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Hi Elle,

Sorry to hear about your garden. But Ill bet with help from the pros around here youll be back in action with a new crop :)

What type of soil did you use for your raised beds? And when you dug up your eggplant did you notice if the soil was cool or warm, or hot? I am wondering if something started composting down there and cooked your plants.

Hi ElleDiem,
My two guesses (do I get two guesses ;-)
1. The little balls are slow release fertilizer that came with the plants.
2. Too much water/not enough drainage.
3. It's too late to start seed, go buy some more transplants and get them into the ground and ease up on the watering.

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fungus nat larve feed on seedling roots and it has to be treated with a soil drench to stop the cycle. egg to larve to nat. spraying the leaves does not control the problem.

Jeremy,
I used Amend Vegetable Soil mixed with compost, vermiculite, and peat moss in all 3 beds. The soil was warm, as usual.

Jon,
Of course! Take as many guesses as you need, lord knows I need the help, lol. I hadn't considered that they could be slow release fertilizer. Hm. It definitely could be too much water. Also, I live in Hawaii, so it shouldn't be too late for me to start from seed, right? We have a year round growing season. I do have some little fairytale eggplants that I started from seed a couple weeks ago, maybe they will be ready to transplant soon.

terrybull,
Do you know of a good soil drench product that you would recommend? I've never even heard of that, I'm such a newb.

Thanks for your suggestions!

ElleDiem:

I would suggest you ask Hawaiian gardeners for advice. I suspect few of us here in the "48" have much useful advice for you!

(My brother moved there just over a year ago, and I find I am not very confident in giving him gardening advice, though I gave him a few varieties of tomato seeds, and instructions and links about starting tomato seedlings.)

I really believe the local knowledge you could receive would be more useful than that you can receive from anyone here.

Until you know with reasonable certainty what's wrong with your plants, I would recommend against insecticides - spray on, drenches, anything. They can kill the good bugs as well as the bad ones, and end up making the problem worse, or at least confusing it - then you have to wonder, when new problems come up, are they from the same original cause or from the insecticide?

And, yes, I'm against insecticides in general - I haven't used any in over twenty years. I can grow most things, and the few that I can't, I simply don't grow - I try something else.

You say "plenty of water"; how often and for how long are you watering the plants? When you said that you water daily I thought that you might be overwatering, but the photograph actually looks to me as if you may be underwatering; unless I'm misreading it, that rootball looks rather dry.

If you poke a finger into the soil, is it damp? Do the containers have drain holes, and do you water until water drains out? Also, how warm is the soil, and how hot has the weather been lately?

I'm wondering if you may be having hot weather that is causing the water to evaporate from your wooden containers, and perhaps you're not watering them deeply enough? Alternatively, if you have no drain holes, you could be flooding the plants.

Congratulations on your new raised beds! Which island are you growing on? What's your elevation?

You know it doesn't really sound like insects are the problem although it's possible. Pictures of the holes might help. Chinese Rose Beetle damage, for example, is pretty distinctive.

Burnet may have it right, that eggplant just looks dried out. Do you have wind protection? Trades have been fierce past few days. Your little transplants might be losing water faster than their roots can suck it up. Try to give them a little shade cloth/mulch maybe? How deep is the soil in your beds? With all that organic matter and peat your raised bed should hold water pretty well once properly wetted. After the plant roots sink in you might have better luck watering deeply just a few times a week.

As you probably know, spraying even organic soap insecticide midday can cause some pretty bad leaf burn.

Good news is that you totally don't need to drench your soil, jonhughes is right, that's fertilizer ; ))

And you're right, you can grow eggplant year round. Fairytale is a good choice for a container and should do well in your raised bed. My eggplants actually produce best in late fall, early winter but mostly because i don't water much and that's when the rain starts.

Most vegetables are annuals so you can learn a lot from mainland gardeners once you figure out how to match your micro-climate with the right USDA hardiness zone. Island gardeners can teach you about fruit fly control and share local kine seeds that you can't buy off the rack. Community gardens are a good place to meet them if you're lucky enough to live close to one.

What kind of wood did you use for the beds?

Too much water can be just as bad as not enough. When the weather is really humid, they don't transpire as much moisture. You don't want to drown them.

Your local Cooperative Extension Service may be able to help, and they might have printed info on local problems.

Here is a link that might be useful: Hawaii - Co-op Ext. Service

tdscpa,
Thanks, I will call the master gardener's here Monday & see if they can give me tips on gardening here.

burnet,
Thanks for making your case against insecticides, I haven't really decided where I stand personally on the matter. As far as watering, I do water daily, I would say at least 3-4 inches deep? It's kinda hard for me to explain to you how much water, lol. But the reason the eggplant looks dry in that picture is because I dug it up & when I saw the balls I didn't have my phone handy, so I left it and went ahead and watered all of my good plants. (so the pic was also before watering, plus it sat in the sun until I got back to it with my phone.) And I know, I know. I should water early in the morning, but they really needed water that day & I didn't feel the need to wait. But when I dug it up, there was still some moisture in the soil from the previous watering the day before. Over watering, possibly? I really doubt it's under watering. The containers have no bottoms, just weed paper stapled to the frame, which is 6 inches deep as far as the wood (pine, untreated) goes, and it is dug down in the soil approximately another 5 inches, then filled with the soil mixture. I really wouldn't know if water drains out the bottom? The soil is always warm, and the weather here is always about 80 degrees. It never gets higher than 85.

mauirose,
Thank you! I'm growing on Oahu, I live close to Pearl Harbor, but I'm unsure what the elevation is. I took more pics for you guys to get the general idea of what my garden environment is. Although the biggest bed which has been having the most issues is against a chainlink fence, we live in a neighborhood packed full of houses, so they really don't get more than a good breeze. Actually I had no idea that spraying insecticide during the day would burn the leaves! That could actually be what has happened! I do live pretty close to a community garden.

belgianpup,
Pine. And the weather is kinda humid on Oahu. Thanks.

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Oh, and check out my sweet corn :(
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This is how moist my soil is right now.
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Another thought: Is there any chance that whoever owns the grass on the other side of the chain link fence may have sprayed some sort of herbicide, so that you got some overspray through the fence?

burnet,
I guess there is a chance, but I don't think that has happened. We live in military housing, so the maintenance men always walk around with weed eaters on the days they do lawn maintenance. I've never seen them with any sort of sprayers.

Did you use composted manure? Problems with hay treated with 2,4 D and the like having residual in the compost. Just had that problem with purchased product. The herbicides break down in the soil and sun. But are persistent in compost.

Thank you all! Since I started this post I have cut back watering so much, and I will NEVER spray again during the daytime. My plants look better already! I pulled up the dying ones and planted a new basil, japanese cucumber, and some strawberries as well. When my fairytale eggplants get bigger I can add them to the bed. *fingers crossed* maybe I won't kill them this time :) And DannyMcMann, I will look into getting rid of those gnats like you said. You guys are awesome!

It's good to hear that your veggies are looking better, with your long growing season you should have plenty of time for everything to recover and produce well.

One suggestion - I wouldn't plant strawberries with my vegetables, they are a perennial that spreads by runner and will invade the rest of your garden if you let them. I am always experimenting with different ideas for strawberry areas around the property; hanging baskets, river-rock pyramid, stacked wine barrels, I'm going to find one that works well and looks good one of these days.

peachymomo,
thanks :) I actually have my strawberries in their own bed near the watermelons.