Eggplant - Meatball hybrid

[Tucson Grower]

Yes, it's a hybrid, but I'm planning to grow it anyway - the description is just way too interesting. I'm also planning to grow Black Beauty. I haven't grown any eggplant, for quite a while, so I'm looking foreward to it.

Here is a pic of this Meatball hybrid:




Also hoping I can keep the flea beetles off of it.

[chrysanthemum]

I love a good eggplant. I’ve grown Black Beauty before but can only get small fruit off of it. Flea beetles definitely love my eggplant plants. I need to get hold of some tulle and use it to make covering for my wire wastebaskets to see if that can give some extra protection to my transplants this spring.

[Tucson Grower]

The best protection I've found from flea beetles are yellow plastic dixie cups, coated on the outside with tanglefoot or generic equivalent, stuck on wire stakes placed near the affected plants. They work wonders for me and my flea beetles are quite thick, here.

[heavyhitterokra]

Flea beetles make it nearly impossible for me to grow egg plants here. Thanks for those tips on controlling them a little better. My garden is certified organic, so it's basically a 'free lunch' for pests of every description.

I've probably got something wrong with my brain, but spraying pesticides doesn't seem like much of an option. Sometimes, it kind of frustrates me that I'm made that way.

[FrostyTurnip]

I don’t eat a lot of eggplant, so I use the plants as a trap crop. Flea beetle magnet.  I usually get a couple of fruits anyway.  I have a swarming eco system so I think the beetles come in until something else trashes their party.  

[Tucson Grower]

I've got a few started of the 'Meatball' hybrid and the similar variety, 'Aswad'. I'll start some 'Black Beauty', soon.