The experiment was conducted to determine the effect of direct cover after transplanting eggplant (Solanum melongena L.) seedlings in the field on fruit quantity and quality. The trial was conducted on the Laboratory Field of Biotechnical Faculty in Ljubljana and lasted from April to October 2018. Five different cultivars were included in the trial. Three of them were hybrids ('Galline F1', 'Black beauty F1' and 'Black bell F1') and two non-hybrids ('Violetta di Rimmini' and 'Domači srednje dolgi'). Forty plants were planted for each cultivar. Of these, 20 seedlings were covered with polypropylene cover for 21 days and the remaining plants were not covered. The experiment consisted of five replicates, each replicate consisting of 4 plants. We had 6 harvests during the growing period. We started harvesting on 27 June and finished on 11 October. Harvested fruits were counted, weighed, and height, width, and weight were measured. Covering increased yield only for two cultivars, for 'Domači srednje dolgi' 9%, for 'Black beauty F1' 12%. The yield of the other three cultivars was higher in uncovered plants than in covered plants. The highest yield was produced by uncovered plants of 'Galline F1' (49 t/ha), the lowest by uncovered plants of 'Domači srednje dolgi' (7 t/ha). Covering the plants had a positive effect on fruit quality only for the variety 'Galline F1'. The fruits of the covered plants were 25% heavier than the fruits of the uncovered plants. Also for the variety 'Black beauty F1' the fruits of the covered plants were 6 % heavier than those of the uncovered plants.
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