In the past season, all the inflorescences of the eggplants in the greenhouse fell off, there was not a single one that set off fruits.
What could be the problem? Nearby, peppers, cucumbers, tomatoes were bearing fruit, and the eggplants were "capricious"!
I am not new to gardening. In the 2016 season, my eggplant bushes were simply hung with fruits. And this year it was a failure. Why could this happen?
Marina KURDYUKOVA
Eggplant from the Solanaceae family is the most heat-loving and fastidious plant in terms of growing conditions, and those who dare to grow it should feed its "capriciousness".
Temperature
Eggplant does not like temperature changes, is afraid of any, even the most insignificant, frosts, and has a negative attitude towards elevated temperatures.
The optimum temperature for eggplants should be between 25-28 degrees. A thermometer must be used to check the temperature. The temperature in the greenhouse should not go beyond the boundaries of 14 and 33 degrees - this will not only worsen fruit setting and growth, but can also lead to death.
Moisture
This culture is also demanding to the conditions of moisture - give it everything on time. Especially the requirements for eggplant increase during the fruiting period. If you do not please him, the ovaries may crumble, and the fruits will not appear at all. Eggplant is very picky about nutrition - what is wrong, there is a protest.
Eggplants are sensitive to watering, they are watered regularly with warm water (20-25 degrees). For their growth, high soil moisture is required, otherwise flowers and fruits may fall off.
The first watering is carried out after five days, then once a week, but you still need to look at the developing conditions. The basic rule of watering is that water should penetrate 20-25 cm into the depth of the soil. It is best to do this in the morning. When fruits appear, the frequency of watering is increased to 2 times a week, no less. 12 hours after watering, in order to preserve moisture and reduce its evaporation, it is necessary to loosen the ground by 4-6 cm in depth.
Batteries
Eggplant is picky about the content of nutrients in the soil, in addition, it requires regular feeding. Since, judging by your question, the rest of the crops grown nearby, "turned out", the soil was sufficiently filled with fertilizers. But it is likely that non-compliance with the number of dressings affected.
For a good development of eggplants, it is necessary to apply root dressing with complex fertilizers. They use solutions containing the main elements: ammonium nitrate - 5 g, superphosphate - 20 g, potassium chloride - 10 g. All this is dissolved in 8-10 liters of water and, together with irrigation, is applied per 1 sq. m beds.
You can also feed with infusions of mullein and poultry droppings, which are poured under the root and immediately mixed with the soil. At the same time, fresh manure should not be used.
In order to stimulate the leaf surface, you can spray it with a urea solution several times per season - 1 tbsp. l. on a bucket of water. It is better to do this in the evening or in inclement weather.
So take into account possible mistakes for the next season and follow the rules of agrotechnology for eggplant cultivation.
Agronomist Dmitry Ilyich DYAKONOV answered the reader's question
Below are other entries on the topic "Cottage and garden - do it yourself"
Many gardeners have a question: why do eggplant flowers fall in a greenhouse? This issue remains relevant, despite the large number of special products for the care of these plants. But their use will not make eggplants any less picky culture. Strong and robust seedlings do not always guarantee a high yield. The reason for this may be the falling of flowers and buds.
In addition to the named symptom, this deficiency is also manifested by the slow growth of the greenhouse plant. The solution to this problem is quite simple. To do this, it is enough to spray with a boric acid solution (5 g of substance per bucket of water). You can also apply special fertilizers with a high boron content. This measure is used more than three times a year.
Boric acid is a micronutrient fertilizer. Boron, which is part of this substance, is extremely necessary for eggplants, especially during the growing season. If you neglect this, you risk losing all the flowers and buds of this plant, which means you will lose your harvest.
But do not forget about the correct lighting, the regularity of watering and feeding.
Excess nitrogen
With its excess at the beginning of its development, the plant begins to actively shed flowers and buds. And if there is also poor lighting in the greenhouse, then this is definitely inevitable.
