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I have a healthy eggplant plant in a pot. It’s a few months old and has had some great fruit on it. But before I the fruit ripened, the colour turned from lovely purple to yellow. The plant is in Melbourne and has been getting regular water and the odd Sealsol and granular feed.
Any ideas why the fruit is going yellow?
Welcome to the Bunnings Workshop community @Oldgolfer. It's brilliant to have you join us, and many thanks for your question about eggplants.
There are a few reasons why your eggplants could be yellowing. The first is that if this is predominantly the larger fruit turning yellow, they could be beyond ripe. The next stage after purple, the unripe fruit, is the fruit ripening and turning yellow then brown. You mentioned that they were purple. Did you try harvesting them then? Once they've already begun to turn yellow, they are rather inedible due to the fibrous nature of their flesh.
Sunburn is another reason why the fruit will turn yellow. It's been pretty hot in Melbourne recently, and the tender flesh on young fruits quickly burns. When it burns it can turn yellow in patches or all over.
There are yellow varieties of eggplant out there; I presume you know what variety you have though.
They're the main reasons for yellow eggplants. I'm keen to know if you harvested any when they turned purple.
Mitchell
