Eggplant Epic F1 is a desirable hybrid in every area. This eggplant is suitable for cultivation in open beds and temporary shelters. The fruits have excellent taste and marketability. The harvest is perfectly preserved in cool conditions for up to 1 month and can be used universally: for processing, home cooking, and mass market sales.
| Origin | Landing location | Ripening period | Fruit color | Fruit weight | Fruit shape |
| Hybrid | Greenhouse | Early ripening | Violet | 210-280 g. | Cylindrical |
Description and characteristics of the variety
The Epic eggplant variety was included in the State Register of the Russian Federation in 2008. In open ground it is recommended for cultivation in the southern regions of the country. In Siberia, the Urals and the Moscow region - it is better in a greenhouse.
- Epic F1 is a hybrid with excellent adaptive abilities.
- Suitable for cultivation in open ground, but also grows well in greenhouses.
- Early ripening. The fruits reach technical maturity 65 days after transplanting the seedlings into the ground.
- The bushes are powerful, grow up to 1 m in height, compact and erect.
- The stem is slightly pubescent with anthocyanin color of varying saturation.
- The leaves are medium green.
- It is recommended to shape the bush and tie it to supports. It is also necessary to remove weak ovaries. 6-7 ovaries are left on one bush, the rest are removed.
- Productivity is high. From 1 square meter of plantings, up to 6 kg of vegetables are harvested.
- Resistant to diseases, especially to tobacco mosaic virus.
- Tolerates temperature changes well.
Harvesting and use of crops - storage, use in cooking, preparations
Seedlings planted at the end of May will bear their first fruits in late July - early August. You will harvest in batches; the eggplants will ripen gradually. Storing fresh is problematic; the fruits will quickly deteriorate. It is better to cook fresh, or chop and freeze or dry.
Epic eggplants are used to make winter preparations - caviar, Peking-style eggplants, salted eggplants, spicy Korean-style fire. There are hundreds of recipes for canning and freezing.
The easiest way:
- Cut the eggplants and bake in the oven at 200 degrees.
- Remove the skin when ready and place the vegetables under a press to remove excess liquid.
- Place in bags and place in the freezer.
In cooking from Epic f1 they prepare marinated, baked, stewed eggplants stuffed with garlic and herbs, rolls with curd cheese and dill and a lot of other dishes.
You can also prepare a lot of delicious dishes from pumpkin; recipes are here.
Features of cultivation
Epic eggplant is grown through seedlings. Seeds for seedlings are sown in mid-March; it is best to use a film greenhouse for this. At the end of May, the seedlings are transferred to the garden bed.
Before sowing, the seeds are treated against various diseases. To do this, they are placed for 20-30 minutes in a 2% manganese solution (2 g of the product is diluted in 100 ml of water).
Next, the seed is washed in clean boiled water and lightly dried on a napkin. At the next stage, the seeds are soaked for a day in a growth stimulator Zircon or Epin.
To disinfect the seed, it is immersed for 10 minutes in the following solution, heated to 40 degrees:
- 100 ml water;
- 3 ml hydrogen peroxide.
For sowing, you can purchase special seedling soil or prepare it yourself. To do this, take the fertile layer of soil from the site. It is cleared of debris, disinfected and mixed in equal proportions with clean river sand and soil for indoor plants. The soil can be replaced with peat, which is mixed with sawdust and seedling soil.
Advice ! Eggplants grow best in fertile, oxygenated soil.
For planting, it is best to use seedling cassettes, plastic cups with a diameter of up to 8 cm or a large container. Fill the containers with prepared soil and water it well. The seeds are buried 1 cm into the ground and lightly sprinkled with substrate. Next, the plantings are covered with film and left in a warm place.
Eggplant seedlings should be kept in a room with a temperature of 25 degrees or higher. In this case, sprouts will appear on the surface of the earth in 7-10 days. Then I remove the film, and the air temperature in the room is reduced to 16-18 degrees.
After 7 days, set the following temperature regime:
- during the day 25-27 degrees;
- at night 13-15 degrees Celsius.
Plantings are watered regularly, but moderately, so as not to over-moisten the soil.
Also, don’t forget about fertilizer. The seedlings are first fed a week after the sprouts appear. To do this, use a fertilizer containing phosphorus, for example superphosphate (1 teaspoon per 5 liters of water).
Then, nitrogen-containing fertilizers are applied every week to stimulate the formation of green mass of the plant. To do this, dilute 1 teaspoon of urea in 5 liters of water.
Epic eggplant seedlings should be illuminated with fluorescent lamps or phytolamps, which are placed above the plants at a distance of 50 cm. The main thing is that the seedlings receive at least 12 hours of daylight every day.
