Aubergine Growing Calendar: Planting to the End of the Season

The shape of the year

An aubergine season has five turning points. Everything else follows from getting those right, and each of them is judged from the plant rather than from a date.

Turning point	When	What to look at
Planting	Around last frost	Are nights above 59F (15C)
Removing the first fruit	Two to four weeks after	Is the flower style long
Cutting back	Midsummer	Have the fruit stopped part grown
The second crop	Early autumn	Are the new shoots and leaf color back
Clearing	Mid to late autumn	Have cold mornings stopped the fruit filling

The calendar is a frame. Wet weather and the onset of real heat move it by one to two weeks, so judge from the plant.

Before planting

The preparation matters more for aubergines than for quicker crops, because the plant has to stand in the same ground for six months and support heavy fruit.

Stage	Jobs	Easy to overlook
Eight weeks before	Choose the site, sow if raising your own	Ground with no nightshades for three or four years
Six weeks before	Lime and rough dig	Aim for pH 6.0 to 6.5
Four weeks before	Compost and dig, order plants	Work to twelve inches deep, not just the surface
Two weeks before	Build the bed and lay mulch	Warming the soil first saves days at planting
Planting	Plant, temporary cane, mulch, cover	Below 59F soil, waiting a week is faster overall

Raising your own from seed needs bottom heat, because germination wants 77F (25C) or more. For a few plants, buying is more reliable and better timed.

Building the plant

The weeks between planting and the main crop are about building a framework rather than picking fruit. Anything you take now costs you later.

Stage	Jobs	Easy to overlook
Two to four weeks after planting	Pick the first fruit small, remove side shoots	Letting the first fruit grow stops the plant
Four to six weeks	Train to three stems, put in permanent stakes	Remove every shoot below the first flower
Six to eight weeks	First feed, strip lower leaves	Clear a foot at the base for airflow
Main crop	Pick, feed every fortnight	Cut each shoot back as you pick
Peak heat	Move to morning and evening watering	Drying out now gives hard, dull fruit

Getting through the heat

The hottest weeks are where the season is won or lost. Either you cut the plant back and rebuild it, or you carry it through, but you cannot let it run dry either way.

Stage	Jobs	Easy to overlook
Just after cutting back	Check the watering daily	Never let it dry before the shoots move
Two weeks after	Tie in the new shoots, deal with beetles	Egg clusters on leaf undersides come off with the leaf
Three weeks after	Second feed, top up the mulch	As the soil cools the roots recover
Four weeks after	Thin any crowded new shoots	Letting light in improves the color of autumn fruit

Autumn and clearing up

The second crop runs until the mornings turn cold. Once night temperatures drop below about 50F (10C) growth effectively stops, and it is time to finish.

Stage	Jobs	Easy to overlook
Early autumn	Picking resumes, keep feeding	Fruit fill more slowly as it cools
Mid autumn	Keep picking, take late fruit early	Below 50F (10C) nights, growth stops
Late autumn	Final picking, clear the mulch	Take even the small fruit
End of season	Clear the plants and the debris	Do not dig diseased plants back in

Look at the roots as you clear. Knobbly swellings mean root knot nematodes, and that changes where you plant next year.

Recovering from delays

Most seasons slip somewhere. What matters is which job absorbs the delay.

What slipped	What happens	How to recover
Planted a month late	The heat arrives before the plant is built	Pick the first fruit early and start feeding sooner
Let the first fruit grow	The plant stops extending	Pick it now and rebuild with water and feed
Cut back too late	The second crop slips past the season	Cut half as hard and skip the root pruning
Missed a feed	Thin leaves and misshapen fruit	Feed the day you notice, then every fortnight
No stakes in	Branches split under the fruit	Tie the main stems before they split

Cutting back late in the season is not worth it. The plant shoots, but the season ends before the fruit fill.

Written byYasuGrowing vegetables and fruit in Chiba, Japan, and building Gadenin. Corrections are welcome. 15 years of growing.