Black Beauty Eggplant Woes

[SQWIB]

For the last several years I have been growing Black Beauty Eggplants with great success.

This year I have gotten one off of 5 plants. I am growing them in raised beds, hugelkultur beds and Air Pruning Grow bags.
They all seccumbed to the same rotting issue. It looks like some kind of Blossom end rot but doesnt necessarily start at the blossom end.
I am also growing Rosa Bianca and Listada Di Gandia that don't seem to be affected.

The plants look very healthy other than a few leaf blemishes here and there,
This one is in between a Listad di Gandia and a Rosa Bianca in the raised bed.


Some flowers die like this but most if pollinated will set fruit and look great.





The Listada plants are doing OK, this does have sonme type of scarring but other than that, no problems with these plants.


The rosa Biancas also look off a bit but the fruit is good, these three plants are side by side.



This one I cut down for closer inspection. I will be tearing out another one and checking the roots.



Now for the fruit












What has me baffled is that the issues is with only the Black Beauties and to make it more baffling, the Black Beauties are all over the yard in different areas.
The only thing I did different this year is I decided to add some 10-10-10 to everything, I usually only ad fertz to the potted plants.
I also added ash this year but have added that in the past in similar quantities, very minute, maybe 3 or 4 cups per 3' x10' bed.


2018









2017







This has pretty much been the norm the last three years.

Another thing I ruled out is bad seeds, my Moms eggplants are kicking butt!

[applestar]

My immediate thought was — those bulls eye patterns remind me of Early Blight .... but I’ll check around — that was my first thought. And as you said, the leaves don’t seem to have too much wrong with them and they should be affected before the leaves.

My 2nd immediate thought was stinkbugs. Are you seeing them and/or their eggs?

[applestar]

OK I think I found it — several photos in the article

Eggplant | Diseases and Pests, Description, Uses, Propagation
https://plantvillage.psu.edu/topics/eggplant/infos

Phomopsis fruit rot Phomopsis vexans

[images]
Phomopsis fruit rot lesion on eggplant

Symptoms
Circular brown spots with lighter centers on fruits; infested leaves may turn yellow and drop from plant; dark cankers may form on stems; symptoms on fruit begin as pale sunken areas which are oval in shape, these area grow bigger and become depressed; lesions may coalesce to cover all or most of the fruit

Cause
Fungus

Comments
Fungus survives in crop debris in the soil; emergence of the disease if favored by hot, humid weather conditions; fungus spreads primarily by splashing water

Management
Destroy infected plant material to reduce levels of inoculum; plant only disease free seed and clean transplants; applications of appropriate fungicides may be required to control the disease

...it IS carried in seeds, but maybe your mom’s garden has less favorable conditions for the disease to proliferate?


...didn’t you mention you have sous-vide machine? You could pasteurize your saved seeds for less chance of seed-borne diseases with that. (I want one! )

[gumbo2176]

Welcome to the world of gardening. I've had so many similar stories about great crops for a few years on end, and then Zip, nada, nothing when growing them again the next season.

Even though I try, I really don't have much success with the larger slicing tomatoes but do OK with the smaller grape, Roma and cherry varieties. The larger varieties usually succumb to disease and pests, especially when the weather down my way heats up and in accompanied by high humidity. I was late getting my tomatoes, and most other things, in my garden this year due to lots of rain in the late fall/early spring.

I have several Ichiban eggplants in my garden right now and they are producing nicely, but I believe with the heat we are currently experiencing, I'm starting to see some sun scald on the outer skins. It's been in the mid 90's with 60-75% humidity daily for a heat index between 110-115 for days now.

I see you're up in PA. so if the plants make it past the summer, they just may pick back up in the early fall.

[applestar]

...so are you thinking sun scald on these eggplants? I had not thought of that.

[SQWIB]

...so are you thinking sun scald on these eggplants? I had not thought of that.

Its definitely not sun scald, one of my plants is in a less than favorable area for sun.

[pepperhead212]

Fortunately, KOW, I have never seen anything like this on my eggplants, but I haven't grown black beauty since back in the 90s. And the only heat problem I have is blossom drop - most stop producing when it gets to mid-90s. I'm curious to see what this is, if you ever figure it out for sure.

@apple - how long, and at what temp would you "pasteurize" the seeds? Couldn't you put the seeds in an enclosed container, and put it into a dehydrator, with an adjustable thermostat?

[SQWIB]

My immediate thought was — those bulls eye patterns remind me of Early Blight .... but I’ll check around — that was my first thought. And as you said, the leaves don’t seem to have too much wrong with them and they should be affected before the leaves.

My 2nd immediate thought was stinkbugs. Are you seeing them and/or their eggs?

I saw one on my melons but thought it was a squash bug.
I don't believe they are stink bugs because my maters are unaffected as well as my other eggplants.

I kept thinking it was something I done to the soil but the plants are really healthy.

This is Sept 4th last year and the BB plants were 5' tall.

[applestar]

@apple - how long, and at what temp would you "pasteurize" the seeds? Couldn't you put the seeds in an enclosed container, and put it into a dehydrator, with an adjustable thermostat?

