Cultivation Guide for Red-Purple Eggplant Variety Series

1, Sowing Time

In South China, generally it be sown for 3 times per year. The main way to achieve high benefit is to arrange the sowing time within the best cultivation and benefit period. In Spring, it is sown from Feb. to Mar., cover with tunnel after sowing and enter market in late May. In Autumn, it is sown from Jan. to Jul., and enter market from Sept. to Nov.

2, Cultivation Season and Selection of Variety

For the cultivation in Spring, it can by transplanting after culture of seedling, mainly choose early muturity and cold-resistant varieties, such as Yicheng, Purple General eggplant and so on.
 
For Autumn cultivation, it is better to choose varieties which is resistant to heat, moisture and disease, with strong growth potential and high commodity qualtity of fruit, such as Sciacca, Farmer-Friend Long Eggplant and so on. It quires about 240g of seeds per acre.

3, Cuture of Strong Seedling

3.1, Treatment of Seed

The seeds can be sown after sprouting or derectly by dry seeds. In order to reduce the disease brought by seeds, the seeds should be disinfected before sowing. Here are some of the common treatments. For warm water soaking, soak seeds in 50-55 degree celsius of water for 15-30 minutes. For medical powder dressing, use 50% carbendazim in 0.3% weight of seeds to dress seeds. For medical liquid soaking, soak seeds in 10% trisodium (ortho)phosphate liquid for 20-30 minutes or in 0.1% potassium permanganate liquid for 20 minutes.
 
Choose one from the three method above. It can also be dressed with medicalpowder or soak in medical liquid after soaking in warm water. When for medical liquid soaking, the seeds should be washed over and over again before sprouting or derect sowing.

3.2, Preparation of Seedbed

For seedbed, it should to choose fertile field which is in high level and droughty, with well irrigation and drainage and have not been planted with Solanaceae vegetables (including eggplant, pepper, tomato, etc.) for past three years. For culture of seedling in Summer, small shelf should be put up on ridge and cover with shading net and thin plastic film, in order to prevent rain and sun, reduce light intensity and temperature, and reduce the occurrence of disease. Prepare 48-60 sq.m. of seedbed for each acre, sow in 240-300g of seeds.
 
Preparation of seedbed soil. For 10 sq.m. of seedbed, it requires 1 cubic of loam or sandy loam which is fertile and without disease, and add 0.4 cubic of finished organic manure (the volume ratio of soil and manure is 1:0.4), and 1kg of calcium superphosphate and 10kg of wood ash, mixed uniformly and then level for using.
 
Preparation of sterile soil. Mix 50% of carbendazim powder with 50% Thiram powder by the ratio of 1:1, or 25% metalaxyl powder and 70% mancozeb powder by the ration of 1: 9. For every 10 sq.m. of soil, choose 80-100g of one of the mixed medicament above and then mix with 120kg of fine soil evenly. When sowing, broadcast two third on the seedbed and one third for covering seeds

3.3, sowing

Usually sow in early and middle Jun. Farmers can choose culture of seedling in open field or in nutrient pot accordingly.

For Open field culture. Supply base water throughly and sow after the seedbed is a little dry, then cover the seeds by about 1cm thick disinfected fine soil, also with a thin layer of straw or wheat straw. As the culture period is right in Summer season when the weather is hot with strong sunlight, the seedbed should be coverd with shadding net which is supported by 40-50cm high bamboo tunnel. The end of bamboo need not be insert hardt.
 
For culture in nutrient pot. Encase the prepared nutrient soil into pot which is 12 cm high and 10 cm wide, to be about 70%-80% full, with about about 1 cm away from the pot mouth. Pay the pot onto seedbed. The filtration bed is about 90 cm wide and 5 cm deep, and the pot mouth is 5 cm above the bed. Water throughly and sow when the soil is a little dry. Sow 3-4 grains of seeds in each pot, and then cover with about 1 cm thick of disinfected soil.

