It's been a little over a week since treating the eggplants with coffee to combat the flea beetle. There was never too many flea beetles (or I didn't spot them) but the damage to the leaves was pretty extensive. The coffee treatment seems to have gotten rid of beetles, after a couple of days of treatment I was only able to spot one beetle on the classic eggplant. A couple of days after that, I found no beetle but the plants (classic and black beauty) was covered with ants.
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| This picture does not do it justice, there was even more ants on the plant |
The first thing I did was sprayed the plant with water which washed away the ants. I noticed that there were little holes on the stem where it looked like the ants were digging. After doing a little searching, it appears that ants are secondary problem to flea beetles. If the beetles do enough damage to the plants, the ants come to feast on the dead tissue. To me, it looked like the ants were digging further, but perhaps the flea beetle dug the holes and the ants came after. I decided to just keep an eye on it. The black beauty plant, which was the bigger of the two, seemed to have recovered despite the damage.
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| You can see the flea beetle damage on the lower leaves (Black Beauty eggplant) |
I don't think the classic eggplant will make it. The flea beetle and/or ants pretty much ate through the stem and the new growth looked like it was struggling. I decided to try cutting off the damage to see if it will promote more growth. I am not optimistic.
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| Chopped off the damage from the classic eggplant |
The ichiban eggplant is doing great. I even see little baby eggplants forming already.
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| Ichiban eggplant lookin' good |
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| Baby ichiban eggplant |
The container ichiban is also doing really well, with lots of flowers and a baby eggplant forming quite nicely. It'll be interesting to compare the growth of this variety in ground versus container.
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| Ichiban in 5 gallon container |
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| Baby ichiban growing in container |
In the future, I think I will wait until the starter plants are big enough before transplanting to the garden. Also, I read that flea beetles are a problem mostly in April and May so I could also hold off transplanting into the garden until June. I do think the coffee treatment worked, but it's difficult to say definitively because I didn't have a control group and it's possible that the decline in flea beetle just coincided with the end of their life cycle. I chose to be positive and believe that the coffee treatment worked!
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ReplyDeleteSorry about the damage. I have flea beetle damage on my eggplant also. I will try your coffee method and see if it helps.
ReplyDeleteIf try it, let me know how it goes. I am optimistic but also skeptical too!
DeleteAnother pest that I am very glad we don't get here! Looks like most of your plants are recovering well though. Hope the classic makes it.
ReplyDeleteYes they are a pesky little critter. I hope they make it too!
DeleteI did not know about the coffee method, learned something new, thanks for sharing. Hope your classic recover.
ReplyDeleteI have not transplanted my eggplants into the garden yet, waiting a few more days, still bringing the seedlings indoor at night as our nighttime temp this week is going to be in the 40's.
Your seedlings probably would enjoy being babied for a couple of days too!
DeleteI had them all over my eggplants at my plot. I put insect netting over my plants until they started blooming it seemed to help. I'll have to try the coffee treatment as well.
ReplyDeleteNetting seems to be good for many other pests too. I'll have to look into that.
DeleteFlea beetles totally destroyed my eggplants last year. I hate those little buggers! I will definitely be trying out the coffee treatment, so thanks for the update.
ReplyDeleteIt's amazing how much damage the tiny little thing can do!
DeleteThose eggplants are still looking good despite the pests!
ReplyDelete