In this investigation, six varieties of eggplant were set up in a factorial mating
design (3 x 3) to obtain nine Fl hybrids. The resulted genetic material could help to
obtain estimates for the different genetic parameters in addition to the estimation of
heterosis. All genotypes were planted in two different locations (Mansoura and
Sohag) to allocate the best genotype for each given location. The data showed variable results with respect to the performances of all
genotypes. The best parent and the best Fl hybrid was not the same at both
locations. The obtained values of heterosis from the mid-parents according to the
combined data were 22.06, 29.15, 33.33, 13.59, 23.28, 15.46 and 72.10% for plant
height (P.H.), number of branches per plant (No. B.lP.), number of leaves per plant
(No. UP.), weight of fruit 0N.F.), fruit length (F.L.), fruit diameter (F.D.) and average
yield per plant (AY.lP.), respectively. In the same time, the highest value of heterosis
against the better parent was 26.92% for A.Y.lP. trait. The estimates of genetic variance components obtained from the factorial
mating design showed the importance of additive (cr²A) and non-additive genetic
variances including dominance (^cr20) , although the magnitudes of (cr2o) were larger
than their corresponding (cr²A). Concerning heritability values, the results indicated that the magnitudes of
h²b% were larger than those of h²_n% for all studied traits. These results illustrated the
possibility of producing vigorous hybrids to increase the productivity of eggplant.