The 30-Second Eggplant Trick That Will Reward You With a Better Harvest This Summer
It may feel counterintuitive, but it's time to pinch out the tips
I’ll start by admitting that 2026 has not been a great year for my eggplant plants so far. I sowed them indoors in spring, as usual, but progress has been really slow. I still have high hopes for them, though, and I will pinch the eggplants to encourage (hopefully) bushier growth and more fruits.
When you pinch eggplant plants, it encourages side branches rather than a straight, upright plant. A bushier plant will be stronger and can grow more fruits. As the plant develops, it is also beneficial to pinch eggplant side shoots and flowers.
If you know how to grow eggplant, you may already know the benefits of pinching. But not all growers do. So here I look at the reasons to pinch eggplant and how to do it for robust and productive plants. If you haven’t planted yours yet, you can get a four-pack of ‘Black Beauty’ eggplant seedlings at Amazon to add to your vegetable garden and pinch them for bushier plants.
How to Pinch Eggplant for More Fruits
If you pinch eggplant, you’ll get lots of side shoots, which helps make the plant more productive. Pinching out the main growing tip encourages branching, rather than upright growth. The reward is a bushier plant, rather than a straight-up one, with more stems that give you lots of eggplant to pick.
A bushy plant will also be sturdier and better at supporting fruits. You’ll still need to support plants with a strong bamboo cane or vegetable garden trellis, but there will be less risk of upright stems snapping under the weight of the fruits.
The ideal time to pinch eggplant is when it is at least one foot tall and has six or more sets of healthy leaves. Don’t be tempted to pinch when transplanting seedlings, as you need the plant to settle and develop strong roots in its new home before you pinch. It wants to be actively growing, so it responds well to being pinched rather than getting stressed.
To pinch eggplant, simply remove the top growing point. This can be done with your fingers or with sharp pruning tools, such as pruning shears or snips, like these Fiskars micro-tip pruning snips from Walmart.
You don’t want to pinch eggplant if you are growing naturally compact or dwarf varieties. These types, such as this Patio Baby eggplant from Burpee, don’t need encouraging to produce a more branching structure; that is their natural growth habit.
How to Pinch Eggplant Suckers
Pinching the tip encourages lots of branching, but ultimately you don’t want too many stems all competing for water and nutrients. A good ballpark figure is to aim for four or five fruiting stems to focus on.
Once you have identified your main stems, prune eggplant suckers throughout the season to focus the energy onto your fruiting branches.
Just like when growing tomatoes, suckers grow between the main stem and the leaf axis and divert energy away from the rest of the plant. I tend to check plants weekly to spot these unwanted shoots and pinch them off when they are small.
For a healthy, productive plant, also remove any weaker or inward-growing branches and trim off the lowest sets of leaves to protect against soil-borne diseases.
Always use clean, sharp pruning shears to remove foliage. I use a pair of Felco F2 pruners, available from Amazon, to prune the eggplant, tomato, cucumber, and melon plants in my greenhouse.
A pack of 10 8ft tall, 3/4 inch diameter plant stakes handcrafted from high-quality natural bamboo. Perfect for supporting eggplant plants.
A tomato feed high in phosphorus and potassium is ideal for fertilizing eggplants once they start flowering.
A pair of comfortable, lightweight pruning shears with specially coated, non-stick blades.
FAQs
Should I Pinch off Eggplant Flowers?
It is beneficial to pinch eggplant flowers to limit the number of fruits. More than six to eight fruits on any plant risks the stems getting too stressed under the weight and snapping. Once you have enough fruits developing, pinch off the extra flowers that appear.
It is also best to pinch eggplant flowers that appear in the last four weeks of the season, as there isn’t time for the fruits to mature. This keeps the plant’s energy focused on developing the fruits that are much further ahead.
At the start of the season, pinch off the first flowers that appear. In the early stages, it is better to allow the plant time to produce stems and roots. It may seem cruel, but remove the first flowers – it won’t be long until more appear and the plant will be more prepared to carry flowers and fruit.
An ideal way to help have healthy eggplant plants and avoid pest problems is to companion plant your crop with beneficial neighbors. Some of the best picks for eggplant companion planting include legumes to add nitrogen to the soil, dill to attract predators to kill armyworms, and marigolds or onions to deter a wide variety of pests.
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