Fairy Tale Eggplant 9/24/21 to 12/23/22 (461 Days)

Woo hoo!  Congrats!  So exciting!

Your little eggplant are perfect beauties, lynnee.

Day 73. After today, no more Fairy Tale eggplant photos unless the plants do something really interesting. The full plants don't photograph well, since they prefer to hide their blooms and fruit under those big leaves.

The eggplant that will probably be eaten tonight. Photos taken on 11/27, 11/26, and 11/25. It grew another half inch overnight.



The smaller eggplant that was the first to be found. Photos 11/27 and 11/25.



Other eggplants are developing on the Farm 12 XL plant with the biggest eggplant. It's possible for fruit to set in a cluster that still has unpollinated and/or still-opening blooms.



A cluster of developing eggplants from the solo plant in the Farm 12 Plus.



I'm liking this project quite well now that the eggplants are coming on.  I'll keep the plants going for a couple of months, or as long as they're producing enough to warrant tying up the two Farm 12 gardens.

That is a lovely photo, lynnee.

Sher, A battery-powered kids' toothbrush works a LOT better than the AG "Be the Bee", so I appreciate your mentioning the method. The AG pollinator is cute, but you have to turn it to the correct angle to make the "brush" contact the flowers, and it doesn't run continuously unless you keep the button pressed down.

The $5 Colgate "Batman" toothbrush that I got from Amazon vibrates a little more strongly, so it releases more pollen. The brush head isn't angled, so it's easier to hold and use in the eggplant's flower clusters beneath the big leaves. Also, it keeps running until you turn it off.

🍆🍆🍆

It's Day 78, and the Fairy Tale eggplants are busy. As Sher suggested, the double-centered flowers do produce twins:



Diligent pollinating is rewarded with clusters of little fruits. This cluster has another twin:



The first little baby that I spotted has reached adulthood, at 3-1/2":



And the two plants in the Farm 12 XL are still looking happy, on a diet of 24 ml of AG nutrients added every 14 days:



Tah Dah! (With special thanks to Sher and mike for their growing tips!)

Ditto!  Fantastic! 

Day 81, harvested 10.8 ounces of Fairy Tale eggplants, from three plants. All three have more fruit developing. None of them have dropped many blossoms.

Solo plant, growing with negligible pruning in Farm 12 Plus. Room is a few degrees cooler than room where other plants are growing. Plant gets some light from room after AG lights turn off.



Two plants growing in Farm 12 XL with fair amount of pruning.



Pile of blossom debris includes dropped blossoms (with stems still attached, marked with white dots).  The fertilized blossoms drop only the petals and a funnel-like center.