Here's mine, Bonnie Mini Eggplant
45 days from setting out transplants.Eggplants in pretty tubs on the patio, or marching up the front steps in terracotta pots? With Patio Baby, it's so easy! This natural dwarf plant sets fruit all summer long -- an astonishing 25 to 50 eggplants per plant! -- that you pick when it's just a few inches in diameter, tender and succulent. If you love cooking with baby eggplants but can never get enough from full-sized plants -- or if you're looking to grow more of your vegetable garden in containers -- Patio Baby is the one for you!
Even those who aren't crazy about eggplants will thrill to the mild, rich flavor of this 2014 All-America Selection winner. The fruit is ready in less than 7 weeks from transplanting the seedlings in spring. Just 2 to 3 inches in diameter, they are a glossy purple so dark it looks black. And they arise on thornless stems, so you don't have to wear gloves to pick them! As soon as you harvest one, another begins growing to take its place. So easy, so productive, so delicious!
The All-America Selection judges love Patio Baby for its compact habit, its quick finish, and its great productivity. This is a plant you'll never have to stake, and it's simply covered in fruit all summer long. Spring brings small, attractive pale lavender blooms as well, just for another season of beauty!
Expect Patio Baby to reach 10 to 24 inches high and to spread 18 to 22 inches wide. It will fill the container space you give it, without crowding out its neighbors or looking stressed for space. An F1 (first generation) hybrid, it has a high germination rate and is ultra-dependable in any climate, but especially suited for the shorter growing seasons of the northeast and midwest.
Patio Baby was bred by plantswoman Ellen Leue, who remarks, "Fun new recipes call for baby eggplants, but if you just harvest conventional varieties when they're small, you get very few fruit. Also, the plants get BIG and are often full of thorns, so they're not a candidate for your patio. We were able to solve both these problems by breeding a prolific baby eggplant that is non-bitter, early maturing and absurdly productive. And it looks great in a large patio pot!" We heartily agree -- Patio Baby is a true ornamental edible!
Begin seeds indoors 8 to 10 weeks before planning to set out. Eggplant is a warm-weather crop, so wait until after danger of frost before transplanting seedlings into the sunny garden or container. In the garden, space plants 2 feet apart. Pkt is 15 seeds.
45 days from setting out transplants.Eggplants in pretty tubs on the patio, or marching up the front steps in terracotta pots? With Patio Baby, it's so easy! This natural dwarf plant sets fruit all summer long -- an astonishing 25 to 50 eggplants per plant! -- that you pick when it's just a few inches in diameter, tender and succulent. If you love cooking with baby eggplants but can never get enough from full-sized plants -- or if you're looking to grow more of your vegetable garden in containers -- Patio Baby is the one for you!
Even those who aren't crazy about eggplants will thrill to the mild, rich flavor of this 2014 All-America Selection winner. The fruit is ready in less than 7 weeks from transplanting the seedlings in spring. Just 2 to 3 inches in diameter, they are a glossy purple so dark it looks black. And they arise on thornless stems, so you don't have to wear gloves to pick them! As soon as you harvest one, another begins growing to take its place. So easy, so productive, so delicious!
The All-America Selection judges love Patio Baby for its compact habit, its quick finish, and its great productivity. This is a plant you'll never have to stake, and it's simply covered in fruit all summer long. Spring brings small, attractive pale lavender blooms as well, just for another season of beauty!
Expect Patio Baby to reach 10 to 24 inches high and to spread 18 to 22 inches wide. It will fill the container space you give it, without crowding out its neighbors or looking stressed for space. An F1 (first generation) hybrid, it has a high germination rate and is ultra-dependable in any climate, but especially suited for the shorter growing seasons of the northeast and midwest.
Patio Baby was bred by plantswoman Ellen Leue, who remarks, "Fun new recipes call for baby eggplants, but if you just harvest conventional varieties when they're small, you get very few fruit. Also, the plants get BIG and are often full of thorns, so they're not a candidate for your patio. We were able to solve both these problems by breeding a prolific baby eggplant that is non-bitter, early maturing and absurdly productive. And it looks great in a large patio pot!" We heartily agree -- Patio Baby is a true ornamental edible!
