GardenTender Perennial Vegetable · 45 varieties
Eggplant
Solanum melongena
Solanaceae — the same plant family as tomato, pepper, potato, tomatillo and 3 more here. Relatives share pests and diseases, which is why rotation plans group by family.
Eggplant (Solanum melongena) is a tender perennial vegetable. It wants full sun and pH 6–7 soil, with about 1–2 in of water weekly. It matures in about 100–120 days from sowing, or 55–80 days from setting out a transplant. Watch for flea beetles and verticillium wilt. Below: its full sourced profile from 9 extension sources, plus a planting calendar timed to your frost dates.
Typical dates for zone 6b — set your zone or ZIP for yours. This calendar assumes the crop is started indoors. Timing is a guide from the crop's sourced growth stages; confirm with your local frost dates and extension before you sow.
What we will not put a number on
We give watering as a depth per week rather than gallons per plant, because that is how it is actually measured and how the published figures are written. A gallons-per-plant number depends on your spacing, your soil and whether the plant is in a pot — so it would look more precise than it is.
Site & soil
- Sun
- Full sun
- Soil pH
- 6–7
- Soil texture
- Well drained, Loam, Sandy
- Frost tolerance
- Tender
- Suffers in days above
- 95 °F
- Suffers in nights above
- 70 °F
- Gets tough below
- 55 °F
No published figure for the temperature frost starts to hurt it, the temperature that would kill it, the coldest zone it survives and the warmest zone it takes. We looked — where a number is missing here it is missing from the research, not skipped. The crop’s frost and heat tolerance above still applies.
The plant
- Mature height
- 2–4 ft
- Mature spread
- 1–3 ft
- Growth rate
- Moderateest
- Spacing in row
- 18–24 in
- Between rows
- 30–36 in
- Planting depth
- 0.25 in
- Container size
- 5 gal
- Support
- Needs staking or a trellis
- Grown from
- Transplant
Water & feeding
- Water needs
- Moderate
- Water per week
- 1–2 in/wk
- Critical water
- Fruit set
- Feeding
- Heavy
Timing & fruiting
- Days to maturity
- 100–120 days from seed · 55–80 days from transplant
- Harvest cues
- Fruit sizing
Planted again for autumn
- Set plants out by
- late Aug typical · zone 6b
55 days to maturity from setting a plant out — that is what our sources measure for this crop, so this is a date for planting out and not a sowing date, counted back from the first frost above. Not published for anywhere in particular: it is your own frost date and this crop's own figure, which is why it works wherever you are. A days-to-maturity figure is a catalog number for a good season rather than a promise, and a cold month moves it.
Edible parts per source: fruit.
Compiled from the extensions cited below. Which ones actually show up depends on your region — your extension's local list is the last word.
Different parts differ — the edible part is the fruit; the notes below flag other parts or preparations.
PeopleToxic leaves, Toxic flowers, Toxic stems, Toxic roots
Recorded exactly as the source states it — not medical or veterinary advice. If a person or animal may have eaten a toxic part, call Poison Control (1-800-222-1222) or your vet / the ASPCA line (888-426-4435).
Open one and add it to your garden — it lights up here. The rest of the 45 are in the full list below.
| Variety | Type | Days | Color | Size | Disease |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Applegreen Heirloom | Italian Globe | 64 | Green | Medium | |
| Aswad Heirloom | Italian Globe | 70 | Purple | Large | |
| Barbarella F1 | Italian Globe | 65 | Purple | Large | |
| Black Beauty Heirloom | Italian Globe | 80 | Black | Very Large | |
| Calliope F1 | Small Fruited | 64 | Striped | Small | |
| Casper Heirloom | White | 71 | White | Medium | |
| Classic F1 | Italian Globe | 76 | Black | Large | |
| Cloud Nine F1 | White | 75 | White | Medium | |
| Dancer F1 | Italian Globe | 65 | Purple | Large | |
| Diamond Heirloom | Asian Long | 75 | Purple | Medium | |
| Dusky F1 | Italian Globe | 63 | Black | Medium | |
| E-Tender F1 | Small Fruited | 65 | Purple | Small | |
| Epic F1 | Italian Globe | 64 | Black | Large | TOBACCO_MOSAIC_VIRUS |
| Fairy Tale F1 | Small Fruited | 65 | Striped | Small | |
| Fengyuan Purple Heirloom | Asian Long | 65 | Purple | Large | |
| Florida Market Heirloom | Italian Globe | 80 | Purple | Large | |
| Galine F1 | Italian Globe | 72 | Black | Large | |
| Ghostbuster F1 | White | 75 | White | Medium | |
| Gretel F1 | Small Fruited | 55 | White | Small | |
| Hansel F1 | Small Fruited | 55 | Purple, Black | Small | |
| Ichiban F1 | Asian Long | 61 | Purple | Medium | |
| Kermit F1 | Small Fruited | 60 | Green | Small | |
| Kurume Long F1 | Asian Long | 60 | Black | Medium | |
| Listada de Gandia Heirloom | Graffiti | 90 | Striped | Medium | |
| Long Purple Heirloom | Asian Long | 75 | Purple | Large | |
| Louisiana Long Green Heirloom | Asian Long | 90 | Green | Large | |
| Millionaire F1 | Asian Long | 55 | Black | Medium | |
| Money Maker II F1 | Asian Long | 60 | Black | Medium | |
| Nadia F1 | Italian Globe | 62 | Black | Large | |
| Nigral F1 | Italian Globe | 65 | Black | Large | |
| Orient Express F1 | Asian Long | 58 | Purple, Black | Medium | |
| Patio Baby F1 | Small Fruited | 50 | Purple, Black | Small | |
| Petch Siam | Small Fruited | 62 | Green, White | Small | |
| Ping Tung Long Heirloom | Asian Long | 70 | Purple | Medium | |
| Prosperosa Heirloom | Italian Globe | 70–75 | Purple | Medium | |
| Rosa Bianca Heirloom | Rosa Bianca | 73 | Bicolor | Large | |
| Shinkansen F1 | Asian Long | 58 | Purple, Black | Medium | |
| Snowy F1 | White | 65 | White | Medium | |
| Summer Emerald F1 | Asian Long | 65 | Green | Medium | |
| Thai Long Green Heirloom | Asian Long | 85–90 | Green | Medium | |
| Traviata F1 | Italian Globe | 55–60 | Purple | Large | |
| Turkish Delight F1 | Asian Long | 60 | Black | Medium | |
| Turkish Orange Heirloom | Small Fruited | 70–90 | Orange | Small | |
| Ukrainian Beauty Heirloom | Italian Globe | 75 | Purple | Large | |
| Violet Delite F1 | Asian Long | 60 | Purple | Medium |
- Clemson Cooperative Extension HGIC
- North Carolina Extension Gardener Plant Toolbox
- Texas A&M AgriLife Extension
- University of Georgia Extension
- University of Maryland Extension
- University of Minnesota Extension
- University of Wisconsin-Madison Division of Extension (Wisconsin Horticulture)
- Utah State University Extension
- Washington State University Extension
We compile bare facts from these university-extension and horticultural sources, never copied prose. 21 of the 22 values on this page carry a citation. The rest are marked est; hover one and it says why — either nobody publishes a figure we could point at, or a person set it and attached no source. Figures vary with climate and seed source; confirm with your local extension before you buy.
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