How to Grow Eggplant
On this page
- Eggplant (Solanum melongena)
- Quick Facts
- At a Glance
- Diseases
- Pests
- Nutrient Issues
- Soil & Growing Conditions
- Growth Stages
- Harvest & Storage
- Companion Planting
- Pollination
- Recommended Varieties
- Recommended Tools & Supplies
- Plan your Eggplant planting
- Growing Eggplant in another region
- Sources
- Frequently Asked Questions
Aubergines — called eggplant in the US and Canada — need a minimum of 21°C to germinate, so wherever you garden, start seed indoors rather than sowing into cold soil, and expect harvest 65–150 days later.
The short answer
- Site
- 6+ hours of sun, soil pH 6–6.5
- Biggest risk
- Verticillium wilt
Core growing advice on this page is checked against named horticultural sources — see References.
Eggplant (Solanum melongena)
10 sources cited · Verified
Quick Facts
| Factor | Value |
|---|---|
| Soil pH | 6 - 6.5 |
| Sunlight | 6-6 hours direct sun |
| Germination temp | 21°C |
| Optimal growing temp | 20-35°C |
| Minimum survivable temp | 9°C |
| Drainage | RHS: grow in "full sun" outdoors, enriching the soil with garden compost or well-rotted manure before planting. Neither source states a soil texture. |
| Edible parts | fruits |
| Documented problems | 5 diseases, 7 pests, 1 nutrient issue |
At a Glance
Diseases
Pests
Nutrient Issues
Soil & Growing Conditions
Growth Stages
| Stage | BBCH | Notes |
|---|---|---|
| Sowing & seedlings | 0 | Aubergines are grown from seed sown indoors from February (as early as January with a heated propagator), as they need a long, warm season and at least 21°C to germinate. Sow seeds about 0.5-1cm deep (Clemson/UMD: about 1/4 inch) in small pots or modules of moist seed compost on a warm windowsill or in a heated propagator. Prick out or pot on into individual 7.5-9cm pots once seedlings are large enough to handle, and grow on in good light at around 18-21°C. Harden plants off before moving them outdoors or into an unheated greenhouse. |
| Vegetative growth & planting out | 3 | When plants are about 30cm tall, pinch out the growing tip to encourage a bushy, branching habit. Plant into final positions from April (heated greenhouse), early May (unheated greenhouse) or late May/early June outdoors after the last frost - one plant per 30cm pot, three per grow bag, or spaced about 60cm apart (Clemson/UMD: roughly 45-60cm / 18-24in apart in rows 75-90cm / 30-36in) in fertile soil enriched with garden compost or well-rotted manure. Support the top-heavy stems with canes, keep the soil evenly moist, and grow in full sun with at least 6 hours of light a day. |
| Flowering & fruit set | 6 | Purple, star-shaped flowers appear through summer. Mist the flowers and damp down under glass to raise humidity and help pollination and fruit set. Once the first fruits have set, begin feeding every 10-14 days with a high-potassium liquid feed (such as a tomato fertiliser). Maintain a steady, even supply of moisture - containers may need watering daily in hot weather - as fluctuating soil moisture and limited root space cause blossom end rot. |
| Fruit development & harvest | 8 | Restrict each plant to about five or six fruits for good size, removing further flowers once these have set. Continue feeding and watering steadily. Harvest from mid-summer into autumn (roughly 65-150 days from sowing) as soon as fruits are full-sized, ripe and well-coloured with a glossy skin, cutting them with a short stalk using secateurs. Pick promptly: once the skin becomes dull the fruit is over-ripe and may taste bitter. Harvested fruit stores in the fridge for about a week at 7-10°C and 90% relative humidity. |
Harvest & Storage
Companion Planting
Pollination
Pollinating insects (bees and other flower visitors)
RHS: under cover, "open the door and vents on warm days when plants are in flower, to allow access for pollinating insects". Where insect access is limited, "misting the flowers also aids pollination, or you can hand pollinate flowers with a small paintbrush." Fruit set under glass is therefore an access problem before it is a plant problem.
Recommended Varieties
Variety selection matters more for aubergines than most UK crops, since every one of them needs the full glasshouse season to fruit well.
- Moneymaker — F1 hybrid, early and reliable with classic glossy purple fruits; a sensible default for a first attempt.
- Black Beauty — traditional variety producing large fruits; good if you want fewer, bigger aubergines per plant.
- Bonica — very productive F1 hybrid with good disease resistance; worth choosing where red spider mite has been a problem before.
- Ophelia — compact F1 hybrid bred for containers; the best choice where glasshouse space is limited.
Restricting a plant to 5–6 fruits isn't wasteful, it's the opposite: letting every flower set fruit spreads the plant's limited energy too thin, producing many small, poor-quality aubergines instead of a handful of good ones.
Recommended Tools & Supplies
Having the right tools makes growing aubergines easier. Our hand tools for gardening include secateurs for cutting fruit cleanly at harvest, and the soil and plant care range covers propagators for the heat aubergines need to germinate through to high-potash feeds for fruiting.
Planning the wider plot? See the UK vegetable planting calendar.
Plan your Eggplant planting
Timing for Eggplant follows soil temperature and frost, not the calendar date. The Global vegetable planting calendar explains the method. To work out where it fits in your beds, sketch your plot in the free Garden Layout Planner.
Growing Eggplant in another region
Sowing dates, frost timing and local advice differ by country. Use the guide for where you garden.
Sources
These 2 sources are specific to this region. The full list of 10 sources behind this guide (Clemson Cooperative Extension, FAO EcoCrop, Global Biodiversity Information Facility (GBIF) and others) is in the references of our UK guide to aubergines; they describe the plant itself, which is the same wherever it grows.
Frequently Asked Questions
What soil pH do aubergines need?
A pH of about 6–6.5. That span reflects genuine variation between the authorities we cite rather than a single agreed figure — the References section lists each source's exact range.
What problems affect aubergines?
Our data links 5 diseases and 7 pests to this crop. See the sections above for each one and how to manage it.
Plan next season before the problems start
This page gives you the thresholds; the planner turns them into your own calendar. It works from what you can observe and measure in your garden rather than from dates written for somebody else’s latitude.
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How this guide is put together
The growing data on this page — sowing windows, pests, diseases, soil and site requirements — comes from named horticultural sources, listed in References below, checked against international horticultural research and extension sources. An automated pipeline assembles that verified data into the page you're reading: it selects which facts to lead with and builds the surrounding prose and layout. It does not invent a date, a source or a number — where a verified value for a field isn't available, the page leaves it out rather than guessing. A person reviews and publishes each page; nothing goes live unverified.
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Last verified 2026-08-06
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Plan the next step
Use the printable SoilCommander planner for your region to turn this guide into sowing dates, bed layouts and weekly garden tasks.