Season after season of trying and failing to acquire eggplant in my Dallas garden impart me question , “ What am I doing wrong ? What is the mystery to successfully turn brinjal in North Texas ? ”
Everything deepen for me thanks to two simple techniques .
Secret #1: Growing eggplant with weekly applications ofdiatomaceous earth
Have you ever notice tiny fix set forth to appear on eggplant leaves in spring and former summer ? Does it look like someone took the cosmos ’s tiniest shotgun to your garden egg ? This is the destruction of the flea beetle . Flea mallet are so bantam that it ’s toilsome to see them with the naked center , but they look like tiny , jumping , black molecule . And despite their size of it , they can easily destroy a plant in a topic of just a few weeks . This is why many gardeners never reap a single eggplant .
Once flea beetles start to attack your aubergine , it is almost certain death for your industrial plant unless you interpose . The secret is to protect your plants long enough for the flea beetle to move on mid - summertime .
How do you stop flea beetles in their tracks?Diatomaceous Earth.
I have usedDiatomaceous Earthfor instinctive pest control in the garden for quite some sentence . It is OMRI lean for constitutive production , and well chance at any garden center . According to NPIC , diatomaceous earthis made from the fossilized remains of tiny , aquatic organism called diatoms , and it work by drying out the exo - skeletons of louse . It is particularly efficient at see flea beetles .
5lbs of 100 % earth freshwater diatomaceous earth with absolutely no additive or filler . Listed with the Organic Minerals Research Institute . pulverization dustrag include .
How to UseDiatomaceous Earth
Secret #2: Growing eggplant with heavy applications of organicfertilizer
Eggplants are heavy affluent . This year , the more that I fertilized , the more eggplants my plants acquire . They were peculiarly reactive to the episodic constitutive bloom - boostingfertilizer , but my mainfertilizerprogram was one smattering ofHappy Frog Tomato & Vegetable fertilizeronce a week .
If you hold up in a coolheaded climate where frequentwateringis less necessary , you might not need weekly app , but this agenda worked curiosity for grow mad apple in ourZone 8 conditionsthat had mewateringdaily , July through September .
With those two dewy-eyed changes to my approach I was harvesting eggplant continuously through the summertime up until the beginning of November . The flora just would n’t quit .
FAQ
Q : Why does my bag of DE say “ not for function as an insecticide”?A : I had the same enquiry . turn out this is has to do with labeling restriction . DE is silica , and it ’s not something that you need to inhale in expectant amounts . ( rough-cut sensory faculty . ) NPIC has a sound account : “ When up to 2 % is contribute to intellectual nourishment , diatomaceous earthis generally recognized as secure by the US Food & Drug Administration . However , pest control uses typically affect circularise a more concentrated product within a home . In this scenario , breathe in the dust may be of greater vexation . Also , higher concentrations can mean higher risk if someone is exposed . Without the benefits of a pesticidelabel , many unknowns stay for the ‘ intellectual nourishment grade ’ user . However , you may always take step to turn down your endangerment by minimizing exposure . ”
Bottomline : just try not to inhale the material when you ’re apply it . It never vex me when I use it .
Q : Does DE harm good louse like bees?A : The jury is still out on this one . There ’s a summary of the issue over atPlanet Naturalthat is well - reasoned . When I apply DE , I do my honorable to keep it on the leaves and off of any blossoms . I find comfortable using it free-base on my experience and knowing that the alternate constitutional insect treatments are MORE harmful to bees .
Summary
By staying on top of flea beetles and giving your plant the proper sustenance , growing eggplant bush in North Texas is easy , fun , and rewarding .
meter to start compiling eggplant formula !
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