How long is the lifespan of an eggplant plant? Food is life and having eggplant on your table is awesome. There are many dishes that you can cook with eggplant which taste delicious and a lot of recipes you can try.
Because of the delicious taste of eggplant, some people start growing it at home. They make a simple garden and grow eggplant plants. Eggplant is being grown from seeds and you can buy high-quality seeds from the nurseries. When the eggplant plant lives longer, you can get more fruits.
Lifespan Of An Eggplant Plant
The lifespan of eggplant plants commonly goes up to a year. But some eggplant plants can live for 2 years and some can reach up to 3 years. Most the eggplant plants only live for a year and after that, the plant stops growing.
Since the eggplant plant lives longer, you can harvest more eggplant from the plants. This plant is grown from seeds. You need to germinate eggplant seeds in a seed tray and once the seedlings appear with enough height you can now start transplanting them.
Finding some high-quality seeds is easy. You can go to nurseries near your location and buy some packs of seeds. You can get them for a few bucks and with one pack, you can create an eggplant garden.
Even if an eggplant plant can live for a year or longer, you still need to take care of them. You need to make sure that they are going to grow healthy and you need to protect them from pests, diseases, and some animals that may destroy them. When you see that the plants are really growing well, more fruits are going to grow on the plants. A good harvest will come sooner.
Tips To Prolong The Lifespan Of An Eggplant Plant
When you have an eggplant plant in your garden, most of them may last for a year. But if you want to extend their life expectancy, you can do it by nourishing them. Keep the plants free from pests and diseases to grow them healthy.
You need also to make sure that eggplant plants are getting enough sunlight, water, and nutrients. When everything is fine you can just wait for the flowers and fruits to appear. Once the fruits are mature with enough size, you can now start harvesting them.
Give Eggplant Plants Enough Water
Water is significant to the eggplant plants’ growth. The plant needs at least 1 inch of water per week. There are also factors to consider in watering eggplant plants and not all the time do you need to water them more often.
When rainfall is available, you don’t need to water your plants during that time. Overwatering can cause the plants to have yellow leaves and also root rot is possible. You need a good waterway to prevent flooding which can affect your plants.
During summer the rainfall is limited. When the weather becomes hot for a couple of days, the eggplant plants need more water more often. Because of the hot weather, the soil dries quickly and you need to water your plants to make them fresh and hydrated.
You can also check your soil first before watering them. Push your index finger 2 to 3 inches into the ground and if you feel that the soil is dry, you need to water them but if it’s still moist you don’t need to.
Another way to check the soil moisture is to use a screwdriver. You also need to push it into the ground and if the soil is hard, it means the soil is dry and you need to water your eggplants. Water can improve the number of eggplant fruits per plant and also prevents them from tasting bitter.
Sunlight Is Important For Eggplant Plants
The eggplant plants need at least 6 hours of sunlight daily. The sunlight helps the plant to create their foods. When the sunlight hits the leaves of the eggplant plant, the leaves convert the sunlight into food.
The more sunlight the leaves convert, the more food they can make. You need to plant them in an open area so that plants will receive more sunlight. Planting distance for eggplant is very important so that most of the plants will receive sunlight which will lead them to thrive well.
Eggplants do not tolerate cold and it will damage them when the temperature falls. This plant grows well in tropical and subtropical countries where it can get enough sunlight. If you are growing eggplant in a pot, you need to bring them outside to receive lights.
Avoid keeping eggplants in a shade because they will grow poorly if sunlight is limited. Also, when there are tall trees near the area, you need to adjust your plants so that they can still create food. Some gardeners cut tree branches and then their garden receives sunlight again. Soon the flowers and fruits will appear on your plant and they may grow bigger with the help of the sun.
Improve Soil Nutrients
If you want to make an eggplant garden, you need to make sure that the soil is rich in nutrients. Making the soil garden abundant in nutrients will make the plants grow healthy and faster.
Some of the good fertilizers for eggplant are 5-10-10, 10-10-10, 12-12-12, etc. Nitrogen helps in the production of chlorophyll in leaves. Chlorophyll is important for plants to create food.
The potassium and phosphorus also help the eggplant to grow faster, and bigger and increase the flowers and fruits. The plants need those elements so that they will grow consistently and make them in a good shape.
Fertilizing is one of the ways of taking care of eggplant plants. You can use chemical fertilizers to improve the soil in your garden but if you are practicing organic gardening then you need to look for an alternative.
There are some organic fertilizers you can buy from the nurseries like compost. Compost is made up of organic matter and has no chemical contents which are good for the environment, and animal and human health.
Organic fertilizers are much safer to use and will improve the soil in a long term. Aside from buying fertilizers, you can also make your own. It will be exciting once the eggplant blooms and larger fruits may appear because of having rich nutrient soil.
Control Pests And Diseases On Eggplant Plant
Some of the pests and diseases of eggplant are tomato hornworms, mites, aphids, cutworms, blossom end rot, bacterial wilt, and verticillium wilt. You need to protect your plants against pests and diseases because they may damage plants.
With the help of pesticides and fungicides, you will be able to control them. The plants will grow healthy when there are no pests and diseases on your eggplant.
It is great to know the lifespan of an eggplant plant. It is interesting to know how long this plant lives. You can get more fruits during those months before this plant stops growing.
If you plant a couple of eggplants, you will be able to harvest more fruits. You can have a bountiful harvest to come.