I was so thrilled to find out that my eggplants were finally fruiting. My previous crop of Turkish Eggplants, which seeds I bought from an online seed seller based in the US, failed to produce any fruit, though I had helped with hand pollination. It seemed that all my effort was a total failure.
Scratching my head, I wondered what's going wrong. Was it the heat? Well, in tropical country like Indonesia we only 2 have seasons, which usually divide the all-year-season into rainy season from Oct-Mar and hot season/summer from Apr-Sep, but blame it on global warming the season has been enigmatic. From last December up to March, where the rainfall should still be high, we were struck with drought and high temperature up to 37-38°C (98-100°F). During this period, many of my plants were struggling to survive because at some point during the hottest temperature of the day, the sun was scorching. Many of my tomato plants got sick and didn't make it. And that also makes my chilli plants stop fruiting because the flowers refused to produce any pollen. And I suspected that it was the reason behind my failure with Turkish eggplants.
As far as I know eggplants is usually self-fertile which means the blooms have male and female parts and thus self-pollinating. Though wind, insects and hand pollination can also help to enhance the process.
This one is a regular purple eggplants, which seeds were purchased by my student's mother from her trip to China. Thus, I don't know whether it's heirloom or hybrid, since the packet information was given in Chinese. But just like its nature, it's very easy to plant and the germination rate is high. It was germinated in only several days.
I noticed that it has two kinds of blooms, males and self-fertiles. I did give them a hand pollination but I believe the nature has its share in it. My first harvest was 4 moderate size eggplants. And now, I saw 3-4 eggplants are in the making.
