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Post by imgrimmer on Apr 13, 2014 14:27:58 GMT -5
update. 2 seeds germinated and are 5 cm in height now. at least I can hope for some progress this year!
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Post by toad on Apr 22, 2014 14:10:42 GMT -5
When I started taking seeds from eggplants years ago, I had difficulties realising just how long curing they need for the seeds to mature properly. I wait for November, before i extract the seeds, preferably from fruits slightly decaying.
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Post by mjc on Apr 23, 2014 10:18:09 GMT -5
When I started taking seeds from eggplants years ago, I had difficulties realising just how long curing they need for the seeds to mature properly. I wait for November, before i extract the seeds, preferably from fruits slightly decaying. Yeah, eggplant are very rarely, if ever, picked/eaten at anything close to maturity. I leave them on the plant until the last possible moment...like impending killer frost and then let them sit forever.
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Post by imgrimmer on Apr 23, 2014 14:08:17 GMT -5
I picked the fruits short after first frost and let them rot inside, some plants survived the first frost I put these in pots and brought them in a bright unheated but frostfree location and let them there until they died. Only explaination I have is, this was still too early for the seeds, they probably stopped to ripe when the temperatures went down... and no ripening happend long before frost came. or may be the frost was too much? I have another 5 seedlings emerging, so 7 in total. I hope for more!
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Post by toad on Apr 27, 2014 13:57:53 GMT -5
I pick my eggplants for seeds in last half of September. Then I store the fruits at room temperature. I guess the need some heat to continue ripening the seeds inside.
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Post by imgrimmer on Jun 16, 2014 15:33:53 GMT -5
There are 6 plants now of my own breed. They are in the half open cold frame to give some help this year. They already started to grow some are bigger some are small, so there could be some crossed parentage... I do a second trial outside under a vlies with several varieties I collected this winter the sad thing is I won`t eat a single eggplant from my garden again, it`s all for the seeds
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Post by toad on Aug 9, 2014 14:13:59 GMT -5
Photos from the eggplant breeding patch today: One of the larger eggplant fruits. It is still not fully developed, but a good size for cooking. But I want the seeds for next generation. The eggplant breeding patch with F4 and F5 plants. It is doing very well, and the summer is warm. I have a reason to expect seeds again this summer.
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Post by philagardener on Aug 9, 2014 18:19:21 GMT -5
toad , you continue to make nice progress on this project!
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Post by flowerweaver on Aug 9, 2014 19:30:59 GMT -5
That's a wonderful advancement in your project!
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Post by imgrimmer on Aug 18, 2014 15:55:54 GMT -5
This year is really successful for my eggplant breeding, not as far north as you are Søren, but I would say for eggplants are we both close to the north pole Here are some pictures of my F1 eggplants, they have surprisingly big fruits this photo was taken on 16th of august sorry for the mess around, I just came back from holidays these are different varieties from the seedbank in Wageningen NL the best fruits are from Mangan, 3 fruits out of 15 plants All of my eggplants were planted on 1st of June as 4 inch (10 cm) tall plants with vlies over it for some weeks. This is interesting, I planted some of the left overs, really small ones and unhealthy plants 1 or 2 weeks after the others together with kiwano (Cucumis metuliferus) in a mixture of normal ground (dirt), clay and Hoof and Horn Meal look how they did I thought they have no chance together with kiwano but they managed and are bigger than the earlier planted and already start to flower, I guess I know what I have to do next year...
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Post by Carol Deppe on Sept 28, 2014 19:44:45 GMT -5
Excellent. Good job!
Suggestion. Now try crossing your two best breeding lines to each other and just mass selection after that. Your two lines could be early for two different genetic reasons, so might be able to give rise to something even earlier than both. In addition, the cross would add back a good bit of the genetic heterogeneity you lost in the inbreeding, and that itself can contribute to vigor, yield, and earliness.
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Post by imgrimmer on Oct 22, 2015 3:16:52 GMT -5
This was a bad year for the eggplants. Anyway I have some fruits ripening inside for seeds. I found some plants which survived first frost and looking still good, sadly they did not flower until now. @ toad. Sören did you have success this year?
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Post by toad on Oct 23, 2015 13:46:11 GMT -5
This was a bad year for the eggplants. Anyway I have some fruits ripening inside for seeds. I found some plants which survived first frost and looking still good, sadly they did not flower until now. @ toad. Sören did you have success this year? Yes, this was a very cold summer. Most of my eggplants made a single fruit of useable size, but smaller than usual. I cure them indoor now, hoping to harvest a few seeds. Actually, it's a great succes, that I an harvest eggplants grown outdoor, in a summer, where greenhouse eggplant growing was a challenge. I'll continue next year with my two lines, and must remember Carols advise: cross the two lines and do a mass selection.
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Post by imgrimmer on Oct 24, 2015 1:43:27 GMT -5
toad yes you are right. to harvest any fruits outside is a success. Good to hear you had a harvest!
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Post by raymondo on Oct 24, 2015 16:18:39 GMT -5
Inspiring work, both of you. We have a short season here and eggplants don't always ripen to seed stage but we do have reasonable temperatures. You've made it quite obvious that with a little effort I can develop a mix of eggplants that will work well here.
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