Should I give up on eggplant?

[Artichoke Lover]

I’ve tried growing eggplant about 3 years in a row now but every single year I lose them to flea beetles. Is there anything I can do other than keeping them under high tunnels all summer? Last year the flea beetles were so bad that the plants were completely destroyed in less than 48 hours after planting. I’m at a bit of a loss on what to do.

 

[Ridgerunner]

I have the same issues with flea beetles and eggplant. If left alone they chew the leaves until all I have is a fine lace which dries out and the plant dies. I use Spinosad, an organic insecticide.

 

[Cosmo spring garden]

So last year I had an accidental happy experiment. I planted a row of eggplants and at the beginning of the row I had sowed handful of saved seeds which included Daikon radish. Flea beetles started to damage the plants mercilessly but I noticed that the damage on the eggplant closest to the end where the daikon radish were had very minimal damage. Few days after that observation I was watching a YouTube video by whispering willow farm and she said that flea beetles are deterred by white radish plants!
So I stuck bunch of seeds in between each plant and by the end of the season I had almost no flea beetles on the eggplants and I had a great harvest!
She said that it has to be white radish. I'm not sure how that matters but I didn't care lol.

 

[R2elk]

My neighbor seemed to be successful using DE to control flea beetles.

 

[flowerbug]

what eats flea beetles?

 

[digitS']

Flea beetles cause me trouble too, ArtichokeLover. Are you willing to use an organic spray?

My greatest trouble with bugs & eggplants: At one time, there was a product on the market called Beetle Beater. It was a Bacillus something-or-other. Then, the federal organic standards came into effect and we learned that it was a genetically modified bacillus. It was taken off the market probably because lots of people were buying it thinking that it was just a version of Bt spray.

That year, I had the eggplant in a narrow garden with a lot of nightshade weeds on each side. It amounted to 7 acres with all kinds of weeds and my little patch of garden vegetables in the middle. I really came to realize that Potato Beetles might live contentedly on any nightshade but they loved loved loved eggplant! I could stand out there stepping on bugs or with pyrethrum spray and watch those beetles crawling across the ground - on their way to the eggplant. The dead bugs would litter the ground and, a day later, the plants would have living bugs chewing on them.

Like RidgeRunner, I began using Spinosad, each season. Flea beetles are much more mobile than potato beetles but the spray will protect the plants for a few days. It has been sufficient in my garden.

Steve

 

[Artichoke Lover]

Flea beetles cause me trouble too, ArtichokeLover. Are you willing to use an organic spray?

My greatest trouble with bugs & eggplants: At one time, there was a product on the market called Beetle Beater. It was a Bacillus something-or-other. Then, the federal organic standards came into effect and we learned that it was a genetically modified bacillus. It was taken off the market probably because lots of people were buying it thinking that it was just a version of Bt spray.

That year, I had the eggplant in a narrow garden with a lot of nightshade weeds on each side. It amounted to 7 acres with all kinds of weeds and my little patch of garden vegetables in the middle. I really came to realize that Potato Beetles might live contentedly on any nightshade but they loved loved loved eggplant! I could stand out there stepping on bugs or with pyrethrum spray and watch those beetles crawling across the ground - on their way to the eggplant. The dead bugs would litter the ground and, a day later, the plants would have living bugs chewing on them.

Like RidgeRunner, I began using Spinosad, each season. Flea beetles are much more mobile than potato beetles but the spray will protect the plants for a few days. It has been sufficient in my garden.

Steve

I might be willing to try it depending on the cost. If I do it will be next year though. We have a ton of those nightshade weeds around here. They might be my most hated weed. They have spines that are worse than nettles. They are perennial. Poisonous. And they attract bugs and disease.

 

[Zeedman]

Just throwing some ideas up against the wall here...

Not sure it would help with flea beetles, but you might try doing something to attract predators. Maybe plant the eggplant next to cowpeas, if you don't mind the wasps. I grow cowpeas & yardlong beans expressly for that purpose; once the plants begin blooming, wasps (and ladybugs) will begin feeding on nectar produced by the extra-floral nectaries (the bumps on the stem below the flowers). That nectar seems to pacify the wasps, they don't mind my presence at all & only stung me once when I accidentally grabbed one.

Wasps are really good insect predators; I hardly ever see a caterpillar in the vegetable gardens, and they are better than ladybugs at controlling aphids in my pepper cages. I once swatted at a deer fly, and watched a wasp pounce on it as it buzzed on the ground. I grow chard every year & usually have trouble with aphids... but grown adjacent to @Bluejay77 's climbing cowpea last year, no aphids at all. I'll grow chard that way from now on.

It might also help to hang some suet over the plants, to attract insect-eating birds.

I've occasionally had trouble with flea beetles, but only once seriously. Unless there is already a large population nearby, they seem to be the worst on plants that are either very young, or already weakened by something else. Perhaps letting the plants grow to a larger size before transplant would allow them to better fend off the beetles. Shortly after transplanting, flea beetles took an interest in the garden huckleberry I grew last year. They were pretty bad, and I had to spray the plants several times with an insecticidal soap mixture that I use. But as the plants grew larger, the flea beetles mostly disappeared.

 

[digitS']

@Zeedman , yes, flea beetles are usually an early problem and later, things go better.

If predatory wasps help, and they probably do, strawflowers have really attracted those and ladybugs . Daily, those two will just be all over those plants!

Steve

 

[flowerbug]

...
I've occasionally had trouble with flea beetles, but only once seriously. Unless there is already a large population nearby, they seem to be the worst on plants that are either very young, or already weakened by something else. Perhaps letting the plants grow to a larger size before transplant would allow them to better fend off the beetles. Shortly after transplanting, flea beetles took an interest in the garden huckleberry I grew last year. They were pretty bad, and I had to spray the plants several times with an insecticidal soap mixture that I use. But as the plants grew larger, the flea beetles mostly disappeared.

that's about the same experience i have, they may attack the bean plants in some garden areas early in the season and leave some holes in the bean leaves, but eventually they are done and i don't have a problem the rest of the season.

thanks for the other comments and tips, i don't grow cowpeas or chards and i also don't grow eggplants, but i've always enjoyed learning and collecting bits of this and that in my head just in case they eventually end up being useful.

usually plenty of waspy type insects here.