LEBEDINY

Lebediny is a mid-season eggplant variety, distinguished by high yield and good transportability. The plant is semi-spreading or erect, reaching 50 to 70 cm in height, with green stems and light green leaves. The fruits have an elongated pear-shaped or cylindrical form, white in color with a glossy thin skin, weighing from 128 to 330 grams. The flesh is dense, tender, snow-white, without bitterness, with a slight mushroom aroma, which gives dishes an original taste. The variety is suitable for home cooking, canning, pickling, marinating, and drying, and is also recommended for diet food.

Lebediny eggplant is grown via seedlings, sowing which is conducted at the end of February – beginning of March at a temperature of +20-24°C with mandatory lighting using phytolamps. Seedlings are transplanted into greenhouses or under film coverages in mid-May, and into open ground – at the beginning of June, observing a planting scheme of 50x40 or 60x40 cm. For successful growth, the plant requires fertile, well-drained loamy or clay loam soils with a neutral reaction; acidic soils are limed if necessary. The best predecessors are onion, carrot, pumpkin, legumes, cucumbers, and cabbage.

Care of the crop includes moderate watering, loosening, and top dressing with mineral fertilizers. The first top dressing is carried out 10-15 days after planting seedlings, the second – at the beginning of fruit formation, using manure and complex fertilizers with a low nitrogen content and an equal amount of phosphorus and potassium. To form a quality harvest, 5-6 of the largest ovaries are left on the plant, removing the rest of the flowers and ovaries. Lebediny eggplant is light-loving and heat-loving, which makes it ideal for growing in open and protected ground conditions.