Eating eggplant?
 

I've got five "Black Beauty" eggplants in various plots
around the yard. Four of them are doing fine but one is
apparently being eaten by bugs of some sort. (I don't
*think* it's rabbits because some of the holes in the
leaves appear in the middle, but we DO have a fine crop
of bunnies this year.)

I don't see any bugs, when I look. Anybody else have
this problem? What can I do to keep this eggplant alive?
(I am very reluctant to use insecticides but will if
needed.) TIA.


_______________________________________________
Ken Kuzenski AC4RD ken . kuzenski at duke .edu
_______________________________________________
All disclaimers apply, see? www.duke.edu/~kuzen001

I don't know what you have, but I have had the same problem with a lot of
different types of plants, and I bought a spray that was quoted as safe to
use right up until harvest, although not to be used over 3 times a season.
It worked fine and the holes quit appearing on the leaves and the plants did
fine. I dont remember what it was, but I bought it at Wal-Mart.

Dwayne





wrote in message
...

I've got five "Black Beauty" eggplants in various plots
around the yard. Four of them are doing fine but one is
apparently being eaten by bugs of some sort. (I don't
*think* it's rabbits because some of the holes in the
leaves appear in the middle, but we DO have a fine crop
of bunnies this year.)

I don't see any bugs, when I look. Anybody else have
this problem? What can I do to keep this eggplant alive?
(I am very reluctant to use insecticides but will if
needed.) TIA.


_______________________________________________
Ken Kuzenski AC4RD ken . kuzenski at duke .edu
_______________________________________________
All disclaimers apply, see? www.duke.edu/~kuzen001

wrote in message
...

I've got five "Black Beauty" eggplants in various plots
around the yard. Four of them are doing fine but one is
apparently being eaten by bugs of some sort. (I don't
*think* it's rabbits because some of the holes in the
leaves appear in the middle, but we DO have a fine crop
of bunnies this year.)

I don't see any bugs, when I look. Anybody else have
this problem? What can I do to keep this eggplant alive?
(I am very reluctant to use insecticides but will if
needed.) TIA.


_______________________________________________
Ken Kuzenski AC4RD ken . kuzenski at duke .edu
_______________________________________________
All disclaimers apply, see? www.duke.edu/~kuzen001

Last year someone mentioned Diatomaceous Earth and it worked wonderfully
on most of my garden plants.
I also used it in my house because it is so safe.

Jo

Dwayne wrote:
I don't know what you have, but I have had the same problem with a lot of
different types of plants, and I bought a spray that was quoted as safe to
use right up until harvest, although not to be used over 3 times a season.
It worked fine and the holes quit appearing on the leaves and the plants did
fine. I dont remember what it was, but I bought it at Wal-Mart.

Dwayne





wrote in message
...

I've got five "Black Beauty" eggplants in various plots
around the yard. Four of them are doing fine but one is
apparently being eaten by bugs of some sort. (I don't
*think* it's rabbits because some of the holes in the
leaves appear in the middle, but we DO have a fine crop
of bunnies this year.)

I don't see any bugs, when I look. Anybody else have
this problem? What can I do to keep this eggplant alive?
(I am very reluctant to use insecticides but will if
needed.) TIA.


______________________________________________ _
Ken Kuzenski AC4RD ken . kuzenski at duke .edu
______________________________________________ _
All disclaimers apply, see? www.duke.edu/~kuzen001




If the holes are tiny, making a nice lace of the leaves, they are most
likely flea beetles. Although I don't remember ever seeing them this
early before.....
Good luck,
Eileen

In article , wrote:

I've got five "Black Beauty" eggplants in various plots
around the yard. Four of them are doing fine but one is
apparently being eaten by bugs of some sort.

Eggplant plants outside already? `Average' lost frost date around here
is still a week away.

Flea beetles are the problem I usually have with eggplant. Are the
holes small and scattered throughout the leaves? The beetles themselves
are small and leap away when you go in to look for them. Here is a
good set of photos (the bottom one looks like eggplant):

http://www.ces.ncsu.edu/chatham/ag/S...leabeetle.html

Flea beetles can be tough to get rid of. Pyrethrin might knock them back
enough. You might also consider putting a floating row cover over the
other eggplants to protect them if they are not yet bothered (just so
long as you are not trapping the flea beetles inside.). Just take the
cover off when the beetles are less of a problem, but before you need
the flowers fertilized.

--
Steve

I haven't dared set out my plants yet. Last frost date April 15th.
I always have eggplants and always get the flea beetles. I find that
a light sprinkling of Sevin dust works, every month or so. I put the
dust into a nylon stocking, and just shake it on the plants. This
creates a very light, well-dispersed layer of dust.
When I go in the garden daily, I just squish them between my thumb and
finger. I obviously can't get them all, but I do get a LOT every day.
I try to use as little poisons as possible.
Kira

Kira Dirlik !! wrote:
I haven't dared set out my plants yet. Last frost date April 15th.

We've been over this before.

FWIW, I've got some lovely tomato plants 18" tall with nice
big flowering buds on them. If a late frost HAD killed them,
I'd have planted more. As it is, I've got a nice start on
the season.



_______________________________________________
Ken Kuzenski AC4RD ken . kuzenski at duke .edu
_______________________________________________
All disclaimers apply, see? www.duke.edu/~kuzen001

The 3 day forcast is fairly reliable. No frost in sight. Maybe a couple days
of cold rain.

mpm


In article , wrote:
Kira Dirlik !! wrote:
I haven't dared set out my plants yet. Last frost date April 15th.

We've been over this before.