Begin seeds indoors 8 to 10 weeks before planning to set out. Eggplant is a warm-weather crop, so wait until after danger of frost before transplanting seedlings into the sunny garden or container. In the garden, space plants 2 feet apart. Pkt is 15 seeds.
I see Bonnie also has a pinstripe mini eggplant, here's their write-up up them
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63 days from setting out transplants.Eggplants on the patio? Why not! This beautiful striped Italian type is just the ornamental touch any large planter needs, and it bears big crops of striped fruit on compact, spineless plants all summer, after setting big spring flowers. What could be more useful and delightful?!
Pinstripe Hybrid is part of the Kew Collection in England, specially selected as one of the plants to grow in the Royal Botanic Gardens. (It helps that in England, eggplants are called Aubergines for their rich purple color. They sound so much more regal that way!) And certainly these are vegetables fit for a Queen: each round to oval fruit reaches a mature size of about 3 ounces, with a bright lavender base and dozens of slender white stripes.
Pinstripe can also be harvested young as a succulent gourmet baby veggie. Either way, its flavor will be mild yet rich, with a good bite. And harvest is easy, thanks to spineless plants. Compact and nicely branched, this plant reaches about 22 inches high and nearly as wide, with big yields that continue all season long.
Silvery green leaves add to the ornamental appeal of Pinstripe, which thrives in any container 12 inches in diameter or greater. You shouldn't have to support this plant, even when it is heavy with fruit, but give it a stake alongside the central stem if you like. The branching, foliage, and hanging fruits will completely hide it!
Begin seeds indoors 8 to 10 weeks before planning to set out. Eggplant is a warm-weather crop, so wait until after danger of frost before transplanting seedlings into the sunny garden or container. In the garden, space plants 2 feet apart. Pkt is 10 seeds.
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63 days from setting out transplants.Eggplants on the patio? Why not! This beautiful striped Italian type is just the ornamental touch any large planter needs, and it bears big crops of striped fruit on compact, spineless plants all summer, after setting big spring flowers. What could be more useful and delightful?!
Pinstripe Hybrid is part of the Kew Collection in England, specially selected as one of the plants to grow in the Royal Botanic Gardens. (It helps that in England, eggplants are called Aubergines for their rich purple color. They sound so much more regal that way!) And certainly these are vegetables fit for a Queen: each round to oval fruit reaches a mature size of about 3 ounces, with a bright lavender base and dozens of slender white stripes.
Pinstripe can also be harvested young as a succulent gourmet baby veggie. Either way, its flavor will be mild yet rich, with a good bite. And harvest is easy, thanks to spineless plants. Compact and nicely branched, this plant reaches about 22 inches high and nearly as wide, with big yields that continue all season long.
Silvery green leaves add to the ornamental appeal of Pinstripe, which thrives in any container 12 inches in diameter or greater. You shouldn't have to support this plant, even when it is heavy with fruit, but give it a stake alongside the central stem if you like. The branching, foliage, and hanging fruits will completely hide it!
Begin seeds indoors 8 to 10 weeks before planning to set out. Eggplant is a warm-weather crop, so wait until after danger of frost before transplanting seedlings into the sunny garden or container. In the garden, space plants 2 feet apart. Pkt is 10 seeds.
Hi Willie,
Glad you're harvesting already.
I didn't update you. I wound up finding two types of eggplants that are supposed to be "mini". Calliope and Little Fingers. Don't think either one of them is gonna look like yours but that's all I could find at several nurseries around here. Neither one of them has flowered yet. Today was the first hot day of the spring / summer (90 degrees here). Need more of them to raise the soil temperature.
I've gotten some nice heads of lettuce - romaine (a little bitter) and iceberg that is absolutely delicious and very, very different than the bitter white crap they cellophane up at the supermarket.
Got rhubarb (making strawberry rhubarb compote right now with the second and last batch of rhubarb (and fresh mint) until later in the summer when it will regrow). Made that compote for fathers day. That shit got rave reviews. Hot with Brigham's vanilla ice cream. Delicio.
