Lots of things can stunt eggplants, but lack of sunlight is one way to do it. They need full sun, all day long. Nighttime temps of less than 60F for eggplants will make them not thrive. Your temps may be marginal. I assume you are fertilizing properly. Eggplants are heavy feeders.

Your plants looks pretty good to me, especially the second and third photographs.

The bottom photo looks like a potato leaf tomato plant with a small eggplant just to the left of the tomato plant.

"Nighttime temps of less than 60F for eggplants will make them not thrive."

I have not found this to be the case. Eggplants can grow very well here in the PNW and we seldom see night time temperatures - even in midsummer - of consistently above 60F.

But they do do best in plenty of sun and with warm to even hot daytime temps. And with frequent routine fertilizing if grown in a container.

"Nighttime temps of less than 60F for eggplants will make them not thrive."

It's a fact.

https://cals.arizona.edu/maricopa/garden/html/pubs/0203/eggplant.html

"Fruit set is also reduced when temperatures fall below 60°F. "

http://www.gardening.cornell.edu/homegardening/scene26b5.html

"Needs two or more months with night-time temperatures near 70 F for good fruit production."

https://www.hortmag.com/weekly-tips/qa/growing_eggplants_in_cold_climates

"Eggplant is a heat-loving vegetable that does best in temperatures between 70 and 85 degrees Fahrenheit. Lower temperatures inhibit pollination and fruit-set; at 50 degrees, the flowers will drop."

https://www.almanac.com/plant/eggplants

"Daytime temperatures need to be 80° to 90° F and night time temperatures should not go below 60° to 65° F or their grow is very slow to stalled."

My eggplants don't really get going until summer heat comes in.

Well, they can write all they want about it in books....I doubt the plants bother to read them :-)

And they do grow well here because I have grown them myself!! The smaller fruited Asian varieties do very well but even the larger, European types will grow and fruit well here as well. And we simply do not have summer weather that meet those "requirements". And that is also a fact!!

You can certainly grow eggplants where they don't "thrive". I grow a lot of stuff where it's not supposed to "thrive". I don't get as much as I would, but it suffices. Reduced expectations.

In containers, in the sun with reflected heat from a paved surface and in the UAE, I doubt the OP has any reason to have "reduced expectations"!!

And I find that remark a bit condescending anyway.........if I get a successful crop of anything do I necessarily have "reduced expectations" because I am not running a farm or get the same cropping I would if a longer, hotter growing season?

I said that I myself had reduced expectations when I was growing something that wasn't entirely suited to my garden. If you don't, more power to you!

I was in the UAE last year, Dubai in February in fact, so I have a pretty good understanding of the climate the OP is dealing with. My original point was that eggplants need a lot of sun. Paved surfaces don't "reflect heat". If the paved surface is black asphalt, it'll certainly get hot. But that's not "reflection", and not what it looks like in the pictures. The OP is telling us what the thermometer says, and I'm presuming that thermometer is registering temperatures that are relevant to those eggplants.

My point was just that sub-60F temps are not optimal for eggplants, and there is a lot of agreement in the growing community about that.

I agree with Dan. What he says has been my experience everywhere we've ever lived. The ideal is to find/provide a micro-climate that suits a plants needs.

The young plants look quite healthy to me.

The tall one doesn't look like it's the same plant as the others.

IMHO, Kate

I am not going to argue with you - you seem to have a firm set of growing 'requirements' in mind that cannot be altered despite what my practical, firsthand experience (and those of countless other PNW gardeners) have demonstrated. You need to understand that other parts of the country and the world have different growing conditions than you may be used to but that does not necessarily negate their ability to produce just as well

btw, any paved surface will absorb heat and reflect it back. Which is why paving surfaces for patios and around pools are so critical in hot weather climates - they can often be too hot to walk on. And rock mulches, especially light colored ones can actually 'cook' tender plants in some areas. It has been demonstrated that container plantings sited on a paved surface will have potting soil and roots that heat up to a much greater degree than those on just a dirt or mulched surface. This is a constant issue in the nursery industry.

Just FYI, I grew up in the PNW, and I spent several years gardening there. I have family there, and many still do garden. I am NOT a Texan (though my kids are!) Now, I never grew eggplant there, just because it never seemed to me that it was a good fit. Interesting to know it does actually work. You need to understand that I've gardened in four different parts of the country, and have a pretty good concept about ranges in growing conditions.

Also, re thermal engineering, a paved surface will absorb heat IF it is dark colored. Dark paving like asphalt absorbs heat, and heats the air mostly by conduction. The sunlight reflected by any surface is gone. Reflected sunlight light doesn't contribute to heating of anything. Dark soil will absorb more sunlight than light colored pavement, though water absorbed in that soil evaporates and, in the process, carries away heat and keeps that soil cooler than it would be otherwise. Dry dark soil will heat up more than light colored pavement. Nursery pots are rarely situated on dry soil, because the pots drain on that soil.

Of course, all this is irrelevant to the OP, because what we're hearing is about is temperature as measured by a thermometer. As in, it doesn't matter what the plants are sitting on. The fact is, it's getting cool there in the evening.

I agree with the others who think the tall plant in the last photo looks like a tomato plant.

I replied the day before yesterday but I don't see it... Maybe I didn't hit "post"???

I have an update but I'll answer the original replies first..

Daninthedirt, they are getting full sun from 8am until 430-5pm. I had started the seeds a couple months late, right when the seedlings would be subjected to our coolest temperatures of the season. I started late because I ordered the seeds from the US late.

I am fertilizing every two weeks like my schedule of fertilizing along with my tomato plants.

Cindy, when I first saw you said it looks like a tomato plant I was wondering what you are talking about but you'll see in my update at the bottom you were right lol.

gardengal, it could be that because I started the seeds just too late for the seedling to thrive At these temperatures. This is the coolest time of the year.

Kate, you are right that it doesn't look the same as the others but at the seedling stage they all looked the same. Turns out it isn't lol (I'll post a picture with my update)

Party_music I only grew eggplant once three years ago so didn't realize it doesn't look like an eggplant plant. All of the seedlings looked exactly the same when I first planted them.

My next reply will be the update

So for my update...

I looked out my window and saw a flower blooming on the "eggplant" plant. I saw that it is yellow. I remember from the two plants I planted there years ago that eggplant flowers are purple.

So those who said it looks like a tomato plant are right. The other plants might not even be eggplant and might be the reason why they are not growing as expected.

What in the world am I growing???! Lol

All the seeds came from one packet labeled "eggplant fairy tale" and I had only planted these seeds.

My tomato plants were started much earlier, and already established and in their final pots so there is no way I mixed them up.

It's isn't at all uncommon for there to be a stray seed in a package of other seeds. It happened to me just last summer.

Oh my gosh, poor plant. I wouldn't have cut away its leaves. :(

It looks to me like they're potted in peat moss.... what is the potting medium you used? I'd have only one plant in each of those pots, and plant them in a good potting medium (if not already), keep them properly watered and fed, be patient, and stop cutting away their leaves. :)

Oh! No! The others were eggplants, without a doubt. Poor babies without their big leaves. Be patient!!!!!!

This is exactly how my eggplants grew last summer before the pests got to them. Don't remove any more leaves! They look really healthy to me. The leaves on mine did get really really big just like that (I was surprised) and it took the plants absolutely forever to get big and grow. Much longer than the tomatoes planted at the same time, so don't let the rogue tomato plant throw off your expectations. I think you're doing fine and they'll get there eventually.