MEAN PERFORMANCE OF EGGPLANT (SOLANUM MELONGENA L.) INTER-SPECIFIC PROGENIES

In the field experiment, evaluation and screening of inter-specific progenies viz., selfed as well as back cross progenies of inter-specific crosses developed by hybridizing the cultivated parents with the wild relative Solanum viarum were taken up. During this investigation, per se performance of selfed (F4, F5, F6) and back cross (BC3F1, BC3F2 and BC3F3) inter-specific progenies of brinjal genotypes EP 45, EP 65, C0 2 were analyzed for growth and yield attributes. The results indicated that most of the inter-specific progenies performed better than the respective female parents for most of the growth and yield attributes. The shoot and fruit borer infestation in the inter-specific progenies was comparatively lower than the respective female parents. The selected progenies based on shoot and fruit borer infestation in the F6 and BC3F3 has to be studied further to derive segregants with high yield and high level of resistance to shoot and fruit borer.