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Eggplant, like tomato or pepper, belongs to nightshade crops, only more thermophilic and capricious. In our country, it began to be widely used less than two centuries ago, although it has been growing in Europe since the fifteenth century. Eggplant color varies from white to almost black, fruit size ranges from 30 g to 2 kg. We are used to growing and eating medium-sized purple fruits.
Eggplant is called a vegetable of centenarians, it is indicated for the diet of elderly people with cardiovascular diseases, promotes weight loss, helps with diseases of the liver, gastrointestinal tract, and kidneys. This is a real storehouse of useful substances. It is grown exclusively through seedlings, and outside the greenhouse eggplant grows only in the southernmost regions, in the rest of the territory its cultivation requires protected ground. Top dressing eggplant in a greenhouse is one of the decisive factors for a good harvest, this will be the topic of our article.
What do eggplants need?
As already noted, eggplant is very demanding on growing conditions. For development and fruiting they need:
- rich in organic matter, water and breathable, loose soil with a neutral reaction;
- wet air;
- abundant watering;
- heat;
- the sun;
- increased doses of nitrogen fertilizers.
Eggplants do not like:
- poor, acidic, dense soils;
- cold nights;
- sharp fluctuations in temperature;
- cold water;
- transplants;
- drought.
The ideal temperature for growing them is 23-27 degrees. At a temperature of 12-14 degrees, eggplants stop growing and stop developing, at 6-8 degrees, irreversible physiological changes occur in them, and at zero they simply die.
High temperatures will also not be beneficial – even when the thermometer rises above 35 degrees, pollination does not occur.
Growing eggplant in a greenhouse
Most often, eggplants are grown in closed ground – greenhouses or greenhouses.
Why eggplant is best grown in greenhouses
Farms, aimed at obtaining a good stable crop containing pesticides, herbicides, nitrates and other harmful substances within acceptable limits, grow eggplants only in closed ground. This is due to the fact that even the southernmost regions of Our Country are still not located in the subtropics, temperature fluctuations there are not uncommon. In recent years, abnormally high temperatures in summer, rains, sometimes going on for weeks, sometimes absent at all, simply do not allow fastidious and tender eggplants to develop normally in open ground.
And the Colorado potato beetle loves this culture, perhaps even more than potatoes. The famous Prestige, which helps us still get normal potato yields, spreads up the plant. This allows you to get a potato crop that is not contaminated with pesticides. With eggplants, the fruits of which are above the ground, everything happens exactly the opposite. If you soak the roots of seedlings in Prestige, then no matter what anyone says, its residual amounts remain in the fruits.
The biological product Aktofit does not have a systemic effect and its effectiveness drops sharply in rainy summers. In greenhouse conditions, the drug works well.
So in the open field, eggplants are threatened by natural disasters, to which tomatoes and peppers react poorly. Even if you are lucky, the summer will not be cold and not hot, without sudden changes in temperature, with a uniform distribution of precipitation, then you can only deal with the constant invasion of Colorado potato beetles in the open field with lethal drugs.
If a summer resident or a villager who grows several dozen or even a hundred bushes can, if desired, collect pests by hand, then in large farms this is simply impossible, and even unprofitable. Besides, if eggplants were grown in the ground for their own consumption, and then they took and disappeared, what would we do? That’s right, let’s sigh and go to the nearest market or supermarket to make preparations for the winter and treat ourselves to delicious dishes from fresh fruits. And for farms, this can threaten ruin.
And so it turned out that it is more reliable to grow eggplants in our greenhouses, therefore, more profitable. In addition, this is a rare case when greenhouse vegetables grow environmentally friendly in closed ground (at least, much cleaner than in open ground).
Variety choice
The choice of eggplant combs for greenhouses should be approached differently than we choose tomatoes or peppers. This vegetable is not eaten raw, therefore, when choosing a variety, taste qualities do not even play a secondary, but a third-rate role. Dishes are easy to season with spices or improve their taste in other ways.
Eggplant is a very capricious crop, it is worth paying attention to the resistance of a variety or hybrid to diseases, adverse environmental influences and the possibility of growing in a greenhouse. Hybrids should be preferred over varieties due to their yield.
Pollination
Separately, it must be said that eggplants in greenhouses will have to provide manual pollination. Of course, if there is an apiary nearby, you will not have such a problem. A good result is the removal of leaves covering the flowers and the subsequent shaking of the bushes.
There are drugs that promote pollination and the formation of fruits. If greenhouse eggplants bloom poorly, it is recommended to spray them with boric acid. To do this, 1 g of powder is diluted with 5 liters of water.
Fertilizer Requirements
The agronorm of eggplant is only 15 g per square meter. This means that the crop needs a minimum amount of fertilizer, it cannot be overfed. But it would be a mistake not to fertilize greenhouse eggplants at all – you will be left without a crop. It is important to strike a balance here and give the plant exactly as many nutrients when feeding as it needs.
