Eggplants not setting fruit what gives

I planted a six-pack of Japanese eggplant seedlings on March 17. The
plants are very healthy-looking and have had many blossoms, but I see
no fruit setting. Am I giving too much water, too much fertilizer?
I water every day and fertilize once a week. Last year, we were
loaded with eggplant in the same vegetable boxes. We have had some
intense heat in the nineties and above recently. Thanks for your
feedback.

Helen

Helen & Group:

It is not your watering or feeding. You would not have healthy plants if either of those were the problem.

Intense heat will certainly affect fruit-set. In addition - the difference between day-time and night-time temperatures can have an impact. Plants like to cool off at night.

To mitigate the extreme heat you can try putting a narrow frame above your plants and placing a 25% shade cloth on it (just stretching it over T-Frames will work) - just to take the worst heat off during the mid-day hours. Another cooling device is to mist your plants during the day, but that can lead to fungus disease, so I can't recommend it.

Jim Kennard
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Growing Roma tomatoes

I am trying this (tomato) for the first time and I notice that it looks more like a very thick bush, does anyone know if this is something I should thin out or do I just leave it alone?

roydcole & Group:

Prune Romas just enough to keep leaves off the ground and allow light into the center of the plant,

Indeterminate plants can and should be grown vertically by taking off the sucker stems.

Determinate plants - such as the Romas - will not grow tall, so the only sucker removal is to open up the plant somewhat, and pruning leaves is to keep them off the ground.

And by the way, we recommend you plant indeterminates - anything you're growing vertically - in one row only, on one side of the bed near the ridge. This makes feeding, watering, weeding, and even harvesting easier.

Jim Kennard