The Canadian Horticulturist. 

 THE EGG-PLANT AND ITS CULTIVATION. 



165 



|HE chief difficulty in growing the Egg-plant in the 

 north is the shortness of the seasons. It is only 

 by starting plants early and maintaining a vigorous 

 growth that we can succeed in fruiting the large 

 sorts satisfactorily. The plants should be started 

 under glass from the middle of March to the 

 middle of April in a warm house. In the cold 

 and small house used in our early tests the plants 

 grew slowly, and when set out-of-doors they were 

 not of sufficient size and vigor to begin bearing at 

 once. We sow in " flats " or boxes and when the 

 first true leaves are about a half inch in diameter — which is about a month after 

 the seed is sown — the plants are pricked off into two-inch pots. As soon as the 

 pots are filled with roots the plants are shifted into four-inch pots. We have 

 had indifferent success in transplanting into other flats, as the plant is more 

 severely checked when placed in the field from the greater injury to the roots. 

 It is imperative that the plants should not become " drawn." The plants are 

 transferred from the four-inch pots to the garden from the first to the middle of 

 June. The early sorts, as Early Dwarf Purple, are not so seriously injured by a 

 check in growth as the large and late sorts, and they can therefore be handled 

 with less care. These sorts can be started two weeks later than the others and 

 receive but one transplanting. The effects of early and late setting are shown 

 in the following experiment : 



Seeds of several varieties were sown March 27 th and May 15th. On the 

 7th of September they presented the following differences : Long Purple, Giant 

 Round Purple and Long White from early sowing were productive, but few or 

 no fruits had formed on the plants from late sowing. Early Long Purple and 

 Round White from the late sowing were fully as productive as those from the early 

 sowing. Early Dwarf Purple gave best results from plants started April 15th. 

 This shows that there is little or no gain in productiveness in the small early 

 sorts from very early sowing, while the large sorts profit by it. The Black 

 Pekin, which is one of the large varieties, proved an apparent exception, 

 however. Plants started May ist gave better results than those started 

 earlier, but neither lot was satisfactory. The unsatisfactory results from 

 the early sowing may have been due to the loss of the first flowers because of 

 the transplanting. Transplanting usually has the effect of keeping plants growing 

 to the detriment of the flowers ; and egg plants which are in bloom when 

 removed to the field are apt to drop the flowers. It is important in the large 

 sorts to mduce the first flowers to set. 



The best soil for Egg-plants is a ricl) sandy loam — not too light — which 



