Growing your own fruit and vegetables in your backyard or within your home can be a highly rewarding task that can yield some incredibly delicious food to include in recipes, as well as a much healthier and happier garden ecosystem.
The only problem is, growing specific fruits and vegetables in your home can require some specific conditions, and there are certain things that you need to make sure to keep in mind as you move toward your planting goals.
You’re likely reading this now because you want to know how you can grow a black beauty eggplant in your home, and what you can expect from the experience.
Luckily, you’ve come to the right place. Today, we are going to dedicate ourselves to telling you everything you need to know about the black beauty eggplant, and what you need to do to help it to grow to fruition!
What Is The Black Beauty Eggplant?
Before we can dive into finding out how you can grow the black beauty eggplant at home, it is important that we take the time to ask ourselves what exactly it is, and what it is that makes it so special. Let’s take a look.
The black beauty eggplant is perhaps the most iconic version of the eggplant and the version of the vegetable that most people picture in their minds when they hear the word ‘Eggplant’.
How Does The Black Beauty Eggplant Look?
The black beauty eggplant is famed for its iconic look which explains how it was able to earn such a name.
The outer skin of the eggplant is a deep black color that has slight purple hints which help to make it look totally incredible and memorable.
The skin itself. The eggplant itself has a very wide shape, with the bottom half being the widest point. It has a great roundness to it.
Towards the tip of the vegetable, it becomes slightly more narrow, leading to a green tip.
What Is The Black Beauty Eggplant Like?
When it comes to pure yield, individual eggplants are prized for having a large amount of internal flesh that can easily be used in a massive number of ways, for countless recipes.
On average, most black beauty eggplants tend to weigh between 1 to 3 lbs, which can make them perfect for feeding numerous people at once. The vegetable can very often grow to be around 30 inches in height!
Another thing that has helped to make the black beauty eggplant easily one of the most beloved varieties of eggplant around is that the plant that the vegetable grows from has an impressive yield.
The average eggplant plant can often produce up to 6 large eggplants, which is seriously impressive!
How Does The Black Beauty Eggplant Taste?
The black beauty eggplant is beloved for having a great-tasting inner flesh that has a slightly meaty taste that also combines with a slightly creamy flavor.
It creates a great flavor cacophony that is incredibly pleasant.
Black beauty eggplants are often grilled or stuffed to create incredible flavor sensations, and they are often included in dishes such as stews because they are able to easily absorb the flavor of the wider stew while also providing the stew with an extra source of meaty flavor.
How Do You Grow The Black Beauty Eggplant?
Now that you’ve likely found yourself tempted by the prospect of tasting black beauty eggplants, you’re likely feeling ready to grow some of your own. Let’s find out how you can do it!
How Do You Plant Black Beauty Eggplant Seeds?
If you are growing your black beauty eggplants from seeds, then you will want to place the seeds around a quarter to half an inch deep into the soil.
Generally, you will want to allow the seeds to rest in the soil you have sown them in for 8 to 10 weeks before transplanting them to pots.
Once the plants have grown into seedlings, keep them close to the sun as much as possible. Generally, you will want the plant to be near a south-facing window.
Once the temperatures outside begin exceeding, you will generally want to move the plant into some well-draining soil.
These plants thrive in warmer temperatures, and as such, this means they can require a little bit of extra watering to help keep them hydrated and fed, as the sunlight can dry out the soil quickly.
Make sure to try and water the soil once every day, but don’t use too much water. Pat the soil before watering every time to make sure there isn’t already plenty of water.
Remember that eggplants can grow to be quite significant in size, so if you are planning to grow numerous eggplants close to one another, you will need to ensure that there is around 18 to 24 inches between the plants.
This may mean that you need to create a slightly larger space for your eggplant growing.
Do You Need To Fertilize A Black Beauty Eggplant?
Generally, you do not need to keep a black beauty eggplant fertilized until the growing plant begins to sprout its first true leaves.
When you notice that the eggplant seedling has produced leaves, you may want to add some diluted liquid fertilizer to the soil.
However, if you have already added nutrients from things like eggshells to your seedling’s soil, before transplanting, you do not yet need to add any more fertilizer!
How Do You Care For Black Beauty Eggplants?
Now that you have planted your black beauty eggplants in their final pot, you’ll need to know how to go about maintaining them from there. Luckily, it’s quite easy. Let’s take a look at what you need to do!
Keep The Soil Fertilized
Eggplants are heavy feeders that require quite a heavy amount of nutrients to produce a heavy yield. Thus, you will want to make sure to provide the soil with plenty of fertilizers quite often.
Though there are no eggplant-specific fertilizers, they can thrive incredibly well with tomato and vegetable fertilizers.
Generally, you want to look out for fertilizers that have higher concentrations of phosphorus and potassium, because they help the plant to bear more fruit.
Further from this, you will also want to try to opt for slow-releasing fertilizers, as these release their nutrients very slowly, meaning you may only need to apply an extra layer of fertilizer once every 2 months!
Keep The Soil Moist
Because eggplants require so many nutrients and love to thrive in the sunlight, they also naturally need a lot more hydration. Try to keep the soil around all of your eggplants as equally moist as you can.
You can check by simply tapping the soil to see how much moisture is released when you apply pressure to it.
Keeping your eggplants watered is vital. If they become even slightly dehydrated they will experience trouble fruiting, which will lead to much smaller yields. If dehydrated enough the plant may even die!
When Should You Pick Black Beauty Eggplants?
Generally, you should find that your eggplants are ready to be picked between 75 to 90 days after you first transplant them into their final growing pot.
When black beauty eggplants are ready to be picked, they should normally be at full size, and you should be able to notice that iconic shiny and glossy outer skin has turned a very dark, almost black, purple.
If you notice that the eggplants are slightly more yellow-brown, it could be that you have waited too long to harvest, but it is not too late so don’t panic.
When black beauty eggplants turn brown they simply become a little more bitter!
Once you have picked your eggplants, you can also set about starting growing your next yield. To do this, you will need to allow one of your eggplants to over-ripen.
While this will mean that the eggplant becomes unappetizing, it allows the internal seeds to mature just enough to lend themselves perfectly to the growing process.
To Wrap Up
Growing your own black beauty eggplants can be incredibly rewarding, and can result in eggplants that taste miles better than anything you could ever find in your local grocery store.
The taste of eggplants that you have grown yourself are all the more satisfying and flavorsome simply because of the knowledge that you put in so much work to create such a healthy harvest.
But growing your own eggplants does not come easy, and you do need to put in a lot of effort to get the results you want.
We hope that this guide not only proved illuminating and inspiring but also incredibly useful and that you now feel ready to grow some black beauty eggplants of your own!
Frequently Asked Questions
Does Black Beauty Eggplant Need A Trellis?
It is definitely recommended to create a trellis for your black beauty eggplant so that the stalks do not break!
Can You Grow Black Beauty Eggplant In Pots?
Yes, but you will need to make sure that the pot is 2 gallons minimum.
Should I Trim Eggplant Leaves?
It’s a good idea to trim the leaves from eggplants, as it allows the fruits to more easily access air and light!
Hi, my name is Amelia Haslehurt and I am a food blogger. As you can guess, I am passionate about what I eat, but what is most important to me when reviewing is high quality, fresh, organic, delicious ingredients.
I wanted to create an online space where others could sample some of my favorite recipes, and share in my passion for home-grown produce.
Whether you are looking for vegan recipes, easy recipes, healthy recipes or your favorite yummy snacks to brighten your day, I can help you out here at LocallyGrownGardens.com