The herbs are going crazy. I use them on grilled meats, in meatballs, and in the buttered breadcrumbs I use to cover a fillet of white fish (scrod. pollack (cheap and deelicious), cod. Any white fish will do.) Mix in some salt and pepper. Cook 'till the stuff is browned. Throw a bunch of halved tomatoes (to fill the pan or a second pan) with grated romano, salt and pepper and oregano. Sprinkle with olive oil. That dish could win awards. Fish lovers I serve rave about it.
Garlic just about ready (planted in October). Think the bulbs are gonna be small unfortunately. Can't get everything right. But I have about 100 of them. Gave the garlic scapes to my doctor friend. She loves that shit.
I got a fig tree this year. It had three figs on it when I got the thing. None now. Some animal attacked those figs. Even bit off the top leaves and the top of the plant. Really pissed about that. Something else is eating my strawberries as soon as they blush pink / red. Tried cayenne pepper on both. Not working.
Lots of other stuff in early stages of growth. Long way to go. Lot of perils (animals, bugs, caterpillars, diseases) to fight off. I've grown a huge respect for farmers since I've been doing this stuff over the past several years.
Do you eat the zucchini flowers? How?
Glad you're harvesting already.
I didn't update you. I wound up finding two types of eggplants that are supposed to be "mini". Calliope and Little Fingers. Don't think either one of them is gonna look like yours but that's all I could find at several nurseries around here. Neither one of them has flowered yet. Today was the first hot day of the spring / summer (90 degrees here). Need more of them to raise the soil temperature.
I've gotten some nice heads of lettuce - romaine (a little bitter) and iceberg that is absolutely delicious and very, very different than the bitter white crap they cellophane up at the supermarket.
Got rhubarb (making strawberry rhubarb compote right now with the second and last batch of rhubarb (and fresh mint) until later in the summer when it will regrow). Made that compote for fathers day. That shit got rave reviews. Hot with Brigham's vanilla ice cream. Delicio.
The herbs are going crazy. I use them on grilled meats, in meatballs, and in the buttered breadcrumbs I use to cover a fillet of white fish (scrod. pollack (cheap and deelicious), cod. Any white fish will do.) Mix in some salt and pepper. Cook 'till the stuff is browned. Throw a bunch of halved tomatoes (to fill the pan or a second pan) with grated romano, salt and pepper and oregano. Sprinkle with olive oil. That dish could win awards. Fish lovers I serve rave about it.
Garlic just about ready (planted in October). Think the bulbs are gonna be small unfortunately. Can't get everything right. But I have about 100 of them. Gave the garlic scapes to my doctor friend. She loves that shit.
I got a fig tree this year. It had three figs on it when I got the thing. None now. Some animal attacked those figs. Even bit off the top leaves and the top of the plant. Really pissed about that. Something else is eating my strawberries as soon as they blush pink / red. Tried cayenne pepper on both. Not working.
Lots of other stuff in early stages of growth. Long way to go. Lot of perils (animals, bugs, caterpillars, diseases) to fight off. I've grown a huge respect for farmers since I've been doing this stuff over the past several years.
Do you eat the zucchini flowers? How?
My wife makes them many different ways, the most common being fried with a simple egg batter
You have to pick the males early in the morning while they're open. I don't pick the females, I actually self pollinate them to make sure they don't miss the males
. Take the inside of the male flower and pollinate the female
tons of recipes online, some of the more popular ones using stuffing like goat cheese
PS: I love to garden and I love to eat, but I'm useless in the kitchen (except for grilling of course)
You have to pick the males early in the morning while they're open. I don't pick the females, I actually self pollinate them to make sure they don't miss the males
. Take the inside of the male flower and pollinate the female tons of recipes online, some of the more popular ones using stuffing like goat cheese
PS: I love to garden and I love to eat, but I'm useless in the kitchen (except for grilling of course)
Tried this yesterday, it was pretty good (although my favorite will always be fresh eggplant parmigiana)
https://www.runningtothekitchen.com/roasted-baby-eggplants-with-goat-cheese-stuffing/
https://www.runningtothekitchen.com/roasted-baby-eggplants-with-goat-cheese-stuffing/
