Do eggplants need full sun?

Eggplants require sunlight in a very strategic way. They need 6+ hours of direct sun, however, extreme heat greater than 90°F may burn their leaves and fruit. My garden in Arizona gets morning sun until noon, and then I add 30% shade cloth to provide a proper balance. This prevents sunscald from setting in while maintaining photosynthesis rates.

Reflective mulch brought new life to my Texas garden. Interspersed between garden rows, aluminum foil sheets reflected (bounced) light onto the lower leaves of the plants. As a result, the flowers produced 15% more flowers! However, I remove the foil when the temperature approaches 95°F because the reflected heat can cook the developing fruits. There is a balance.

Be aware of the symptoms of "sun stress": upward curling leaf tips, patches of bleached fruit, or halting of growth. My immediate fix is to cover the plants with white bedsheets once a heatwave begins. This reduces the intensity of the sun by half temporarily, and then you provide deep watering to the root zone later to cool the soil.

In the North, growers experience contrasting circumstances. In Maine, I use black plastic mulch to capture heat (and thus prolong the benefits of sunlight) and put plants against walls that face the south for warmth. In the North, season extension techniques are especially important in regions most affected by frost.

Read the full article: How to Grow Eggplant: Pro Tips for Big Harvests