Every year I plant 6 eggplants and always get fruit. Some years lots, others not so much. This year, however, my plants had NO FLOWERS. Not just no fruit, but no flowers. The nearby squash, cukes, tomatoes and peppers had the expected fruit. Any ideas?

TIA
LAS

Did you use a high nitrogen fertilizer on them?

The same thing happened to me last year; I was kind of assuming it was because of our very cool summer. Or, it could also just be related to the variety...

Hmmm. Interesting question, LAS, thank you for asking!

Now you have me wondering! My eggplants didn't make any flowers this year either. The plants are still sitting out there, not one single flower all summer. I have no idea why, the plants are sitting right next to my most productive tomato plants; in a raised bed with plenty of organic matter. The leaves have the usual flea beetle damage.

I was thinking it was something I did, maybe I didn't plant them at the right time or maybe the seeds were bad... but now I'm rethinking. What could it be?

Hi Sandy! We did start out with a cool summer this year but it got hot right around July 1st, then really hot up until this week when we finally got some rain...

I agree . It could be variety....BUT ! Just maybe the plants aren't mature enough!!!
And dont give em to much nitrogen.
😎😎😎

It really is odd as eggplants should be easy.

Sometimes you can "stress" a plant into flowering by withdrawing water a little bit - i.e. don't let it entirely wilt, but if you've been watering every day, ease back to every second day? It's getting late in the season for this plant to be just beginning to flower, I think there's no harm in trying.

I was told elsewhere that eggplants are sensitive to sudden cold snaps. Weather has gotten much more variable in the last few years, and I know we had days of unseasonable cold (as well as unseasonable heat). I bet one of those snaps happened at just the wrong time.

Thanks for all your responses.

LAS

My eggplants have shown no buds as of today, August 22. So I googled "why do my eggplants have no flowers?" This thread was one of the hits. It's one I started in 2016. I have no memory that this problem happened before. This year the plants are big, but they went through a period of getting yellow around the veins. Research suggested that too much water could lower nitrogen absorbtion. Too much water was a possibility as we had a solid week of rain, we use black plastic for "mulch," and hubby loves to water. But I only found one hint that too much water could suppress flowers.

Any new ideas?

tia
las