24,795 Garden Web Discussions | Vegetable Gardening

My eggplants grow slowly and somewhat lanky indoors, and really explode when I get them outside in the ground in the summer heat. Eggplants just like heat, and sun as well. My experience is that when you grow them in the house, it's really just cooler than optimum for growth. But certainly, anything will get leggy if it doesn't have enough light.

A few days off the heat mat and one day of sun and my seedlings look soooo much better. Not taller but the leaves and stems are thicker. Definitely will be able to handle the outdoors soon.
daninthedirt: yes I think you are right, all they were missing was the sun and its warmth. Thank you.
Thank you so much again Dave.
Turtlegardener, thank you!

Unfortunately some of what you are now seeing is due to the spray you used. Especially in the last 2 pics. Too often new gardeners tend to over-react to some holes in the leaves - which happen for all sorts of reasons and most of the time are not an issue - and spray something. Leaves on plants can lose up to 1/2 of their leaf surface without any problems so if you spray many times the spray does more damage than whatever made the holes could do.
That is just as true for homemade concoctions as it is for commercial ones. Indeed in the hands of the under-informed the home made concoctions can do more damage than commercial ones do. In other words, just because it is made from products you have at home doesn't mean it is safe to use on the plants.
I don't see any actual discoloration issues in any of your pics but they are usually nutrient issues rather than pests. The holes in the leaves could be caused by all sort of pests - slugs (have to do nite time patrol to find them) , beetles, tiny caterpillars, even birds. But you have to look carefully for them and ID them first before you spray anything. Most of the time you can find whatever is doing it and just squish it with your fingers.
But if you don't see them it doesn't mean you have to spray something. He may already be done and gone and if you do spray the odds are you are just killing good guys that are trying to help. You remove the damage leaves and continue to monitor it and look for the bad guy. So no need to panic and no need to spray unless it is a really really bad infestation and you know exactly what is doing the damage. Then you find the least damaging control for that specific bad guy.
So in your pics remove the bad leaves off the cuke and nothing more. Remove the very worst of the leaves off the peppers but leave the ones with only minor damage. Leave the beans alone for now. Put the bottle of oils away as the oil only works if it coats the insect but when it coats the leaves it causes them to burn and blacken and prevents photosynthesis.
If you feel you must use a home made spray then I suggest you stick with the soapy water mix of 1 T of mild soap (baby shampoo, Murphy's Oil Soap, liquid Ivory, etc.) in 1 gallon of water, shake well, spray the bugs only and avoid coating the leaves, and only spray in the early AM and never in the bright sun or the heat of the day. Spraying then is almost guaranteed to damage the plants.
Hope this helps.
Dave

Thank you so much Dave - I honestly thought it maybe was the spray because they weren't too bad until I sprayed them with that homemade concoction I got from you tube. It also explains why the other plants seem fine. I will remove the worst leaves as you suggest and maybe just plant some more peppers. I really appreciate it!!



Hey tom, I thought it was just me, but I read that link and went away completely dissatisfied.
This is my first year growing eggplants and I have them planted fairly close.
If I get the chance, next year I'll leave one some extra space and top it after it get's into it's mid-life phase. I wouldn't want to 'sucker' it, as from what I understand, that's where the fruits are borne, but topping would encourage side shoots and lateral branching. I'm thinking that a topped eggplant would need a lot of space.


Yes it can and it is becoming an increasing problem for gardeners - damage to their crops due to herbicide contaminated straw mulch and compost that contains the herbicide contaminated straw.
Plus "certified weed free" isn't needed for garden mulch but it lets them charge more for it.
Dave

Do you use it in your garden? We go back and forth with using it. We also learned of herbicide carryover the hard way after procuring free compost. We had to pull back the top 6 inches of soil and replace it. We still have some symptoms of carryover in our tomatoes 4 years later.

It's considered an excellent wood preservative because it doesn't stain the wood and isn't supposed to leach out. I brushed it on the bottom cut ends of 6X6 fir ramada posts I just mounted and so finally got to use the bottle of the stuff I bought in a moment of weakness. Lumber preservative on food plants has that old EWWW factor, no?

thanks alot for the advice and comments i think i wil just stick with the organic route like i always have ,,, another question though , organic pesticides any favorites out there ?
is just neem oil the way to go ?
this years garden includes , 3 types of tomats , red cabbage , cucumbers , hot peppers sun flowers and herbs .
thanks again
zak


I start cauliflower and any cabbage about June 20th here. In your area you likely need to start them a bit later.
Lettuce will not germinate well in hot weather. i start my butterhead lettuce INDOORS in plastic pots July 23rd. Likely you would start lettuce a bit later.

