Harvest eggplant younger once the outside turns into shiny. The flesh of younger eggplant will probably be extra soft and the seeds smaller. The plant will produce extra fruit if saved picked.
When to Harvest Eggplant
- Harvest eggplants when they’re company and shiny and large enough to consume—about one-third their most measurement.
- To check eggplant fruit for adulthood, press the fruit together with your thumb; if the flesh springs again it’s inexperienced and now not ripe; in case your thumb leaves an indentation, the fruit is overripe; the most productive tasting eggplant will probably be in between.
- A simply ripe eggplant when sliced could have cushy, well-formed however immature seeds; an immature and unripe eggplant will don’t have any visual seeds; an overripe eggplant could have arduous, darkish seeds. (Seeds forming within the fruit motive the outside to move from glossy to boring.) Each an under-ripe and overripe eggplant will probably be sour tasting.
It’s higher to reap eggplant simply ahead of its ripe than to attend too lengthy.
How you can Harvest Eggplant
- Minimize eggplant culmination from the plant with a lawn pruner or sharp knife. Go away one inch of inexperienced stem connected to the fruit.
- Eggplants are very tough to tug clear of the plant by way of hand; doing so can harm the plant.
How you can Retailer Eggplant
- Retailer eggplants in a room with prime humidity to maintain texture and taste and steer clear of dehydration. The optimum temperature for storing eggplant is 55°F (13°C). At 55°F, eggplants will stay for 1 to two weeks.
- You’ll be able to retailer eggplant within the fridge however now not cooler than 50°F (10°C). Rinse the fruit blank, pat it dry with a kitchen towel, and position it in a perforated plastic bag to stay it from drying out. (Fridges are chilly and dry, now not humid.)
- If uncovered to temperatures under 41°F (5°C), eggplants will increase floor pits, bronzing, brown spots, and rot.
- Eggplant fruit discolors impulsively when reduce open, so it’s very best to make use of it straight away as soon as sliced.
- Keep away from storing eggplants with apples or tomatoes; ethylene (a herbal plant hormone launched within the type of a gasoline) given off by way of the ones culmination will motive eggplants to brown and rot.
Extra pointers: How you can Develop Eggplant.
