Eggplant

[Ariel301]

I planted eggplant this summer, and only one plant made it through the transplant into the garden. It grew into a large, beautiful plant that has been flowering nonstop for several months but has never made any fruit. The blossoms always fall off and nothing happens. Does it need another plant to fertilize the flowers? Or what might be the issue? I know they like hot weather, and it was certainly hot in the summer, but has cooled to an average of 60 in the day and 50 at night, is it too cool now for eggplant and I should just pull it out?

 

[Ridgerunner]

The eggplant has a perfect flower. That means it will pollinate itself. It does not need another plant. Like many plants with perfect flowers, they don't even need insects to pollinate them. The wind will take care of that. If you plant yours where there is little or no wind, you can tap or gently shake the plant to help pollination.

Another cause for the flowers not setting fruit can be lack of water. The roots are fairly deep, so they need a deep watering instead of just getting the surface wet. Mulch can help keep it moist.

I'm not sure about this one. I think they may be like tomatoes in that if the nights don't cool to a certain temperature, the fruit will not set. That's why I could not grow tomatoes in the New Orleans area in the heat of summer but I can year around up here. I think eggplant is the same way. Your nights may be too hot in the heat of summer. I still would have expected yours to have set some fruit after it started to cool off since your plants looked good. You may have gotten them out too late for them to set fruit before the really hot weather hit. Like I said though. I'm not sure about this one.

I hate to pull my tomatoes, peppers and eggplants until the frost hits. The eternal optimist, I guess. I doubt yours will produce anything at the temperatures you mentioned. I'm not familiar with your climate but suspect it will get pretty cold soon.

 

[journey11]

This was my first year growing eggplant and I found it was kinda tempermental too! The flea beetles and potato beetles really bothered it. I had to spray it a couple times and pinched off all the potato beetles and once the foliage was no longer swiss cheese it really took off growing and blooming. Mulching it also seemed to help. It was like if it wasn't perfectly healthy it didn't want to do anything.

Mine produced best during the heat of summer (which isn't too hot here...we stayed around the 80's mostly with just a few 90's this year). Although they still look good, they haven't set any fruit since the nights turned cooler, much like yours (our daytime temps had been in the 70's until this week). It's been since maybe the first week of October since I've gotten anything off of them, but they keep blooming. It's gotta be the night-time temps... But like I said, this is my first year growing it. Hope you can get a more reliable answer than that.

 

[hoodat]

With only one plant it's hard to say what went wrong. If it was growing well and blossoming it should have borne at least some fruit. Sometimes things in the garden are just a puzzle that we can't find the answer to.

 

[obsessed]

I have grown eggplant the last few years. With the italian varieties I have a lot of bug problem. This year I used an asian and the plant was alot happier and is still produceing. I don't know about the watering or the lack of bloom set. But I always only grow one plant by it self cause that is all the eggplant I can eat.

 

[digitS']

Ariel, I don't really have an answer for you.

This was my first year growing eggplant and I found it was kinda tempermental too! The flea beetles and potato beetles really bothered it. I had to spray it a couple times and pinched off all the potato beetles and once the foliage was no longer swiss cheese it really took off growing and blooming. . .

. . . With the italian varieties I have a lot of bug problem. This year I used an asian and the plant was alot happier and is still produceing. . .

I had so much trouble from eggplant this year. It began with aphids in the greenhouse and continued thru the flea beetles to the potato bugs !

By the time the ground around them was littered with dead potato bugs from my rotenone/pyrethrin spray, they finally made good foliage. But, they produced fruit that was bitter!

. . . both the Italian and Asian varieties . . . both green and purple . . .

I'll tell you what. That spray is not the way to go for potato beetles -- they are back in a couple of days. If the Bt spray for beetles is not going to be available any longer, I've got to try something different if I want to grow eggplant. Spinosad might be a likely candidate but I'm not sure.

I set some plants out too late for them to make a crop but they were stuck in with some late-planted summer squash in another garden. The potato bugs didn't find 'em! Gotta try a different way to grow eggplant -- Dang! I'd hate to give them up.

Steve

 

[hoodat]

Spinosad will probably do the trick but it's hard on bees.

 

[lesa]

Every time I read about the difficulties of growing eggplant, I am thankful that is the one veggie I just don't like! They look so beautiful, that I am tempted, but then I remember what they taste like! Is it a vegetable that is much better homegrown- or isn't there much difference?

 

[Ariel301]

Well, who knows....

I guess I'll just try it again next year. It is actually the one thing the bugs have left alone.