Eggplants like warmth and light. When growing indoors, make sure that they get about 12 to 14 hours of light. Temperatures ideally should be 75 to 85F during the day, and not below 65F at night. A 5-gallon pot is better for the plant–each needs at least about a square foot of growing space in the container for the roots. When flowers do form, you’ll need to shake the plant daily to help the pollen fall from anther to pistil in each flower. You can try pinching the tips of the plant to encourage bushiness; more branches on the plant means more potential for flowers. However, if you are planning to repot, perhaps wait to pinch until later, after the plant has re-established itself.

In Zone 9, the climate is mild so you do have a long planting season, but the best range for eggplants is February through July.

If the leaves are falling off of a plant (almost any plant) then it is dying. At least, it is not thriving. It is not getting something: proper soil, including pH and drainage quality? water? sunlight? and heat (not the same as sunlight)? See above for guidance on these points.

You ask in the headline if something is eating your plants…it doesn’t sound like it. Pests seldom go for leaves; like us, they want the good stuff—the produce.

Hi Annette,

By the terminal growth point, we mean the central point on a plant from which new shoots and leaves grow. Look for the newest (and usually smallest) leaves at the center of the plant, and pinch the bud forming there. That action should help the plant to grow multiple stems and to use more energy to grow outwards instead of upwards. We hope this helps!

Eggplants will do best when planted 2 feet apart within a row, with rows spaced 3 feet apart. Good luck and happy gardening!

Eggplants and their kin (peppers and tomatoes) are quite susceptible to fluctuations in temperature, so if you’ve been having particularly cool nights (below 55°F) or particularly hot days (above 95°F), this could have caused the lack of fruiting. Try covering your plants on cold nights and even setting up a beach umbrella on extremely hot and sunny days. (Don’t use the umbrella for too long, as the plant will not thrive in the shade.) The problem could also be stemming from a lack of water, so if it’s been dry, put down some mulch to hold in moisture. A less likely possibility is a lack of pollination. Have you observed many bees flying around your eggplants? If not, this could be the cause of your fruitlessness. You can pollinate the flowers yourself by simply give the plant a light shake to dislodge and spread the pollen within the flowers.

Eggplant likes to be toasty warm, so make sure it is getting enough sun. If you are still having cool-ish weather, bring the pot inside at night. Be sure that your soil has a pH of 5.8 to 6.5. Give it moderate amounts of 5–10–10 fertilizer, and provide adequate moisture, watering to a depth of 6 inches as needed.

It depends if you’re growing eggplant in flats to transplant or if you’re growing eggplant in a big pots. It sounds like the latter. For pots or containers, you don’t really use “soil.” It’s best to use a potting mix of 50% peat and 50% perlite. Grow one plant in a 5-pound container with a minimum “soil” depth of 12 to 16 inches. Give the plants a liquid plant food (any general vegetable plant food) every two weeks. See watering information and more plant care tips above.

You want to wait until the soil is warm (in the 60s°F), and all danger or frost has passed. You can get a rough estimate of your last frost date here : http://www.almanac.com/tool/frost-dates-calculator . Keep an eye on local weather forecasts, too. If you put the seedlings in cold ground they’ll die. See above: You want these to be 3 to 4 inches tall, too.