Outdoor Melon And Aubergine Trials Point To Potential Opportunities For UK Growers

A climate-resilient seed project has demonstrated the potential for watermelons, melons, and aubergines to grow at scale outdoors in the UK, highlighting opportunities to diversify domestic production under a changing climate.

Crops more commonly associated with warmer climates have delivered encouraging results at Asthall Manor, near Burford in Oxfordshire, where an experimental growing initiative is exploring ways to strengthen the resilience of the UK’s food system, reports the BBC.

The trial forms part of the Crowd Breeding Project, a national programme that focuses on developing fruit and vegetable varieties better suited to the UK’s changing weather.

It raises questions about whether varieties suited to outdoor cultivation could be grown more widely across the nation after this year’s exceptionally hot summer provided favourable conditions for aubergines and melons.

Tim Mitchell, who manages Asthall Manor’s kitchen garden, said the project was designed to assess whether “outdoor-friendly varieties” could be cultivated at scale in the UK.

“This year we've had a go at growing watermelons, melons, and aubergines all outdoors – which is not traditionally done in the UK,” he explained.

“We weren't even sure it was going to work, but sure enough we had a long hot summer which did allow us to grow these heat-loving crops.”

Building Resilience Through Crop Diversity

Led by international biodiversity charity the Gaia Foundation, the Crowd Breeding Project aims to increase the genetic diversity of food crops to help them adapt to changing environmental conditions.

Mitchell said the approach focuses on “building more resilience” into the UK’s food system.

He warned that reliance on a relatively narrow range of crop varieties could leave production vulnerable to common threats, particularly as weather patterns become less predictable.

“Currently a lot of crops that are grown are very limited in their variety… they’re all genetically quite closely related and they're all vulnerable to the same pressures,” he pointed out.

“So for instance in a heat drought if they're all very closely genetically related, your entire crop could fail.”

Natural Cross-Pollination At The Heart Of The Trial

To encourage greater genetic diversity, Mitchell planted multiple varieties of several tropical crops alongside one another, allowing natural cross-pollination to take place.

“Part of the principle that we’re working to is to breed genetic diversity into these crops by letting varieties cross through natural cross pollination,” he explained.

“That means you’re growing a diverse flock, and that gives them more genetic breadth to adapt to the changing seasons.”

The approach is intended to help develop crop populations with a broader genetic base, potentially improving their ability to cope with a range of growing conditions.

Indeed, the challenge for UK horticulture extends beyond rising temperatures, with growers also having to consider the potential effects of wetter summers and shifting seasonal patterns on crop performance.

“It’s very important that we adapt our crops in this country, not just to increasingly hot summers but potentially to increasingly wet summers,” Mitchell said.

“The way you allow crops to adapt is to let them cross with each other and become genetically diverse.”

Mitchell added that changing weather patterns were already affecting the conditions required by established British crops, with some “not getting the seasons they need”.

The project ultimately aims to identify crop varieties that can perform more reliably under evolving UK conditions, supporting greater diversity in domestic production.

“Out of this project, we hope to find new, more resilient, naturally occurring crops,” he added.

The trial offers an indication of how crop diversification and plant breeding could help broaden the range of fresh produce that can be grown domestically. 

However, further trials across different locations and seasons would be needed to establish the commercial potential of these crops and assess how consistently they can perform under UK growing conditions.