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Post by toad on Dec 25, 2013 12:50:50 GMT -5
 DSCN7483 by skrubtudse, on Flickr Most of my eggplants set fruit last summer, and most of the fruits contained ripe seeds In 2009 I tried to sow seeds of the eggplant hybrid Rima F1. Those F2 plants did better than I expected that nice summer, planted out in the kitchen garden. Half of them set fruit, and half of the plants set fruit with seeds inside. Since then I have harvested lots of eggplants in my kitchengarden, but no seeds. Except for last year, where I grew some plants of one of my lines in the greenhouse. All those years harvesting eggplants learned me which of the seed envelopes was the most reliable. As far as I remember, this evaluating the seeds is what Carol Deppe call "powerbreeding". I can recommend it. Knowing the right seed envelopes to dive into, I just had to wait for a summer comparable to 2009, and 201 was the year  Now I have a lot of F4 and F5 seeds, from my two best breeding lines. I actually have more seeds than I can use myself - feel free to ask. Mind you, I don't think you will gain anything, unless you are in areas with few Growing Degree Days - cold north European summers. For me, this breeding is turning a greenhouse/polytunnel demanding crop to a crop I can grow like tomatoes. Over the years I've been writing about it in my blog: In the Toads Garden DSCN7541 by skrubtudse, on Flickr Eggplant seeds from a single fruit  DSCN7537 by skrubtudse, on Flickr My seed envelopes with seeds from open ground grown eggplants. One fruit to one envelope, to enable powerbreeding. |
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Post by imgrimmer on Dec 27, 2013 15:57:02 GMT -5
Toad, How do you save seeds? I saw you cut the whole plant in autumn, do you let them ripe then? How long does it take until seeds are ripened?
Thank you!
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Post by toad on Jan 1, 2014 15:08:23 GMT -5
Hello Imgrimmer.
Happy new year!
Eggplant fruits I store at room temperature for full maturing. In this maturing the give off a cress like odour, not very strong but still noticeable. When the individual fruit start to get soft spots or rot, I clean the seeds out of it. By end of november all fruits have been cleaned.
I clean the seeds by cutting the flesh in cubes with a non sharp table knife. Very sharp knives can cut the seeds. The cubes I drop in a bowl of water. Massage the cubes vigorously, and good seeds sink to the bottom, and the rest float. Pour out water and bad seeds a few times, and the good seeds are separated, ready for drying on a little dish.
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Post by imgrimmer on Mar 22, 2014 16:21:37 GMT -5
it seems that none of my fruits where fully mature, no germination until now...
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Post by samyaza on Mar 22, 2014 17:13:57 GMT -5
imgrimmer : be patient with that crop. Seeds germination is unreliable at best. I've had seeds germinated in a week up to more than a month. I don't know why, but to a lesser extent with commercial hybrids, I confess.
I don't recommend kitchen towel, it's easy to overwater or let it dry. I used to use it. A good soil need water regularly and gets rid of excess, just what seeds need. It never stinks as kitchen towel does after a few weeks, it's healthy.
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Post by trixtrax on Mar 22, 2014 17:32:18 GMT -5
Awesome! Always wished there was better varieties for the North.
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Post by oxbowfarm on Mar 22, 2014 19:45:55 GMT -5
Do Colorado Potato Beetles bother eggplants in Europe? Here my outdoor plantings get nailed by CPB and flea beetle. The hoophouse plantings are CPB free and have less flea beetle damage.
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Post by philagardener on Mar 22, 2014 20:59:50 GMT -5
In just the past five years, flea beetles have made it impossible for me to grow eggplant in PA without a barrier (or resorting to chemicals). I'm hoping this cold winter may have knocked them back from the recent warming trend. Although only a temporary respite, it would be welcomed nonetheless!
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Post by trixtrax on Mar 23, 2014 0:02:30 GMT -5
philadardener, try molasses spray (so it makes the leafs slightly sticky and then dust with powdered oyster shell meal. This wears down their mandibles
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Post by imgrimmer on Mar 23, 2014 2:26:51 GMT -5
oxbowfarm I never had problems with potato beetles, they also refuse my potatoes... (lucky me) but I know from others that they have strong problems on potatoes. Eggplants are commonly grown here in greenhouses I guess it is a minor problem, because of the better control.
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Post by samyaza on Mar 23, 2014 2:36:04 GMT -5
I did have Colorado beetle on eggplant on warm summers but it was almost unnoticeable.
Moreover, there's rarely any in the garden on potatoes. They only infect them dangerously in the field. We suppose birds eat them, as there's few friendly birds ( starling is not ! ) in the fields because of habitat destruction.
The only other pests affecting them are aphids, but it's very unpredictable.
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Post by philagardener on Mar 23, 2014 7:36:38 GMT -5
try molasses spray (so it makes the leafs slightly sticky and then dust with powdered oyster shell meal. This wears down their mandibles Sounds like a great idea! I'll give that a try this year. Thanks for the suggestion! Just heard about the huge mud side in WA. Our thoughts are with all the folks affected. |
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Post by templeton on Mar 26, 2014 15:36:43 GMT -5
Toad,
great work! The problem I have with power breeding is the exponential explosion of lines as the generations unfold. Makes collating, filing and storing all those envelopes a real problem. I have so many iterations in my purple snow pea lines that I can't find the parents if I want to go back, despite saving every seed I've grown. I've got many hundreds of packets now.
T
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Post by toad on Apr 2, 2014 14:19:21 GMT -5
We don't have colorado/potato beetles in Denmark. A few times in my 50 years has a few blown up from Poland or Germany, but growers are alert and spray them at first sight.
I do not really have that exponential problem with powerbreeding eggplants. Most years I don't get seeds, but learn to distinguis good from bad seed batches. After one or two failures of a seed batch, I don't hesitate to discard it, if I have plenty of better seeds in other batches. Powerbreeding looses power, if the seed batches become too many. It's only powerbreeding, if it empowers you in the selection process :-)
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Post by templeton on Apr 7, 2014 4:08:57 GMT -5
... Powerbreeding looses power, if the seed batches become too many. It's only powerbreeding, if it empowers you in the selection process :-) Excellent point. I must remember that and go and cull my older seed. Would save me much refrigerator space. T |
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