Plant · P-216

Eggplant

Solanum melongena

Eggplant is the one crop in this tomato-family group that actually wants a hot, humid summer instead of shutting down in one: it needs steady growing-season temperatures around 77-86 F, including warm nights that would stop tomato from setting fruit, so it fruits straight through the midsummer stretch that splits a tomato harvest in two. The fruit gets baked, stewed or used in curries and should never be eaten raw, and despite one traditional preparation on record, the leaves are narcotic and toxic and should not be eaten either. It also tolerates a wider soil pH range than most of its relatives, up to about 7.2, so it needs far less amending on alkaline ground.