There are few things that grow well in the crazy hot heat and humidity of the summer in Houston, Texas. One of the things that grows well is eggplant. Up through this year, I have never grown eggplant, but this year was my first and figured out how to make a bumper harvest for me and my family. With some help from my friend, Tony, I used his garden to grow 6 plants successfully and the crops are doing great.
In this video, I share with you the harvest, cutting down the eggplant harvest and then preparing it for a Eggplant and Chicken Parm dinner for my family. It was incredible! There is nothing like the taste of fresh eggplant that was cut off the plant only 2 hours ago!
I hope you enjoy this video and hope you are having a great summer garden season!
-Jeff
24 Comments
discovered eggplant this year very prolific fun to grow
Good to know about squash..mine are wilting during the heat of the day!!! Watering and then they perk up..they are in containers. My tomato plants have whatever causes the leaf to turn brown and very dry! However, thanks to you, my jalapeño from last year is still producing…has 26 on the plant now! Will try eggplant! Thanks from your Conroe neighbor.
I cut egg plant and fry them just like squash.
Great looking eggplants. I live in Houston and I have an eggplant recommendation – Tsakoniki. It's a Greek eggplant that just loves our Houston heat! They are large, beautiful, oval shaped eggplants that have excellent flavor. They're also beautiful to look at! Give them a try. I was planning to try and grow a few squash plants in the fall. Have you had any success at all with squash? Thanks!
I have learned a lot from you Thank You for taking the time to make these videos!!
Jeff, which of the 3 cukes is your favorite?
Jeff,
Love your videos. I know that you mentioned the different cukes you were planting in a other video . . . and will go back and try to find it. If it isn’t too much trouble, could you tell me the type that you showed in this video? I’m new to canning and pickling, and could love to try growing this one next year and making a ton of pickles.
Thanks Jeff
I can’t get my kids to eat them. Maybe I should try sugar and cinnamon on them?
Great video! Such beautiful eggplants! We're having an unusually hot June in NC and it's taking a toll on everything, gives us empathy for you all gardening in Houston. I'm so enjoying the Jimmy Nardello peppers from the seeds I got from you all! Thank you again! We have the same problem with the vine borer here in NC. I was told you can start over, that they won't be a problem the second time around, the time for them passes. I'm going to give it a try and see if it's true. I only got a few zukes before they hit and I'm determined to get more! We'll see, so frustrating. But not as bad as the squirrels in my tomatoes! Nothing I try seems to work with them.
I tasted eggplant….dont like it.Its store bought so maybe I didnt get the real deal.
I will try it mext season.
Great Channel!!
I will have to grow some eggplants now😊 Thanks for sharing!! Liked and subscribed
Your eggplant look amazing! This is my first year growing eggplant. I chose Black Beauty because the most closely resemble the ones in the store. I have two plants each in a 10 gallon grow bag.They look very fine and healthy but seem small or slow. Granted, people day we are three weeks behind, weather wise zone 6b. The rest of the garden is a mixed bag. Everything in containers looks healthy. Everything in the ground looks wimpy and sad. BUT I like eggplant breaded and baked, just before it gets parmed! So good!
There’s a very good eggplant sauce sell in Asians super market, it will make you a different flavor of your food.
Last year I grew Rosa Eggplant and they did very well. They kept producing fruit until the big freeze. My egg parm turned out well. Used my tomatoes to make my marinara. It turned out very well. My eggplant has yet to fruit this summer.
HI JEFF I am a first time container gardener this year i am in zone 7 I am growing tomatoes squash and cucumbers I followed your instructions with soil preparation I now have begun to get buds on all of my plants I feed them each week with liquid Miracle-Gro I was wondering if I should be treating them with anything else since they are now well into the growing season
Hi Jeff, that was a nice harvest! He grows it and cooks it as well! Blessings!
Help! My eggplants are looking healthy but dropped all blooms. I water everyday at least once or twice. I live in Dallas area where temp around July is around 95 to 100*F. What else can I do to get the produce and turn those blooms to fruits? Thanks. And thank you for your videos. Love them!
Amazing!! I grew what was called 'Early long' purple eggplant in the packet, similar to the Japanese unless it's the same. The plants and the veggies grew nowhere near as big as yours! But they produced a lot and we still enjoyed them very much, made large casserole dish sized eggplant parmesan five times and added it to all my Asian cooking. I grew a long row of over 40 plants, The number of plants honestly made up for the damage caused by flea beetles and Colorado potato beetles. And I think perhaps It didn't reach it's full potential due to the area not getting the maximum amount of sunlight that summer. I hope to get an improved crop next year. I had one white eggplant and it produced very well, it was spared a lot of damage due to the insects staying by the bigger crop. I plan to grow an entire row of whites, the whites and the long japanese have much less of a bitter taste than the Italian Black Beauties. At least eggplant will always do better than all the gourdes I tried to grow. Vine borers destroyed mine every time as well, got no one squash! Thanks for the great video Jeff!
Jeff, you are always my go to source for my gardening info. Thanks so much for making these videos! I live in Abbeville, LA, so we have the same climate.
In san Antonio and my Japanese eggplant are doing great. My squash have not produced much (lots of male but few female blooms), but seem to be the only thing to bring in bees, so I will plant them again next year just for that.
Thanks for sharing. Learning about small variety compact eggplants. Patio baby will produce in 45 day's. Millionaire will produce in 54 day's. Prosperosa 75 days. A knock out of an eggplant. Cheers.
I did not expect an intense intro for gardening.
Love all your eggplants! My family loves Japanese eggplant! Did you start from seeds or did you buy the plants?
I'm in the Dallas area.
Jeff do you still growing? I am in houston as well and looking to get some tips about what ti grow