Eggplant breeding line 1 F4 (top row is part of breeding line 3)
Eggplant breeding line 3 F3
The photo above shows the harvest of eggplants from the open ground bed in the vegetable garden. The plants of breeding line 1 is grown out of seeds from 2012 harvested in the greenhouse. Therefore, this line is a generation ahead of processing line 3, which is grown out of seeds grown in the open ground in 2009. Since 2009, I harvested lots of eggplants in the open ground, but there has been no obvious progress in my plant breeding, no new generations. Until last year that is, when I put some plants of breeding line 1 in the greenhouse, and got a new generation, but without knowing anything about their outdoor values. I have spent the years since 2009 to determine which envelopes of the 2009 seed harvest do most frequently provide better plants. It is valuable, although it does not produce new generations, because it allows me to concentrate on growing more individuals from the best seed envelopes.
Seeds from a single outdoor grown eggplant fruit
Never have I harvested so many eggplant seeds. Almost all mature eggplants contained seeds, and some of them contained more seeds than I’ll be able to grow before they get too old. The seeds appears to be of prime quality. An eggplant seed celebration!
Envelopes with eggplant seeds from open ground
This many seeds promise a lot of labour to find the best seed envelopes to draw future generations from. Which of them will produce the most reliable plants for growing outdoor in my kitchengarden?
The eggplant bed shortly after transplanting in June
The newly transplanted eggplant bed looked neat Later weed germinated in this fertile, well-watered bed, mostly dandelions, kale and sonchus, all edible, delicious and providing a long lasting harvest. I still harvest kale and dandelion. Easy and gentle multicropping.
Since I harvested way too many seeds for my own use, I will share with interested gardeners.
In Denmark through the danish seed savers: Frøsamlerne
Other nationalities please contact me either by leaving a comment, or PM me if you know me in some of the social networks like HomegrownGoodness or facebook.
In the toad's garden 
December 26, 2013 at 10:31
fine Soren
December 27, 2013 at 08:32
Really promising results ! I’ve always had the worst issues with eggplant down here in NE France. This summer, the variety was Megal F1, and this time the yields were overwhelming. I have to admit commercial hybrids are greatly superior for this crop. Your selection process gives hope for northern growers. Just go on !
March 5, 2014 at 12:24
Hi, what is the thing about the pots dug down in the rows?
March 5, 2014 at 16:57
The pots let me water the rows more quickly. I fill up each pot with water, and when all row is watered, I can take a turn more, if more water is needed. Easy and timesaving in my small backyard garden.
April 23, 2014 at 08:00
[…] They should be started early in January better. My are on the windowsill and starting to flower now. End of may I will plant them out outside and hope for the best. Also important I bought different seeds of early eggplants from rareseeds.com so hopefully if summer not hot enough at least being early varieties they will have longer period to ripen up. Fingers cross. By the way, chech this site. Person grows them outside in Denmark with success. Their summer is not any better then here. Progress in Eggplant Breeding | In the toad's garden […]
January 8, 2015 at 14:53
Have you tried more varieties of eggplant? Wich do you recommend for Sweden/Stockholm. I likefor instance Listada de Gandia, Koral Seveca F1 (Seemnemaailm, Estland, ) Little finger, Pingtyung Long.
April 18, 2016 at 19:21
Apart from hybrids, I only had success with Apple Green so far. I unfortunately no longer have good conditions to start plants indoors. It’s very hot, dry and they horribly lack light. Many eggplants, peppers and tomatoes I grow die prematurely, so it’s hard to evaluate. I’m trying Diamond and varieties from Sativa Rheinau this year, anyway. Melonga, Meronda and Diamond behave like other eggplants. They actually don’t thrive at all on my balcony right now. However, Rouge de Turquie and Turin were given as easier and earlier than S. melongena. They’re S. aethiopicum. They germinated and grew way faster from the very start. They’re actually been growing good under cold and rain these past two weeks. Apple Green is a hybrid of the two species. I think you should try to grow them and make a few crosses. That’s what I would do if they all did better.
April 18, 2016 at 21:55
Applegreen is good, but small compared to my dehybridised Rima F1. I sow in late march indoor, transplant to open groundbreaking first half of june. It work for me. But if I transplant two weeks ealier, the plants slow down, and hardly grow the rest of the summer. It’s a good idea to hybridize with S. aethiopicum.
April 18, 2016 at 22:57
These two varieties should look similar, just Turin should bear larger fruits. As all S. aethiopicum generally, they should give a great number of fruits, so it balances the fruit size thing. They should be very early but bitter when ripe, red. Time will tell and give real experience.
April 19, 2016 at 22:35
You’re at a better place to select under low temps. I often keep F2 seeds but rarely sow them. I confess hybrids have always been the best by far for me. The fact is I read the cross is possible only as S. aethiopicum a female and causes sterility problems for two generations. Apple Green could help a lot as a bridge.
April 20, 2016 at 21:42
Thanks, I will think of it next year. And maybe it is better to think of improving S. aethiopicum, than to improve S. melongena?
April 21, 2016 at 10:54
In other crops, I read of cytoplasmic male sterility genes of hybrid origin. In presence of the other species cytoplasm, they result in reduction or absence of pollen. By recursively crossing in both ways, I think you can get rid of these undesirable alleles and select on all desirable quantitative characters at the same time. Only the result matters. I think green to red skin is also interesting because uncommon.
November 20, 2018 at 16:31
Hi,
I would love to do something similar to you (outdoor aubergine breeding/selecting). I am based in the UK (neto so far from London). Would there be any chance of obtaining some of your seed to trial in my climate?
Thanks,
Adam