Eggplant can be used anytime up until the shiny surface becomes dull. They are used as immature fruits. Look for the advertised size of your variety, but note that sometimes they will not get as big as advertised. When they began to lose thier shine, pick them them regardless. As to touching the ground, keep watch, it you have soil organisms that began to damage the end touching the ground, pick them. Some soils are very bad about introducing rot to the end touching the ground, others the fruit can lay on the ground for weeks with no damage.

I was getting ready to prepare the plants for protection. So I dug them out of ground, put them in 1 or 2 gallon containers, pruned the plants about 50% to reduce the load on the roots. I was going to put the contrianers in the soil upto the top of the container and then put leaves etc around the base of the plants and then cover the whole thing with plastic tent. But before I could do this protection step, last night there was light frost (The forecast was supposed to be 39 degree low). Today, all the leaves (Bell peppers, eggplant, and tomato)were damaged but the stems looked Ok. Will they still survive? Should I even bother putting in the extra work of putting them in the ground etc. If you are wondering, why I dug them up in the first place: they were in several different areas and far apart, too much area to cover with tent. So, I potted them to put the pots in the ground close together thus placing them in small area and easily cover them.

Christine, I would not try the kermit now that you told me.:) I grow veggies mostly for flavor and freshness. But I also want variety in our food and we kind of getting tired of just that one variety, time to find another...One season, I grew in the garden something like 10 different varieties all the rosas and all the orientals, at least they were not bitter like some of the big common Italian ones that I also grew in the same season. When I find a new one, I will let you know. Silvia

In my experience, provided that the plants are large & healthy, letting a single fruit ripen for seed does not stop production. I do that whenever I save seed, as I will this year. The ripening fruit sometimes begins to rot prematurely, and those I cut off, but do not use... when in doubt, process & look for good seed. In most cases, good fruit will remain on the plant until close to my first frost. If the ripe eggplant is still firm when picked, I bring it indoors to ripen further. When the flesh begins to soften, or spots of mold or rot appear, it is time to process. I cut the seed-bearing portion into 1/2" slices or 1" cubes, then process them in a blender, pulsed at the lowest speed. It seems to work the best if you fill the vessel 1/2 way with water first, then add the eggplant. Eggplant seeds are extremely hard, and few will be damaged. As already noted above, the good seed will sink, and bad seeds & debris will (mostly) float... you might need to stir the thick debris a little to release all of the seeds. Carefully skim or pour off the floating debris, refill with water, and pour off again, repeating until only good seed remains. Occasionally pieces of skin will be dense enough to sink with the good seed, and these can be picked out after drying. The seeds can be dried the same way as tomato seeds. After wicking away excess moisture in the strainer, I spread them out on newsprint to further remove any clinging water, then transfer the seeds to clean trays to finish drying. These methods also work well for saving seed from ground cherries, tomatillos, and litchi tomatoes. Added, re: germination rate and storage life. I've observed that this seems to vary a little, depending upon variety. My seed for Diamond has good germination even after 6-7 years, whereas seed for Casper can have erratic germination even after 2-3 years. I used 10 year old seed for Turkish Orange last year, and was surprised to find that about 80% still germinated.