🌱✗ Tested and false“A scatter of Epsom salts will green plants up and stop blossom end rot”
Epsom salts are magnesium sulfate, and they contain no calcium whatsoever, so they cannot address a calcium problem. Worse, magnesium and calcium compete for uptake, so adding magnesium can make blossom end rot more likely rather than less. Most garden soils hold plenty of magnesium already, and adding more unbalances what is there.
Our read Blossom end rot is not a soil shortage in the first place. It is about calcium reaching the fruit, which is governed by steady watering, so the fix is a watering can and a mulch rather than anything you buy.
What to do: Water consistently and mulch to hold that moisture steady. Use Epsom salts only if a soil test has actually shown a magnesium deficiency, which is uncommon.
1 source
“Aubergines grow fine outdoors in Scotland as long as you pick a sunny spot”
Aubergines need at least five months from sowing to harvesting outdoors, on top of the hottest, sunniest position available, and only fruit outdoors reliably in very mild locations or long, hot summers. A sunny spot alone doesn't meet either the season length or the heat this crop needs.
Our read Sun is the variable most gardeners think to check first, so it reads as the deciding factor. Aubergines fail outdoors here more often on season length and sustained warmth than on sunshine specifically, which a single sunny corner doesn't fix on its own.
What to do: Grow aubergines in a greenhouse or polytunnel for a reliable crop. Treat outdoor growing as realistic only with a very sheltered, south-facing spot and a long, warm summer, and don't expect sun alone to substitute for either.
1 source
- RHSThey can also fruit outdoors, in very mild locations or in long, hot summers. If growing outdoors, choose the hottest, sunniest position and allow a long growing season – at least five months from sowing to harvesting
“It's worth leaving new aubergine flowers on the plant late in the season for one more fruit”
New fruits should be removed after late summer, since they're unlikely to ripen in time. Keeping them doesn't produce an extra harvest, it just spends the plant's remaining energy on fruit that won't mature.
Our read Every flower looks like a chance at more crop, so removing one late in the season feels like giving up potential yield. Past a certain point in the year, that flower was never going to become usable fruit, and leaving it just draws energy away from the fruit that already has a chance.
What to do: Remove new flowers and small fruit once late summer arrives, and put the plant's remaining energy into ripening what's already set instead.
1 source
- RHSRemove any new fruits that appear after late summer, as they're unlikely to ripen
“Leaving more aubergine fruit per stem gives you a bigger total harvest”
The opposite is true: this plant produces many small fruits unless thinned to just one or two per stem, which is what gives the biggest fruit. Larger varieties get a similar instruction: once five or six fruits have started to form on the plant, remove any further flowers.
Our read More fruit sounds like more harvest by weight, the same assumption already busted on pumpkins. Aubergines run on the same fixed energy budget: fewer, not more, fruit per stem is what actually grows the biggest ones.
What to do: Thin fruit to one or two per stem if size matters more than count, and once a larger variety has five or six fruits developing, remove any new flowers.
2 sources
- TeagascThis type of plant will produce many small fruits unless fruits are thinned to 1 or 2 per stem
- RHSFor larger varieties, once five or six fruits have started to form, remove any further flowers
“Aubergines should always be pinched out at exactly 30cm tall”
RHS gives 30cm as the height to pinch out the main stem's tip. Teagasc gives a genuinely different figure, pinching at around 20cm, with a possible second pinch at 40cm as new growth develops.
Our read A single figure looks tidy and easy to follow, which makes it easy to miss that two authoritative sources actually recommend pinching at different points in the plant's growth.
What to do: Either figure comes from a real source: pinch once around 20-30cm to encourage bushiness, and consider Teagasc's second pinch at 40cm if the plant keeps growing tall rather than branching out.
2 sources
- RHSWhen plants reach around 30cm (1ft) tall, pinch out the tip of the main stem to encourage side-shoots
- TeagascPinch the growing tip at approximately 20cm height to encourage bushiness... a second pinch may be beneficial when new growth reaches 40cm
