|
Unusual Vegetable Plants |
|||||||||||||
|
|
Aubergine The Aubergine or "Egg Plant," (not to be confused with the yellow flowered "Poached Egg Plant") was not very popular until more recent years, but is now sold in most, halfway decent, greengrocers. In
very mild parts of the country plants may sometimes crop outside, but
results will be unreliable. They are better grown under shelter and
best treated as a greenhouse crop grown in Growbags, or 9 inch pots,
as they are quite Aubergines
are prickly, leafy plants, that produce quite attractive flowers,
which when pollinated, of course result in the fruit. From sowing
seed, to fully developed Aubergines, will take up to 5 months. Expect
several fruit on each plant and as some varieties easily produce fruit
up to 1 lb or more in weight, they can produce quite a harvest, on the
other hand some strains only yield tiny egg sized fruits. Don't be
tempted to leave mature fruits on the plants to let them get bigger,
as they will turn bitter if left too long. Usually when the fruits
have lost their shine it is already too late and they will be bitter.
Mature Aubergine fruits are commonly
purple and look like overgrown Courgettes. Aubergines have long been used on the Continent in traditional French cooking in dishes such as "Ratatouille" and Greek dishes such as "Moussaka," but they are finding their way more and more into English Cuisine. They are another one of those vegetables that may disappear from English dinner tables if imports of foreign vegetables are restricted for whatever reason and as such are well worth growing. |
|
|||||||||||
tender, but will grow as easily as the related
Tomato Plant in the right conditions. As
with many greenhouse crops, plants are susceptible to the normal
greenhouse pests of, Red Spider Mite, Whitefly and Greenfly.
