Black Beauty is an excellent producer of big tear drop shaped fruits. Plants are large and vigorous. It was a top market cultivar until the hybrids took over. Never had a bitterness problem unless the fruit was overage. They are usually much more bland than the Japanese Types like Ichiban or Millionaire. Emerald Okra was developed by the Campbell soup company. Very prolific, and one of the best tasting that I have tried. Kleckley's Sweet had quite a following in the first half of the 20th century. It is picky about growing conditions. In my youth those with bottom land grew Kleckley's Sweet and Tom Watson. Hillside farmers grew Dixie Queen and Stone Mountain. Kleckleys tend to bottlenose when conditions do not suit them. Taste is ok but far below that of an Allsweet or Crimson Sweet.

I mentioned a fat tan beetle with dark stripes earlier. I found some pics online and it was either a colorado potato beetle or a false one. The wikipedia page says they also like tomatoes and eggplants: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Colorado_potato_beetle I think the green frog changed into a gray frog later in the day. Either that or there is more than one frog on the plant. Thanks Dave, I'll know how the eggplant tastes tomorrow evening (my wife has eggplant parmigiana on the menu). The black beauty was still shiny when I picked it so I guess it still wasn't fully ripened yet. I'll probably pick another one tomorrow which is a pretty good size and do a taste test. There are still a bunch of black beauties of different size on the plant so we're not worried about increasing production, but we'll pick early if there is a big difference in taste. Keep up the faith fauzie, give your baby time and I'm sure she'll grow. I've been adding some soluble fertilizer in the watering can every couple of days to make sure the fruit have enough nutrients to grow well too.

If they go dull or soft, they are *already* ripe and past their prime. You want eggplants to be unripe and firm to the touch. Not ripe. Not overripe. There's no difference between a ripe eggplant and an overripe eggplant except the degree of grossness - they are both gross. If the biggest one has indeed stopped growing, pick it now - don't wait for it to lose its sheen or it will be disgusting. And yes, a small pot can reduce the size of the plant and its fruits. It won't necessarily affect the flavor though. This post was edited by Slimy_Okra on Thu, Jul 17, 14 at 19:57

My eggplants, Black, Beauty, are doing the same thing. We are not getting the hot humid weather that eggplants like. We've also gotten rain nearly everyday for the the last 4 weeks. The plants might be stressed or might not be getting all the nutrients it needs. Your other veggies might be doing a better job of sucking up the nutrients or in my case, the rain is affecting nutrient intake. Catfacing is ugly ( a sign of calcium deficiency I think)but the eggplants are still edible.