First Pea Egglants of 2016!

[pepperhead212]

I got my first ones on 7-31, and in just a few days, it is LOADED! How is yours doing, Apple?

[imafan26]

Be careful, turkeyberries have thorns. They are bitter. It is also on Hawaii's invasive pest list.

[pepperhead212]

I still haven't found any thorns on these things - I've been looking, since I remember you mentioning this before. And nothing could be as bad as those kaffir lime plants!

[imafan26]

Hmmmmm. maybe yours is a hybrid. Turkey berries here have very visible and mean thorns on the stems. They grow very tall and even when they are cut to the ground they have a habit of growing back.

[applestar]

Yay pepperhead212! My plant with three stems is 6 feet tall now but hasn't bloomed yet. I wonder if I should have pruned it to a single stem? It could be because I planted it in the ground this year -- they need those warm roots? SIP does make a difference, we know.

But this year, I'm seriously thinking of hacking it short and root pruning and overwintering this monster plant, or maybe I should take cuttings and try propagating a smaller version to over winter.

[pepperhead212]

Here is a photo of the plant from a distance. That 18 gal SIP it is planted in gives a size reference. It's easily over 7' tall already, and the main stalk is 1 1/2" thick!

[applestar]

I can see you have the right strategy by placing the SIP next to the porch.

Here are the first flowerbuds on my pea eggplant -- 6 feet+ up in the air.

...I'm gonna need a step-ladder...

[pepperhead212]

That plant of mine has gotten huge in the last couple of weeks, with larger clusters of eggplants than I have ever seen! They obviously like heat, much like many of my hot peppers.

[pepperhead212]

And here are the first ones I harvested:


There was a small cluster of 3 or 4, and I am leaving that to totally ripen, and save seeds from. I'm hoping that the seeds germinate faster than the ones I bought, which take 3 weeks or longer.

[applestar]

Getting there

[applestar]

Yay! I think we're going to make it!

[pepperhead212]

Great apple! Mine still has some left, but is winding down now.

[HonoluluGirl]

Hey... Imafan said this is a weed in Hawaii? I have one in front of my front porch that I thought was a volunteer eggplant. It grew really tall and had mean thorns. I cut it down a few times, but it keeps growing back. LOL.

[applestar]

The first fruits are getting round-ish. How do you tell when they are ready to harvest

...also, one of the cuttings I started a while back seems to have rooted. There are new little buds starting to grow from the leaf nodes.

[pepperhead212]

I pick the EPs when they are pretty much all the same size, and have stopped growing. There may be a couple smaller ones, but most will be about three eighths of an inch. I just picked about five more cups, which is pretty much the end for the season. I still have that small cluster I'm keeping for seeds, but they haven't turned color at all - just stayed green. I'll find out how the seeds have developed.