Eggplant, a member of the nightshade family, is coming into the sun. This oft-ignored vegetable is becoming more visible in produce aisles as Canada’s South Asian immigrants demand the tastes of their childhoods. Statistics Canada reports that imports of eggplant have risen 32 per cent between 2011 and 2014 and reached nearly 24,000 metric tonnes. 
  

Those trends have encouraged long-time zucchini growers, Jason and Shirley Su, to plant 10 acres of Chinese long eggplant for the last two years at their Simcoe, Ontario farm. With origins in rural China, they are familiar with this eggplant which is sweeter than the black-skinned Sicilian varieties. There’s a good chance that Chinese long and Indian round varieties will catch on because they aren’t bitter and can be quickly cooked without much preparation. 
    

Retailers are eager to showcase locally-grown eggplant during the summer months.
    

With the farm’s reputation well-established with retailers and future prospects looking bright, son Henry Su decided to come back to the farm in 2015. His communications degree from University of Toronto/Mississauga will never be out of place. It’s his work ethic, developed through figure skating at the national pairs level, that will propel him forward.  
    

“In my first year back at the farm, I’ve realized that farming has changed,” says Su. “Farming today is more than physically caring for your plants. It’s not just who can grow the best but it’s the business 
connections and bringing new products forward.”
    

Su admits that it’s tough for small farms to survive, however adding Asian eggplant to their farm’s roster looks like a path forward. The seedlings start in a greenhouse then are transplanted into plasticulture-covered rows with drip irrigation. His first lesson? Eggplant requires a lot of labour to trim the lower leaves so that they don’t scratch the delicate skin and reduce marketable yields. Labour is also needed to harvest on a daily basis.
    

Fortunately, Vineland Research and Innovation Centre (Vineland) is finetuning the best production systems for field eggplant that will be economically viable. As Viliam Zvalo, Vineland research scientist, vegetable production explains, there are a number of challenges. First, eggplant is susceptible to soil-borne diseases such as Verticillium wilt and Fusarium wilt. These fungal pathogens enter through the roots and cause premature leaf drop. When the house of photosynthesis is destroyed, fruit production shuts down. 
    

Farming today is more than physically caring for your plants. It’s not just who can grow the best but it’s the business connections and bringing new products forward.                  

~ HENRY SU

To date, fumigation has been the standard method to rid the soil of these robbers, but those practices may soon evolve to other ways of controlling disease.  

Zvalo’s research is focusing on a novel method of overcoming soil-borne diseases. His team has been grafting different field eggplant varieties onto tomato rootstock to produce  more disease-tolerant plants. This startling idea makes sense with the knowledge that eggplant and tomatoes are botanical cousins. They both belong to the Solanaceae family. The practice of vegetable grafting is new to North America, but has been used in vegetable production in Asia for decades. 
    

Tests so far have yielded mixed results in a non-fumigated field.  
    

“The grafted plants were very healthy,” says Zvalo, “but the plant is so vegetative that flowering and fruit set is delayed by three weeks. By the end of the season, yields catch up however farmers need a supply for the whole summer to fulfill their retailer contracts.” 
    

In 2016, six different rootstocks will be tested. While the colour and quality of fruit pass muster, the researchers are hoping for more timely flowering and fruit set with different rootstocks. 
    

As Henry Su experienced, one of the key hurdles in field eggplant is protecting the skin from leaf damage. To that point, Vineland’s team is staking the beds eight to ten feet apart to prevent leaves scratching the fruit during wind storms. These various trials are expected to finetune recommendations to farmers by 2018. That’s when Zvalo hopes to be in technology transfer mode with a goal of 20 farmers across Canada.
    

A handful of growers in British Columbia, Manitoba, Ontario, Quebec, Prince Edward Island and Nova Scotia  are keeping close tabs on Vineland’s research as they experiment with their own field trials.
    

Just as interesting are the studies of hydroponic cultivation of Asian eggplant, both Chinese long and Indian round. Again, the technique of grafting new varieties onto Maxifort F1, disease-resistant, tomato rootstock is proving a winner. Last year’s trials were encouraging in terms of yield.  
    

The Long Purple F1 variety, for example, yielded 85 per cent more harvest compared to its non-grafted mates. One of the secrets in eggplant growing is to keep iron levels high to maintain vibrant skin colour. Greenhouse-grown eggplant is also susceptible to the usual insect suspects: thrips, aphids and mites. Biological pest control has been proven to preserve yields. 
    

One of the strengths of Vineland is its focus on the value chain. These new varieties must succeed not only agronomically but in terms of taste with consumers.
    

“Unfortunately, these greenhouse-grown eggplant varieties yielded well but did not fare well in eating tests in Sobey’s test kitchen,” says Zvalo. 
    

Undaunted, Zvalo has narrowed the field to two varieties of Chinese long eggplant and added another two varieties for 2016 trials. They will be tested on different rootstocks.  
    

“2016 is an important year for our eggplant trials,” says Zvalo. “We are looking for the best combination of rootstock and scion to produce 35-40 kg per square metre per year. These are the yields necessary for an economic tipping point.”
    

Last year’s trials were conducted during spring and fall cycles. The question is can these newer grafted varieties produce year round in a greenhouse environment that will be challenged by stressful summer-time temperatures. 
    

So far, greenhouse growers have tracked Vineland’s hydroponic eggplant research with interest. Already successful with baby peppers and cherry tomatoes, they can see potential in marketing “baby” sweet eggplant. The trio of vegetables are all members of that sunny Solanaceae family.