Check these first
- Does it rub off with a finger? Powder that rubs off is a fungus; marks that stay are scarring from pests.
- Is it on the upper or lower leaf surface, or concentrated on new shoots and leaf joints?
- If it is cottony, look inside the fluff for insects.
Most likely causes
From the pests and diseases recorded for this plant, the ones whose symptoms match, most serious first. Symptoms alone rarely confirm a cause, so use the linked page to check the signs and treatment.
Spider Mites
Fine white stippling spreads across the upper leaf surface, and the leaf eventually whitens and dies back. In heavy infestations fine webbing appears on leaf undersides and shoot tips.
How to identify and treat: Spider MitesThrips
Silvery white to brown scarring spreads over leaf and fruit surfaces. Flowers discolor and drop, and fruit is left with keloid-like scar tissue.
How to identify and treat: ThripsWhiteflies
Shake the plant and a cloud of tiny white insects flies up. Nymphs stay fixed on leaf undersides, and honeydew-fed sooty mold blackens the leaves as the plant weakens.
How to identify and treat: WhitefliesOther possible causes
- Powdery Mildew — White patches appear scattered on the upper leaf surface at first, then the whole leaf is …
- Sclerotinia Rot — The crown, stem or head rots in a water-soaked way and is covered in white cottony myceliu…
Other symptoms on this plant
What other growers did about it
A page like this one can tell you what eggplant white powder on leaves is and what to try. What it cannot tell you is what actually happened to someone who had it on the same plant, at the same point in the season, and what they did next.
Gadenin is a free garden journal built around that. You photograph the plant, tag what you are seeing, and the entries line up by date for each plant you grow.
- Tag the problem and the app tells you how many other growers have logged the same thing on the same plant.
- Growers who make their records public can be followed, so you can read what they did and how it turned out.
- Next season your own entries come back at the same point in the year, so you check the plant before it starts.
Free on iPhone. Recording, tagging and reading public records cost nothing.