Greenhouse eggplant needs phosphorus and potassium all season, but their effectiveness will be minimal without applying sufficient doses of nitrogen fertilizers to the soil.
Nitrogen fertilizers
Nitrogen is needed for plants to grow green mass and photosynthesis. Its lack entails a slowdown in growth, and the leaves first lighten and then turn yellow. If nitrogen fertilizers are not urgently applied to the soil, they will fall off, which will certainly lead to a weakening of greenhouse eggplant bushes and a decrease in yield.
However, excessive doses of nitrogen supplements lead to increased leaf growth due to flowering and fruiting, and besides, eggplant immunity is reduced.
Fertilizing with phosphorus
Fertilizers containing phosphorus promote the formation of buds, flowering, fruiting, seed setting, accelerate the growth of the root system and ripening of the crop. Phosphorus top dressing is especially needed for young plants during the laying of buds. But this element is well absorbed only by adult greenhouse eggplants, therefore, in the early stages of development, it is better to give phosphorus to the plant with foliar top dressing.
Upward directed leaves indicate a lack of phosphorus fertilizers.
Potash fertilizers
Fertilizers containing potassium contribute to the accumulation of carbohydrates, which significantly improves not only the quantity, but also the quality of the fruit. Potash fertilizers are directly involved in the fertilization of the ovary and the formation of fruits, increase the resistance of the plant to diseases.
The leaves are the first to signal the lack of potassium supplements – they wrap inward, form a brown border along the edge, and then dry up. If this nutrient is not enough during fruit ripening, brown spots form on them.
Top dressing with microelements
Although the lack of trace elements in the nutrition of greenhouse eggplants is not so fatal, but with a deficiency of iron and manganese, young leaves become ill with chlorosis, and with a lack of magnesium, old ones. For the normal development of the root system and for the successful formation of buds, fertilization, copper, molybdenum, and boron are needed.
Trace elements are best absorbed by plants with foliar feeding, so they should not be neglected in any case.
Eggplant fertilizers in the greenhouse
Although eggplants take little fertilizer out of the soil, top dressing cannot be ignored, especially when grown in greenhouses. This vegetable responds very well to organic matter, if you have the opportunity, try to replace mineral fertilizers with ash and mullein as much as possible.
Soil fertilizer
Top dressing of greenhouse eggplants begins with the autumn preparation of the soil. On one square meter of area, from 1/2 to 2/3 buckets of organic fertilizers – compost or humus are brought in and the soil is dug up to a shallow depth. It is best to apply the ash directly during the planting of seedlings, adding a handful of powder to the hole, mixing it with soil and filling it with water.
Root feeding
Eggplants do not respond well to transplants, they take root about 20 days after planting the seedlings in the greenhouse. That’s when they give the first feeding.
How and when to feed eggplant
For the entire growing season, greenhouse eggplants are fertilized 3 to 5 times.
- The first time the plants are fertilized after the root system is restored after transplantation. It is best to add 3 tbsp to a bucket of water. spoons without a slide of azofoski. At the same time, they spend 0,5 liters of top dressing under the bush.
- When the ovaries appear, you need to fertilize the greenhouse eggplant a second time. At this stage, it is important to feed with phosphorus and potassium, and you can also use various infusions. Usually for the second dressing they take ammonium nitrate – 2 teaspoons, potassium chloride – 1 tbsp. spoon, superphosphate – 2 tablespoons per 10 liters of water.
- At the very beginning of fruiting, feed greenhouse eggplants with nitrogen and potassium. To do this, simply double the amount of these fertilizers in the working solution.
If the fruiting is stretched, two more mineral top dressings are given for eggplants in the greenhouse. Starting from the moment the ovaries are formed, organic soil fertilizers without the addition of a mineral complex can be carried out every two weeks, trying to carefully dose the infusions.
Some sources advise those who have a greenhouse equipped with drip irrigation to add a weak solution of fertilizer when watering weekly.
Organic Fertilizers
The best eggplant fertilizers are organic. To prepare them for a week, bird droppings, mullein or weeds are fermented, after cutting off the roots. To do this, a bucket of organics is poured with 3 buckets of water, put in a warm place and stirred from time to time.
For fertilizer, mullein infusion is diluted with water in a ratio of 1:10, bird droppings – 1:20, herbal infusion – 1:5. Add a glass of ash to a bucket of top dressing, stir well.
Foliar top dressing
Foliar fertilizers can be combined with greenhouse eggplant treatments for pests and diseases. They are intended primarily to feed the plant with microelements or urgently introduce one or another macroelement, as they act directly on the leaf. Usually the result of fertilization is visible the very next day.
Conclusion
Eggplant is not an easy crop to grow, but if you have achieved a good harvest, you can rightfully be proud of yourself. Have a good harvest!