Eggplant Valentine F1: description, photo, reviews

Content

1 Hybrid characteristics
2 Description of the plant
3 The advantages of eggplant
4 Growing a hybrid
5 Vegetable growers' secrets
6 How to protect eggplant
7 Testimonials

Thanks to breeding work, new varieties are constantly appearing on the eggplant seed market. Valentina F1 eggplants were registered in Russia in 2007. Bred by the Dutch company Monsanto. This hybrid, which is characterized by excellent taste, is gaining popularity among gardeners due to its early ripening and resistance to viruses.

Hybrid characteristics

Eggplant Valentina F1 in the climate of Russia is grown in greenhouses or under film shelters. In the southern regions, the bushes grow in open ground. The Valentine hybrid is noted for its resistance to weather changes. Flowers in unfavorable conditions stay on the plant, do not crumble, ovaries and fruits are formed.

Cute dark purple long eggplant fruits adorn the hybrid bush with original pendants already 60-70 days after planting in the beds. The very first, large fruits can be picked in July. The crop ripens three months after germination. More than 3 kg of vegetables are harvested from one square meter of plantings of the Valentine variety. The fruits of Valentine F1 eggplant are uniform and are famous for their excellent commercial properties.

The fruits can be stored for about a month in a cool room without losing their taste. Vegetables are used to prepare various dishes and preparations.

It is important to choose the moment of culinary ripeness of the eggplant. Usually by this time the fruits have a rich dark shade and glossy cover. Vegetables with a dull, slightly pale skin are overripe, they are already beginning to form small hard seeds.

Attention! Valentine's eggplant is a hybrid, it is inappropriate to propagate it with your own collected seeds. New plants will not repeat the qualities of the mother plant.

Description of the plant

Bushes of the Valentina variety are erect, vigorous, semi-spreading, rise to 0.8-0.9 m. The trunk of the plant is pubescent, differs in a weak light purple color. Medium-sized leaves of a rich green shade, notched at the edges. The flowers are large, white and purple.

Dark purple fruits - elongated, drop-shaped, can stretch up to 20-26 cm.The diameter of the thickened, the lower part of the fruit - up to 5 cm, the upper part - up to 4 cm.The weight of the fruit reaches 200-250 g. The skin is glossy, thin, easy to clean ... The firm flesh has a pleasant creamy white color. In the descriptions of the gardeners who grew this hybrid, the soft and delicate taste of the fruit is noted, without a hint of bitterness.

The advantages of eggplant

In their descriptions and reviews, vegetable growers highly appreciate the quality of the fruit and the plant itself of the Valentine's eggplant variety.

Early maturity and productivity;
Excellent taste of fruits and their presentation;
Unpretentiousness of plants;
Resistance to tobacco mosaic virus infection.

Important! Valentine's eggplant fruits are delicate in structure due to the fact that they have very few seeds.

Growing a hybrid

They start sowing Valentine's eggplant seeds from the beginning of March. Usually Dutch seeds are sold already coated with special substances after pre-sowing treatment. But in the reviews of summer residents, there are references to the fact that after soaking in growth stimulants, the seeds of the hybrid germinated faster. Soaking in aloe juice for half a day also accelerates the germination of seeds.

Then the seeds are dried and germinated.

They are placed in wet wipes, cotton wool or hydrogel and left at a temperature of 25 ⁰FROM;
The germinated seeds of the hybrid are gently transferred to the soil of a peat pot or paper cup with a piece of paper napkin or a grain of gel.

Sowing seeds without germination

For Valentine's hybrid eggplants, you need to prepare a nutritious soil. The soil is mixed equally with humus, peat, sawdust, enriching the composition with wood ash and urea. The solution is prepared in the proportion of 1 tablespoon of carbamide per 10 liters of water. Sand is added to the clay soil.

Eggplant seeds are deepened by 1-1.5 cm, the pots are covered with foil or glass;
The temperature for germination of seedlings should be at the level of 25-26 ⁰FROM;
The sprouts appear in 10 days.

Warning! It is better to sow eggplant seeds immediately in separate containers, because their root system does not tolerate transplanting well.

Seedling care

During the first 15-20 days, young eggplant seedlings require the air to warm up to 26-28 ⁰C. Then the temperature drops by one degree during the day, and at night it should be in the range of 15-16 degrees. If the weather is cloudy, the daytime temperature should be kept at 23-25 ⁰S. In this case, the seedlings of the Valentine hybrid must be illuminated - up to 10 hours.

