My mother said they got something like 7 inches of rain with that last storm in Illinois. Amazingly, they didn’t have any real problems with flooding where they live. Still no rain here….maybe tomorrow, but at least it’s not as hot as it was.

I started trying to grow eggplant in 2007. I think the variety was Cloud 9. There was some flea beetle damage, but most of the blossoms just dropped off. I’m not sure why. I think we got maybe 3 or 4 tiny eggplants. Then in 2008 the plants were totally killed by flea beetles. All the leaves were turned to lace and then fell off. I can’t remember if I planted Cloud 9 again or Rosa Bianca. So for 2009, I thought row covers were the answer except that I chose a mesh-type cover which didn’t totally exclude the flea beetles, and then the Colorado potato beetles found the plants and had no trouble crawling in under the row cover. Plus it was a really horrible year for heat-loving plants as it was cold and rainy most of the summer. We did get 2 small Rosa Bianca eggplants though.

Now, I’m using a spun row cover (lightest weight Agribon) and that’s been pretty effective keeping the flea beetles out, except that I remove it for part of the day because I think the flowers need pollinators even though they’re said to be self pollinating. The Colorado potato beetles still got in, but I was able to hand-pick most of them before they did too much damage. I also added fertilizer to the soil when I set the plants out, hoping they might be able to outgrow any insect attacks. And I changed to some smaller-fruited varieties, thinking they might mature faster. So far, so good. I see several small fruits and these are by far the healthiest eggplant plants I’ve ever grown.

Are the Matt’s really tiny? Our Sun Gold have a nice taste but boy, are they little…nice peppers, too!

Hope you get NICE rain – with no flooding like Oak Park & Westchester near Chicago

Annie