5 Reasons You Should Stake Your Eggplants and How to Do It
Eggplants are prolific producers, and supporting their vigorous stems brings advantages for healthy growth and fruiting. To protect the yield and boost quality fruits, garden expert Katheirne Rowe outlines reasons to stake eggplants, which ones benefit, and simple installations to do the job.
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Eggplants bridge the ornamental and edible landscape with their dark, glossy fruits, lavender flowers, and broad green leaves. In colors from violet and deep purple to green, yellow, and white, and in multiple shapes and sizes, the beautiful fruits diversify the vegetable garden and the plate. The summer crop grows quickly and produces prolifically as temperatures warm. Because of all this growing and producing, Solanum melongena sometimes benefits from support.
Depending on your variety and site conditions, stake eggplants when they’re young to provide benefits like promoting healthy growth and fruit quality. Dwarf and bushy types are more compact (perfect for growing in containers) and generally don’t need additional support. Traditional varieties can reach up to seven feet tall, and with large fruits or heavy clusters, a growing structure keeps stems from sagging under the weight.
Whether growing the heat-loving crop in containers, raised beds, or in the ground, consider staking as a means to foster healthy development. The vertical interest is a bonus among the culinary benefits.
Weighty Fruits and Sizeable Yields
Eggplants themselves range from little egg-sized rounds to big bells to narrow and long oblongs. If you’re working with a variety that yields heavy fruits, or several in a cluster, staking helps prevent stems from drooping under the weight.
A single eggplant may produce four to six or more large fruits over the growing season, given optimal growing conditions. Plants that produce smaller fruits, like Asian types with slender, elongated aubergines, yield multiple fruits at a time and up to 20. Because they produce prolifically, a support structure preserves the integrity of the stems and harvest, whether in pots or beds.
Reduces Disease
Stake eggplants to lift the stems and fruits off the ground. Preventing the fruits and leaves from resting on the soil surface lessens exposure to damp conditions that lead to problems like fruit rot, wilt, and leaf spot. It decreases the likelihood of prolonged irrigation splashing onto plant surfaces, which can spread fungal and bacterial spores. Lifting also improves airflow to minimize disease-prone conditions.
Upright growth may reduce pest access, or at least make it easier to scout for them. Eggplants are susceptible to common garden invaders like aphids, spider mites, and thrips, as well as the Colorado potato beetle and flea beetles. Minimizing hiding places makes it easy to see damage or pest signs early on.
Improves Fruits
A big advantage of staking eggplants is the potential to boost fruit quality. Vertical growth allows the fruits to fully develop, unimpeded by the ground. This applies especially to long, slender types. With staking, the elevated fruits are uniform and well-shaped. And, they develop before our eyes, which is an added benefit.
Taller Varieties and Site Conditions
Depending on the variety, some eggplants develop long, indeterminate stems that reach six to seven feet tall. Many remain between two and four feet, making them manageable across garden spaces and scales. Using a trellis or other structure helps keep stems tidy and contained.
Stem support helps in windy zones, where gusts may impact fruit-laden branches. If you have loose, sandy soils, flopping over may be an issue. Use growing structures in these situations to protect plant integrity and tender aubergines.
If you’re working with a plant with lengthy stems, employ supports to achieve the benefits of growing upright. Quality fruits, improved airflow, pest and disease reduction, and saving space through contained growth are advantages. The height of the support stake or trellis should be relative to mature plant size (usually around three feet, but check your variety).
Easy Harvesting
The most fun part of growing aubergines is harvesting and enjoying them. Growing them vertically makes the ready fruits easy to spot and to access. Use a sharp blade or pruner to snip them off the stems. An asset among the nightshades is the ability to harvest them as young or mature fruits. Baby eggplants are ready to eat when still green, usually around four to six inches long. Harvest some early and leave others to develop fully.
You’ll know eggplants are ready to pick when their skin is deep and glossy. They’ll bounce back under light pressure. Overripe ones left on the vine too long show dull, purple skin and become acrid as seeds brown. The more you pick, the more tender the fruits develop. Pair them with companion plantings for a well-rounded edible landscape.
How To Stake Eggplants
Staking eggplants is a simple process, and any technique that works for tomatoes and peppers will suit the nightshades. It’s best to install the stake at planting to avoid disturbing the roots later. Tie off the stems as they develop and as fruits emerge for extra support. Keep a gentle slack in the twine to allow some stem movement and to prevent rubbing.
Single Plant
To support a single specimen, a wooden one-inch-thick stake does the job. Aim for 48 to 60 inches long, depending on your variety, to account for in-ground depth. Stick the post into the soil until it’s stable without wiggling back and forth. Thick jute twine works to tie the stem as it grows.
Tomato cages work well for eggplants, too. Slip the cage over the seedling or nursery start at planting for self-support as it grows. Other singular plant supports, like a wire stem supporter or a V-Trellis, hold stems in place at adaptable heights.
In a Row
Staking is streamlined for growing eggplants in a row, too, or for more than one plant. Use wooden or metal stakes with twine running between them as the trellis. Two rows of twine at equally spaced intervals are usually sufficient. Tie off stems when they reach the twine rows. Or, loop twine around each pole for a pair of strings. Run the stem through the pair with no need for tying. Do two rows of running string pairs between each pole.
Another versatile, reusable option for many crops is the Freyr Trellis or a similar upright growing structure. Twine is run vertically or horizontally (or both) between a sturdy metal frame for vertical growth. The verticality makes for easy harvest access in addition to the benefits of air circulation and lifted fruits.
