Turkish Orange Eggplant
Solanum aethiopicum 'Turkish Orange'
Height: 24 inches
Spacing: 20 inches
Sunlight:
Hardiness Zone: (annual)
Other Names: Mock Tomato Eggplant
Description:
An exceptional garden plant producing interesting orange-red fruit that greatly resembles a tomato; an excellent culinary variety with a peppery flavor; great for gardens or containers
Edible Qualities
Turkish Orange Eggplant is an annual vegetable plant that is commonly grown for its edible qualities, although it does have ornamental merits as well. It produces orange oval fruit with green stripes and buttery yellow flesh which are typically harvested when mature. The fruits have a spicy taste and a firm texture.
The fruit are most often used in the following ways:
- Eating When Cooked/Prepared
- Cooking
Planting & Growing
Turkish Orange Eggplant will grow to be about 24 inches tall at maturity, with a spread of 24 inches. When planted in rows, individual plants should be spaced approximately 20 inches apart. This fast-growing vegetable plant will behave as an annual in our climate, which means that it can be expected to grow for one season in your garden and then die after producing a crop.
This plant is quite ornamental as well as edible, and is as much at home in a landscape or flower garden as it is in a designated vegetable garden. It does best in full sun to partial shade. It prefers to grow in average to moist conditions, and shouldn't be allowed to dry out. It may require supplemental watering during periods of drought or extended heat. It is not particular as to soil pH, but grows best in rich soils. It is somewhat tolerant of urban pollution. Consider applying a thick mulch around the root zone in winter to protect it in exposed locations or colder microclimates. This is a selected variety of a species not originally from North America, and it is considered by many to be an heirloom variety.
Turkish Orange Eggplant is a good choice for the vegetable garden, but it is also well-suited for use in outdoor pots and containers. With its upright habit of growth, it is best suited for use as a 'thriller' in the 'spiller-thriller-filler' container combination; plant it near the center of the pot, surrounded by smaller plants and those that spill over the edges. It is even sizeable enough that it can be grown alone in a suitable container. Note that when growing plants in outdoor containers and baskets, they may require more frequent waterings than they would in the yard or garden.
