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eggplant not producing fruit
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Posted by
regaldozer 6A (
My Page) on
Sun, Aug 26, 12 at 19:12
beautiful looking plant with lots of blooms. But I am not getting fruit. can I pollinate myself. and if so, how?
thanks |
Follow-Up Postings:
RE: eggplant not producing fruit
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| Don't know. My Japanese eggplant has produced a whopping two fruit, both looked they had been eaten by something. Flowers start and Either fall off or start to form fruit and then nothing! My white eggplant has fruit but theyre small and slow . Last year I grew them in pots and had good results. This year I planted in ground and they're terrible. I don't know, maybe it's the weird summer ??..... |
RE: eggplant not producing fruit
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I've had a terrible time pollinating mine as well. Lots of blossoms, but dropping like crazy.
Last week, I started trying to self-pollinate using a paintbrush. You swirl it around the inside of the flower. The idea is to get pollen onto the stamen. So far, these blossoms haven't dropped yet, so I've got my fingers crossed. |
RE: eggplant not producing fruit
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| I have only had two fruits this year, but the bush is beautiful, blooming nicely. I don't really care because I'm not that crazy about eggplant. I took the second one to the post office and gave it to the clerk. They sure are beautiful fruit. |
RE: eggplant not producing fruit
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| I did some reading about this problem and found three main factors. 1) Too hot - pollen is sticky. 2) Not enough root space. 3) Not enough nutrients. I started WAY TOO MUCH eggplant from seed this year. Come July I had 13 plants and the flowers kept falling off and never setting fruit. Given the above concerns and the fact that I had a bunch of eggplant to work with I busted them up and put them into various sized containers, different soil mixtures, and different fertilizer help. As the end of August rolls around in the HOTlanta area with one of the hottest summers on record ALL of my eggplants are starting to bud fruit. It did not matter what container size I used -- in fact one of the ones with the most fruit budding so far is in a simple 12" pot. It did not matter about the soil mix or fertilizer -- compost, Miracle Grow, and various 5-1-1 batches with different pine bark fines -- all of them are now budding fruit now that the temperatures are dropping. It is time to rediscover my grandmother's recipe for pickled eggplant! |
RE: eggplant not producing fruit
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| I don't think that any of those reasons are the problem, I have all those factors and my plant did fruit but quite poorly. Maybe you should try putting your plants where there is more sunlight. |
RE: eggplant not producing fruit
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| karachigardener, are you making a suggestion to me or the original poster? For me light was certainly not my problem. I get sun all day long with no shadows from trees or anything else. I am convinced now that it was the heat and humidity interfering with pollination. |
RE: eggplant not producing fruit
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| Frankly, not being an eggplant fan, I could care less about how much I got but when something doesn't grow, it's frustrating. I think it's been a weird summer. If I grow eggplant next year it will be in count singers. Basically, it was a wate of space for me. |
RE: eggplant not producing fruit
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Funny what you said about the plant in the small pot having the most flowers. One of my "seedlings" that I never did replant properly (in a 10" pot) has a whole bunch. I don't trust they'll turn into fruit, but we'll see.
I did have the flower drop off one of the blossoms without the entire ovum and stem falling with it. Fingers crossed! I love eggplant, and would be very disappointed if I got zip. |
RE: eggplant not producing fruit
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| Mine did fairly well this yr for me! i like eggplant but not all the time! I think it could be that your eggplant didn't get pollinated properly by the bumble bees and honey bees, butterflies. I wasn't seeing much fruit til late in July after I started noticing the bees going from flower to flower. And I didn't get the bees til my oregano started flowering, which they're crazy about the oregano flowers! Try planting some oregano nearby or something else that would attract bees. I hear coleus attracts bees also, when it flowers. I think between the extreme heat and dry conditions of this summer and maybe not enough bees pollinating naturally, that could be it! Best luck next yr! Wish I could send you some of mine. I'll try to get a pic of my eggplant maybe later today. I only have 6 eggplants and that's been plenty! |
RE: eggplant not producing fruit
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well bees we did have and funny enough, I do have oregano that is starting to flower. When I checked the japanese eggplant today, I saw three small fruits growing. All summer and now they're growing. Anyways, it's a wait and see. Whatever I get! by the way, i just read my last post and I have no idea what a count singer is - ha ha. I meant container. That's what happens when you use the ipod, it just decides what word it wants!!!
