White Eggplant F1 Seeds 20

White Eggplant F1 stands apart from the familiar deep-purple types with its smooth, glossy ivory-white skin and a clean, creamy interior. The flesh is mild and noticeably sweeter with far less bitterness, so it soaks up oil and seasoning beautifully when grilled, roasted, fried or stuffed. The striking pale fruit also looks ornamental on the plant, making this vigorous hybrid as pretty in the garden as it is versatile in the kitchen.

Planting

Eggplant is a warm-season, frost-sensitive crop, so give it a head start by sowing indoors about 6 to 8 weeks before you plan to move plants outdoors. Sow the seed roughly 0.6 cm deep, covering lightly. Warmth is everything at this stage: keep the soil at 27-32 C until the seedlings emerge, then ease it back to around 21 C, as seed simply will not sprout in cool ground. Expect germination in about 7 to 14 days at these warm temperatures. Only transplant outdoors once frost danger has fully passed, nighttime lows stay consistently above 10 C and the soil has warmed to about 18-21 C. Choose a cloudy, calm day or the late afternoon for transplanting, and space plants about 45 cm apart in rows 75-90 cm apart so they have room to bush out and fruit.

Fertilizing

Before transplanting, work a balanced complete fertilizer such as 10-10-10 or 13-13-13 into the soil at roughly 145-160 g per square metre, adjusting phosphorus and potassium to suit a soil test, and aim for a soil pH of 6.0-7.0. Once the first fruits form, side-dress with nitrogen to keep the plants productive, repeating when plants are about half-grown and again after the first harvest. Go easy, though: too much nitrogen drives bushy, leafy growth that is slow to set fruit, which is the last thing you want.

Care

Site your eggplant in full sun, with at least 6 hours of direct light a day and ideally 8-10 hours for the best fruiting. Water steadily, supplying about 2.5-5 cm per week; if rain falls short of around 2.5 cm in a week, soak the bed thoroughly at least once to a depth of about 15 cm, with a drip system or soaker hose giving the most consistent moisture. Stay alert for flea beetles, Colorado potato beetle, eggplant lacebug, spider mites and cutworms, plus Verticillium wilt and early blight; rotating away from all Solanaceae such as potato, tomato and pepper for 4-5 years helps keep Verticillium wilt at bay. Harvest while the fruit is still glossy and firm, at about two-thirds of its maximum size for the best quality. Press the side with a thumbnail: if the dent stays, it is ready, while dull skin and browned seeds mean it has gone over. Cut the stem with pruners or a sharp knife rather than pulling, and count on roughly 55-80 days from transplanting to picking.