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Round Green African Eggplant
Solanum aethiopicum
Please note: this listing is for SEEDS, not fresh eggplants!
Round, green and white striped African garden eggplant. People like to eat this real African Eggplant for its health benefits and to replace meat in various dishes. For preparation, they are mixed with fish, meat, oil, fried and eaten with sauce, or simply boiled.
While these look like Thai Eggplants, these are much larger and harvested at about 4" wide.
Known as: Bitterballs, Garden Egg
Days to maturity: 90
Seeds per pack: 60-65
Germination rate: 91.75% on 03/08/2024
Planting / harvesting notes
These are heat-loving, and seeds should be started indoors about 1/4 inches deep, about 8 weeks before the last frost. The growing characteristics are like most eggplants. The plants reach about 1-2 feet tall and should be planted 18 inches apart. They need full sun and fertile soil. The eggplants begin green or white with green stripes but should be picked when they are fully grown round and white with green stripes or fully green in colors. They must be picked regularly to keep production and ensure they don't over ripen. For seed saving the fruits ripen to yellow or orange.
Seed keeping notes
Eggplants are generally self-pollinating, though we isolate different varieties of the same species by 300 feet, in hopes that flying insects will not cross pollinate them unexpectedly. Eggplant seeds are darkened when the fruits get far past their edible stage, and fruits have turned yellow or orange. Cut the fruit, scrape out seeds into a vessel, add a little water and allow the seeds to settle. Pour off the floating material and then strain the seeds through a strainer and allow them to dry in heat or sunlight. Lay out the seed to dry on a screen or paper tower in a heated area like the greenhouse or right in the kitchen cabinet over the stove.