For this reason, it is not recommended to grow eggplants in the northern regions in principle. As for the first experiment, it is better to choose shade-resistant varieties, for example, "Robin Hood". This variety thrives in greenhouse conditions.
But it is not only large amounts of nitrogen that lead to color loss. An excess of any trace elements, in principle, entails the loss of inflorescences. Thus, the plant gets rid of them.
After that, ovaries will immediately appear.
Why eggplant buds fall off (video)
The result of poor care
Eggplant flowers can also fall off due to improper care.
That is why every gardener needs to know the basic rules for caring for eggplants:
- The optimum temperature in the greenhouse is about 22-26 ° C.
- Adequate soil moisture is required, but daily watering is unacceptable. Because of this, flowers and leaves wither and rot.
- Enough light, no shading. That is why the distance between the bushes should be maintained. Ideally, there should be about 70 cm between rows, 60 cm between plants.
- The soil needs to be loosened regularly, but this only applies to its surface layer.
- Eggplants need to be pinned, that is, leave only 5-6 fruits on one bush. At the end of the fruiting season, you need to remove all the flowers on the bushes yourself, which will allow the fruits to ripen faster.
- A sufficient amount of fertilizer is required, however, there should not be an excess. Manure or compost humus is ideal.
Also, flowers can fall off as a result of the vital activity of a spider mite. In addition to the loss of inflorescences, white dots can be seen on the sheets with the naked eye - this is a tick.
Attention should be paid to reducing the acidity of the soil, if necessary, with dolomite flour.
Compliance with the basic requirements for care will allow you to get a rich harvest as a result and a minimum of problems, which include falling flowers and buds. Remember that the quality of the crop depends on many factors, in particular, the quality of the seedlings and their age, the characteristics of the cultivation. By following the basic rules, you will ensure yourself a good harvest.
Why do eggplant flowers fall (video)
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In greenhouses on our backyards, we usually grow nightshade crops - tomatoes, eggplants, peppers. It has been established that their yield depends on the quality of the seedlings. Therefore, gardeners have mastered the rules of growing good seedlings. However, it often happens that a high yield is not obtained: beautiful strong plants do not bloom or bloom profusely, but the buds or ovaries crumble. Let's see what the reasons for such troubles are.
The most common reason why plants do not bloom or are very late in flowering is overfeeding young plants with nitrogen fertilizers. Plants just fatten. If the plants bloom normally, but the flowers dry up and crumble on them, then they simply did not pollinate for one reason or another.
Our pets are self-pollinating plants. Self-pollination occurs most successfully with active air movement, which is difficult in the greenhouse. Therefore, the greenhouses need to be aired, and the plants must be mechanically shaken, tapped on them in one way or another, so that pollen is shaken off the stamens and pollination occurs. In the sunlight, when you tap on a plant such as a tomato, you can see small clouds of flying pollen.
All these cultures are thermophilic, they require a certain temperature regime. Its violation leads to crop losses. Violation of the irrigation regime, illumination, nutrition leads to the same consequences. For example, with a lack of boron, plants lose flowers before the formation of an ovary - this is a common reason for all these plants. Plants just need to be fed with boron. This should be done reasonably, because there is evidence that boron is carcinogenic.
If the temperature in the greenhouse exceeds 30-32 degrees, the pollen becomes sterile, it will not fertilize the flower. Therefore, you need to carefully monitor the temperature. In the greenhouse, there must be a thermometer at a level of about 1 m from the ground.
Plants do not like it when they begin to deoxidize the soil during their growth. This must be done in advance.
However, it happens that pollinated flowers, rather large ovaries, and even unopened buds also fall off. Here, each culture has its own nuances, although in general the reasons are similar. Let's consider these reasons by culture.
Tomatoes
If tomato plants grow violently, but bloom late and very poorly, then you need to add sawdust to the soil, which will draw off excess nitrogen. This is the easiest option.
It happens that tomatoes bloom profusely, and we tap and shake them, but the ovaries are still missing. Most often this is due to a low temperature (below 16 degrees on average per day, when the pollen does not ripen), or too high (above 30 degrees). On hot days, you will have to ventilate or shade the greenhouse more often, and on cold days, on the contrary, insulate it by all available means.
