My eggplant is flowering gorgeously right now, 3-4 flowers at each little node, a nice well balanced plant.
I’ve been gently pollinating by hand (I get some hover flies but rarely bees — it’s in a pot) and occasionally the entire ring of petals fall off right around the fruit setting stage. The pistil remains in the fruit, it’s simply the petals and stamen that fall off.
Is this an issue? Should I hand pollinate as soon as I see the early bloom and when the petals begin to shrivel up, leave it alone? Does anyone have a good description of what I can look for when the pollination has successfully occurred? It’s easy with my cukes, because the female flowers shrivel so fast and the cuke swells up so fast instead of dying it’s easy, but these little eggplants (about 5 in my pots) are so incredibly healthy and looking to be incredible high producers that I want to maximize output. My early eggplant crops I put in the ground in early spring were very poor producers for a variety of reasons so just looking to nanny these plants during this stage.
Any tips appreciated, regarding this or eggplants in general. Thank you!
I’ve been gently pollinating by hand (I get some hover flies but rarely bees — it’s in a pot) and occasionally the entire ring of petals fall off right around the fruit setting stage. The pistil remains in the fruit, it’s simply the petals and stamen that fall off.
Is this an issue? Should I hand pollinate as soon as I see the early bloom and when the petals begin to shrivel up, leave it alone? Does anyone have a good description of what I can look for when the pollination has successfully occurred? It’s easy with my cukes, because the female flowers shrivel so fast and the cuke swells up so fast instead of dying it’s easy, but these little eggplants (about 5 in my pots) are so incredibly healthy and looking to be incredible high producers that I want to maximize output. My early eggplant crops I put in the ground in early spring were very poor producers for a variety of reasons so just looking to nanny these plants during this stage.
Any tips appreciated, regarding this or eggplants in general. Thank you!