McClellan Ranch Home page | Appendix A | Appendix B | Eggplant Photos

Overview

In 2004, members of the University of California Master Gardener McClellan Ranch project team completed a very successful summer vegetable trial in Cupertino that focused on eggplants. Forty different varieties of eggplants from all around the world were grown for the research project. Varieties for the trial were selected to represent the breadth of color, shape, and growth habit available to the home gardener.

Plant characteristics along with pest and disease problems were observed and recorded. In addition, as the eggplants were harvested, elapsed days between seeding and germination and days to maturity of each variety were recorded. The harvest yield in ounces/pounds, number of fruit, and the size of the fruit were also tracked.

A public field day was held in September where people toured the garden and tasted the different varieties of eggplants. The rating sheets from the field day were used to pick the top ten varieties of eggplants based on flavor and texture. When selecting which eggplant varieties to grow, home gardeners can consult these tasting results as well as the plant characteristics and pest and disease information.

Soil Preparation and Planting

The McClellan Ranch team uses organic gardening methods for the vegetable trials. In October, the plants from the previous summer were removed and the vegetable beds were rototilled. The beds were then seeded with a cover crop of fava beans. Row covers were placed over the beds to prevent seedling damage by birds. In early spring, before the fava beans developed seed pods, the stalks were cut down. The stalks were finely chopped and spread on top of the soil. Another layer of straw and goat manure from the local 4-H project was then applied. At the beginning of April, the beds were rototilled again to prepare the soil for planting.

On April 9th, two seeds of each variety were seeded in 4-inch pots which contained Super Soil mixed with Osmocote. Vermiculite was placed over the soil surface in the pots to facilitate the sprouting. The pots were seeded at the arboretum by the Sunnyvale Community Center where the highest temperature recorded was 67 degrees F. Although it is recommended to keep the soil temperature between 80-90 degrees F for eggplant germination, all but 3 of the varieties germinated in temperatures below 70 degrees F. Italian Pink Bi-Color, Slim Jim, and Thai Round Purple were the varieties that needed to be re-seeded at higher temperatures to sprout. However, even after the second seeding, Thai Round Purple failed to sprout so that variety could not be planted.

Two plants of each variety were subsequently transplanted in the field on June 3rd except for Slim Jim where only one plant was available. Nine beds were used that were approximately 15 feet long by 4 feet wide with 8 to 10 plants per bed.

Plant Characteristics

The size of all the plants was recorded 90 days after transplanting. The most compact plants that would be good for containers or small gardens ranged from 15” – 16” in height and 15” – 18” in width. These were Thai Long Purple, Slim Jim, Mini Bambino, and Thai Green. In contrast, the largest plants that spread and required staking ranged from 34” - 48” in height and 28” – 36” in width. Brazilian Oval Orange, Red Egg, Neon Hybrid, Gitana, and Florida High Bush were of this type.

Sharp, thorny spines were also observed on some of the varieties on different locations of the plants. Some varieties were completely smooth such as Pingtung Long, Diamond, Long Lavender, and Calliope. Kauai White and Patio Mohican Hybrid had a large number of spines only on the calyx while Rosita had spines on both the stems and the calyx. Ruffled Red was extremely thorny and the only variety to have spines on the leaves in addition to the stems.

See Appendix A, Table 1 and Table 2 for details on plant characteristics for specific varieties.

Pest and disease Problems

Various pest and disease problems were encountered. Because row covers were not used, flea beetles damaged some varieties by leaving small holes in many of the plant leaves. No insect control was performed other than leaving some volunteer amaranth to attract the beetles. Gophers were controlled with regular use of traps and the placement of a sonic gopher repeller in row 7. In addition, some unknown pest chewed three plants off at ground level.

Fusarium wilt was observed on many of the plants which caused the leaves to yellow and eventually dry up and fall off. Turkish Orange, Calliope, Ichiban, Red Egg, African Eggplant, and Rosita seemed especially susceptible to this disease. However, all of the plants eventually recovered, and the general growth of the plants did not seem to be inhibited by the wilt. See Appendix A, Table 3 for details on wilt susceptibility for specific varieties.

Harvesting

As the eggplants were harvested, dates of elapsed days between seeding and germination and days to maturity of each variety were recorded. The first harvest was on August 7th . Dusky, Gitana, Calliope, Snowy, and Patio Mohican Hybrid were the earliest varieties to be picked at 64 days to maturity. Many of the varieties started to produce heavily after 79 days and required harvesting twice a week from late August through October. Because of the heavy fruit production, the branches of some of the plants started breaking and required staking.

African Eggplant was the only variety that did not produce any fruit. A few flowers appeared, but they fell off. Some of the eggplants didn’t start producing until September (90-97 days) such as Brazilian Oval Orange, Italian Pink Bi-Color, Ruffled Red, Red Egg, Rosita, Thai Green, and Thai Yellow Egg. The final eggplants from the trial were harvested on October 23rd, and all of the plants were removed on October 30th.

