Eggplant problems

This is a picture of one of my eggplants which looks pretty unhappy. I have what I believe to be septoria leaf spot on my tomatoes (looks similar) which I am treating with some success with Chlorothalonil (sp) aka Daconil, however the label on that product does not list eggplant as a plant on which it can be used. I have been using a copper fungicide on the eggplant (also on my peppers) which I do not find to be as effective as the Chlorothalonil. I use a drip watering system to minimize any chance of wetting the leaves as much as possible (of course when it rains, which it has quite a bit this year, there is not much I can do about the plants getting wet)

Does anyone know of anything else I can/should do? I doubt there is much I can do anymore this year but I would like to minimize this problem next year. Is there a fungicide I can apply to the soil before I set out the plants next year? How about baking the soil by applying a sheet of clear plastic a couple of weeks before I set out the plants?

Any thoughts very much appreciated

Hank

That looks like early blight to me - brown to black spots on older leaves with yellow halos. Here is a website that describes it on eggplant. Daconil can be used on eggplant too...eggplant is in the same family as tomatoes.

http://www.essentialgardenguide.com/garden-vegetables-problems/23/Eggplant/

ceejaytown

Thanks for the reply

I thought it unusual that eggplant was not listed on the approved plants for Daconil, I will give it a try. Hope it is not too late, I just sprayed with copper yesterday, I hope applying Daconil today will not cause any damage.

Mmmmm....I dunno know about that. I might wait and see how the copper works first. It's listed for early blight so it may be all you need.

Hen, Looking at your photo, it strikes me as being a bit bleak. In other words, the dirt doesn't look all that good. The plant looks a bit weak. The leaves are a bit yellowed, as if there is a mineral deficiency.
I'm not sure that an effort to use herbicides and/or pesticides is your best bet as a "knee-jerk" quick fix. I've been there, and I've had to 'bite the bullet' in the past.
What every successful gardener knows from experience is that the better the dirt, the better the produce.
I know it's a tough row to hoe, but the hardest part of growing a great garden begins months before you ever plant the first seed.

Good point, blmlb....and it's "soil". LOL!!!

The rest of the garden is doing fine (the other eggplants even look better than this one but this one had the best example of the problem I was trying to show).

Before I set out my plants, I dig compost into the soil, side dress with fertilizer once the plants are established and water (drip system as noted in my original post) when needed. I agree that this particular plant does not look happy and admit that eggplant has never been one of my better crops. I would welcome any thoughts as to what I could do to improve that.

ceejaytown: I think I will wait a week or so (or until after the next rain) before spraying with Daconil.

TIA
Hank

If you've sprayed with copper, I wouldn't use the daconil at all. That's kinda overkill. Unless, the copper label says you are to spray again in x number of days, and you would prefer to use the daconil at that time.

I have excellent luck with my eggplant - the durn plants get 5-6 feet tall and I have to stake them. They are in a raised bed, and I live in Texas. :-D They like the heat. I throw most of them away, 'cause I just can't eat that much eggplant, and DH won't touch them....

I used to have a drip system, but, to be honest, I don't think it delivered enough water to the plants. I know all of the hype about them, but they just don't work. Since I've switched back to the "normal" irrigation system, my plants do fine. I realize that this is going to set off an exchange, but that is MY experience.

If it were not for my disease problems (septoria leaf spot on tomatoes and early blight on eggplant), I might tend to agree with you but I want to keep the foliage as dry as possible. The other advantages are less water usage and not watering where you don't want it. It is possible to (either/or/and) add additional emitters, leave on for a longer period. Out summer here on Long Island has been cooler then usual this year, just starting to get into the 90's the past couple of days so maybe the eggplant will start to pick up.

Those temps might very well have everything to do with your problem. We're usually in the 90's in May.