Solanum - Solanceae Breeding / Hybridization

I am planning on breeding / obtaining a large number of Solanceae species, mostly to breed into things like Eggplants, Tomatoes, Pepinos, Tamarillos - even ground cherries.

Seed size, flower size / structure, ploidy can act as barriers to hybridizations. As can other factors.

Desired traits:

Cold Hardiness

Perennial

Disease Resistance

Upright Sturdy Growth / Stems-Branches (Remove the need for staking)

"New" flavors

Fruit markings / new shapes for ornamental, more marketable fruits

Anthocyanin expression independent of light dependence

Ornamental Flowers



Trying to make a tree / grouping of related Solanum species, putting them into their clades - genus. Species in the same genus or clade will probably hybridize and make more viable offspring than others. Some species may work well as "branches"

Capsiceae:

Lycianthes moziniana – Tlanoxtle

Capsicum annuum

C. chinense

C. chinense x annuum

C. flexuosum

C. rhomboideum

C. baccatum

C. pubescens

C. praetermissum

C. lanceolatum (Possibly)

C. exile (Possibly)

The peppers include a few different varieties depending on the species. I may not grow every single species here as some of them take over 1 - 2 years before they begin to flower. I am starting to amass quite the collection. Hopefully next year I can start some pepper breeding threads.


Morelloid clade:

S. retroflexum

S. nigrum

S. villosum

S. melanocerasum (https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC6070582/ This may not be a species - could be a subspecies, should still fit into the Morelloid)


Archaesolanum subgenus: Kangaroo apples / some Leptostemonum species as well - Australian species

S. aviculare

S. linearifolium x aviculare

S. vescum x aviculare

S. laciniatum

S. lasiophyllum

S. sturtianum

(If anyone is able to send other solanum Bush Tucker species - or Solanum plastisexum - Solanum jobsonii, I would be interested in trading seed)


Subgenus Leptostemonum Listing these separately from the Australian species

S. candidum

S. stramoniifolium

S. ferox

S. quitoense

S. sessiliflorum

S. pachyandrum

S. alternopinatum

S. sisymbriifolium

S. abutiloides

S. melongena

S. aethiopicum

S. macrocarpon

S. anguivi

S. viride (uporo)

A lot of these species fit into different clades in the Leptostemonum subgenus, I might edit this in the future to separate them, some of them branched off quite a long time ago.


Cyphomandra Genus/Clade:

Cyphomandra corymbiflora

Cyphomandra beataceae


Jaltomata Genus:

J. bohsiana

J. ventricosa

J. cajacayensis

J. sinuosa

J. repandidentata


Lycium Genus:

Lycium chinense

Lycium ruthenicum


Lycopersicon-Potatoe Subgenus/Clade:

Lycopersicon Hybrids

L. peruvianum

L. corneliomulleri

L. habrochaites

L. neorickii

L. pimpinellifolium

L. galapagense

L. cheesmanii

L. chmielewskii

L. lycopersicum

S. caripense

S. muricatum (https://bohs.biology.utah.edu/PDFs/Lynn/Bohs-2005.pdf - https://homepages.uc.edu/~tepeej/EricTepe/Research-Solanum.html)

I am probably going to end up growing more Lycopersicon species than what I listed. This "clade" is still being made, genetic tests and everything else are needed to piece everything together.

Some things like S. melongena, S. aethiopicum, S. macrocarpon, S. anguivi can cross very easily - without embryo rescue or chemicals.

S. candidum, S. stramoniifolium, S. ferox, S. quitoense, S. sessiliflorum can all cross freely. S. ferox hybrids can have a lot of incompatibilities due to being from a different continent than the others.


S. aviculare, S. laciniatum, S. lasiophyllum, S. sturtianum - Kangaroo apples are probably the same story. Seed size / flowers vary quite a bit between the species. The hybrid types that I managed to obtain have various seed sizes / colors etc.


I am hoping that some of these hybrids will be able to cross with each other - Eggplant / Kangaroo apple hybrids would be very nice.

Pepino x Tomatoes also sound nice, I would hopefully obtain such crosses by growing multiple interspecific hybrids from both pepino's closest relatives and hybrids with tomatoes closest relatives.

Most Tzimbalo Melon Pears are apparently an incorrect species. Hopefully I can source / grow enough to get some good genetics for such a project.