Egg & Chips™ is another world first in 2-in-1 cropping solutions for the home gardener

Thompson & Morgan plant breeders have carried out extensive grafting trials to create the next step in space-saving, dual-cropping vegetable plants with Egg & Chips™. For the first time ever you can now produce aubergines (better known as egg plants in the US and Europe) and potatoes on the same plant.

Aside from the dual-cropping benefits of Egg & Chips™, the grafting process makes it easier than ever before to grow quality aubergines in the UK climate. The hardy, vigorous potato plant supports the more delicate aubergine far better than its own root system can in British soil, enabling optimum fruit production. You won’t even need a greenhouse to grow Egg & Chips™ – a sunny, sheltered spot in the garden will produce great results.

The development of Egg & Chips™ was kept tightly under wraps – the seed and plant specialist even moved its annual summer press days off site in 2015 to keep final crop trials a secret. Thompson & Morgan New Product Development Manager Michael Perry said: “It’s been hard keeping quiet about this amazing plant. I’ve had to bite my tongue for the past year! Egg & Chips™ is a real innovation. For seasoned veg growers this is a really novel development. For those without the luxury of an allotment or large vegetable patch it makes the most of available space in the garden. Even the smallest patio or balcony can accommodate a pot-grown Egg & Chips™ plant – pair it with a Tomtato® plant and you’ll have three easy to grow crops from just two pots”.

The productive plants offer guaranteed results, making them great fun for kids just getting into growing. For kids at heart the innovation will make a great “show off” plant on the patio this summer. The sturdy potato plant gives the aubergine the vigour and strength to grow strongly and harvest heavily under UK growing conditions. Above ground you will harvest an average of 3 to 4 large tasty aubergines. Below ground, harvest heavy yields of up to 2kg of delicious white potatoes which are incredibly versatile. You can boil them, mash them, roast them or make chips. There's no genetic modification - it's an all-natural, and safe process.

Egg & Chips™ also dispels the myth that you need to salt, wash and dry aubergines to draw out bitter juices before cooking – a laborious chore that has put many people off growing these Mediterranean plants in the UK. The aubergine variety chosen for the grafting process is a modern strain that has had the bitterness bred out of it – simply pick, chop and cook.