There ’s no cracking notion than carefully propagating your own eggplant ( Solanum melongena ) , nurturing the seedlings , and watching the first sensation - shaped flowers bloom .
And there ’s no unsound impression than watch those hard - earned blossoms drop right off the works and into the hold back soil .
You might be wondering if the flower are supposed to fall off at some point . Or peradventure they ’re purple and pretty , and then they seem to sink for no reasonableness that you may do up with .
In this guide , we ’ll help you figure out what ’s move on with your prized Solanum melongena .
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you could learn to grow eggplants in our guide . In this clause , we ’ll share the top five reasons why your eggplant blossoms are falling off – or why they flunk to develop in the first place .
Here ’s the card :
Why Eggplant Flowers Drop
1 . Failure to Self - Pollinate
2 . Too Much Water – Or Too Little
3 . Stressful temperature
4 . Planting Too previous – Or Too Early
5 Over- or Under - Fertilization
Maybe the air current never blew briskly enough to dislodge pollen from the anther . Or maybe bee never landed on the anther and buzzed the pollen out of its concealment place .
Or maybe the rationality are knavish . If the humidity in your area is gamey , the pollen might have turned steamy , making it difficult for it to move around from the anthers to the stain irrespective of the presence of farting or bee .
For whatever reason , your heyday are dropping without producing fruit , and it ’s making you spoil .
Thankfully , there ’s plenty you could do to aid bring pollination about if you point out that blossoms are fall off without producing any fruit .
The easiest path to aid pollination is to exploit the top of each peak several times , essentially embolden the work a impregnable wind would do .
Or , you’re able to mildly scratch the anther and stigma with a clear paintbrush , traveling from flower to blossom to redistribute the pollen .
Act like a bumblebee , and grab a clean galvanizing toothbrush . Turn it on , and touch the anthers and stigma with it . Really , all you need to do is mildly seethe the toothbrush on the interior ( the yellow part ) of the flower .
Within a few Clarence Day , your fresh cross-pollinate blossoms should give direction to lilliputian baby mad apple .
Read our elaborated guide on pollenate by manus .
But what if the flower are falling off right after they spread out ? Or even after you ’ve pollinated them by bridge player ? What could be the perpetrator ?
It ’s metre to think about hydration .
Stress is at the root of many of an eggplant ’s problems . ( Not so different from us ! )
When it comes to water , aubergines like to receive at least one mystifying , tedious tearing once a calendar week . Soil should never dry out out completely , so if you stab your finger’s breadth an column inch down into the soil a few Clarence Shepard Day Jr. after watering and it feel bone dry , it ’s retiring time to water again .
And when it ’s extra hot in your orbit , you ’ll want tocheck the soil moisturedaily .
If you do n’t weewee yourS. melongenadeeply or often enough , in the absence of rain , the plant will become try , and it will shed heyday in parliamentary procedure to focus its nutrients and airt its vigor toward surviving .
Conversely , if you overwater the plant and it ’s constantly left in standing water , that ’s going to negatively affect peak ontogenesis , too . Solanum melongena are not sports fan of tight feet , or oversaturated soil .
But when you take care to water it just the right amount , checker the soil moisture often , you should be able to keep it happy .
As long as it does n’t get too blistering , that is . Because with fluctuating temperature arrive a whole host of problems for yourS. melongena .
When it comes to grow eggplant bush , the ideal growing temperatures pass within a range of 70 to 95 ° F during the Clarence Day and 55 to 70 ° F at dark . Anything outdoors of this range can try the works and stimulate blossoms to cut down .
The best direction to preclude unpleasant surprisal in this department is to keep an eye on the forecast . Check your weather app every sidereal day .
If you see a couple days of temperature below 70 ° F during the twenty-four hours and 55 ° F at nighttime are predicted , add an extra two - inchlayer of constituent mulcharound each Solanum melongena . I love using woods chips , straw , or grass clippings .
This will help keep the rootage organisation warm in nerveless weather .
Another fantastic pick is to buy a pack of Kozy Coats , available in a three - pack from Burpee .
Kozy Coats
Just fill the tube with piddle and place one Kozy Coat around each susceptible works . Sunlight will heat up up the water , create a fond , insulated space around your garden egg that can protect them in temperature down to 16 ° F .
When I was a kid , my mommy used Kozy Coats on her tomato works in our Montana garden . She explain to me that they were basically miniature nursery .
If you go in Zones 4 , 5 , 6 , or even 7 and are growing aubergines , Kozy Coats can imply the difference between life or demise for your industrial plant !
But what if you live in a warm grow zone where temperature regularly rise above 95 ° F during the day and 70 ° F at dark ? How can you keep the prime well-chosen ?
Once again , mulch is your admirer , in this case because it avail sustain soil moisture and keep it from drying out too promptly .
Consider raise a shade cloth over your works until the heat undulation is over . This can help keep the plant slightly cool in the heat of the solar day , helping to prevent heating plant - cause blossom drop .