3.4, Management of Seedling Stage

Maintain moisture. In seedling stage, water in time to keep the ridge surface moist and not dry. Water early in the morning.

Cover and Remove of Shading Net. Cover with shading net when the sun is burnig in the day time to reduce temperature, and remove it in cloundy day. Addly cover with thin film before heavy rain to prevent erosion. 7-10 days before setting, prolong the uncover time gradually until complete uncover for training seedlings.
 
Weeding. manually removal of weed in seedbed in time.

Thinning. About 25 days after sowing, thin seedling in the double main leaves period in 5cm by 5cm of seedling distance. After thinning, timely top dressing 10% lean human fecaluria water once. For Autumn planting, it needs about 300 sq.m. of seedbed of thinning seedlings per acre.
 
Control of Pest. The main insect pests is aphid in seedling stage. Prevent and control timely by pesticide when the damage by aphid occurs.

Preparation before Setting. Generally in about 20 days after thinning when the seedling outgrows 6-7 pieces of main leaves, the setting can be done(around late July). 3-5 days before setting, supply once pesticide for bringing medicine to farm, mainly by agent  for control of aphids prevention and protective agent for control of disease, such as 70% mancozeb, 75% chlorothalonil, etc.

4, Preparation of Field and Supply of Base Manure

4.1, Selection of Field

It is better to choose fertile field which is in high level and droughty, thick soil layer, with well irrigation and drainage and not have been planted with Solanaceae vegetables (including eggplant, pepper, tomato, etc.) for past two to three years. The field which is rotated by water and dry crops for 1-2 year can also be chosen, but not cropping land.

4.2, Deep Ploughing.

Plough by 30 cm deep and then sun the soil for 7-15 days. The preparation of field can be ahead of time to prolong the sunning time of soil, because after the sun exposure, the soil bacteria will be greatly reduced. The difference from Spring cultivation is that, both the subsoil and surface soil should be prepared finely, not to see big lump clods, otherwise the gap between clods will be too large and the water will lost easily, which will go against the survival of seelding and growth.

4.3, Supply of adequate base manure

The eggplant belongs to the vegetbale which is endurant to fertiliezer. In fertile soil, the differentiation of flower bud will be advanced greatly, and the period of blossom and the beginning of harvest will also be ahead of schedule. The nutrient requirements is most in potash, followed by nitrogen and phosphate are at least. The requirement become larger along with growing acem, especially for potash and nitrogen. However, as harvesting fruit is tender fruit, the impact of nitrogen on the yield is still very close. In addition, the requirements of calcium and magnesium are relatively high. As the fertilizer absorption and utilization of each element is different, according to experience in actual production, the supply of elements in fertilizer demand should be multipled by the times bellow from the the basis demands: Nitrogen by 1.5, Phosphate by 3.0, Potash by 0.8, Calcium by 1.5 and Magnessium by 2.

When fertilizing, generally supply all of the phosphate fertilizer, and 1/3-1/2 of nitrogen and potash fertilizer as base fertilizer, and the rest as top dressing. For base manure, supply 15000-18000 kg of organic manure, 240-360 kg of calcium superphosphate fertilizer and 120-180 kg of potassium sulfate per acre. Among them, 2 / 3 of base manure is broadcasted, and the other 1 / 3 is supplied in strip or ditch.

4.4, Preparation of Field

Choose deep ditch and narrow ridge. The ridge surface should be smooth and slightly in back-tile shape. The standard for ditch and ridge is: fine crushing soil, smooth surface, net.ditch. For cultivation with mulching film, the ridge is 0.67 m wide, planted one row, or 1.35m wide including ditch, and planted two rows.

4.5, Covering of Film

While the moisture is still be there, cover the ridge with plastic film tightly and use fine soil to press hardly around. Dig transplanting hole on ridge surgace according to the planting specifications (planting density). The setting specifications is that, the planting distance is 40cm.

