What To Know Before Growing Eggplant

An overripe eggplant is showing signs of cracking at the blossom end. For prime taste, harvest eggplants at maturity based on looks and days from transplanting. The smaller holes on the leaves below the fruit are from flea beetle feeding. ANDREW MESSINGER

Colorado potato beetle larvae feeding on eggplant foliage. The larvae and adults leave large feeding holes on leaf interior and on leaf edges. They can be hand-picked or organic insecticides can be used. DWIGHT SIPLER, CC BY 2.0

A Colorado potato beetle larva. BRENDAN J. O'REILLY

The tip or apical meristem of a basil plant. Pinching off the foliage below the last set of leaves will force the stem to branch lower on the stem resulting in a denser plant with more delicious leaves. ANDREW MESSINGER

A view of the same basil stem having just been pinched. Fingernails work, but pruners make for cleaner cuts. ANDREW MESSINGER

Less than a week later the point that was pinched begins the process of branching with two new shoots emerging at the stem axis where the pinch was made. Pinching continues through the summer as part of the process of leaf and stem harvesting. ANDREW MESSINGER