I'm really enjoying the ichiban eggplant. I love the purple flowers and the leaves are very soft and velvety - unlike the zucchinis that are prickly. The foliage recovered from the under-watering incident however it seems the plant is in stress. I've been noticing that the flowers are dropping off, the stem and all. It seems that there are 3 possible reasons the flowers fall off - lack of pollination, under-watering and heat. I'm not sure if the heat issue is linked with pollination. There is nothing I can do about the heat, but I could definitely water consistently and try hand pollination.
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| Poor flowers are dropping.... |
Its so strange that it is not just the flower part that is falling, but it is dropping from the stem. I originally was looking on the plant for ugly looking insects, but I haven't found anything. My course of action will be to ensure proper watering and when the flowers blossom try hand pollinating (and keep checking for eggplant flower predators). The other "story book" eggplants (gretel and fairytale) are doing good...I think. The leaves are getting much bigger (soft and velvety too) but they are not getting tall. And in fact they are starting to flower - this makes me happy but I'm worried that it won't grow vertically. I'll just wait and see what happens here.
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| Fairy tale Eggplant |
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| Gretel Eggplant |
My zucchini plants leaves are turning yellow. I'm not exactly sure why - the fruits are coming along fine. I'm wondering if I need to up the fertilization (since they are producing a lot, maybe the plant needs more food). I was thinking of fertilizing once a month, but I've been reading that containers need more feeding because it consumes a lot of nutrients to grow.
Has this been going on for a while or just recently? Maybe it's just due to recent heat stress.
ReplyDeleteElaine, in the last couple of days, 4-5 flowers dropped. I was so excited about getting more eggplants and was sad to see the flowers on the ground. I haven't noticed it before (for the unpollinated flowers it used to just shrivel up). I'm thinking it is heat stress - hopefully they will adjust?
ReplyDeleteI hope your dropped flowers are temporary. If you haven't seen bees around, try hand pollinating the flowers. A little extra pollen never hurt anyone! Have you harvested any fairytale eggplant? I wad wondering how they taste compared to the japanese ones. I never liked the round eggplant in the stores. I prefer the japanese ones.
ReplyDeleteHolly, I'm going to try to pollinate them. The other eggplants haven't fruited yet. I'm with you on the eggplants. I usually don't like the larger eggplants so I usually get the long chinese eggplant or the Italian eggplant that are smaller. I'm excited to try the other varieties.
ReplyDeleteI am not sure how hot is your area. We usually have continuos 40+degree Celcius and the bloom will drop and they won't produce. But when the weather are much milder eggplant start to produce again very well.
ReplyDeleteHand pollinating eggplants is a cinch, given that bees don't like them anyway so traditionally wind pollination was the key. Just jiggle them a little everyday and you are good to go - works on the balcony here.
ReplyDeleteI am trying to flick them. But I'm thinking it is mostly the heat. I'm going to keep trying. If not, I'll have to think of another way to cover/shade the ichiban.
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