Dear Earthlings,
For a quick introduction of myself, you can check this out https://goingtoseed.discourse.group/t/with-love-from-india/1037.
Recently, I had a lovely chat with Julia and that conversation inspired me to finally kickstart my first landrace gardening project. We are working with eggplants. The state of India I belong from used to have over 20 varieties of eggplants. Thanks to the Green Revolution most of it is gone. In the market these days one can mostly find High yielding F1 seeds.
Each family of 4-5 people weekly consumes almost 1 kg of eggplants. We have over half a dozen recipes with vegetables. Because of its versatile nature, everybody wants to have it. Yet, we largely depend on the market for that. One of the biggest challenges of growing this vegetable is that it has so many diseases and pests. As a result, producers put a lot of poison in the eggplants. For the same reason, a household is not able to produce eggplant at home. That is why we decided to start with this project. This morning I planted seeds for different kinds of eggplants that I received from a native seed saver in South India (we are in East India). I will keep you posted regarding the status of this project.
Good luck with this. Be sure to post pictures, too!
I like this, good luck.
I hope the project is successful.
I am very excited about this project. My best wishes for your success. Looking forward to hearing more as you progress.
Are eggplants in India direct seeded or more commonly transplanted?
I’m growing a variety of eggplants this year. If they survive and produce seed, I wonder if we might come up with a way to send you some. Maybe misplace some seeds in a book? The seeds fell between the pages…? 
I’m growing a grex of fifteen something Aubergines. Sofar no diseases…
Is that a mix of plants that have already cross pollinated?
It seems like eggplants have room for improvement and a lot of potential. I was just reading about how eggplants easily cross with other wild eggplant species and how breeders have not made use of that. If eggplant could become faster growing so people don’t bother with transplants, and maybe a little more outcrossing it could be come something great.
Hi Rylan, usually they are transplanted. 
Sounds like lovely plan Jensigne!
I have them three years now crossing. Last years were not great due to me being seasonily late and not there to water them. I planted seeds this year from the first years grex again mixed with another man’s grex and seeds from here and there.
It’s looking better this year if the température finally will start rising. It’s bitterly cold son far in Europe this spring.
But they’re in the soil all 30 plantlings, and they have about five month to performance their magic.
I was surprised at the diversity they exposed, i did never even really like them before growing them. Some stayed in great form well into winter as well, and really really delicious taste.
Good to hear there’s lot of improvement possible.
Lovely! So how far apart you plan them?
Just a quick update! I have planted around 50 seeds almost two weeks back. Only three have survived. When I asked around, I came to know this is the terrible time to plant these tiny seeds as the temperature goes beyond 40 degree centigrade. They dries up pretty fast. I will try once in couple of weeks.
Wishing you success. When I was over seas I always had a lot of Brinjal curry. And also a lot of Chinese eggplant with garlic sauce. Both are favorites. But now all I get in the markets are typically the large black Italian eggplants and those for some reason I have a strange allergic reaction to. I can eat them by it’s a almost acid burning itching feeling. My daughters won’t eat eggplant either and I think they might have that from me. I’m desperate to get them eating them and more vegetables in general. I had Indian mates that used to talk about a variety of different eggplants, smaller and they said creamy and mild tasting. I need to start seeking out some of those varieties as the big black Italians just put us off eggplant. I have tried white egg eggplant from Asia. I got the seeds off a local Etsy store but never got any to germinate on the seedling heat mat. Do you have a list or link to a description of the Indian varieties you are working with or are they all farmer passed down seeds?
Eggplant has some amazing potential for back crossing to the ancestral forms which have vastly higher levels of vigour. Mentor grafting is also a possible technique to consider for this group.
A couple of papers to maybe check out:
Eggplant Origins: Out of Africa, into the Orient
Terri L. Weese and Lynn Bohs. Taxon 2010
and
Wild Relatives of the Eggplant (Solanum melongena L.: Solanaceae): New Understanding of Species Names in a Complex Group. Knapp 2013. PLOS One.
Hugo that is really cool. Do eggplants cross fairly easily on their own, did you do any hand pollinating to help them along? Some stayed in great form into the winter, that’s amazing. I’ve never really grown eggplants but am going to give it a go next year. Is the delicious taste associated with any particular phenotype (at least initially before crossing them all) ? I’ve definitely tasted those varieties with that pungent acrid aspect, not into those.
Speaking of eggplant relatives, do you Shane or anyone know how the “best” kinds of Solanum aethiopicum taste? I know some are very bitter, and some less, but I’m wondering if its something a child would eat if its a good cultivar and harvested at the right time. That makes me wonder too if you can correlate bitterness of eggplant fruit with leaf bitterness like you can with squash.
There are many new ones. It’s not that i’ve been growing them for years that i’m some kind of connaisseur. So i’m l’ost on what is what. I just let them do their thing. I have no time to be cross polinnating. Nature will have to do it’s thing. I’ll be putting them in the Serendipity Europe so if people here want to make crosses that would be great. I believe they’re not that easy crossing. It’ll be a rather slow LR project if nobody wants to help because i have a big garden. I LR everything like. Trees, herbs, shrubs.
I’m already so happy to have plants that want to grow and then they get more diverse as well on top! That the crossing part is not even really on the radar! And people exchange freely in this community. It’s such a positivity! And great to be a part off!