65 days from setting out transplants.

Sweeter and more tender than purple varieties, White Star Hybrid is a delectable and versatile eggplant you can grow as a baby veggie or a full-sized crop. It arises very profusely on vigorous, trouble-free plants that set their crop all at once, simplifying your harvest and making it easier than ever to bring in armloads of your favorite vegetable for delicious eating!

White Star Hybrid is a teardrop-shaped fruit that you can pick when it is pure icy white and just a few inches long. If allowed to mature (which takes just over 2 months!), it will reach 5 to 7 inches long, with a 2-inch neck and a 3½- to 4-inch bulb. Even at this full size, it is sweet and succulent! Just be sure to harvest it before the creamy white skin begins to turn yellow; it remains fresh for a good while on the plant and after picking.

This plant reaches just 30 to 36 inches high, but sets a big crop every time. Go ahead and stake it, because the yields are so generous that you are going to want to hold up those heavy fruit as they mature! And because White Star Hybrid is determinate (setting its crop all at once), if you harvest some fruit as baby veggies, you will know how many remain on the plant for full-sized eggplants. If you would prefer season-long harvests, simply stagger your planting times by 2 weeks, so you have fresh crops all summer long!

Begin seeds indoors 8 to 10 weeks before planning to set out. Eggplant loves heat, so the seeds germinate best at about 75 degrees F -- use a heat mat if possible beneath your Bio Dome or seed flat, or find another source of bottom heat if your house is cooler than this. Cover the seeds lightly if sowing in a seed flat; if using the Bio Dome, just drop one seed in the pre-drilled hole in each bio sponge. They will germinate in about 1 to 2 weeks.

Eggplant seedlings crave heat and light; give them all you can (grow lights are wonderful, but kitchen fluorescents work well too if the seedlings are placed directly beneath them), and feed them weekly. They are ready to transplant whenever they have at least 2 sets of true leaves, but wait until the outside weather is thoroughly warm before transplanting into the garden. Pkt is 25 seeds.