Anyone Growing Aubergines Outdoors?

dogstarheaven

mine are in 9" pots and one in the raised bed. reason why they're outside is that last yr, all mine from the plastic greenhouse (and the chillis and peppers!) were killed off by the blasted whitefly. as you can imagine, i was gutted as they were all grown from seed, they were mollycoddled for months on end, and then by july time, one day, i went to look inside the greenhouse, and they had all withered and died. i'm just wondering if i'll get much success with growing them outside . atm, with the delay of the cold winter months, they're about 8" tall, and all flowered. one of them with fruits growing steadily. these plants were given to me (well, forced on me by friend!) and reluctantly, i took them on (i just felt so jinxed last yr, that i vowed never to grow them again as i was sosooso upset with myself!) another thing, i didn't like their horribly thorny leaves which was most off-putting:cool:

what do you guys think?:D

Farway

I think you will be lucky to get a ripened crop, but as this summer [at least in the South] is very hot, you may just get away with it

Are they really only 8 inches tall? or is that a typo?

Puddleglum

Well, I had an aubergine disaster last year too. This year they are in pots on the deck and are about 8" tall. May be a bit taller but not much. Lots of lovely purple flowers which is better than last year, when they all got covered in some kind of fly and turned up their roots on me. Fingers crossed.

freezspirit

I've got one aubergine plant in a large pot in the greenhouse, its about 10in high but no flowers just leaves.

rms1

I have 3 aubergine plants in a raised bed and 2 in pots. They look mighty impressive but no sign of any fruit. I should have known that living in Manchester, aubergines were not a good idea although till recently we have had very warm and sunny weather (now it's just wet and warm)

I am just waiting for my tomatoes to ripen, there should be enough to supply Tesco!!

Rosebud24

I'm going the other way to you, dogstarheaven. Last year I grew mine outside (in Surrey). It had lots of flowers, but every single one got grey mould and dropped off! I later found out that they do not like getting wet. So I am growing mine in the greenhouse this year. Maybe when you know you're going to have a few rainy days you could move it inside temporarily. Similarly, I'm thinking now that I may move mine outside when we have a hot spell.

goony

I have one plant in a pot initially in the greenhouse but now outside once it was about 50cm tall. I have had 2 small aubergines of it already with another 2 growing

invisiblecabbage

I'm trying them for the first time in the greenhouse, by the doorway. I got a cheap growbag that I split across the centre and then stood up on ends to create 2 'pots' full of soil. There aare 2 plants and 3 aubergine fruits visible with more on the way. At present they are about the size of a golf ball but definitely purple. I'm quite chuffed.

frazzbo

I've got 4 plants outside, all in pots. 3 were grown from seed and haven't flowered yet, but they're starting to get buds on. The other was bought as a smallish plant from Wilkos and is doing really well - I think there have been about 5 flowers on it, and there are 3 aubergines growing. I think it's over a foot high at the moment and probably needs to stop getting any taller. Here is a pic which was taken about a week ago, but they have grown a fair bit since then. I'm not holding out too much hope for anything very big, but I think I'm doing ok for my first attempt

dogstarheaven

Rosebud24 wrote: »

I'm going the other way to you, dogstarheaven. Last year I grew mine outside (in Surrey). It had lots of flowers, but every single one got grey mould and dropped off! I later found out that they do not like getting wet. So I am growing mine in the greenhouse this year. Maybe when you know you're going to have a few rainy days you could move it inside temporarily. Similarly, I'm thinking now that I may move mine outside when we have a hot spell.

thanks for the tip about them not liking the wet. when they were grown in the g/house last yr, they grew really well, they were all tall nearly 4' (from the bottom of the pot) all spiny and healthily green with foliage. then, to my utter horror, one day i looked inside the walk-in plastic (6shelved) greenhouse, everything was dead (chillis and peppers too). i think it was the fact that it got too hot inside, with not enough ventilation for them. as it was a small plastic greenhouse, the ventilation was from the bottom of the doorway. it was my only method of getting air into it without leaving the door wide open, as this dried out the soil way too much, so leaving the door ajar was the only solution i had. so with the fact that the plants were suffering in the heat, the whitefly got in and killed them all..:eek:

this yr, 2 people gifted me some aub plants and reluctantly, i took them on and they're deliberately left outside. i guess with these ones grown out, it's obvious that they would do a lot better inside, hence the 8" height i have with them now, but i don't really want to take the risk with bringing them indoors. i just can't go thru' that experience again. btw, last yr, they never flowered for me. i don't know why, but as these plants had flowering buds on them, i was happy to find them all ready to flower for me.

the single plant i have in the raised bed is perhaps the worse off than the ones in pots, as there is competition from the other plants in there. it's not grown, but then again, the fruit on it is still hanging on, but v slow in development (golf ball-sized). the other 3 pots are slightly taller and have more flower buds yet to open.

let's chart our aub progress on this thread in due course (tho' it would help if i knew how to put up photos on here - anyone help?):beer:

izzwizz_2

I have some very healthy plants in the greenhouse, 3' tall, loads of flowers, 4 in the borders, 6 in large pots but I just can't get any fruit to set.