Lack of light can also be the reason for the small number of ovaries on the plant. Do not plant too thickly. If they have thickened, it is better to rip out some of the plants: all the same, there will be little sense from them in terms of harvest. Better less is more, and the chances of getting sick in the remaining plants will be less.
Sometimes experienced gardeners compensate for the lack of light with potash dressings, giving them 1.5-2 times more than usual. But here it is important not to overfeed. This requires making sure that the soil was not initially saturated with potassium.
If the weather is cloudy during flowering, the fruit usually does not set well because the pollen becomes heavy and sticky. To improve fruit set, plants are sprayed with a 0.02% boric acid solution (2 g per 10 l of water). If the weather does not want to improve, repeat the spraying after 2-3 days. You can use Ovary or Bud preparations - according to the instructions.
If, on the contrary, the weather is hot, dry, pollen caught on the pistil of the flower may not germinate due to the dry air, even at temperatures below 25-30 degrees. Therefore, after shaking the plants, you need to water the soil under them a little to increase the humidity in the greenhouse - I usually do this procedure in the middle of the day.
If in the spring we hurried with sowing, fed well and highlighted the seedlings, then it can bloom long before the time when it can be planted in the ground. While waiting for the transplant, she will only have enough strength to feed her modest offspring. These are usually one or two small tomatoes. And until these one or two fruits ripen, the bush will not continue to grow and bloom. Therefore, before planting the plant in the ground, these fruits must be removed.
Often the flowers of modern hybrids are an inflorescence of several accrete simple flowers. Some of them are especially large and complex. This is usually the first flower in the cluster. Such flowers must be removed because they either dry out or they still do not form normal fruits.
Eggplant
Not all gardeners grow eggplant in the conditions of our region, because eggplant is a very demanding crop in terms of growing conditions. Slightly wrong, the plant sheds flowers, buds and ovaries. There are several reasons for this trouble. One of them is the very high sensitivity of the plant to temperature fluctuations: a lack of heat in the spring or extreme heat in the summer lead to such sad consequences. In cold summers, when the temperature drops to 15 ° C and below, growth stops, the flowers are not pollinated and simply fall off. This was observed last summer.
Eggplant is the most light-loving culture, the slightest shading - and the plant will drop a bud or flower. Therefore, it is impossible for a shadow to fall on it even from a neighboring plant.
Irregular watering leads to the same ending. Eggplant is a very moisture-loving plant (however, an excess of moisture in our climate is harmful to plants: they get sick). With a lack of soil moisture, the plants stop growing and shed their buds, flowers, young ovaries. And already grown eggplants grow ugly. Insufficiently nutritious soil leads to the same consequences - this, unfortunately, is the most frequent reason for the failure of our gardeners.
Soil moisture is one thing, air humidity is another. Here, the opposite is true: for successful pollination, dry weather is required, in wet weather the flowers do not pollinate and fall off, because the pollen in eggplant is heavy, and in wet weather it does not spill out of the anthers even when the plants are shaken. In such cases, I manually knock out the anthers and pollinate the pistils with pollen. In this way, it is possible to pollinate the flowers.
It is believed that the eggplant will tie the fruit only if the sun's rays fall on the flower. And, of course, eggplant sheds not only flowers, but even buds if a spider mite has settled on the plant. Therefore, you need to very carefully monitor the condition of the plant. Traces of this pest are clearly visible on the plant; it "decorates" the leaves with whitish dots. Fitoverm copes well with him.
Peppers
Peppers have their own requirements for the conditions of fruit setting. These requirements are very high, even whims. However, gardeners skillfully overcome them, as a result, almost all of us grow peppers. The reasons why plants shed flowers, buds, ovaries are as follows.
Lack of light. Plants, without further ado, shed flowers and ovaries. Because some of the flowers are not fertilized with a lack of light.
