Why are my eggplant seedlings not thriving?

Question

I have started a bunch of seedlings and some are doing really well others are not, under similar conditions. I used 6-8 inch wide pots, ~6 inches tall, potting soil, and left the pots in front of a sunny bay window. The first picture below is of an eggplant seedling. It seems to be wilting, but I have been giving it plenty of water. In fact, I have been watering it the same as the tomato seedling in the next picture (the background of which has the other sad eggplant seedling). The one major difference in conditions was closesness to the window. I swapped them today. What is going on?

Answer 1

They look leggy to me. My best guess says lack of sunlight which eggplant needs a lot of.

Answer 2

Two things: 1) Eggplant is full sun crop. Not sure how many hours of light your eggplants get, but generally the more, the better. Also, eggplant is a summer crop, i.e. it thrives in relatively high temperatures, something like high 80s to low 90s F (seedlings, as in your case, tend to require lower temperature, so it should be fine in your room temperature).

2) Keep the pot well drained, and water throughly but less frequently. Your potting soil looks quite soggy. In your room condition, waterting every 2-3 days should suffice. A quick way to check is taking the pot in your hand and when you feel the pot significantly lighter, then it's time to water; otherwise, wait another day or so.