Seedlings are planted in a permanent place in May. Before this, the soil on the site is fertilized with organic and mineral fertilizers. For 1 sq. m:
- 0.5-1 bucket of humus;
- 40 g of potassium-phosphorus fertilizer;
- 50 g nitroammophoska.
Plants are planted at intervals of 30-40 cm from each other, leaving 50-70 cm between rows (no more than 4 pcs per 1 sq. m). By the time of transplantation, the seedlings should have 5-6 true leaves.
The soil around the bushes must be regularly loosened and weeds removed. Water the plants with warm water at the roots once every 2-3 days, and during the fruiting period - every day.
Fertilize eggplants 3-5 times during the entire growing period. The first fertilizing is applied 14 days after transplanting the seedlings to a permanent place. Before fruiting, it is better to use mineral complex fertilizers. When forming fruits, it is recommended to use nitrogen-phosphate fertilizer:
- 10 liters of water;
- 1 hour spoon of superphosphate;
- 1 hour spoon of saltpeter.
Harvesting is necessary when eggplants are at the stage of technical ripeness - approximately 25 days after the appearance of the flower. Do this once every 2-3 days. The skin of ripe fruits is dark purple and the flesh is elastic.
Important ! You cannot pick green eggplants, as they do not ripen outside the bush.
When harvesting ripe vegetables, always leave part of the stem on the bush.
For more information on how to grow eggplant seedlings, read the article: When and how to plant eggplant seedlings: step-by-step instructions
Reviews from those who grew
Here are a few reviews from gardeners who grew the variety on their own plots.
Dmitry, Saratov: “Among the eggplants that I grew, the most delicious and unpretentious variety is Epic F1. Planted in a greenhouse and in the garden, the yield is excellent under any conditions. Fresh and young eggplants are good for frying in oil and grilling. Each bush produced 6-7 fruits. I always choose hybrids, they grow better and the yield is high.”
Anatoly, Novosibirsk: “A magnificent hybrid. The main thing is not to plant in the same place. I've been growing this for three years now. I scatter onion or garlic peels with straw on the eggplant bed. The husks repel pests, and the straw maintains the right moisture.”
To learn the best way to protect your garlic crop from pests, read this article.
Video
In the video, the Epic F1 eggplant is an early ripening, stress-resistant hybrid.
The eggplant hybrid Epic F1 is the best choice for a summer cottage village, since the plant does not require complex care, but at the same time it is distinguished by high quality fruits. In addition, this vegetable is not only an important component of the daily diet, but also a real source of useful and important substances for the human body. Using the above recommendations, you can achieve a high eggplant yield.
How to grow seedlings
Purchase seeds of the variety in a specialized store, this is the only way you can avoid purchasing low-quality seed material. You can start planting them at the end of February.
Place the selected seeds for 20 minutes in a weak solution of potassium permanganate, then rinse them in water at a temperature of 50 °C. Next, wrap them in damp gauze, place them in a warm place and periodically sprinkle the grains with water. Soon you will notice white roots, after which the seeds are placed in separate peat pots with nutritious soil. You can make it yourself from the following components:
- humus (3 kg);
- turf (5 kg);
- sand (1 kg);
- wood ash (500 g).
The soil components are thoroughly mixed and poured into prepared containers for plants. Make small holes in the soil up to 2 cm deep, then place the hatched seeds there and sprinkle with damp soil. Now the pots need to be covered with film and left near the radiator, where the temperature is about 25 °C.
The emerging seedlings must be placed on the windowsill and provided with a daily temperature of at least 16 °C. Seedlings of the “Epic F1” variety are sensitive to its increase in the first days, so the room must be regularly ventilated.
Care
Basic care for Epic eggplant plantings consists of regular fertilizing, watering, weeding and loosening in accordance with the following recommendations:
- The increasing need for reclamation measures occurs in the phase of mass fruit formation.
- For irrigation, you should use only water with a constant temperature and heated by the sun with a temperature of 25-30 ° C;
- When watering, streams of water should be directed to the root of the plant, avoiding drops on the aboveground part of the garden crop.
- After irrigation, it is necessary to finely loosen the soil between the rows and remove weeds from the beds.
- To minimize the risk of soil crusting, you can use mulched peat bogs.
- When grown in a greenhouse, the height of the plant may be slightly greater, so an air garter is used.
- On mature, fully formed eggplant bushes, it is recommended to leave the strongest, well-developed shoots and remove the side shoots.
Thus, Epic eggplants can indeed be safely recommended for growing in gardens in most regions of our country, where the plant demonstrates excellent results and high harvest quality both when grown in protected and open areas.
