Topic: Anyone else found Orange Turkish Aubergines immune to red spider?

[Vinlander]

In a great year the aubergines outside produce reasonably well, and the ones under glass get red spider - but it's worth buying the predator to ensure a good yield.

But in anything except a great year I have immense trouble with aubergines - the ones outside do nothing and the ones under glass don't do well enough to justify buying the predator.

This year wasn't great or poor - it was weird - but not worth spending £10 on predators - especially when my aubergine crop coincides with when they are dirt-cheap in the shops...

Of course I never have any trouble with the peppers - the red spiders don't touch them.

This year I noticed that the Orange Turkish aubergines looked a lot like peppers - smooth dark leaves with no hairs.

As the season progressed I noticed that red spider seemed to ignore them, and in the last month they have started to produce quite a good crop of golf-ball sized fruits with vertical stripes - best taken while they are green and before they go orange. Flavour is good.

I will grow more next year and less of the Euro- and African- types.

Any other experiences?

[plainleaf]

if it has stripes it is not a Turkish. if stripes are green it is striped Togo.  they are not immune from mites just less of a target.

[Vinlander]

The stripes are green but the fruits are spherical, not egg/rugby shaped like the Togo ones pictured on http://www.seedsavers.org/Details.aspx?itemNo=1405 .

They look identical to the Orange Turkish pictured here http://gardening.about.com/od/vegetables/ig/Choosing-and-Growing-Eggplant/Eggplant--Turkish-Orange-.htm

- except that I wouldn't let them get more than a hint of amber before picking them - they are best green.

Is Togo a different species or sub-species too (as I understand the turkish is)?

If so are there any varieties with even more resistance?

Would you agree that resistance is related to having smooth green leaves that look like capsicum leaves?

I can only say that the one I have is resistant enough to make the standard species look like a waste of time.

Cheers.

[saddad]

I lost most of mine to mite too.... I'm going for the old standby of rotating greenhouses again!
Do you believe them to be immune or just that the mite prefer the "normal" leaves... would you need to grow another variety to attract the mite or without another variety would the mite attack them as the only target?  :-\

[Vinlander]

All good questions Saddad!

I won't be growing any other aubergines under cover next year so we may see - though it's a big ask to do without my early french bean climbers and sugar pod peas.

Any road up - by June or July there should be nothing much except peppers in with them...

I do strongly suspect the mites dislike the smooth leaves - and I'm fairly confident that they won't become a problem - but whether they maintain a presence strongly enough to adapt - who knows?

Most of the plants they love are hairy - eg. french beans and tomatoes - though they didn't show any interest in my manzano/rocotos (C.pubescens).

Cheers.