Pruning eggplant, when, why and how

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Bright green, oval leaves with slightly wavy edges and a soft fuzz, then white or purple flowers with a yellow centre: the eggplant earns its place in the vegetable patch for moussaka, ratatouille and other summer dishes. Cut out the sterile stems and suckers and the sap goes to the fruit-bearing stems instead, for an abundant crop.

Read also:

• All there is to know about growing eggplant
• Planting eggplant: the first steps

The staple vegetable of the summer

Just like tomato, the eggplant is a member of the solanaceae family. We grow it in our vegetable patch for its fruits that are great to bake moussaka, ratatouille and other tasty summer meals. Its bright green leaves are oval-shaped with slightly wavy edges. They’re covered with a soft fuzz.

Flowers are white or purple with a yellow center and a pointed calix. After the blooming fruits appear that have different colors and shapes according to the variety: long, round, large, small, purple, black, white… Sunlight and heat are the key words here to get a beautiful harvest. However, you shouldn’t neglect pruning: it helps ensure that every plant has an abundant production.

• Cut each aubergine off with secateurs rather than tugging, as the woody stalk and prickly calyx damage the plant and the hand.
• Stake tall or heavy-fruiting eggplants and tie the main stem loosely, since swelling fruit can be heavy enough to snap a laden branch, though compact dwarf varieties often stand unsupported.

Why prune eggplant in the first place?

Pruning helps redirect the plant’s energy from leafage to fruits instead. Indeed, if you don’t prune at all, a number of stems will just keep on growing without bearing either flowers or fruit. These stems suck up the plant’s energy, since the same amount of sap is split among all its stems. By cutting these sterile stems off, you help the plant send more sap to the fruit-bearing stems. This will lead do an increase in fruit production, which is what matters most when growing vegetables!

With fewer stems crowding the centre, sunlight reaches the developing fruits and they colour up evenly instead of staying pale on the shaded side.

When to prune eggplant?

Eggplant pruning takes place during the entire lifecycle of the plant, from the moment it has reached a certain size. Depending on how the growing is going, you’ll have to prune regularly between early summer and early autumn. A good practice is to use a disinfected secateur, it’ll keep diseases from appearing and spreading.

Read also → starting your eggplant off properly

• Standard eggplant guidance ties the first cut to the first flower or the first stem fork (sometimes to a given plant height), rather than waiting for a second flower to open.
• Never prune an eggplant that is wilting or has just been transplanted; water it and wait until the leaves are firm again.
• Once nights turn cool, pinch out any new flowers, as they will not ripen and the plant can then feed the fruit already set.

How to prune eggplant?

• Cut the main stem above the 2^nd flower
• After this cut, stems will start growing beneath the cut mark. Select the three most vigorous ones.
• Flowers will appear on these secondary stems. In colder regions, cut the stem short just after the leaf that follows the first flower. In warmer regions, cut the stem short just after the leaf that follows the second flower.
• A small stem will again sprout from the base of this leaf, keep it but remove any other ones that might appear later on.
• Remove suckers regularly

Leave enough leaf cover above each swelling fruit, since bare aubergines exposed to full sun develop sunken, brown scald patches on the skin.

What is a sucker?

A sucker is a small stem that grows out of a junction between stems, or from the base of the plant. It’s a type of growth that makes the plant spend lots of energy for nothing, because it won’t bear any fruit. Removing it isn’t difficult: pinch it off with your fingers, rotating it off until it breaks. If you wait for too long, the suckers will grow too large, and you’ll have trouble knowing where to start. If this is the case for you, begin with identifying secondary stems. These are the largest shoots that grow out from the main stem. Check the junction of each stem with the main one, to see if smaller stems are sprouting out of it. That’s it, you’ve found the suckers, twist them off!

I forgot to prune my eggplant, what should I do?

• Cut stems that have formed 2-3 clusters of flowers, right above the first cluster (the lowest one on the stem).
• Remove suckers from the base of the plant and from the joints where secondary stems emerge.

  Read also → Eggplant health benefits

Leave enough foliage shading developing eggplant fruit, since over-exposed skin can sunscald, first bleaching to a pale whitish patch that later turns tan, sunken and papery rather than glossy.

WHEN TO PRUNE EGGPLANT, MONTH BY MONTH

The article covers pruning only, so the table below sets out the pruning window and what to cut, with southern-hemisphere months shifted to the equivalent summer season.