Hello,

I am delighted with my one eggplant that is growing so nicely here in the hot and arid desert. It is in a very large pot with good soil--I have never grown this plant before so I am not sure what to expect. Already the plant has a few flowers and a couple of fruit.

My question is do I want to prune or trim off some of the, what appears to me to be, extra leaves on the bottom of the stem as I would a tomato? I have had nice tomatoes in the past so I think I should do some of the same things to the eggplant but maybe I am wrong?

We have lots of critters so I already had a serious accident with this beautiful plant but the plant has come back in glory and I am so happy. The critters are now being thwarted by heavy applications of hot pepper powder on the plant soil and pot edges.

Thanks for all advice.

mzbee