Eggplant is a vegetable that loves warm weather. Which makes it good crop to grow here in southern Indiana, since summers here are always plenty hot, and humid too. I grow a number of eggplant varieties, from the large oval Italian types to miniatures like Fairy Tale and Hansel. The Spotlight today is on Millionaire – a Japanese variety with dark purple skin and a nearly seedless light green flesh.
Millionaire eggplant
Millionaire is an early variety, and the long, slender fruits are great for grilling and stir-fries. The plants are vigorous and upright growing, and disease has not been an issue for me in the three years I have been growing it.
closeup of fruit
Compared to other early eggplant varieties I grow, the first Millionaire fruits arrived at the same time as the much smaller Fairy Tale. I set out husky 10 week old transplants this year on May 29, and harvested the first Millionaire 41 days later on July 9. Of course, our hot June weather no doubt helped speed the fruiting process along. Last year it took about 54 days from setting out plants to first fruit, which is still pretty early for an eggplant.
harvested Millionaire eggplant
I got my seeds from Kitazawa Seed, and in the U.S. they are also available from Territorial Seed. If you are looking for an early Japanese type hybrid eggplant, you might consider giving Millionaire a try. It has been a dependable and prolific performer for me here.
Millionaire eggplants (2012 harvest)
To find other great varieties, visit Suburban Tomato where Liz hosts the Saturday Spotlight series. I hope you’ve enjoyed this Saturday Spotlight, and I’ll be back soon with another variety.
To see my other Saturday Spotlights, visit the Variety Spotlights page.
Millionaire certainly is a pretty eggplant. I’ll have to keep it in mind, it sounds like it would do well for me in my mild climate, although I doubt that I could get my first harvest in 54 days, much less 41 – that’s amazing.
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That is a nice quick developer. I am attempting a Japanese type eggplant for the first time this year. Its called Kamo and the seed was sent to me by a reader so I really hoping it does as well as your millionaire.
Wow, your Millionaire eggplants are truly early. I have grown Hansel as well, and remember it being an early one too.
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