You're welcome DDD! It's cool that you're excited about your eggplant again. Yep, they are self-pollinating like tomatoes. I like the paint brush method. Just lightly brush inside of the flower with a soft paint brush. You should be able to see pollen collecting on the tip of the brush, as you go from flower to flower. I have tons of unused, soft bristled brushes for painting ceramic figurines, so I use one of those whenever needed.
Sounds easy enough....if it is, Im gonna have to kick my own butt a little because I should've looked into this last year when I first started having the problem. I wrote it off as heat stress and being in Az, there's really no way around that...at least that I can afford right now. I have plenty of paint brushes too since I started making seed in my ganja plants...so I can get this done with no problem! Thank you again.
That's along the lines of what I was wondering about when I mentioned using the steeped kelp tea and just having it on stand by to use throughout the season. Maybe adding enough protekt to the mix would help out? In that case, buying some agsil would be a good move for me too.
From the garden to the table! Toscana soup....made with fresh kale picked from the garden today. So rewarding!
Honestly, I've never thought to male slaw using kale! I've been thinking of things to make with it. My family loves the soup. I thought about making a salad with it but I backed off because the kale has a much more bitter taste than lettuce. Thanks for that idea!
Yeah man, I took a gamble planting some things early this year and there was one day in april where we got frost and it definitely hurt. Basil, Lemonbalm, Tomatoes, and Oregano all had brown tops. I'd say about 90% recovered, though, luckily.
Get a juicer. I got this one when it was on sale for $212: http://www.amazon.com/Omega-J8006-Nutrition-Center-Juicer/dp/B001L7OIVI/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1400639845&sr=8-1&keywords=omega+juicer One of the best things I ever bought. Kills me whenever I throw out pulp knowing its perfect for the worm or compost bin. I have neither.
Some pictures I put in my Glog on the pepper forum. These were on 3-16-14 of some of the young super-hot capsicum family of peppers: This was 4-8-14: Some others I started including a couple of tomatoes on 5-5-14:
We decided last year that mowing the front lawn was a waste of gas and effort. Now the chickens own the front yard, I dumped 4 big heaping wheelbarrow loads of weeds in there 2 days ago. They ate them right up. There are some ducks too. To hell with having grass, all its good for is the dogs a place to poop and they do that out back.
LOL Robin in his gardening speedo. LOL I am growing an extra garden at my neighbors yard this year and the neighbor lady is a sweetheart and the lady on the other side of her is a sweetheart. My woman said I have to wear clothes to leave out property. No gardening in my tight skimpy boxers. I know those gals want some of this.
3d, another option that might really help the eggplant pollination will be to plant some assorted flowers nearby. Attracting various pollinators is always a good thing. I'm going to plan on doing this. J
Here is a really cool and quite handy guide in which you can input your own specific zip code and it will show which plants are best to plant to attract pollinators! Pollinator.org - http://www.pollinator.org/guides.htm j