Eggplant is one of the most consumed vegetables in the world. It is a delight for vegetable lovers. The tangy taste of Eggplant has it all. Even vegetables contain many important minerals and vitamins which can be beneficial for human growth.
These plants go through a very special process in which the fruit comes out and grows very slowly. It needs good care and technique for maximum output. A gardener gives a lot to see this magical moment of growth, but sometimes due to one or the other mistake defects such as Eggplant leaves turning yellow and Eggplant leaves curling are seen.
What can be the problems?
Yellow eggplant leaves are really a matter to worry. The fruit can vary in colors and hence that is not that a serious matter but the leaves indicate problems related to the entire plant. It can be there due to hundreds of reasons.
The most common reason can be infection by an outside host. Species such as spider mites are very harmful to the eggplant leaves. They like to feed on the plant’s leaves and hence can leave yellow spots on eggplant leaves. They can be so harmful that they produce such situations in which the plant gets destroyed by the absence of the required number of leaves.
However, these days we have tons of solutions to deal with such problems. Even other pests can be very harmful as they find these leaves to be an interesting food material. It eventually hits up the fruit and later if left without sorting out the problem then the plant will die eventually.
Also Read: Why Are Bottom of Tomatoes Turning Black: Blossom End Rot
Another good reason is the lack of nitrogen. Nitrogen is a very important gas when it comes to planting growth. It provides an important source to start numerous reactions in the plant necessary for its smooth functioning. Most of these reactions occur in the cells of the leaves. If there is a deficiency in the nitrogen content, you can easily observe eggplant leaves turning yellow and curling. Nitrogen does play a very important role in fixations, so even the soil sometimes lacks the number of ions required.
Water content in the soil and in the plant can also affect the leaves. On a very hot and sunny day, you can easily see the eggplant leaves curling. This is a protective mechanism to stop extra evaporation of water from the leaf surface. This is also a reason Why eggplant leaves turn yellow. When water is not present in a sufficient amount, the basic cellular activity of the leaves cell gets degraded. Further, the cells start dying, leaving yellow spots on eggplant leaves.
Many other cells on the leaves of the Eggplant are very sensitive to turbidity, and hence other ions are also very important in the wilting and curling. Many times you can have different conditions of the leaves depending on the weather and the time of day. In the morning, it is a very frequent experience to see the leaves rolled out due to extra water content.
Verticillium Wilt
This one of the most common diseases seen in plants and shrubs. Eggplant easily has the influence of this fungal disease. The fungal pathogen lives in soil and finds its ways to the plants leaves through the root. It is one of the most frequently seen reasons for Eggplant leaves turning yellow and curling and eventually wilting.
The problem with the detection of this disease is mimicry. It mimics many environmental effects on the plant. This makes the detection delayed by a good amount of time. The yellowing starts in the lower regions of the plant and eventually gets spread in the entire plant. After a span of time, one can see yellow spots on eggplant leaves. It mainly takes the vascular system for its spread. Hence it’s very hard to stop the spread.
Another disease which might be the reason Eggplant leaves turning yellow can be Early blight. It’s very important to notice this that the fungus Alternaria solani can infect Eggplant too. It was a misconception that the disease is seen in potatoes and tomatoes, but it readily infected Eggplant. The most common symptom is yellow spots on the eggplant leaves. It spreads on the different parts and stems of the plant and further, the leaves start curling. Not just yellow but brown spots are also seen. Brown rings over yellow are very common in the early blight. It is also a circulatory spread fugal hence hard to deal with.
Both these diseases are very harmful to the plant as these fungal diseases find no stoppage easily. They get inside the main vascular and circulatory system, and hence you cannot get proper treatment for such problems. PretreatmentsPretreatments are possible when detection is early but then also the chances of curing the disease is very low.
Yellowing is just a common symptom which should be enough to start the pretreatment. The most effectiveness is seen in the process of crop rotation. If you rotate the crop according to the pathogen expected and plant a crop immune to the pathogen, it might work miracles. The pathogen cant gets its host, and later it dies due to lack of food, it dies.
Coming up the next is the Eggplant virus. The most harmful virus for Eggplants. The thing to notice here is the complete incurability of the virus. All the diseases have some of the other prevention and cure up to a limit, but this virus once is there in your plant, the leagues will curl and deep yellow spots on eggplant leaves are seen which gets worsen up further. The best option to deal with this is to take the plant out from the field to stop spreading to others.
The main thing to focus on here is the fact that you cannot have a complete cure or turn back in most of the yellowing and curling of the leaves. There are some methods that we will discuss in the next section that can help you in protecting your eggplant leaves from turning yellow, but the best option if the plant is infected by an organism is to go harsh on the plant and uproot it, stopping the spread.
So now we can talk on the section,
How to prevent yellow spots on eggplant leaves?
There can be many methods to stop the effect on the plant. The basic thinking of any farmer is not eventually stopping the leaves but is protecting the fruit, which actually does matter. Loss in the fruit due to such problems can be very dangerous financially for the one growing it. Especially when it’s done on a large scale, it turns out to be a hell of a problem.
