Pollinating eggplant

Question

I have two pots of Black Beauty eggplant and one of the plants is sending out half a dozen flowers right now. One of the flowers has already bloomed, the second day today, and a few others should be in full bloom any day now. I hand pollinated the flower using a cotton swab yesterday, and noticed that there is no visible pollen on the swab. I did it again today and did not see any pollen on the swab too. When I hand pollinated my bitter gourd plants, there are lots of yellow pollen. Maybe the weather here is very hot, humid and we are having rainy days lately. I’ve read that these conditions might affect to the stickiness of the pollen and it would affect the pollination process. My question is, what colour should the pollen be (yellow?) and if the pollen is sticky, would hand-pollination helps at all? Thank you!

Answer 1

Here is an article on how to hand-pollinate an eggplant which may interest you: https://www.gardeningknowhow.com/edible/vegetables/eggplant/pollinating-eggplants-by-hand.htm

Eggplant pollen is typically yellow. Hot and humid conditions aren’t conducive to eggplant pollination and if the pollen is sticky, then hand-pollination would be difficult.