Each year my eggplants produce lots of flowers but no fruit. Why?
Eggplants are a subtropical species that Canadian gardeners didn't used to be able to grow until short-seasoned cultivars were invented, cutting down the number of days to maturity from 120 to as little as 60.
Even so, eggplants prefer to grow in conditions that mimic their native climate. That means they are happiest when grown at temperatures between 25°C and 30°C and with humidity levels above 75%. They also like lots of nitrogen-rich organic matter and a consistent supply of water.
If you give your eggplants all that, you should have no problems. However, it’s difficult to sustain those growing conditions, particularly when night temperatures - even on the hottest of days - can dip below 25°C.
The first thing you need to do when purchasing seeds or transplants is to check the numbers of days to maturity. Think about how many truly blistering hot days we get each year. There are relatively few during which both day and night temperatures stay above 25°C, so the fewer the number of days to maturity, the better.
Eggplants need to be started indoors (or transplants can be purchased) and set out no earlier than June 1st when the soil is warm. Young plants need to be placed in the sunniest spot in your garden and protected from wind.
For the first few weeks outdoors, you can cover them with cloches or plastic to keep temperatures high enough to keep plant growth from checking. If that happens, you may be beat for eggplants for the season.
(“Checking” happens when a young plant is placed in conditions of enormous stress. In order to protect themselves, they stop or “check” their growth until they are sure the stressful conditions have passed. For eggplants, this could set back maturity far enough to make fruiting incomplete or non-existent.)
To increase your chances of getting viable fruit, you can cover the ground in black plastic to keep the soil temperature significantly higher than the atmospheric temperature. Since eggplants tend to produce far more flowers than fruit, you can also increase your chances of getting a few nice sized eggplants from each bush by pinching back the majority of its blooms, helping the plant to better focus its energy on turning the remaining blooms into fruit.
If you have any questions or comments, please send them to me at vanessa@gardenmuse.ca.
