I have been getting conflicting information from various books about
whether or not eggplants are self fruitful. Some say that insects are
required for pollination and therefore much crossing among cultivars is
inevitable; others say the opposite and that you don't need to remove
floating row covers when the plants flower.

I want to make some crosses among eggplant varieties this year and need
to know for sure whether I must hand pollinate them or not. I'd prefer
to just plant the varieties quite close together and let the bugs do the
work for me though.

Where do I find authoritative information about this?

Thanks,

John

On Sun, 14 May 2006 13:44:02 -0400, John
wrote:

Where do I find authoritative information about this?

This US government site might fill the bill:

http://gears.tucson.ars.ag.gov/book/chap6/eggplant.html .

You will not like the answer. It is in the paragraph
"Inflorescence".