Excess light. In the summer, in July, peppers suffer greatly from excess light. It is good when they are shaded at noon from the sun with a shade, for example, from tomato bushes. You can throw a damp newspaper on top. If this is not done, plants may shed their buds.
The flowers of the peppers are bisexual; they require air movement for pollination. Therefore, every morning you need to ventilate the greenhouse. And this should be done as early as possible, do not wait for the greenhouse to be warmed up by the sun and the atmosphere of a bath will turn out in it. If a stream of cold air rushes into such a bath, the plant will go into shock. The result is a suspension in growth, dropping of the ovaries.
Soil moisture. The bulk of the roots of peppers in our greenhouses is located in the upper soil layer - 10-20 cm. This layer must be well wetted. Plants do not tolerate fluctuations in soil moisture in the root zone. With a lack of moisture, the bushes stop growing and shed the ovaries and fruits.
Air humidity. In hot weather, it is useful to refresh the bushes with a warm rain from a children's watering can, in the morning - over the leaves, and in the afternoon, in heat, lightly irrigate the ground so that the air is humidified. The peppers really like these procedures. It is not necessary to humidify the air too much, because at high humidity the pollen loses its viability.
Air temperature over 35 degrees is unacceptable. If the weather is very hot at the end of June-July, you can use this technique: cover the soil surface under the bushes with a layer of grass from the lawn. This layer protects the soil from drying out, from compaction, from overheating, moreover, it provides additional nutrition to the bushes. Before the end of June, it is not necessary to cover the soil with grass; you need to wait for the soil to warm up in the entire layer of root habitat.
In July, on warm nights, you can leave the greenhouse open at night. In general, my greenhouse is designed in such a way that the roof can be easily removed completely, which I do in July. In hot weather, day and night, the greenhouse is without a roof, so the temperature there does not rise above 30 degrees.
Lyubov Bobrovskaya, amateur gardener
In greenhouses on our backyards, we usually grow nightshade crops - tomatoes, eggplants, peppers. It has been established that their yield depends on the quality of the seedlings. Therefore, gardeners have mastered the rules of growing good seedlings. However, it often happens that a high yield is not obtained: beautiful strong plants do not bloom or bloom profusely, but the buds or ovaries crumble. Let's see what the reasons for such troubles are.
The most common reason why plants do not bloom or are very late in flowering is overfeeding young plants with nitrogen fertilizers. Plants just fatten. If the plants bloom normally, but the flowers dry up and crumble on them, then they simply did not pollinate for one reason or another.
Our pets are self-pollinating plants. Self-pollination occurs most successfully with active air movement, which is difficult in the greenhouse. Therefore, the greenhouses need to be aired, and the plants must be mechanically shaken, tapped on them in one way or another, so that pollen is shaken off the stamens and pollination occurs. In the sunlight, when you tap on a plant such as a tomato, you can see small clouds of flying pollen.
All these cultures are thermophilic, they require a certain temperature regime. Its violation leads to crop losses. Violation of the irrigation regime, illumination, nutrition leads to the same consequences. For example, with a lack of boron, plants lose flowers before the formation of an ovary - this is a common reason for all these plants. Plants just need to be fed with boron. This should be done reasonably, because there is evidence that boron is carcinogenic.
If the temperature in the greenhouse exceeds 30–32 degrees, the pollen becomes sterile, it will not fertilize the flower. Therefore, you need to carefully monitor the temperature. In the greenhouse, there must be a thermometer at a level of about 1 m from the ground.
Plants do not like it when they begin to deoxidize the soil during their growth. This must be done in advance.
However, it happens that pollinated flowers, rather large ovaries, and even unopened buds also fall off. Here, each culture has its own nuances, although in general the reasons are similar. Let's consider these reasons by culture.
Tomatoes
If tomato plants grow violently, but bloom late and very poorly, then you need to add sawdust to the soil, which will draw off excess nitrogen. This is the easiest option.
It happens that tomatoes bloom profusely, and we tap and shake them, but the ovaries are still missing. Most often this is due to a low temperature (below 16 degrees on average per day, when the pollen does not ripen), or too high (above 30 degrees). On hot days, you will have to ventilate or shade the greenhouse more often, and on cold days, on the contrary, insulate it by all available means.