5, Setting

In late July when the seedling outgrows 6-7 pieces of main leaves, the setting can be done in sunny afternoon or cloudy days to prevent excessive water loss, wilting and death of seedling caused by the sun heat, supply throughly water before setting. Set one plant per hole, about 15000 plants per acre. when setting, the soil group should be maintained as far as possible in order to protect the root. Note: If for cultivation with mulching film, use fine soil to press around the setting hole to prevent hot gas emerging from the setting hole and wounding seedlings in sunny day.

6, Field Management

6.1, Moisture

3-4 days after settnig, irrigate once recovering water. As the temperature in early setting period is high, the soil evaporation will be strong, the watering times should be increased. The requirement of water is less in early growth period, irrigate along with top dressing generally. When the first flower blossoms, control the moisture to prevent dropping of flower. Irrigate in time when the pods are beared in the first and second flower, so as to promote the growth of fruit. When comes to the fruiting acme, the growth of branch and leaf and expanding of fruit will cause sharp increasing demand of water. Irrigate according to the growth conditions of seelding. If for continuous hot and drought, irrigate through ditch, but to avoid irrigation before rain and overflowing to ridge surface. The best time for irrigation is in mid-night, early morning and morning. The requirement of water is less when cultivated with mulching film.
 
After heavy rain, drain in time to prevent water-logging and rotten root. In Mid-Autumn Festival after the weather turns cool, generally there is no need to water.

6.2, Top-Dressing

Top dressing for the first time when the first group of eggplants are borne stably, by 3000kg of feces or 120kg of compound fertilizer per acre, along with watering. After that, top dressing once after the harvest of each group of eggplants, by 3000kg of finished organic manure per acre, water down in the ratio of 1 by 1. when the quantity of harvest is big and the fertilizer and warter is lack, add 48-60kg of urea to the organic manure per acre. If there is not enough labour force, 90-108kg of urea per acre can be supplied in the ditches at interval before rain. This method is a larger waste of fertilizer.
 
Be careful not to partially supply nitrogen fertilizer. Too much of nitrogen fertilizer will causes growth of leaves and flowers only, with less fruits. During the whole fruit setting period, spray once compound gold-leaf fertilizer, along with bactericide, will obviously imporve the fruit setting rate, speed up fruit expanding and enhence the disease-resistance of the plant.

6.3, Cultivation

When the plant grows to be 33cm high, shovel fine soil in ditch to earth up to the plant stalk part around the planting hole, commonly known as ‘Lift row onto ridge’. This is to conducive to the growth of root system, to avoid them exposing on earth, and to strenthen the resistibility to wind and collapes. In addition, for cultivation of local black eggplany varieties, due to the high height of the plant, it is more vulnerable by wind, the bamboo sticker or refined bamboo should be inserted deeply and binded by straw or plastic belay (which si soft, with a certain flexibility to avoid injury Ke Le strain). When binding, the distance between plant and the supportive structures should be 1cm.

6.4, Pruning, Leaf-Picking

As the vigorous growth of leaf and branch, it will easily causes shadowing which will leads to dropping of flower and fruit. Therefore, the pruning should be done in time, mainly by double-branches pruning, wipe out all the side branches which are bellow the front fruit. After the plant covers line, for ventilation and illumination, reduce flower-dropping and the invalid consumption by old leaves in lower layer, and to promote the color of fruit, the old leaves in the base layer can be wiped out in batches. If the growth is vigorous, it can be properly more. And in droughty weather when the growth of leaf and stalk is not vigorous, wipe out old leaves in low quantity properly, so as to prevent fruit from burnt by sun. In the middle and late growing period, wipe out all the leaves which are sick, old or yellow, to ease the damage by disease and pest.

6.5, Protection of flower and Thining of fruit

During the blossom period, many kinds of reasons such as lower or higher temperature, lack of illumination, will cause flower dropping by different degrees. Besides to strengthen field management and to improve the nutritional status, it may also use growth regulator such as 2,4-D and PCPA to protect flowers.

