Content
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. The color of the eggplant varies from white to almost black, the size of the fruit ranges from 30 g to 2 kg. We are used to growing and eating medium-sized purple fruits.
Eggplant is called a vegetable for long-livers, it is indicated for the diet of elderly people, patients with cardiovascular diseases, promotes weight loss, helps with diseases of the liver, gastrointestinal tract, kidneys. This is a real pantry of nutrients. It is grown exclusively through seedlings, and outside the greenhouse, eggplant grows in our country only in the southernmost regions; in the rest of the territory, its cultivation requires closed ground. Feeding eggplants in a greenhouse is one of the decisive factors for a good harvest, and this will be the topic of our article.
What do eggplants need?
As already noted, eggplants are very demanding on growing conditions. For development and fruiting, they need:
- rich in organic matter, water and air permeable, loose soil with a neutral reaction;
- wet air;
- abundant watering;
- warmly;
- the sun;
- increased doses of nitrogen fertilizers.
They don't like eggplants:
- 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, 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 eggplants in a greenhouse
Most often, eggplants are grown in greenhouses or greenhouses.
Why eggplant is best grown in greenhouses
Farms aimed at obtaining a good stable harvest containing pesticides, herbicides, nitrates and other harmful substances within acceptable limits grow eggplants only in greenhouses. This is due to the fact that even the southernmost regions of Russia are still not located in the subtropics, temperature fluctuations there are not uncommon. In recent years, abnormally high temperatures in summer, rains that last for weeks, or absent altogether, simply do not allow fastidious and delicate eggplants to develop normally in the open field.
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 not contaminated with pesticides. With eggplants, the fruits of which are above the surface of the soil, everything happens exactly the opposite. If you soak the roots of seedlings in Prestige, then whoever says anything, its residual amounts remain in the fruits.
The biological product Aktofit does not have a systemic effect and in rainy summer its effectiveness drops sharply.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 or hot, without sudden temperature changes, with an even distribution of precipitation, then you can only fight the invariable invasion of Colorado beetles in the open field with slaughter preparations.
If a summer resident or a villager growing several dozen or even a hundred bushes can, if desired, collect pests by hand, then in large farms this is simply impossible and unprofitable. In addition, if eggplants were grown in the ground for our own consumption, and then they were taken and disappeared, what will 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 made from fresh fruits. And for farms, this can threaten ruin.
And so it turned out that it is safer to grow eggplants in our greenhouses, therefore, it is 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 selection
The choice of eggplant combs for greenhouses should be approached differently from the way we choose tomatoes or peppers. This vegetable is not eaten raw, therefore, when choosing a variety, taste plays not even a secondary, but a tertiary role. Dishes can be easily spiced or tasted in other ways.
Eggplant is a very capricious culture, it is worth paying attention to the resistance of the variety or hybrid to diseases, adverse environmental influences and the possibility of growing in a greenhouse. Hybrids should be preferred over varieties because of their yield.
Pollination
Separately, it must be said that eggplants in greenhouses will have to provide manual pollination. Of course, if you have an apiary nearby, this problem will not worry you. A good result is the removal of the leaves covering the flowers and the subsequent shaking of the bushes.
There are drugs that promote pollination and fruit formation. If greenhouse eggplants bloom poorly, it is recommended to spray them with boric acid. For this, 1 g of powder is diluted with 5 liters of water.
Fertilizer requirements
Eggplant agronorm - only 15 g per square meter. This means that the crop needs a minimum amount of fertilizer, it cannot be overfeeded. But not fertilizing greenhouse eggplants would be a mistake at all - you will be left without a crop. It is important here to maintain a balance and give the plant exactly as much 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
Plants need nitrogen fertilization to build up green mass and photosynthesis. Its lack entails a slowdown in growth, and the leaves first brighten 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 the bushes of greenhouse eggplants and a decrease in yield.
However, excessive doses of nitrogen fertilizing lead to increased leaf growth due to flowering and fruiting, besides, eggplant immunity decreases.
Top dressing with phosphorus
Fertilizers containing phosphorus contribute to the formation of buds, flowering, fruiting, seed setting, accelerate the growth of the root system and the ripening of the crop. Phosphorus fertilizing is especially necessary for young plants during bud setting. 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 dressing.
The upward-pointing leaves speak of the lack of phosphorus fertilizers.
Potash fertilizers
Potassium-containing dressings contribute to the accumulation of carbohydrates, which significantly improves not only the quantity, but also the quality of the fruit. Potash fertilizers take a direct part in the fertilization of the ovary and the formation of fruits, increase the plant's resistance to diseases.
The leaves are the first to signal about the lack of potassium dressings - they wrap inward, form a brown border around the edge, and then dry out. If this nutrient is not enough during the ripening of the fruit, 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, with a deficiency of iron and manganese, young leaves fall ill with chlorosis, and with a lack of magnesium, old leaves. For the normal development of the root system and for the successful formation of buds, fertilization, copper, molybdenum, boron are needed.
Trace elements are best absorbed by plants with foliar dressing, so they cannot be neglected in any case.
Fertilizing eggplant in the greenhouse
Although eggplants take out little fertilizer from the soil, feeding cannot be ignored, especially when grown in greenhouse. This vegetable reacts very well to organic matter, if you have the opportunity, try to replace mineral fertilizers with ash and mullein as much as possible.
Soil fertilization
Top dressing of greenhouse eggplants begins with the autumn preparation of the soil. For one square meter of the area, from 1/2 to 2/3 of a bucket of organic fertilizers - compost or humus - are applied and the soil is dug to a shallow depth. Ash is best applied directly during planting of seedlings by adding a handful of powder to the hole, mixing with soil and flooding with water.
Root dressing
Eggplants do not respond well to transplants; they take root about 20 days after planting the seedlings in the greenhouse. It is then that the first feeding is given.
How and when to feed eggplants
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 tablespoons to a bucket of water. tablespoons without a slide of azofoska. In this case, they spend 0.5 liters of fertilizing under a bush.
- When the ovaries appear, you need to fertilize the greenhouse eggplants 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 feeding 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 the 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 dressings are given for the eggplants in the greenhouse. Starting from the moment of ovary formation, organic soil fertilization without adding a mineral complex can be carried out every two weeks, trying to accurately dose the infusions.
Some sources advise those with drip irrigation in their greenhouse to add a weak fertilizer solution weekly when watering.
Organic fertilizers
The best fertilizer for eggplant is 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, placed in a warm place and stirred from time to time.
For fertilization, mullein infusion is diluted with water in a ratio of 1:10, bird droppings - 1:20, herbal infusion - 1: 5. A glass of ash is added to a bucket of dressing, stir well.
Foliar dressing
Foliar fertilizers can be combined with the treatment of greenhouse eggplants from pests and diseases. They are intended primarily in order to feed the plant with microelements or urgently add one or another macroelement, as they act directly on the leaf. Usually, the fertilization result is visible the very next day.
Conclusion
Eggplant is a difficult crop to grow, but if you have a good harvest, you can be rightfully proud of yourself. Have a nice harvest!
