Vegetables · Warm
Eggplant
Solanaceae
At a glance
- Plant spacing
- 50 cm
- USDA zones
- 6a–11a
- Frost-sensitive
- yes
- Growth duration
- 9 weeks
Which beds suit?
- Sun (prefers)
- full sunAlso okay:partial shade
- Soil (prefers)
- raised-bed mixAlso okay:loamy
- Drainage (prefers)
- normalAlso okay:very free-draining
Seed & start
Pre-culture recommended
Start indoors / cold frame first, transplant into the raised bed later.
Stachi's tip
Aubergine is the hothead of the nightshades. In temperate raised beds only in the warmest spot, possibly under fleece. Plant 2-3 plants — yield is often meagre. Snack varieties are more reliable than giant ones.
The plant's year: sowing, transplanting, harvest
Sowing
Transplanting
Harvest
Good neighbours
Traditional recommendation. Rarely studied under controlled conditions — treat it as experience, not law.
Avoid these neighbours
No known conflicts.
Traditional recommendation. Rarely studied under controlled conditions — treat it as experience, not law.
Good pre-cultures
These plants improve the soil / free the slot early:
What comes after Eggplant?
When the bed frees up, the season is usually not over. We worked out what still fits afterwards — with time windows and reasons.
See follow-on crops for Eggplant →Sources
- Kreuter, Bio-Garten
- Kosmos Gartenkalender
- LLM-Baseline-Intercrop
- LLM-Baseline-2026-05-09 yieldKg
- LLM-Baseline-2026-05-10 family-zehrer
- LLM-Baseline-2026-05-10 sun-soil-drainage
Where these figures come from
- Timing
- Horticulturally established — consistent across the cited standard works.
- Spacing
- Horticulturally established — consistent across the cited standard works.
- Companion planting
- Traditional recommendation. Rarely studied under controlled conditions — treat it as experience, not law.
- Crop rotation
- Traditional recommendation. Rarely studied under controlled conditions — treat it as experience, not law.
- Yield
- Limited evidence. This value is not backed by a specialist source — treat it as a pointer.
Sources: Kreuter, Bio-Garten · Kosmos Gartenkalender · LLM-Baseline-Intercrop · LLM-Baseline-2026-05-09 yieldKg · LLM-Baseline-2026-05-10 family-zehrer · LLM-Baseline-2026-05-10 sun-soil-drainage
Articles about this plant
Peppers and chillies in September: harvest now, ripen indoors, or overwinter the plant?
The nights are getting cooler and your raised bed still has green peppers and chillies hanging on. Now's the time to decide what to do — including whether it's worth overwintering the plant.
Aubergines in the raised bed: how to tell when they're ready to harvest
Frau Schneider is waiting for her aubergines. They're large and dark purple. But she's leaving them on the plant because she thinks bigger is better. That's exactly the moment when aubergines start to turn bitter.
Peppers in the raised bed: why the fruits are still green in July — and what actually helps
Peppers need patience — and a few specific things that make the difference in midsummer. Why the fruits are still green, what helps them turn red faster, and when to just harvest them green.
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Products mentioned in this post
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- Organic heirloom tomato seed set (Demeter, 12 varieties)
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