But in the end of May I popped the plants out in my stolen greenhouse. This is where I went wrong. No matter how optimistic you are, aubergines are not going to grow outdoors in Iceland. If I had a proper greenhouse which was fully insulated I believe it would have been best, but seeing as my greenhouse is a rescued one, with many panes missing and patched up with plastic, the plants were not quite warm enough to maintain their full speed growth.
Aubergines have a long sow to harvest period as it is, and they need constant warmth to get to their best. My plants started to flower in August. I opted to bring a few of the plants indoors again to a windowsill as the temperature started dropping and as soon as they were warmed up the flowers started to turn into fruits.
Of course I helped these along with a little improvised plant sex, something a few people who adopted my homeless plants didn't know, or at least forgot. When you have fruiting plants indoors where there are no friendly bees to help pollinate, you have to do the job with hand pollination. Take a cotton bud and touch the pollen on the flowers and dip on the next, and the next and so on.
SUMMARY:
Plant: February/March
Harvest: August/September
Soil: Compost / Grow bag soil
Problems: Needs to be indoors or in a fully insulated greenhouse to produce here
Maintenance: Tie up stems as it grows (as per tomato plants), needs tomato feed, nip out tips once it reaches 30cm. Remember to pollinate if its indoors.
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