Water for watering plants is heated;
The soil is moistened after drying;
For plant feeding, use the drug "Kristalin". 6-8 g of fertilizer are dissolved in 5 liters of water.

Eggplant in greenhouses

Valentine's eggplants are planted in unheated greenhouses and shelters in the second decade of May. Make sure that the soil warms up to 14-16 ⁰C. By this time, the seedling rises to 20-25 cm, 5-7 true leaves are formed.

When planting Valentine hybrid plants, adhere to the 60 cm x 40 cm scheme;
Water the eggplant bushes with warm water 2-4 times a week. After watering, the ground around the plants is carefully loosened so as not to damage the roots;
It is advisable to mulch the soil;
The first feeding of plants is carried out 3 weeks after planting. 1 tablespoon of Kemira Universal fertilizer is poured into 10 liters of warm water. Watered with 0.5 liters at the root;
Use mineral fertilizers of your choice or organic matter: wood ash, fermented infusion of meadow grasses and weeds, manure solution;
At the end of July, all the eggplant bushes are examined to select the largest ovaries. They are left and others are removed, just like the flowers. This is done so that the fruits ripen faster.

The greenhouse must be ventilated so that the eggplant bushes are not affected by the high temperature. Due to their resistance, the plants of the Valentine hybrid retain flowers and ovaries, but the fruits grow small.

Comment! It is necessary to check the humidity level. The optimal rate is up to 70 percent. In a wet environment, pollen cannot move and the yield will decrease.

Eggplant in the garden

Valentine's eggplants are taken out to the garden in late May or early June.

They choose a good sunny place where carrots, peas, beans, cabbage, green or melons and gourds grew last year. These plants are considered the best precursors for eggplant.

When digging, the soil is enriched with superphosphate, potassium sulfate, ash. Or add humus, compost;
Sand is added to the clay soil in large holes. Eggplants thrive on light but fertile soils;
Before planting, fertilizers such as "Growth", "Agro-growth", "Kemira universal" and others are introduced into the soil of choice, referring to the instructions;
Row spacing: 60-70 cm, between plants: 25-30 cm;
For the first 7-10 days, Valentine's eggplant seedlings should be shaded if the weather is hot and cloudless. In addition to spunbond, they take spacious cardboard boxes, disassembling the bottom plane, old buckets without bottoms and other materials at hand;
The plants are watered with water heated during the day, in the morning the soil is loosened and mulched.

Vegetable growers' secrets

Valentine hybrid eggplants are an unpretentious and stable culture. But you should know the accumulated experience of gardeners who grew plants of this type in order to get a good harvest.

After transplanting into the greenhouse, the plants are watered for the first time after 5 days;
Pour 0.5-1 liters of water under the hybrid bush so that moisture reaches all the roots of the plant;
Warm water is poured under the root of the plant;
Loosening should be superficial;
For normal vegetation, plants need heat up to 28-30 degrees;
When the buds begin to form, the eggplants are fertilized: 30-35 g of ammonium nitrate and 25 g of potassium sulfate are diluted in 10 liters. Each plant receives at least 0.5 liters of solution;
During the formation of ovaries, nitrogen-phosphorus fertilizers are applied to the area with eggplants in the proportion: 10 l of water: 25 g of superphosphate: 25 g of potassium salt.

Advice! It is necessary to feed the mullein infusion in small doses so that the leaf mass of the plant does not grow to the detriment of the fruit.

How to protect eggplant

From high humidity, eggplants can be threatened with fungal diseases.

Anthracnol and Quadris preparations will protect plants from phytophthora;
"Horus" - from gray rot;
For prophylaxis, Valentine's eggplant bushes are treated with "Zircon" or "Fitosporin".

Plant pests: Colorado beetles, spider mites, aphids and slugs.

In a small area, beetles are harvested by hand;
The Strela insecticide is used against ticks and aphids;
Slugs go away if the soil is covered with ash.

Labor in the eggplant garden will bear fruit in the middle of summer.

Vegetables will be a delicious addition to the table.

Testimonials

Yuri

We have been growing Valentine's hybrid for two years now. He showed himself on the good side: productive, stable. And most importantly - early maturing. We pick the first fruits of the eggplant from the middle of summer.

Natalia Grigorievna

First, I bought unusual long eggplant fruits at the local market; my own ones were not yet ripe. I imagined what kind of uniform ratatouille would be. I liked the taste and early ripening of the hybrid. This year I have already purchased seeds.

Marina

I also liked the fruits of this eggplant hybrid. Grew up in a greenhouse with a neighbor. What is convenient for dishes, and what taste is very pleasant, delicate. We already had our own vegetables last summer.