Four years ideally should separate successive crops of eggplants.
Many pests and diseases that afflict other solanaceous vegetables, such as tomato, pepper (capsicum), and potato, are also troublesome to eggplants.
A variety of eggplant that is particularly prized in some regions, including the United States, is one with a large, cylindrical or egg-shaped fruit, with smooth, dark purple, glossy skin (Herbst 2001).
The eggplant is a delicate perennial that often is cultivated as an annual.
Some sources, particularly in the natural health community, state that nightshades, including eggplant, can cause or significantly worsen arthritis and should be avoided by those sensitive to them (Childers and Margoles 1993).
Eggplant provides a number of culinary values, offering a unique, rich, complex flavor when cooked and being used in cuisines from Japan to Spain.
The eggplant is capable of absorbing large amounts of cooking fats and sauces, allowing for very rich dishes, but the salting process will reduce the amount of oil absorbed.
The first known written record of the eggplant is found in Qн mнn yаo shщ, an ancient Chinese agricultural treatise completed in 544 C.E.
Chinese eggplants are commonly shaped like a narrower, slightly pendulous cucumber and sometimes were called Japanese eggplants in North America.
Salting and then rinsing the sliced eggplant (known as "degorging") can soften and remove much of the bitterness.
The scientific name Solanum melongena is derived from a sixteenth-century Arabic term for one kind of eggplant.
The name eggplant developed in the United States, Australia, New Zealand, and Canada because the fruits of some eighteenth century European cultivars were yellow or white and resembled goose or hen's eggs.
Grilled pizza, invented in Providence, Rhode Island, uses a fairly thin crust cooked on a grill; the toppings are placed on the baked side after the pizza has cooked a while and flipped over.
Eggplant grown in temperate climates fares better when transplanted into the garden after all danger of frost is past.
The eggplant can also be stuffed with meat, rice, or other fillings and then baked.
Production of eggplant is highly concentrated, with 90 percent of output coming from five countries in 2010.
Some eggplants can be rather bitter, which can irritate the stomach lining and cause gastritis.
The eggplant belongs to the Solanaceae family, a taxon of flowering plants in the Solanales order, characterized by five-petaled flowers, typically conical or funnelform, and alternate or alternate to opposite leaves.
Eggplant is richer in nicotine than any other edible plant, with a concentration of 100 ng/g (or 0.01mg/100g).
The fruit of the eggplant contains numerous small, soft seeds, which are edible, but are bitter because they contain nicotinoid alkaloids, unsurprising in a close relative of tobacco.
More than 4,000,000 acres (1,600,000 hectares) are devoted to the cultivation of eggplant in the world (Food And Agricultural Organization of United Nations 2010).