Topic: Aubergines - a warning?

[tim]

Thought I'd pick young this season. Just as well. These are only 6-9" long & one was already setting seeds. Like wooden pips in Raspberry jam!

So, be on your guard.

[Money_Bunny]

Ours are still to flower and set fruit, think I may have left it a bit late.

But will know better for next year.

[Rosyred]

Mine haven't come into flower yet. Saw one at the garden centre today and they had fruits on them.  First year so everything i'm learning just like my 4 cucumber plants never produced any fruit either.

[tim]

Cus? Tell me more  - PM - in the hope that I can help?

Variety, sown, planted out, where, in what, watered/fed how?

[moonbells]

Went to the Chilli Fiesta at the weekend (combining it with a visit to a friend cos of the distance) and had a blast. Found an entire greenhouse full of aubergines!

Took photos of some of them - so please see
www.moonbells.com/allotment/2006/August_06/chillies/chillies.html

(There's also lots of chillies and some pics of the West Dean Walled Garden)

moonbells

[tim]

Great photos - strange the Barbentane is so pale at that advanced stage?

[moonbells]

I'd no idea what colour de Barbentane was supposed to be, so assumed it was naturally pale.

But now you mention it, and I go googling, it's not, is it? Weird. Perhaps they got their labels a bit mixed up or used saved seed that wasn't true.

<shrug>

Moneymaker's supposed to be F1 but I saved seed last year and got a whopper of a plant (fell over last week under the weight of fruit!) with the usual matte purple colouring, and as far as I can work out, they're not bitter at all so I'm pleased!

I'm doing veggie or turkey moussaka tonight.

moonbells

[umshamrock]

Tim (and everyone),

Maybe you can help me! I have several aubergine plants (eggplant which i grew from seed, and one un-named from the garden center). I have plants growing outside in the sun and growing in the greenhouse. I water the greenhouse everyday and the outside plants twice a week. I feed about once a week. The problem is ALL my flowers keep dropping off! This has been going on for months now...I thought it might be a pollination thing which is why i moved some plants outside. They definately like living outside as they are sturdy, healthy looking plants, but still no fruit to set.

Any ideas?

Thanks!
UM

[tim]

Wish I knew - I'm losing more flowers than ever this year.

[moonbells]

I was losing silly numbers early on, so started pollination by hand. The anthers you tap the ends of, and pollen comes out the tips only! I also noticed a lot of my flowers have the female parts very short, so tapping the flowers won't pollinate them as the pollen goes downwards and misses them totally.

Hence the hand pollination. Tap anthers with fingertip to get pollen on it, and then push upwards so that pollen ends up on the stigma wherever it is. Seems to have worked a treat with the moneymaker - the long violet is shy of flowering so only had one fruit!

It's also been more successful since some hoverflies flew into the conservatory... usually I evict them with a fishing net (!) but there were only 2-3 so I left them as there's enough flowers to feed them, and I'm now getting great pollination!

moonbells