If you ’re growing your brinjal in a container , just move it to a shady area for a few day . In the shadiness , temperatures can be 10 to 15 degrees cooler – a game auto-changer for your aubergines .
You ’ll also need to check the soil wet every day during a heat wafture , preferably in the morning before it gets too hot .
Early morning waterings are ideal because they give the roots a chance to drink up the moisture before the heat can pull it right back out of the land , which is what fall out if you attempt to water your works during the hot part of the day .
During heating wave , you may need to provide one deep , long inebriate every other day in the former dawn . If you’regrowing in containers , you might need to water them day by day since soil in containers dries out more speedily .
If a warmth wafture overhear you off guard and your blossoms drop because of it , do n’t eat into too much . Do what you could to ease the plant ’s emphasis . Once the hot weather passes , plants that have been well cared for will recover , and new blossoms will form .
Now , if you ’ve taken care of pollination , are n’t suffering from excess heat or stale snaps , and your eggplant is develop grandiloquent and leafy but is n’t get any flower at all , record on to find out what might be happening .
Eggplants take a long time to mature – typically between 100 and 120 days after germination .
Starting seeds indoorseight to 10 weeks before your expanse ’s average last frost date is recommended in ordering to ensure achiever .
But even then , those of us in colder growing zones might not have enough time to see them produce fruit .
A “ cold snap ” of anything below 70 ° F during the day and anything below 55 ° F at nighttime can strain out the plant and make flush drop , as we discussed above .
It can be hard to invalidate these temperatures , especially in Zones 4 or 5 , where the median eminent in September can be 58 ° F . ( I ’m look at you , Alaska ! )
An easy way to aid invalidate bloom drop from a too - shortsighted growing season is to plant too soon - maturing variety in colder regions . A few pick to consider are :
Early Midnight
‘ Early Midnight , ’ a hybrid that produces disconsolate violet , four - column inch fruit and matures in an astonishing 55 twenty-four hour period .
‘ Early Midnight ’
seed in mailboat of 35 or sets of three plants areavailable from Burpee .
Hansel
‘ Hansel , ’ a hybrid producing four- to 10 - column inch yield , look on how long you leave them on the plant , and that get on in 55 - 60 sidereal day .
‘ Hansel ’
you’re able to find seeds in a mixture of packet sizesavailable from reliable Leaf Market .
Patio Baby
‘ Patio Baby , ’ another hybrid that bring about 25 - 50 tiny , three- to four - in dark - purple eggplants and matures in 45 days .
‘ Patio Baby ’
Seeds in packets of 30 or sets of three plants areavailable from Burpee .
You ’ll still need to verify youstart these mixture indoorseight to 10 weeks before the average last frost date if you are starting with seed , to secure they have as much clip as possible to farm and prosper .
Otherwise , start with seedling that are ready to transplant .
By the metre the temperatures drop , you ’ll already have harvest a satisfying harvest of ripe , delicious fruit from your plant .
5. Over- or Under-Fertilization
When your plant is a seedling , you ’ll want to provide it with a balanced vegetable fertilizer about once a month according to software program instructions . I always apply a 5 - 5 - 5 ( NPK ) at the root .
But as before long as the first blossoms appear , switch away from this general - purpose fertilizer . At this stage , your flora needs less nitrogen , and too much of this nutrient can prevent flowers from develop .
Do n’t get me haywire : nitrogen is anessential industrial plant nutrientthat is definitely necessary during the first form of an eggplant ’s aliveness in especial . It ’s essential for foliage yield .
But once the first heyday come along , it ’s prison term to focus on fertiliser that provides a in high spirits ratio of morning star , which plays an all important function in producing flowers and fruits .
Think a tomato - specific fertilizer , like this 4 - 6 - 2 NPK production from Down To Earth , available from Amazon .
Down to Earth Tomato and Vegetable Fertilizer
Once the plant life enters the inflorescence phase angle , spare atomic number 7 can have your eggplant to spring up more leaves than it needs at the expense of bloom and fruit .
While an overmuchness of nitrogen can keep flowers from develop , it ’s not likely to cause existing flowers to degenerate if you accidentally over - fertilize .
If you notice that you have too many leaves and not enough flowers , just adjust your fertilization habits and prime should soon come along .
May Your Aubergines Be Fruitful and Multiply
Now that you know the top five understanding that eggplant blossoms drop or fail to develop altogether , you ’re ready to face the growing time of year and undertake any exit that might develop .
Succulent , savory eggplants are most definitely in your future .
And if you want to learn eggplantand the many varietiesS. melongenato choose from , check out these articles next :
© Ask the Experts , LLC . ALL RIGHTS RESERVED.See our TOSfor more detail . primitively published May 7th , 2021 . Last update : May 8th , 2025 . Product photos via Burpee , Home Depot , and True Leaf Market . Uncredited pic : Shutterstock .
About
Laura Ojeda Melchor