FWIW, I've got some lovely tomato plants 18" tall with nice
big flowering buds on them. If a late frost HAD killed them,
I'd have planted more. As it is, I've got a nice start on
the season.



_______________________________________________
Ken Kuzenski AC4RD ken . kuzenski at duke .edu
_______________________________________________
All disclaimers apply, see? www.duke.edu/~kuzen001

On 2005-04-12, wrote:
Kira Dirlik !! wrote:
I haven't dared set out my plants yet. Last frost date April 15th.

We've been over this before.

FWIW, I've got some lovely tomato plants 18" tall with nice
big flowering buds on them. If a late frost HAD killed them,
I'd have planted more. As it is, I've got a nice start on
the season.


Don't count your tomatoes before they're ripe. :-)

There can be many a cool wet day before mid-may and lots can happen.

Hope you get to slice on early though.


_______________________________________________
Ken Kuzenski AC4RD ken . kuzenski at duke .edu
_______________________________________________
All disclaimers apply, see? www.duke.edu/~kuzen001



--
Wes Dukes (wdukes.pobox@com) Swap the . and the @ to email me please.

is a garbage address.

wrote:
Kira Dirlik !! wrote:

I haven't dared set out my plants yet. Last frost date April 15th.


We've been over this before.

FWIW, I've got some lovely tomato plants 18" tall with nice
big flowering buds on them. If a late frost HAD killed them,
I'd have planted more. As it is, I've got a nice start on
the season.



_______________________________________________
Ken Kuzenski AC4RD ken . kuzenski at duke .edu
_______________________________________________
All disclaimers apply, see? www.duke.edu/~kuzen001


My experience with planting tomatos and peppers before the ground is
good and warm is that they seem to go into a dormant stage and actually
take longer to grow and produce fruit than plants put in the ground
after it has warmed up. I've done this several times, put some of my
tomatos and peppers in early, put plants started from same seeds at same
time in much later after the ground is warm, and the ones put in later
produce much earlier than the ones put in first. You may wonder why I'd
do it more than once. I like to experiment. Of course this is my
experience, yours certainly may be different.
Eileen

On Tue, 12 Apr 2005 12:55:09 -0400, E Gregory
wrote:

My experience with planting tomatos and peppers before the ground is
good and warm is that they seem to go into a dormant stage and actually
take longer to grow and produce fruit than plants put in the ground
after it has warmed up. I've done this several times, put some of my
tomatos and peppers in early, put plants started from same seeds at same
time in much later after the ground is warm, and the ones put in later
produce much earlier than the ones put in first. You may wonder why I'd
do it more than once. I like to experiment. Of course this is my
experience, yours certainly may be different.
Eileen

I have plenty of seedlings, so a few days ago I put in 3 tomatoes.
It'll be fun to try your experiment, Eileen, when I put in the rest,
later.
Here is another experiment. Summer of 2003 I had an extra Cuban
yellow pepper plant (longish, bell pepper sized, fleshy) and just kept
it in the pot in the house all year. Summer of 2004 I planted it in
the garden. It became a huge bush packed with leaves. Finally it
produced tiny, bright red peppers, size of almonds, with little flesh.
For the heck of it I kept seeds and now have five "Bizarro Peppers"
coming up. It is going to be fun to see what these plants produce.
Kira

Kira Dirlik wrote:

On Tue, 12 Apr 2005 12:55:09 -0400, E Gregory
wrote:


My experience with planting tomatos and peppers before the ground is
good and warm is that they seem to go into a dormant stage and actually
take longer to grow and produce fruit than plants put in the ground
after it has warmed up. I've done this several times, put some of my
tomatos and peppers in early, put plants started from same seeds at same
time in much later after the ground is warm, and the ones put in later
produce much earlier than the ones put in first. You may wonder why I'd
do it more than once. I like to experiment. Of course this is my
experience, yours certainly may be different.
Eileen


I have plenty of seedlings, so a few days ago I put in 3 tomatoes.
It'll be fun to try your experiment, Eileen, when I put in the rest,
later.
Here is another experiment. Summer of 2003 I had an extra Cuban
yellow pepper plant (longish, bell pepper sized, fleshy) and just kept
it in the pot in the house all year. Summer of 2004 I planted it in
the garden. It became a huge bush packed with leaves. Finally it
produced tiny, bright red peppers, size of almonds, with little flesh.
For the heck of it I kept seeds and now have five "Bizarro Peppers"
coming up. It is going to be fun to see what these plants produce.
Kira

You sound like my kind of gardener, very experimental! Should be
interesting!
Eileen

I just read somewhere about using diatomaceous earth for flea beetles. It is
great stuff & totally safe.

FWIW - It is actually the skeletons of Diatoms, which I believe are like
plankton. The skeletons are so sharp that they actually scrape the
protective coating from the insects' exoskeleton. This causes them to
dehydrate & die. No poison involved.

Brian
"Jo" wrote in message
om...

wrote in message
...

I've got five "Black Beauty" eggplants in various plots
around the yard. Four of them are doing fine but one is
apparently being eaten by bugs of some sort. (I don't
*think* it's rabbits because some of the holes in the
leaves appear in the middle, but we DO have a fine crop
of bunnies this year.)

I don't see any bugs, when I look. Anybody else have
this problem? What can I do to keep this eggplant alive?
(I am very reluctant to use insecticides but will if
needed.) TIA.


_______________________________________________
Ken Kuzenski AC4RD ken . kuzenski at duke .edu
_______________________________________________
All disclaimers apply, see? www.duke.edu/~kuzen001

Last year someone mentioned Diatomaceous Earth and it worked wonderfully
on most of my garden plants.
I also used it in my house because it is so safe.

Jo