In the acme of fruit setting, pay attention to thin fruits which are weak or abnormal. This kind of fruits are neither commodity, but also consumes nutrients in vain. Promptly cut off them to keep better reserved fruits.

7, Harvest

Timely Harvest. As the growing period of eggplant is longer and the expanding of fruit requires abundant nutrient, the harvest should be in time to avoid affecting the growth of plant and the yield of next group and the whole one. Timely harvset when the fruits expand fully and the color of peel is shiny and bright. The fruits on low layer can be harvested in advance properly. Timely harvesting and increasing of harvesting time, is one of the important measures to increase yield, and the yield-increasing effect is obvious.

In production, the harvest standard is check the width of ‘eggplant eye’. If the white annulus between sepal and fruit is broad, it indicates the rapid growth of the fruit, and it is still not suitable for harvesting. If this annulus is not obvious or near extinction, it indicates that the growth of fruit is slow and the expanding stops, the fruit should be harvest in time.
 
Protection facilities: Under normal circumstances, for delaying cultivation in Autumn, the fruits are well sold in Aug., Sept. and Nov., with better price. If the market quotation in latter period is better, protected facilities can be used to extend the time to market. In middle Oct., build up plasitc shed to cover the field, generally by bamboo shed which is 1.5-1.8 m high and 5 m wide. In early stage, ventilate in the daytime and cover at night. And in late period, reduce the ventilating time, and cover firmly at night for insulation.

8, Integrated control of disease and pest

The control of pest and disease should be mainly by prevention, combined with comprehensive measures. Carry out crop rotation and avoid continuous cropping. Improve soil by supplying 600-900kg of lime per acre. Plough and sun soil make soil loosen and with slight alkalescence. Cultivate on high ridge and avoid waterlogging and rotten root. Timely water in droughty weather to prevent spliting soil from damaging root. Scientifically use chemicals for control.
 
When spray or root-pouring for control of disease, it is required once in 7-10 days, continued for 2-3 times, the prevention and treatment time should be early, spray shoroughly and evenly. For the control of Damping-off disease, Blight disease and epidemic disease, spray 600 times of 72% Dupont WP or 72.2% Previcur aqua, or 500 times of 64% oxadixyl.mancozeb WP for control.

Bacterial Wilt disease. Root pouring by 400 times of 30% Copper Dicarboxylate WP, 200 times of TF-120, or 500 times of 25% Copper sulfate-ammonia complex for control.
 
Verticillium wilt and fusarium wilt diseaases. Root pouring 1000 times of 70% Dexon, 500 times of 50% carbendazim, or 800-1000 times of 70% thiophanate-methyl for control.

Septoria glycines disease. Spray 1000-1500 times of 75% chlorothalonil, 500 time of 50% carbendazim, or 800-1000 times of 70% thiophanate-methyl for control.
 
Red spider and Yellow tea mite. Spray 1000-1500 times of 10% Liuyangmycin or 1000-1200 times of 12.5% of quinalphos(fenvalerate) EC, or root pouring 5000 times of 1.8% Abamectin for control.
 
Tobacco budworm. Spray 3000 times of 1.8% Avermectin or 200 times of BT emulsion for control.

Aphids. Spray 1500 times of 10% imidacloprid WP or 1000 times of 3% Acetamiprid emulsion for control.

Eggplant borer and Henosepilachna vigintioctopunctata (Fabricius). In hatching acme of fabricius and before the larvae boring into branch tip, flower and fruit, spray 1000-1200 times of 5% Regent SC, 1000 times of 90% trichlorfon WP, or 1000 times of 10% cypermethrin for control.
 
Black cutworm. Use 100g of 95% trichlorfon Crystal, add 1kg of water and mixed with 5 kg of fresh gras as bait, to broadcast in the field by many points in the evening. Or root pouring 800-1000 times of 90% trichlorfon, 1000 times of 2.5% deltamethrin, or 800 times of 50% Phoxim EC for control.