 600-fold solution can be used for spray control.

For red spider mite, dicofol, Tianwangxing, or Qingman can be used for spray control

5. Harvesting

When the eggplant is fully swollen, the fruit is purple-black, or if the variety you planted is white, harvest early when the outer skin is glossy, in order to increase early-stage yield and raise output value. When harvesting, it is best to cut from the fruit stalk to reduce bruising.