But seriously, the eggplants did much better in containers. |
RE: eggplant not producing fruit
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| Yeah, I don't know what it is about having oregano by the eggplants and tomatoes, but as soon as the oregano starts flowering, so do the eggplants and tomatoes start flowering and bearing fruit! Funny you are seeing it, too! Some things you just don't understand. I do have an eggplant in a container on the porch, also and it hasn't started giving me fruit yet. I brought in a nice sized eggplant from the garden this afternoon! Several small ones yet. |
RE: eggplant not producing fruit
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Oddly enough, hubby and I have noticed the same exact thing about our eggplant!
Early summer they grew a few fabulous specimens but then they just tapered off.
They're flowering but never turning into fruit.
The thing is we love using ours also in spaghetti or pizza sauce as a thickener so I'm pretty sad about it.
Plus we use ours in stir fries, eggplant parm, or eggplant roulade. :( |
Here is a link that might be useful: How does our Garden Grow
RE: eggplant not producing fruit
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My Japanese eggplant gave two smallish eggplants in July, but then the heat got unbearable and it didn't bud again but gained height.
This past week, the temperature here dropped in to the 70s and 80s, and rained heavily. POOF, I have an enormous amount of new blooms that are setting fruit! I suspect it was the dry extreme heat that most people have had problems with this year. |
RE: eggplant not producing fruit
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| Same thing here. Definitely agree. I now have 13 very large plants with 12 - 20 eggplants each. I did not thin because I wasn't getting any fruit. Now I'll be taking baskets full of eggplant to share with friends. That's a good thing anyway so I'm happy with the outcome after this long wait. |
RE: eggplant not producing fruit
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Mine just keep producing like crazy. Some in full sun, some with partial sun. All through the summer and even more in the fall. They seem to love the heat and like it even more as the heat let's up.
I just made some lacto-fermented pickles out of some bitter, over ripe ones. Delicious! |
RE: eggplant not producing fruit
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| I've never tried to grow eggplants, next year will be my first try, but since they are related to peppers, perhaps putting some burlap or similar shade cloth over them during hot afternoons would help. This has helped considerably for my bell pepper plants to set fruit, as well as preventing that mid-day wilt. I heard over and over again "Peppers love heat!!!" but mine never have. Warm, yes. Baking, No. I have my pepper plants caged with circular concrete reinforcing wire cages. The cages are not actually that necessary for the plants but in my opinion it keeps the rows looking nice and uniform and gives a good structure to just roll a 3 foot wide strip of burlap out overtop of the cages on hot sunny days. It only takes a minute and when not in use I just roll or fold the burlap back up and throw it in a plastic tote. I'm probably going to do a similar setup when I try eggplants next year only with taller cages. 
sorry I don't have an actual photo of the burlap but picture this setup with one roll of burlap laid on top of each length of caged row.
Just a thought |
RE: eggplant not producing fruit
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| I live in the desert in Southern Cali..My egg plants grew very small and became mushy..had to throw them away.. |
RE: eggplant not producing fruit
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- Posted by yolos 7b/8A Brooks, Ga (My Page) on
Sun, Nov 11, 12 at 19:57
| Squirrellypete - where do you purchase your burlap? |
RE: eggplant not producing fruit
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| I just found it at Lowes, however I had a harder time finding it this year. Not all of them carried it. I find it in the garden area near the weed fabric. I wish they sold it in longer lengths though, the rolls were only like 12 or 15 feet long. Width was about 3 foot which is good for this setup. You may be able to find better deals online but I needed something quick. It's very tough and if you store it out of the sun when you don't need it, it will last many seasons. Contact with wet ground will also make it deteriorate faster. |
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