The Organic
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Vegetables · Fruiting

Growing brinjal

Solanum melongena · also called Baingan, Wangun (Kashmiri)A warm season fruit vegetable raised in a nursery and transplanted. It needs a long, sunny, frost-free season and bears over several months.

North-east hills and valleys: Assam, Meghalaya, Sikkim, Darjeeling

Our team has checked this guide against the sources at the end of the page.Includes AI suggestions where no published guide covers a detail
A round green brinjal fruit hanging under the leaves of a brinjal plant
Photo: Dr. Anil Kumar Swain - Sr. Scientist & Head. Krishi Vigyan Kendra, OUAT, Nayagarh · CC0

At a glance

Brinjal in the North-east hills and valleys

  • Season

    Winter crop sown in September to October; spring crop sown in January to February8

  • Sowing to last picking

    About 6 to 7 months from nursery sowing to the last picking.

    No published guide covers this for the North-east hills and valleys, so this is an AI suggestion. Check it with local advice before you rely on it.

  • Nursery

    Early September to October8

    Part of this comes from the sources cited. The rest is an AI suggestion.

  • First harvest

    60 to 75 days after sowing

    No published guide covers this for the North-east hills and valleys, so this is an AI suggestion. Check it with local advice before you rely on it.

Across India

When to sow it

Twelve growing regions, January to December. Your region comes first.

Too late this season

The window here was Early September to October. The next one opens in January.

Sowing now in:North-west plainsGangetic plainsArid westCentral plateauDeccan plateau
  • Nursery
  • Transplant
  • Harvest
  • Under cover
  • Today
North-east hills and valleysAssam, Meghalaya, SikkimGangetic plainseastern Uttar Pradesh, Bihar, West Bengal plainsCentral plateauMadhya Pradesh, Chhattisgarh, Vidarbha
Compare all 12 regions
Temperate HimalayaKashmir valley, Shimla, KulluCold desertLadakh, Lahaul and Spiti · Under cover onlySub-tropical foothillsJammu, Kangra, DehradunNorth-west plainsPunjab, Haryana, DelhiGangetic plainseastern Uttar Pradesh, Bihar, West Bengal plainsArid westRajasthan, Kutch, north GujaratCentral plateauMadhya Pradesh, Chhattisgarh, VidarbhaDeccan plateauinterior Maharashtra, Telangana, north KarnatakaSouth interiorBengaluru, Mysuru, interior Tamil NaduWest coastKerala, Goa, KonkanEast coastcoastal Tamil Nadu, Puducherry, coastal Andhra
Today
See the dates as a table
RegionSowNurseryTransplantHarvest
North-east hills and valleysEarly September to OctoberJanuary to FebruaryOctober to NovemberFebruary to March
Temperate HimalayaMarch to MayAprilApril to JuneEnd of MayJuly to September
Cold desertUnder cover onlyUnder cover: Late March to April, under coverUnder cover: May, in the greenhouseUnder cover: July to September
Sub-tropical foothillsJanuaryFebruary to MarchMayMarch to AprilUnder cover: December, under low poly tunnelsFebruaryMarch to AprilJuneApril to MayUnder cover: January, into trenches
North-west plainsOctoberNovember, protected from frostFebruary to MarchJulyNovemberFirst half of FebruaryBy the end of AprilAugust
Gangetic plainsOctober to NovemberMay to JuneNovember to DecemberJune to July
Arid westJune to JulyOctober to NovemberFebruary to MarchJuly to AugustNovember to DecemberMarch to April
Central plateauJune to JulyOctober to NovemberFebruary to MarchJuly to AugustNovember to DecemberMarch to April
Deccan plateauJune to JulyOctober to NovemberFebruary to MarchJuly to AugustNovember to DecemberMarch to April
South interiorDecember to JanuaryMay to JuneJanuary to FebruaryJune to July
West coastMay to June, before the monsoonSeptember to October
East coastDecember to JanuaryMay to JuneJanuary to FebruaryJune to July

From seed to harvest

One season, day by day

Days from sowing

  1. Before sowing

    Farmyard manure8

    10 tonnes per hectare · Apply in full as a basal dose. · Basal, before transplanting

  2. Day 0

    Sow

  3. Day 6 to 10

    Seeds come up5,7Part of this comes from the sources cited. The rest is an AI suggestion.

  4. Day 25 to 30

    Transplant7,5,4,9

  5. Day 60 to 75

    First pickingNo published guide covers this for the North-east hills and valleys, so this is an AI suggestion. Check it with local advice before you rely on it.

    Every 7 to 10 days

  6. Day 180 to 210

    Last pickingNo published guide covers this for the North-east hills and valleys, so this is an AI suggestion. Check it with local advice before you rely on it.

Water every 7 to 10 days, more at flowering and fruit development.No published guide covers this for the North-east hills and valleys, so this is an AI suggestion. Check it with local advice before you rely on it.

What it needs

Soil, sun and warmth

  • Soil pH3,1,2

    5.5 to 7

    Grows on most soils, from light sandy to heavy clay, if they are deep, fertile and well drained. Silt loam and clay loam suit it most; sandy loam gives an earlier crop.

  • Sunlight1

    Full sun. It needs a long, warm growing season with plenty of sunshine.

  • Temperature1,2,3

    Grows best at 21 to 27 °C

    Frost: none tolerated.

    Monthly temperatures for the North-east hills and valleys aren't in the library yet.

Water and feeding

WateringNo published guide covers this for the North-east hills and valleys, so this is an AI suggestion. Check it with local advice before you rely on it.

Water after transplanting and then every 7 to 10 days in dry weather; drain the field well in the rains.

WeedingNo published guide covers this for the North-east hills and valleys, so this is an AI suggestion. Check it with local advice before you rely on it.

