Greenhouse eggplant.

Greenhouse eggplant is a long-cycle fruiting vegetable grown for a heavy individual fruit with a glossy skin, where surface blemishes decide the grade. It occupies less Dutch glasshouse area than tomato or pepper, which makes it attractive to growers looking for a crop with less crowded competition, and it fits a house already set up for high-wire production.

What the crop needs

The crop is grown on rockwool with drip irrigation and drain recirculation. Its root system is coarse relative to the fruit load it carries, so water availability does more of the work of holding quality than it does on tomato, and an interruption while fruit is filling shows on the skin. Grafting onto a vigorous rootstock is standard practice for exactly this reason.

What the greenhouse has to do

Eggplant carries a heavy fruit on a plant that is grafted as standard, and the house is specified around both. The crop wire and the structure take a real load for a long cycle, and grafting exists because the root system on its own does not reliably carry it — which makes root-zone control, and the irrigation capacity behind it, central rather than supporting.

Skin quality is what the grade turns on, and skin is easily marked. The fruit bruises against structure, against wires and against handling, so row layout, path width and the harvest route are drawn for a fruit that shows every contact. Climate work concentrates on avoiding the swings that leave the surface dull, which is a screening and ventilation question more than a heating one.

DutchGreenhouses® specifies the structure, climate, screening and irrigation around the eggplant crop, its rootstock and the local climate, so a heavy fruit load is carried without losing skin quality. Get in touch to plan an eggplant greenhouse.