Some of my eggplant fruits are mustardy yellow?

11 years ago

Hi all, This is the first year that my raised beds have been ferociously productive (4.5 lbs of tomatoes a day from a 4 x 9 bed, 12 eggplants a week from the same bed) -- in the first two years it was too hot (severe miscalculation on my part re manure/compost) to be a big yielder. This year we are going gangbusters -- tomatoes, eggplants, sugarsnaps, and pole beans, all great. Up until about 4 weeks ago. Then two of my japanese eggplants (all the same variety, out of a 6 pack) started failing to turn purple. These guys are loong (8") and well formed, but they aren't turning purple. Some other ones (higher up on the plant and shorter) are already a dark purple, but the big guys aren't. The other 3 plants are all throwing dark purple glossy eggplants just like they are s'posed to, but these two have 60 percent kind of mustardy yellow w/ some purply tinging on them. They are glossy and healthy and still growing. The plants are happy as clams. I can't tell you what variety because evidently someone switched the tags at the nursery (I've grown these for 4 years and they are always dark, dark purple fruits, dark purple flowers and purpley leaves-- these guys are green leaved, lavender flowers and skinny (skinnier) long (longer) dark purple fruits, except for these two weird ones. Can an eggplant be ripe even if its not purple? These fruits are already over an inch longer than I usually harvest them and haven't purpled yet. I've harvested several darker purple fruits from higher on the plants already, because I trusted them (and they were yummy). I don't know if I should "cut my losses" on these and take 'em off (I have about 2 more mos of harvesting left from these plants) or be patient and wait for some purple, or just harvest em and cook 'em up now. Any wisdom? Thanks, JD

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Comments (7)

lgteacher
11 years ago
There may have been a couple of odd ones in your 6-pack. There are yellow varieties of eggplant. If the skin yeilds slightly to pressure, they are ripe. Nurseries sometimes make mistakes. This yer I got a Lemon Boy tomato that had orange fruit, so it must have been mislabeled.

Here is a link that might be useful: What's Growing On?
hosenemesis
11 years ago
I'd harvest and eat them. They are just mislabeled, I'm sure. Check to see if the seeds have turned brown, if they have, they are too old now.
Renee
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Oh I apologize I forgot to mention the variety is Italian White. The one fruit I noted was the first to grow is an oval of maybe 2" long and 1.5" wide right now. The other fruit I mentioned which started later and grew bigger is now like 3" in diameter. The skin on both of them feel very firm so I guess neither are ready to be picked. I just wish the first one would keep growing and I am really worried why it stopped...
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rustico_2009
11 years ago
Both my black beauty and asian long purple eggplant had the same symptoms. Also on later fruit. The plants went down as the coloring got more intense. It was not anything like a natural progression. Though they may be good, they certainly don't make me want to eat them after seeing the normal bright shinny fruit. The answer is probably stress of some kind. Too much heat and inconsistent water are possible.I was having trouble flooding and then going to long between watering. Maybe that plus soil running out of some nutrients. I'll ask some other growers and see if they have some knowledge on the topic.
tuesdayschild
Original Author
11 years ago
hmm.... well, I know that this is not a variety issue as I have some beautiful dark purple shiny eggplants on the same plants that have the weird mustardy coloring. Oddly most of the shiny dark purple fruits are now the littler (higher up on the plant) fruits. I have the odd yellowish ones a bit lower down and they are big and shiny but the wrong color. Maybe rustico_2009 has the right notion of some kind of stress? Oddly we did have wicked hot temps and an evil monsoon pattern (hot and humid, but no rain) up from Texas during the main whoosh point of the yellowy ones, but I would have guessed that they'd just love the 85 degree heat, not get weird about it. Since it virtually never rains here after July 15, these guys get very consistent water; once a week unless they look "peaky" in the early morning, then they get an extra sip. They are watered via a soaker hose wrapped around the raised bed.
rustico_2009
11 years ago
The vegetable gardening forum has a thread; "What causes eggplant fruit to turn yellow?". It seems that something as simple ripeness is good possible explanation.
sheloolie
11 years ago
I'm very glad I came upon this conversation. Have three varieties of eggplant growing, and the Indian variety, which usually produces dark purple fruits, has one main branch on which all the fruit are this mustardy yellow color. The first two on the plant were spherical, while all the purple fruits are oval. I have been leery of eating them, thinking maybe the flowers were pollinated with pollen from a tomatillo, pepper, or tomato growing close by and maybe the fruit were poisonous--like nightshade berries. I guess I will try one.... Funny that it is just one branch, maybe be some genetic mutation in that branch?
sheloolie
11 years ago
I'm very glad I came upon this conversation. Have three varieties of eggplant growing, and the Indian variety, which usually produces dark purple fruits, has one main branch on which all the fruit are this mustardy yellow color. The first two on the plant were spherical, while all the purple fruits are oval. I have been leery of eating them, thinking maybe the flowers were pollinated with pollen from a tomatillo, pepper, or tomato growing close by and maybe the fruit were poisonous--like nightshade berries. I guess I will try one.... Funny that it is just one branch, maybe be some genetic mutation in that branch?

Some of my eggplant fruits are mustardy yellow?

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lgteacher

hosenemesis

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Some of my eggplant fruits are mustardy yellow?

Comments (7)

lgteacher

hosenemesis

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