I have some fully grown egg plant plants and everytime flowers develop on the plant, they keep falling off and not developing into fruit at all....and on the bottom of the leaves i noticed a white substance growing moderator's note: added a more descriptive title to topic
I have been feeding my eggplant plants every week alternating with a fish emulsion and miracle grow...I also use Epsom Salt diluted in water. The Epsom Salts help the flowers hold on more until they are pollinated. More flowers have come since I started cutting off some of the excessive leaves. My plants were especially leafy.
I've experienced blossom drop this year for the first time since I began raising eggplants about 3 years ago. So I googled in search of a reason. Seems they don't like extremes? Too Dry (irregular watering) was a recurring theme. And in my case, it's the fact that it has been unseasonably cold and wet here. Until this week (knock on soggy wood), we've not had more than one day a week that we haven't had rain. Container plants never need watering and the main garden is waterlogged. I had two small Prosperosa eggplants (containerized) forming until yesterday. This week's torrential Thunderstorms took care of that. And yes, treating with Epsom Salts is a great tip. I use ES on my Tomatoes, Peppers and Eggplant but this year, nothing is helping.
This is the first year I've tried to grow eggplant and I've been having the same problem. What proportions of ES and water do you use? I'm north of the GTA and the weather has been much the same - very wet.
Faery, here's some suggestions on usage from the epsom salt council. http://epsomsaltcouncil.org/garden_usage_tips.htm I've heard of people just sprinkling the dry product around plants and letting the rain dissolve it? That might have been an easier way to do it with the rain we've had this year. After these past few days of dry heat, perhaps we will actually have some weeks of 'normal' summer to enjoy. I know it's done my garden a world of good this week. Plants are putting on rapid growth and are actually looking healthy.
Hi there. I may be just a newbie stewbie, but I'd heard it's the unpolinated fruit that just drop off. If you don't have enough bees coming to the vege patch, you will have to hand pollinate to get fruit to develope. Early in the morning is the best.
