Hi, John, We’ll take a stab at this: Many eggplant varieties have prickly thorns on the stem and calyx (the whorl that encases the flower). That may be the prickliness you experience. Our best hunch about the flowers falling off is that something is interfering with the plant’s fruit production—and sources back that up: Eggplant flowers fall off and fail to produce fruit (eggplants) when 1) they have not had enough water 2) they were not pollinated. Deep and infrequent watering is best. Wind can interfere with pollination; if you can shelter the plants a bit (in place), try that. We are also thinking that there has been intense heat across many parts of the country this summer. High heat sometimes causes vege flowers to fall off of plants before pollination/setting fruit and that might be the case here. Consider it too much of a good thing!
Hi, John, We’ll take a stab at this: Many eggplant varieties have prickly thorns on the stem and calyx (the whorl that encases the flower). That may be the prickliness you experience. Our best hunch about the flowers falling off is that something is interfering with the plant’s fruit production—and sources back that up: Eggplant flowers fall off and fail to produce fruit (eggplants) when 1) they have not had enough water 2) they were not pollinated. Deep and infrequent watering is best. Wind can interfere with pollination; if you can shelter the plants a bit (in place), try that. We are also thinking that there has been intense heat across many parts of the country this summer. High heat sometimes causes vege flowers to fall off of plants before pollination/setting fruit and that might be the case here. Consider it too much of a good thing!
We hope this helps!