Lack of light can also be the reason for the small number of ovaries on the plant. Do not plant too thickly. If they have thickened, it is better to rip out some of the plants: all the same, there will be little sense from them in terms of harvest. Better less is more, and the chances of getting sick in the remaining plants will be less.
Sometimes experienced gardeners compensate for the lack of light with potash dressings, giving them 1.5–2 times more than usual. But here it is important not to overfeed. This requires making sure that the soil was not initially saturated with potassium.
If the weather is cloudy during flowering, the fruit usually does not set well because the pollen becomes heavy and sticky. To improve fruit set, plants are sprayed with a 0.02% boric acid solution (2 g per 10 l of water). If the weather does not want to improve, repeat the spraying after 2-3 days. You can use Ovary or Bud preparations - according to the instructions.
If, on the contrary, the weather is hot, dry, pollen caught on the flower pistil may not germinate due to the dry air, even at temperatures below 25-30 degrees. Therefore, after shaking the plants, you need to water the soil under them a little to increase the humidity in the greenhouse - I usually do this procedure in the middle of the day.
If in the spring we hurried with sowing, fed well and highlighted the seedlings, then it can bloom long before the time when it can be planted in the ground. While waiting for the transplant, she will only have enough strength to feed her modest offspring. These are usually one or two small tomatoes. And until these one or two fruits ripen, the bush will not continue to grow and bloom. Therefore, before planting the plant in the ground, these fruits must be removed.
Often the flowers of modern hybrids are an inflorescence of several accrete simple flowers. Some of them are especially large and complex. This is usually the first flower in the cluster. Such flowers must be removed because they either dry out or they still do not form normal fruits.
Eggplant
Not all gardeners grow eggplant in the conditions of our region, because eggplant is a very demanding crop in terms of growing conditions. Slightly wrong, the plant sheds flowers, buds and ovaries. There are several reasons for this trouble. One of them is the very high sensitivity of the plant to temperature fluctuations: a lack of heat in spring or intense heat in summer lead to such sad consequences. In cold summers, when the temperature drops to 15 ° C and below, growth stops, the flowers are not pollinated and simply fall off. This was observed last summer.
Eggplant is the most light-loving culture, the slightest shading - and the plant will drop a bud or flower. Therefore, it is impossible for a shadow to fall on it even from a neighboring plant.
Irregular watering leads to the same ending. Eggplant is a very moisture-loving plant (however, an excess of moisture in our climate is harmful to plants: they get sick). With a lack of soil moisture, the plants stop growing and shed their buds, flowers, young ovaries. And already grown eggplants grow ugly. Insufficiently nutritious soil leads to the same consequences - this, unfortunately, is the most frequent reason for the failure of our gardeners.
Soil moisture is one thing, air humidity is another. Here, the opposite is true: for successful pollination, dry weather is required, in wet weather the flowers do not pollinate and fall off, because the pollen in eggplant is heavy, and in wet weather it does not spill out of the anthers even when the plants are shaken. In such cases, I manually knock out the anthers and pollinate the pistils with pollen. In this way, it is possible to pollinate the flowers.
It is believed that the eggplant will tie the fruit only if the sun's rays fall on the flower. And, of course, eggplant sheds not only flowers, but even buds if a spider mite has settled on the plant. Therefore, you need to very carefully monitor the condition of the plant. Traces of this pest are clearly visible on the plant; it "decorates" the leaves with whitish dots. Fitoverm copes well with him.
Peppers
Peppers have their own requirements for the conditions of fruit setting. These requirements are very high, even whims. However, gardeners skillfully overcome them, as a result, almost all of us grow peppers. The reasons why plants shed flowers, buds, ovaries are as follows.
Lack of light. Plants, without further ado, shed flowers and ovaries. Because some of the flowers are not fertilized with a lack of light.
