As for all “summer vegetables”, aubergines do very well here, provided they are planted in good earth and get enough sunshine and water. I have tried three different varieties since 2022. Two of them bought on the market or in der garden center, one from Italian seeds:
- Antigua-Type from the garden center: purple-white stripes, large fruit.
- “Monstrueuse de New York” from the market: large fruit, but the color not at all as expected. In the summer they tended to be bright yellow or grey-green-purple instead. Only in September did I see the first dark purple ones.
- Rosso di Rotonda from seeds (seedhunters.com): small tomato-sized eggplants in red-green stripes.
They make beautiful plants and their fleshy velvety flowers are very pretty as well. This year I planted/sowed them end of March/beginning of April in front of a an Eastern-facing wall so they were protected from cold winds. They grew well even in this year’s cool spring. In the summer they were prone to spider mites. I sprayed some to keep on top of it but didn’t worry overmuch since the fruit seemed unaffected. All eggplants grew and fruited until the end of October and I could have let them stay, since November was a very balmy month with mostly at least 15 degrees Celsius. But I needed the space for cabbages…
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