Asian Eggplants

Eggplant can only be started off in the hottest months of the year. It loves warm temperatures, braving hot humid days better than any other vegetable.
They love sunny well drained beds and prefer a soil manured the previous season.

Seeds should be sown into seed raising mix. Germination is best achieved at soil temperatures around 25 degrees celsius (77 degrees farenheit). Ideally they should be sowed a week after capsicums and three weeks after tomatoes. Transplant the seedlings into bigger pots or garden beds once they're an inch tall. The Chinese or Japnese variety's packet describes them as having "smooth deep parplish black fruits" that need 6-8 weeks to reach "marturity". However, I didn't get any deep parplish black fruits, or even deep purplish black fruits. Eggplant is self pollinating but if you grow different varieties closely together bees can cross pollinate them.

Harvest eggplant by cutting off the fruit with scissors or a knife. Don't pull it off.