Excess light. In the summer, in July, peppers suffer greatly from excess light. It is good when they are shaded at noon from the sun with a shade, for example, from tomato bushes. You can throw a damp newspaper on top. If this is not done, plants may shed their buds.
The flowers of the peppers are bisexual; they require air movement for pollination. Therefore, every morning you need to ventilate the greenhouse. And this should be done as early as possible, do not wait for the greenhouse to be warmed up by the sun and the atmosphere of a bath will turn out in it. If a stream of cold air rushes into such a bath, the plant will go into shock. The result is a suspension in growth, dropping of the ovaries.
Soil moisture. The bulk of the roots of peppers in our greenhouses is located in the upper soil layer - 10–20 cm. This layer must be well wetted. Plants do not tolerate fluctuations in soil moisture in the root zone. With a lack of moisture, the bushes stop growing and shed the ovaries and fruits.
Air humidity. In hot weather, it is useful to refresh the bushes with a warm rain from a children's watering can, in the morning - over the leaves, and in the afternoon, in heat, lightly irrigate the ground so that the air is humidified. The peppers really like these procedures. It is not necessary to humidify the air too much, because at high humidity the pollen loses its viability.
Air temperature over 35 degrees is unacceptable. If the weather is very hot at the end of June-July, you can use this technique: cover the soil surface under the bushes with a layer of grass from the lawn. This layer protects the soil from drying out, from compaction, from overheating, moreover, it provides additional nutrition to the bushes. Before the end of June, it is not necessary to cover the soil with grass; you need to wait for the soil to warm up in the entire layer of root habitat.
In July, on warm nights, you can leave the greenhouse open at night. In general, my greenhouse is designed in such a way that the roof can be easily removed completely, which I do in July. In hot weather, day and night, the greenhouse is without a roof, so the temperature there does not rise above 30 degrees.
Lyubov Bobrovskaya, amateur gardener
Vera is waiting for an answer from us to the question: "Why do the buds of greenhouse eggplants fall?"
Eggplants, peppers and tomatoes, as typical representatives of the nightshade, the plants are quite picky, and not always excellent seedlings guarantee a high yield. Buds, flowers or ovaries can simply crumble.
Common reasons
Solanaceae can be left without flowers due to boron deficiency. Its lack is manifested in the slow growth of greenhouse culture.
This problem is solved by spraying (5 g of boric acid per bucket of water) or by applying boric fertilizers to the soil (no more than once every three years).
You run the risk of losing flowers and buds if you improperly organize watering of nightshades, disturb the illumination and forget to feed them with micro and macro elements.
What do eggplants need
Not every gardener will take the liberty of growing eggplants just because of their capriciousness: the plant will get rid of buds, flowers and ovaries in an instant if you show negligence.
Eggplant has heavy pollen, and therefore this culture needs dry air for productive fertilization. At high humidity, pollen is not "knocked out" even with the recommended shaking of the plants.
Equip yourself with a thick paintbrush to deliver pollen to the pistils.
Temperature is another determining factor. Plant seedlings if:
- the soil warmed up to the depth of the palm up to +15 degrees Celsius;
- the air warmed up to +18.
The optimum temperature for eggplant growth is +25 ° C during the day and +15 ° C at night. If the plant is chilly, you will not wait for buds and ovaries.
However, the plant can slow down its growth, throw off its buds, prevent ovaries even in very hot microclimate, if the thermometer in the greenhouse "crawls" above +35 ° C.
Chaotic watering and, as a result, lack of moisture is another good reason for an eggplant to shed flowers, buds and delicate ovaries. "Little blue" are very fond of water, but you should not overdo it with watering: the plant can get sick.
Eggplant is a child of the sun, and many agronomists rightly believe that the ovary on this nightshade crop appears only when direct sunlight hits the flower.
Eggplants even suffer from the shadow cast by a neighbor in the garden, and if you don’t guess to provide the plant with light, it will show you its discarded buds in protest.
Also, do not forget that fallen flowers and buds can be "handiwork". Its destructive activity in the form of whitish dots on the leaves of eggplant is visible to the naked eye.