Hand weed two or three times in the first six weeks and earth up the plants.

WhenWhatHow muchHow
Basal, before transplantingFarmyard manure10 tonnes per hectareApply in full as a basal dose.

Sources8

Varieties and yield

Typical range8

200 quintals a hectare

Yields vary with the plot, the seed and the season.

Varieties grown here8

  • Pusa Purple Cluster

    Long, in clusters; relatively resistant to bacterial wilt and little leaf

  • Borbengena

    Long

  • BWR-34

    Long, in clusters; tolerant to bacterial wilt

  • Pusa Kranti

    Long

  • Pusa Purple Long

    Long

  • Pusa Purple Round

    Round

  • Pusa Bhairav

    Round; resistant to phomopsis blight

  • BWR-12

    Round

  • BB-7

    Oblong, in clusters; tolerant to bacterial wilt

  • Pant Samrat

    Oblong; for areas where bacterial wilt is common

Good neighbours4,1,8

Grows well with

Pests and diseases8,4

Organic and cultural controls only.

  • Pest

    Shoot and fruit borer (Leucinodes orbonalis)

    Signs

    Shoots droop and dry; fruits have bore holes.

    What to do

    • Spray a neem formulation (azadirachtin 1500 ppm) at 2 ml per litre of water.
    • Spray the fungus Lecanicillium lecanii (formerly Verticillium lecanii), 5 g per litre of water.
    • Make eight weekly releases of Trichogramma chilonis, 1,00,000 per hectare (13,500 per bigha), from the start of flowering.

    Prevention

    • Grow garlic as an intercrop or border crop.

  • Disease

    Damping off

    Signs

    Seedlings rot at the base and fall over in the nursery.

    What to do

    • Treat seed with Trichoderma viride, 5 g per kg of seed, before sowing.
    • Drench the nursery with Trichoderma viride.

    Prevention

    • Raise seedlings on beds more than 15 cm high or in pro-trays with a clean potting mix.
    • Do not overwater; keep the nursery well drained.

  • Disease

    Phomopsis blight

    Signs

    Brown spots on leaves and fruits; the fruit rots.

    What to do

    • Remove and destroy diseased plant debris.

    Prevention

    • Take seed only from healthy fruits and give it hot water at 50 °C for 30 minutes.
    • Rotate with crops outside the tomato family and avoid brinjal after brinjal.
    • Plough deep in summer.
    • Grow resistant varieties.

  • Disease

    Bacterial wilt

    Signs

    Plants wilt suddenly while still green.

    What to do

    • Mix Trichoderma viride with FYM and spread it over the field before planting.
    • Use neem cake.

    Prevention

    • Grow resistant varieties.
    • Rotate with maize, soybean, wheat, rice, sesame or a green manure.
    • Grow a mustard-family green manure and dig it in.
    • Solarise nursery soil under clear polythene for 8 to 10 weeks in March to June.

  • Disease

    Little leaf (phytoplasma, spread by leafhoppers)

    Signs

    Leaves are tiny and crowded; plants turn bushy and bear no fruit.

    What to do

    • Pull out and destroy affected plants early.
    • Keep leafhoppers down with the measures above.

    Prevention

    • Remove weeds of the tomato family.
    • Grow tolerant varieties.

Seed and the season's end

Saving seed1,2,3

Grow seed plants at least 200 m from other brinjal varieties. Check the crop three times (at growth, at flowering and fruiting, and before harvest) and pull out off-types and diseased plants.

When the seed is ready

Seed fruits are ready when at least a third of the fruit has turned yellow.

Cleaning the seed

Cut or crush ripe fruits and leave them overnight. Work the seed out by hand in a tub of water: the flesh floats and the seed sinks. Wash several times and do it in the morning so the seed dries the same day.

Dry the seed straight after washing, in part shade, before packing and labelling it.

After the last picking8Part of this comes from the sources cited. The rest is an AI suggestion.

Pull out the plants after the last picking and destroy any with bacterial wilt. AAU suggests okra as a following crop in a brinjal and okra sequence.

Remove and destroy infested plants and crop residues straight after the last harvest, so borers and disease do not carry over to the next crop.

Rotation

Do not grow brinjal on the same land year after year. Rotate with crops outside the tomato family, such as maize, soybean, wheat, rice, sesame or a green manure, which also lowers bacterial wilt. Avoid following brinjal with potato.

Sources

Where this comes from

Our team has checked this guide against the sources at the end of the page.Reviewed by our team on 13 November 2026.

These published guides are the sources. Where none of them covers a detail for this region, the page shows an AI suggestion and labels it.

  1. 3Production Technology of Vegetables and Flowers (VSF-231), Part I: Vegetable production (Brinjal)CSK Himachal Pradesh Krishi Vishvavidyalaya, Palampur (College of Agriculture course notes)Read the source
  2. 4AESA based IPM package: BrinjalNational Institute of Plant Health Management (NIPHM) and Directorate of Plant Protection, Quarantine and Storage, Government of IndiaRead the source
  3. 5Brinjal: package of practices (source NHB)Vikaspedia (Government of India), citing the National Horticulture BoardRead the source
  4. 7Brinjal (eggplant): varieties developed by IIVR and cultivation detailsICAR-Indian Institute of Vegetable Research, VaranasiRead the source
  5. 8Package of Practices for Horticultural Crops of Assam, 2021 (Brinjal)Assam Agricultural University, Jorhat (copy on the KVK Chirang site)Read the source
  6. 9Horticulture: Vegetables: Brinjal (season, seed, cultural practices, manuring, irrigation, yield, varieties), TNAU Agritech PortalTamil Nadu Agricultural University, CoimbatoreRead the source

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