Your comments and tips

05 Mar 11, tuan bui (Australia - temperate climate)

Hi. I am a market gardener in north of adelaide sa, i had been growing egg plant in the glasshouse for years. Not long ago I try to plant in hydroponics for some reason why I got a lot of fruit rot "the fruit look ok but when I see a little crack or solf in the small area of the fruit then I cut it open , the flesh inside turn brown and the fruit is no good at all for the market. thank you, regard tuan bui

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12 Feb 11, Cherri East (Australia - temperate climate)

I have small holes in my eggplant and when I crack the egg plant open there is a grub inside that is eating the flesh of the fruit. ?Any ideas on what these may be and how I can get rid of them in an organic way. I have alot of herbs in my garden and do not have a problem with an other type of pest on any other vegetabel, just the egg plant. The eggplant bushes them selves are healthy.

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26 Nov 10, Pru (Australia - cool/mountain climate)

RE Chris P, if flowers are dying and falling off, sprinkle a small hand full of epsom salts around the base of the plant, just away from the stem. My grocer told me this trick last year and I had a full crop after applying the epsom salts.

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19 Nov 10, chris p (Australia - sub-tropical climate)

my eggplant flowers well but the fruit doesn't develop - the flowers drop off, what is missing?

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02 Jun 11, Margaret (Australia - temperate climate)

My plants are large enough and healthy - they get plenty of flowers but no fruit has started. Maybe thye need a bit more sun for this time of year?

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01 Oct 10, Carol (Australia - sub-tropical climate)

My egg plants and silver beet are getting eaten this has never happened before,can you please tell me what to spray them with,

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01 Jun 10, Andrea (Australia - tropical climate)

I've noticed that some people find cooking eggplants a little tricky. The mistake people often make is not to cook them long enough and they taste bitter and unpleasant. I used to cook them mainly in olive oil. But recently I've begun cooking an exclusively indian diet. I have some lovely recipes of eggplant in yoghurt curry (you should be able to find recipes on the web if interested and eat them served with basmati rice and other indian dishes). The point I wanted to make was that in my recipes, I've discovered that one can cook eggplants very well under the griller without oil as the first part of cooking. I believe this approach would transfer to any european style of cooking them as well. Simply cut the eggplant in half lengthwise, place it under the grill element with the skin side up. Cook until the soft and the skin starts to blister. Its about 15 minutes but check. After this you can finish off the cooking by frying it in oil with the rest of your ingredients and it shouldn't require as much oil as if you were cooking it from scratch in the frypan.

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08 Jun 10, Chris (Australia - cool/mountain climate)

Hi, another thing which works well for indian-style recipes is to cook the eggplant in a steamer first, instead of frying it which so many recipes suggest but which soaks up tons of oil. After steaming then just fry briefly in a little oil to caramelise the surface, or just use as-is.

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04 Jun 10, (Australia - temperate climate)

Kevin, it could be anything! Not enough water, poor soil, pests? You could try a couple of new plants in different spots and see if that helps. Like tomatoes, eggplant like copious feeding - weekly feeding with liquid fertilizer can get them moving along.

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25 May 10, Elisa (Australia - tropical climate)

Can anyone help? How long can an eggplant plant produce good fruit for? I have harvested fruit from the same plants since 2008 but the fruit appears to be smaller than last years yield. Is it time to get younger plants? Prune the plants severly?

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