- [Narrator] A compact eggplant variety that is easy to grow
and tastes absolutely delicious.
Let's look at growing the container Little Prince eggplant.
So the seeds that we're using here
are by Renee's Garden seeds.
This is a very high quality seed
and it has a very high germination rate.
We are sowing our seeds
directly in this whiskey barrel container,
and the potting mix that we're using is a high draining,
high porosity potting mix.
If you want to learn more about this potting mix,
head over to our video where I've explained
how to create this high porosity potting mix.
Now you can also sow these seeds into a seed starting cell.
And as you can see here,
we are sowing our seeds in straight up vermiculite.
You can also use a seed starting mix
of vermiculite, cocoa core, and compost.
Now in just a few days,
you will see that the seedlings will emerge,
and once they reach to about this size that you see here,
it's time to thin the seedlings.
Now to thin the seedlings,
what we do is we remove the weaker plant.
And as you can see here,
one of these plants is weaker than the other,
so what you can do is just use some scissors
to cut off this plant that is a weaker one
and that allows the other plant to grow very well,
and not compete for light and nutrients.
Now the other way to thin seedlings
is to just pull them out, pull out the weaker plant.
But be careful with this because you may disturb
or end up uprooting the plant that you desire to keep,
and since this is a high porosity potting mix,
it's a lot easier to just pull out the seedling.
But I always recommend that you use scissors
to cut or snip the plant that you do not need,
and that's how you thin your seedlings.
And then there were three.
So, as you can see here, there are three plants left
and they will not compete with each other
for light and nutrients, they're spaced further apart.
And as you can see here, they're growing pretty well now.
Now 40 days since sowing,
you can see that the plants are very well established.
Now when we prepared the potting mix,
we did use organic fertilizer that was mixed into the soil,
and you can see here the effects of that.
The plant has grown very well.
And at 48 days,
you can see that it has started producing flowers.
The eggplant flowers are quite pretty.
And remember this is a compact eggplant variety,
so it grows very well within this whiskey barrel container.
And as you can see here, the flowers have been formed,
and what you need to is to hand pollinate these flowers.
Now this is a very important step
to ensure that you get a bigger yield,
and I've shown this technique in my previous videos as well,
where you can hand pollinate your eggplants very easily.
And more flowers here, they're coming in bunches.
And the eggplants will also be produced in bunches
as you will soon see.
Now make sure that you choose a nice, sunny spot
for your eggplant.
They do need a lot of sun.
Now as far as pruning goes,
what you need to do is prune the suckers.
So you see these little stems that are growing
from the sides of the plant,
and it's very important that you prune these
and this ensures that the plant grows very well.
Now at about 58 days since sowing
we can see our first eggplant that's been produced.
And as you can see here, beautiful looking eggplant.
And this plant produces smaller sized eggplants.
They're supposed to be harvested when they're smaller.
We will be doing our first harvest.
This is gonna be our first eggplant, as you can see here.
Beautiful looking eggplant.
And you do not have to wait too long
to harvest this eggplant
because they're fresh and nice and tender at this stage.
And very soon you can see
that the other flowers that were growing
have also turned into this eggplant
that you can soon harvest.
Now let's talk a little bit
about the compactness of this plant.
This is a very compact plant as you can see here,
it doesn't need any support,
it can grow pretty much within a small space.
And I'm growing three plants in this container,
and as you can see here the plant is quite healthy.
It doesn't have a lot of insects or diseases,
I didn't have to spray this plant
with any insecticide or pesticide at all.
And once again, you can see the eggplant.
This is the size
that you should be harvesting your eggplant at,
you shouldn't be waiting too long.
And we were able to harvest eggplants from this plant
for quite a long time.
Can see here, beautiful looking eggplant again.
And as you can see here, many more flowers developing.
And if you look at how these eggplants are produced,
they're produced in a bunch.
So this bunch of eggplants
really improves the yield of this plant
compared to most other eggplant varieties,
which usually produce one per flower or per node.
So as you can see here now,
the eggplant is still producing eggplants
as we head towards the cooler season.
And if you've been following my monthly videos,
I've shown the harvest of this eggplant almost every month
as we harvested them throughout the growing season.
Now at what stages should you add fertilizer?
I would recommend adding fertilizer
once the plant starts flowering,
and once after about two months after that.
Now the reason
is that you need to constantly feed your plants
to make sure that they grow well,
and you can either use a liquid fertilizer,
you can use an organic fertilizer
that you can spray at the base of your plant,
or you can use a soil based fertilizer.
And 87 days into the growing season,
you can see that the eggplant
is still producing very heavily.
And since these eggplants are small,
you expect the plant to produce a lot of eggplants,
and that's exactly what this plant does.
It produces a lot of eggplants
so that you get a decent harvest,
and then you can keep harvesting your eggplants
for quite some time.
Now I wanted to show you how this eggplant looks like
when it's cut open.
The way I prepare this eggplant
is to just chop them up like how you see here,
and then fill them up with some spices
and then grill them or roast them,
and they taste very nice.
Now this eggplant has very few seeds as you can see here,
almost no seeds if you harvest it at the right time.
And one of the mistakes people make with eggplants
is they harvest them pretty late,
and that's not a good thing.
You need to harvest them early
so that you get tender eggplants.
Now at 102 days since the harvest,
you can see that the eggplant
is still producing a lot of eggplants,
and it's still producing eggplants in bunches,
as you can see here.
And as you can see, very good looking eggplant,
very beautiful, and it's still producing eggplants
going into the cooler months as well.
And as you can see, pretty sturdy eggplants,
they didn't need any support, no trellis,
and are still growing in a very nice way.
And this is exactly what this eggplant is,
container Little Prince.
And it is very well suited for growing in containers
and quite good if you don't have a lot of space
to grow eggplants.
And even at 130 days since sowing,
you can see that the plant is still producing eggplants.
And it's well into the winter season now.
And what we're gonna do is keep harvesting this eggplant
till it produces these eggplants.
And this is gonna be till December or so.
And after that, what we're gonna try
is to over winter this eggplant.
Now as you can see here, this eggplant is now slowing down.
There are a few flowers produced, but not much.
And since it keeps getting hot and cold
here in southern California, what we're gonna do is
we're gonna do our harvest till they produce the eggplants.
So this is December
and it is 173 days into the growing season.,
and we're still getting eggplants.
So, what we're going to do is to harvest these eggplants
till they produce them,
which is till about December or so,
after which it starts getting really cold.
And we're gonna try and over winter it,
which means that we're gonna leave this plant
in our container and see if it survives
through the winter season.
So there we have it folks, that was our video
on growing the container Little Prince eggplant.
If you have grown this eggplant variety before,
do put in a comment in the comments box below.
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See you again soon, happy gardening.
(upbeat guitar music)