In addition to the first harvest dates, the yield (ounces/pounds, count and size) for each variety was also recorded. The varieties with the largest number of fruit harvested were Kauai Purple (218), Calliope (139), and Diamond (137). The varieties with the smallest number of fruit harvested were Rosita (20), Thai Green (18), and Violitte di Firenze (16). The heaviest producers were Dusky (31 pounds), Kauai Purple (30 pounds), and Violetta Lunga (27 pounds) while Mini Bambino only produced 1 pound at the opposite end of the scale. Total yield for the garden was approximately 513 pounds. About 245 pounds of eggplants were donated to Santa Clara County food banks. See Appendix B, for details on harvest information for specific varieties

Eggplants thrive in the heat, and the fruit production was affected by summer temperatures that were cooler than normal. When compared to eggplants of the same varieties at the local farmers' markets, the McClellan Ranch eggplants were ½ to ¾ the size of the eggplants grown in the hot Central Valley.

Public Tasting Results

The team set up a Master Gardener display booth at the Vallco Farmers' Market in Cupertino to distribute information about the eggplants and to promote the public tasting day. The booth attracted 151 people to stop and inquire about the eggplants. Another 112 people attended the McClellan Ranch public field day on September 18th where they tasted twenty-three varieties and evaluated the eggplants for taste and texture.

The Cupertino Courier publicized the tasting day, and Laramie Trevino wrote a wonderful article about the eggplant project in the San Francisco Chronicle. The San Jose Mercury News also published an article by Holly Hayes about the public field day and included Fred Schulenburg’s photograph of the eggplants. The newspaper articles generated a lot of interest which resulted in people driving from as far away as Sausalito, San Francisco, and Santa Cruz to attend the testing. The people were delighted to find a surprising number of different shapes, colors, sizes, and flavors of the eggplants at the field day (see Photos of eggplants).

The eggplants were cut into ½ inch thick slices and then baked or broiled in the oven the day before the tasting. No salt was used so it would not mask the flavor of the eggplant. The slices were then cut into smaller pieces the morning of the tasting. After tasting the eggplants and filling out their rating sheets, people were invited to tour the garden. From the results of the tasting, the top ten varieties based on flavor and texture were:

1. Kauai White (creamy, sweet, smooth)
2. Pandora Striped Rose (creamy, nutty, spicy)
3. Green Giant Early (sweet, smooth)
4. Patio Mohican Hybrid (fruity, sweet)
5. Dusky (meaty, sweet)
6. Violetta Lunga (meaty, creamy)
7. Florida High Bush (nutty, mild)
8. Violetta Lunga Precoce (little bitter, meaty, spicy)
9. Snowy (mild, creamy)
10. Italian Pink Bi-color (soft, mild, creamy)

McClellan Ranch Team

The eggplant project was a great success because of the hard work of all the team members and the project leaders, Magie Klugherz and Tom Jow. Eve Hanson, the previous project leader, provided advice on organizing the team, handling the farmer’s market demonstrations and running the public tasting. Fred Schulenburg took fantastic pictures of the beautiful eggplants with his digital camera and recorded all the statistics.

Allen Buchinski and Magie Klugherz were the main gopher patrollers while Fran Grabau tended all the seedlings and took eggplants to the food banks. Ed Lo, Alice Schwegman, Karyn Plank, Ann Ranish, Penny Cheney, Tina Lee, Jim Gamble, and Fred Schulenburg helped tend the plants and harvest the eggplants throughout the summer.

The public tasting was a team effort, and some Master Gardeners outside the team also helped as well. Sue Evanicky helped set up the display and tasting tables. Penny Cheney, Fran Grabau, Magie Klugherz, Pat Pelley, Ann Ranish, and Alice Schwegman broiled or baked the eggplant slices which were cut into small pieces by Penny Cheney, Pat Pelley, Ann Ranish, Alice Schwegman, Tina Lee, Eve Hanson, Tom Jow, Opal Lemmer, and Karyn Plank. Fran Grabau cooked three delicious eggplant casserole dishes that were very popular with the public.

Tours of the garden were led by Allen Buchinski, Fred Schulenburg, Tom Jow, and Magie Klugherz. Ann Ranish, Chris Egan, and Jim Gamble kept track of the number of people attending the tasting. Opal Lemmer and Eve Hanson distributed and collected the eggplant rating sheets, and Jim Gamble analyzed all the rating sheets from the tasting to compute the final results.

Seed Donation

The team would like to thank and acknowledge the following companies that donated seeds and contributed to the success of the 2004 eggplant research project:

• Nichol’s Garden
• Seeds From Italy
• Johnny’s Selected Seeds
• Seed Savers
• Thompson & Morgan