Eggplant leaves curling
The first case is deficiency leading to eggplant leaves turning yellow, and Eggplant leaves curling- you expect to provide the plant what it is missing. There are many fertilizers and other microbes that can be useful in doing so. Even the Nitrogen-fixing method can be useful. Ammoniation and other such techniques on the root provide the plant, useful substance. But you have to be specific in this case.
Every plant does react to different chemicals and methods in different ways. A thorough analysis of your soil is needed. It could be done in a laboratory. You can get the exact number of missing nutrients your plant needs which are the cause of the yellowing leaves of the Eggplant. Accordingly, an agriculture expert can give you the best option.
Never overuse any type of fertilizer or chemical, especially those containing ammonia and other such stuff. It can cause a toxification of your Eggplant. This will kill the plant or will do harm to the harvest of the plant. The fruit not only becomes harmful for the plant but also is very harmful for human consumption.
Watering
The water-absorbing capacity and even the retention by the leaves can be boosted. This will help the drainage to improve and later help you with getting back your normal leaves. There are colloids and other chemicals boosting different root absorption.
When provided with such substance, one can get the perfect turgidity and circulation. There are many organic matters and other homemade therapies and techniques to increase the water retention and aeration of the soil. Even many ions and minerals get transport through the water with the Xylem in the roots, and hence it becomes even more important. Any loss of such an ion can cause things such as yellow spots on the eggplant leaves.
Insecticide
It is a very complicated thing to use. There are a number of bugs and spiders that like to enjoy the feast upon the leaves of Eggplant, leasing to loss of the plant and necrosis. The problem in using these chemicals is the surface they are sprayed upon.
All the others are not directly applied to the edible parts of the plant, but insecticide is very different. It tremendously harms the fruit and quality of the Eggplant. The bugs and other such pests can be prevented up to a limit. Overuse has a great loss here. It is seen that insecticide is very limited to its usage over time and generations. Many organisms have turned immunes in the next generations giving you no other option than letting them destroy your crop.
pH plays a role
Sometimes the yellowing of the leaves or the yellow spots on eggplant leaves is because of the acidity of the soil. The plant depends a lot on the soil, and therefore the pH or the alkalinity or basicity of the plant is another determining factor.
In cases the pH gets imbalanced, the plant is seen in great trouble. This pH allows the passage of different ions in the plant, and the concentration once gets dis balanced it will get very worse for the leaves. It is not something which you can just look at and tell, so it needs good sample testing. After the report, try getting the soil back to normal in most of the cases as seen the plant does get the proper pH via different chemicals leading to getting the leaves again green and back to a healthy state.
Pre Treatments for fungal treatments
This is a very new technique; hence you might need an expert. The first problem is the detection of the disease. These fungal pathogens are very clever species, and they mimic environmental factors deficiency. There are chemicals such as chlorothalonil useful in getting these diseases treated.
Many other forms of fungal disease do exist in Eggplant. Pretreatment doesn’t give assurance of eradicating the virus from the plant or so, but it can also be a preventive measure. These treatments help to gain the plant an immunity boost to fight with the possible fungi. But one needs to provide a specific amount of these.
Virus anyhow still doesn’t have a proper solution in eggplants. They are the most amazing organisms working in nature, and they have the finest capacity to hide from nature. They are very brilliant in mutating and hiding from the treatments and chemicals, so it’s better to let a plant die rather letting it infect all the other plants.
Environmental conditions
The last we have here is Environmental conditions- many a time the environment can make a change in the leaves of the plant. Eggplant leaves curling is one of the most commonly observed changes in an eggplant due to overheating weather or when the temperature of the surrounding is too high than the optimum.
Many times plants don’t get accurate sunlight, so the process of photosynthesis can be disturbed. This might be a cause of the breakdown of chlorophyll in the leaves and further getting the yellow spots on eggplant leaves. Many other environmental conditions can prevail and change the leaves, and the only solution to this is trying to provide weather artificially. Greenhouse arrangements are one among such arrangements.
Conclusion
What we made you go through in the article is a very small part of the reasons and factors eggplant leaves can turn yellow. There are hundreds of other possibilities, but the above listed are the top ones.
References:
https://www.gardeningknowhow.com/edible/vegetables/eggplant/eggplants-turning-yellow.htm#:~:text=Yellowing%20of%20leaves%20is%20often,as%20the%20water%20stress%20increases.
https://www.gardeningknowhow.com/plant-problems/disease/verticillium-wilt-treatment.htm
https://www.gardeningknowhow.com/edible/vegetables/eggplant/early-blight-on-eggplants.htm#:~:text=One%20of%20the%20earliest%20signs,and%20completely%20destroy%20the%20leaves.
https://www.dpvweb.net/dpv/showadpv.php?dpvno=421#:~:text=Eggplant%20mottled%20dwarf%20virus%20(EMDV,virus%20with%20bacilliform%20particles%20c.
