Eggplants not setting fruit

I just realized yesterday that, while I've got big, beautiful eggplant plants that have given me lots of flowers, I have yet to see a baby eggplant.

I am growing four "Black Beauty" plants.

How can I get them to set fruit?

My flowers took a little longer to set fruit than the other vegies. Just noticed my first fruits today. So as long as the flowers are not dropping off and not forming fruits I would not worry.

I need to look closer, but I believe that is exactly what is happening. I was showing my mom the blooms, and realized that there was a completely open bloom, detached from the stem (with a little stem attached to the bloom), sitting on the leaf right below where it had been attached.

I tried Black Beauty last summer. Never got a single fruit. Planted Ichiban the year before and had more than I could eat. I don't think Black Beauty can hold up under heat, the flowers just dropped off on my plants...

Here is what I found on line


- Gardening Know How - http://www.gardeningknowhow.com -

What To Do For Eggplant Blossoms Drying Out And Falling Off

Posted By Gardening Know How In Vegetable Gardening |
Eggplants have increased in popularity in the home garden in the past several years. Many gardeners who grow this vegetable have been frustrated by an eggplant has flowers but no fruit due to the fact that the eggplant flowers fall off the plant.
This odd looking but tasty vegetable is closely related to tomatoes and are in the same family, the nightshade family, so many of the issues and pests that affect tomatoes also affect eggplants. One of these issues is when the eggplant flowers fall off the plant without producing fruits.
When an eggplant has flowers but no fruit, this is due to one of two issues. The first thing that can cause eggplant flowers to fall off is a lack of water and the other is a lack of pollination.
What to do for eggplant blossoms drying out because of lack of water


When an eggplant plant is stressed, its blossoms will dry up and drop off without producing fruit. The most common reason a eggplant gets stressed is due to a lack of water. Your eggplant needs at least 2″ of water a week, more in very hot weather. The majority of that water should be gotten in one watering so that the water goes deeper into the ground and is less likely to evaporate quickly. Deep watering also encourages the eggplant to grow deep roots, which helps it to find water deeper in the ground and even out its water needs so it will be less likely to drop a single eggplant flower..
What to do for eggplant blossoms drying out due to a lack of pollination


An eggplant flower is normally wind pollinated, meaning it does not rely on insects like bees and moths to pollinate it. A pollination problem can occur when the weather conditions are very wet or very humid or are very hot. When the air is very humid, this causes the pollen eggplant flower to become very sticky and it cannot fall down onto the pistil to pollinate the flower. When the weather is very hot, the pollen becomes inactive because the plant thinks that it cannot support the stress of an additional fruit along with the hot weather. In a sense, the plant aborts the blossom so as not to stress itself further.
Eggplant flower hand pollination


If you suspect your eggplant flowers fall off due to a lack off pollination, then you can use hand pollination. Eggplant flower hand pollination is easy to do. All you need to do is take a small, clean paintbrush and move this around the inside of the eggplant flower.

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I hope it helps I help my eggplants,toms and peppers to pollenate just by gentaly tapping the main stem when ever I walk by, never used a brush.

Oh, wow, thank you both!!

It has been hot and humid here lately, to be sure!! I'm pretty sure I'm watering them enough.

I'll try the hand pollination, and, if I still don't get fruit, I'll try Ichiban.

My Ichiban II are the ones with fruit, the black beauty is growing much slower and just got it's first flower 2 days ago.

Sounds like I'd better mulch my eggplants. They aren't to the flowering stage yet, so I'm happy to have read this before they are. Can't do to much about the heat and humidity, but I bet this explains a thing or two about my tomatillos as well.

My eggies seem to love the heat and humidity. They realy started growing since the tems got ove 80 degrees F. even the black beauty is growing now and it was a very slow starter.

Well, there is "over 80" heat and then there is HEAT, ya know? We rarely got under 80 for most than a few days at a time the entire winter this past year. We started hitting the 90s in Feb just a few weeks after our only freezing temps and have consistantly hit 90 with frequent highs over 95 and even hitting 100 (which we never did all last summer). It's been a STRANGE "spring". But, yeah, I've read that eggplant loves the heat, which is why I planted it, lol. I just hope it turns out that "loves the heat" means 95+ and high humidity

elliephant wrote:Well, there is "over 80" heat and then there is HEAT, ya know? We rarely got under 80 for most than a few days at a time the entire winter this past year. We started hitting the 90s in Feb just a few weeks after our only freezing temps and have consistantly hit 90 with frequent highs over 95 and even hitting 100 (which we never did all last summer). It's been a STRANGE "spring". But, yeah, I've read that eggplant loves the heat, which is why I planted it, lol. I just hope it turns out that "loves the heat" means 95+ and high humidity

Okay....I definitely need more coffee and possibly some new glasses.....when I saw this under latest topics I thought it said "elephants not setting fruit". Then I reread it and saw that it was EGGplants not setting fruit with a response by Elliephant.

Gwynn

Old Hippie wrote:Okay....I definitely need more coffee and possibly some new glasses.....when I saw this under latest topics I thought it said "elephants not setting fruit". Then I reread it and saw that it was EGGplants not setting fruit with a response by Elliephant.

Gwynn

That's funny, right there!!!

I didn't have a chance to pollinate eggplant blossoms today, so I'll do it in the morning. I guess I should see within a couple of weeks whether my efforts have been fruit-ful.

I think they are the prettest things in the garden.

I've never hand pollinated anything before, but will try. Had great luck last year with eggplant - and this year nothing (same plot - different part of the garden). It's been hot though and so I"ll try hand pollinating. I will post the results! Thanks a lot everyone.

also I read that the number 1 cause of flower drop in eggplants was lack of water and even though I thought I was watering my black beauty it only started setting after I increased the water.

These types of plants require a little more care, so, you have to do that. Make sure the soil is pure (no little stones or extra dirt in it). And when you plant it, make sure to add some fertilizers. If you do not want to spend money on fertilizers, you can use chicken bleep or cow bleep as a fertilizer. Dig the soil, mix your fertilizer in it properly, and it's done. Good luck!

Hi Zaheerkhan, Yes, for SFG we make a Mix that does not have dirt in it. Do read the 2nd or 3rd Edition of ALL MEW Square Foot Gardening book, to get the most out of this Forum.

After you have read the book or eBook, feel free to ask questions about the method.