Since they are all early spring crops so too late now I assume you are asking for the times to start them for a Fall garden? When is your first frost date? Around mid-October for zone 6b I think? Are you going to direct seed them or start them indoors? If indoors then my best guess is you'd want to start the cauliflower and cabbage early July and the lettuce mid-July. This all depends of course on the specific variety you are using as they all have very different DTM (days to maturity).
Dave

Not to butt in, but there are so many ways to garden. learning from others helps us to fine tune our methods to achieve the goals we want out of gardening. What is the 'proper' way for one person, may not be proper for others.
For example... my space is somewhat limited, so I push the limits of crowding. Some may say that it's not 'proper' spacing. However, my goal may not be to get the biggest fruit, or weight per plant, but to get maximum yield per sq. ft. I recognize that my style may open me up to potential problems, I appreciate information warning me of such hazards and information that teaches me about the plant's preferences, but unless I tell someone - I, and only I know my goals and reasons for my methods.
What is 'proper', or appropriate for some, may not be 'proper' or appropriate for me, my goals, my specific plants, or my situation.
Anyway, I'm new here, and this is a little off the topic of the thread, and frankly maybe none of my business (except as a reader and user of the site like anyone else.) I, however do try to appreciate all comments, even if we don't agree. Learning can happen under many circumstances, not all of them favorable.

Couple of points. First, it is early June so based on all the comments so far what we have been talking about is pruning/watering during the season. Not sure how we got to end-of-season but end of season pruning/topping is a whole other ballgame and none of my comments above were related to that. Regardless of zone we all share at least a 75 day growing season for tomatoes. That's the season I was addressing.
Second, since we have gotten so far off the original question I hope the OP doesn't mind if I add (or reiterate) that I know many folks grow things in very different ways and yes, I know that what works for one does not work for all. I know we all have different zones, different size gardens, different goals, different situations, etc. But that does not mean there aren't common standards for growing tomatoes or corn or beets or whatever. It also doesn't mean that a tomato plant doesn't have specific needs no matter where it is grown. That's why I stressed IMO. I prefer to make the needs of the plant the focus, not my needs.
However, if one has first tried some of the 100's of ways before deciding that Method Z (whatever it may be) is the only way that will work for them, that's great. At least they tried. But if they have locked themselves into a belief or a method only because they "read something about it on the web or in a book so it must be true" or because "this is the way Grandpa did it" or because they "don't want to make the effort to try any other ways" or because "if it ain't broke why should I try to fix it" then they may well be doing themselves and their plants a disservice.
They then compound that disservice by making authoritative comments like "people are under a misconception that they need to water a lot. He said water LESS to get MORE harvest. The people who water more get less of a harvest."
I wonder if he has ever read any of the many studies done on the production levels from dry-farmed fields compared to the production levels from irrigated fields and how he would explain the greatly increased production from the latter?
Dave


Ok. I'm new here. Thanks for all the info. all. I had three bad storms come thew last night. My corn is about six foot tall. Just wanted to add. All I did was soak the grownd. Put t post on each end. Power cord and pulled it back up. Heard a few cracks. But I think it will be fine.

Keep in mind Domo, that neither cow manure, nor peat moss is soil. Mixed together, they still aren't soil lol.
Do not despair! Not all may be lost. The biggest problem is that by now you probably have fruit, and making physical changes to the growing medium would probably send the plants into a shock. Too late in the season to recover.
I would flush the medium with a lot of water (like - a lot.) Then mix up a low-concentration fertilizer tea, or a soluble fertilizer solution made specifically for tomatoes and add that at in low doses. Watch for a response from the plants (can take a few days to a week.)
Another, more difficult problem is ph. The peat, unless pre-conditioned by the seller, is acidic. Ditto, but not as much so, for manure. Tomatoes don't mind a little acidity, in fact they prefer a mildly acidic medium. However, the two substances you have in those buckets are probably more so than you want. The manure will probably buffer the acidity a little, but you need to do some research into maybe adding an alkaline amendment, such as hydrated lime (contains calcium, an important nutrient for tomatoes.) It's a tricky move though, as hydrated lime can be powerful stuff and a bucket is a very small environment. It must be added sparingly and carefully.
You can look up the specifics for the ph needs of both tomatoes and peppers, and how to adjust ph using slurries and liquid mixes, but knowing the exact ph of what you have would help a lot.
In any case, although tricky, it's not hard, and you can do it. Just remember... less can be more, and from this experience you'll learn A LOT! about the needs and care of plants.




Especially in pots, both chives need food and division to thrive depending on how long they've been growing without repotting. They will be much thinner and floppier than in-ground, and don't tolerate as much sun as you seem to have found.
Ok thanks.. I do feed them but the bunches are pretty close together from when I grew them from seed... I've heard the stories and it's the main reason I grew them in pots. I'll divide and repot them when I get the chance..