GardenEggplant variety
E-Tender Eggplant
✓ In your garden
E-Tender is a small fruited eggplant, purple, ready in about 65 days. It sets lots of small, bite-sized fruit. Eggplant loves heat — give it the warmest, sunniest spot and don’t rush it into cold soil. Pick the fruit young and glossy; a dull skin means it’s over-ripe and turning bitter.
“A warm-season nightshade for grilling, frying, and roasting.”
Growing basics — shared by every eggplant
E-Tender grows like any other eggplant. The full picture — how deep to plant, spacing, feeding, pests, harvest — lives on the Eggplant page so it's maintained in one place.
- Sun
- Full Sun
- Spacing (in row)
- 18–24 in
- Row spacing
- 30–36 in
- Planting depth
- 0.25 in
- Soil pH
- 6–7
- Water
- Moderate
What is E-Tender good for?
- Grilling & roastingIts best use — smoky and silky. Great
- FryingParm, fritters, tempura. Great
- RawNeeds cooking — bitter and spongy raw. Skip it
From how it grows — kitchens vary.
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Want the full 10/50/90% odds + nearest stations? Open the frost tool →When to plant E-Tender in your zone
Zone 6bGreenhouse or cover on: your start slides ~4 weeks earlier and your harvest stretches ~3 weeks later (shown striped).
Planting seeds straight in the ground only works where the season's long and warm — most gardeners start seeds indoors or buy young plants, or you'd pick your first tomato right as frost hits.
Comfortable — first ripe fruit lands around early Jul, well before your typical frost (~late Oct).
- Start seeds indoors
- early Feb – early Mar
- Toughen up outside
- late Apr – early May
- Move plants outside
- early May – early May
- Growing
- early May – early Jul
- Picking
- early Jul until frost (~late Oct)
Typical dates for zone 6b — set your zone or ZIP above for yours.
Growing E-Tender — the things that trip people up
- Eggplant is even more of a heat-lover than its cousins tomato and pepper. Wait for warm nights, give it your hottest spot, and it won’t set fruit in the cold.
- Pick the fruit young, when the skin is glossy and it springs back to a press. Left too long, the skin dulls, the seeds harden, and it turns bitter — and picking keeps the plant setting more. Watch for flea beetles on young plants.
E-Tender eggplant at a glance
| Type | Small Fruited |
|---|---|
| Days to ripe | 65 days after you plant it outside |
| Color | Purple |
| Fruit size | Small |
Extra fields from seed-catalog listings and university growing guides. Days to ripe and disease resistance shift with your climate and seed source — double-check with your local extension office before you buy.
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Common questions about E-Tender
How long does E-Tender take to grow?
About 65 days from transplant — and it wants warm weather the whole way. Start seed indoors and set out only once nights are warm.
When do I pick E-Tender?
Young and glossy, while the skin still shines and springs back to a press. A dull skin means it’s over-ripe, seedy, and bitter.
Browse more eggplant varieties →