This is where I read about hot water treating with sous vide. Not sure about dehydrator — May dry out and kill the seeds? They need a certain % residual moisture content.

Vegetable Diseases Cornell
https://vegetablemdonline.ppath.cornell. ... tment.html


While hot-water seed treatment can be done effectively on a stovetop, it is much better to use a precision water bath or sous vide machine. The temperature of water for treating seed varies from 118 to 125 F, depending on the crop, and the treatment period likewise varies from 15 to 30 minutes. Pre-heating seed at 100 F is recommended.

Table 1. Hot-Water Seed Treatment Protocols
https://vegetablemdonline.ppath.cornell. ... tocols.pdf

[pepperhead212]

@apple - I was thinking of putting them in an enclosed container, in water, if that's what they recommend. A small jar, vial, or foodsaver pack - the ideal thing for meats, in a sous vide.

However, I don't see how this low temp kills that many of those pathogens on the seeds.

[SQWIB]

@apple - I was thinking of putting them in an enclosed container, in water, if that's what they recommend. A small jar, vial, or foodsaver pack - the ideal thing for meats, in a sous vide.

However, I don't see how this low temp kills that many of those pathogens on the seeds.

I don't know about seeds but for food, the key is time and temperature, for example you can sous vide chicken at 135°F for 70 minutes to be safe or 165°F for 0 minutes.
Not to get too technical but the thickness of the meat can also play part in the sous vide safe temp to cook meat at.

Wouldn't hydrogen peroxide be a safer bet, just dip the seed, dry and store?

[applestar]

Heat treating in waterbath kills pathogens IN the seeds not just on the outer surface like bleach treatment or fermentation.

The article said to use something “porous” — a photo seems to show seeds stapled closed in what looks to me like teabags — I already have paper and mesh fabric fillable teabags, so that’s what I would probably use. I know someone who used wire mesh closable tea strainers for small batches (she had to experiment to find ones that worked well because some cheap ones let smaller cherry tomato seeds slip out. I have a twist-close pierced stainless teaball that might work.....

@pepperhead, I imagine you could use water-filled containers — maybe 4 oz jelly jar for each batch of seeds — as long as your dehydrator has precise temperature control and doesn’t deviate too much. I’m not sure how closely accurate they are, but you have one of those higher end Excalibur or something, right? So maybe it will be OK. They like the sous vide because of the stirring and electronic temp control that makes them pretty accurate and evenly maintains within specific lower temperature pasteurization range required for food safety, which makes it ideal for this particular application.


Pasteurizing is an interesting concept because you get used to the idea of sterilizing at high temperature and/or pressure — autoclave comes to mind. But in mushroom cultivation pasteurizing the substrate at lower temperature for a long time is supposed to be better than pressure canner sterilizing —- let me see, I think it’s because it keeps some beneficial substances and organisms alive or something — huh, my memory is fuzzy on this one — could it be enzymes or vitamins? Maybe some really bad stuff won’t get killed even at high temps and there’s no checks or balances or something. It’s still living as opposed to sterile - dead. And obviously, we don’t want to KILL the seeds.

...Pasteurized milk is supposed to be more nutritious than the UHT (ultra-high temperature) processed milk, and cheese and yogurt can’t be made with UHT milk...

...Pasteurized lacto-fermented food like pickles is said to taste better than water bath or pressure canned pickles. Oh! Just had an idea — does one of those electronically controlled pots — Instant Pot? — handle precise temperature control at these lower temps? I seem to remember they have yogurt culturing and bread proofing setting....? (this is another kitchen wishlist item...) ...but they don’t stir on their own do they?

[pepperhead212]

Good idea about the IP, apple. Not sure what the temps are that they keep it at for those things - have to open a jar and check it when finished.

I have an Excalibur dehydrator, and that thing fluctuates very little, once the temp is reached. I put a couple of those old dial thermometers in there, when I first got it, and watched the temps as I increased the temp on the thermostat, and it was right on.

[imafan26]

The scarring is likely from thrips. They feed on the young fruits when they are still flowers. The scars appear as the fruit grows. You will need to spray the flowers at the right time to control them. Otherwise, the fruit is still edible as longs as you cut out the scar parts and it is not marketable.

Black Beauty is an heirloom eggplant. It has limited disease resistance. The rings look like tomato spotted wilt virus. The other eggplant that are not infected are probably more resistant. Virus plants need to be eliminated. You should avoid touching the plant and then touching something else. Virus can be spread by tools, soil, seed, and hands. Tomatoes, peppers, and eggplant are related so they share the same diseases and some may be asymptomatic carriers. The disease is probably spread by thrips.


https://vegetableguide.usu.edu/diseases ... wilt-virus
Phomosis te other most common fruit rot you will see. It usually shows up as a large area of necrosis.
https://amarillo.tamu.edu/files/2010/11 ... lantOP.pdf
https://www.plantwise.org/knowledgebank ... er%20gourd.
https://ipm.ucanr.edu/PMG/r211100611.html