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.
Sub-tropical foothills: Jammu, Kangra, Dehradun
At a glance
Brinjal in the Sub-tropical foothills
Three crops in the sub-tropical zone (late winter, spring and summer); one spring to summer crop in the intermediate zone1
About 6 to 8 months from nursery sowing to the last picking, longer for crops that carry on into autumn.
No published guide covers this for the Sub-tropical foothills, so this is an AI suggestion. Check it with local advice before you rely on it.January1
Across India
When to sow it
Twelve growing regions, January to December. Your region comes first.
Wait until January
The next sowing here is January.
Under cover, from December, under low poly tunnels.
- Nursery
- Transplant
- Harvest
- Under cover
- Today
Compare all 12 regionsShow fewer regions
See the dates as a table
| Region | Sow | Nursery | Transplant | Harvest |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Sub-tropical foothills | JanuaryFebruary to MarchMayMarch to AprilUnder cover: December, under low poly tunnels | FebruaryMarch to AprilJuneApril to MayUnder cover: January, into trenches | ||
| Temperate Himalaya | March to MayApril | April to JuneEnd of May | July to September | |
| Cold desertUnder cover only | Under cover: Late March to April, under cover | Under cover: May, in the greenhouse | Under cover: July to September | |
| North-west plains | OctoberNovember, protected from frostFebruary to MarchJuly | NovemberFirst half of FebruaryBy the end of AprilAugust | ||
| Gangetic plains | October to NovemberMay to June | November to DecemberJune to July | ||
| North-east hills and valleys | Early September to OctoberJanuary to February | October to NovemberFebruary to March | ||
| Arid west | June to JulyOctober to NovemberFebruary to March | July to AugustNovember to DecemberMarch to April | ||
| Central plateau | June to JulyOctober to NovemberFebruary to March | July to AugustNovember to DecemberMarch to April | ||
| Deccan plateau | June to JulyOctober to NovemberFebruary to March | July to AugustNovember to DecemberMarch to April | ||
| South interior | December to JanuaryMay to June | January to FebruaryJune to July | ||
| West coast | May to June, before the monsoonSeptember to October | |||
| East coast | December to JanuaryMay to June | January to FebruaryJune to July |
From seed to harvest
One season, day by day
Days from sowing
Before sowing
Land preparation
Well rotted farmyard manure or compost
8 to 10 tonnes per acre
Add after 4 to 5 ploughings and level the field.
Day 0
Sow
Day 180 to 240
Last picking
No published guide covers this for the Sub-tropical foothills, so this is an AI suggestion. Check it with local advice before you rely on it.
Before sowing
Well rotted farmyard manure or compost1
8 to 10 tonnes per acre · Add after 4 to 5 ploughings and level the field. · Land preparation
Day 0
Sow
Day 6 to 10
Seeds come up5,7Part of this comes from the sources cited. The rest is an AI suggestion.
Day 25 to 30
Day 180 to 240
Last pickingNo published guide covers this for the Sub-tropical foothills, so this is an AI suggestion. Check it with local advice before you rely on it.
Brinjal is shallow rooted and needs frequent watering: every 4 to 5 days in summer and every 10 to 15 days in winter. Furrow irrigation is the usual method.1
What it needs
Soil, sun and warmth
Soil pH3,1,2
5.5 to 6.8
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 Sub-tropical foothills aren't in the library yet.
Water and feeding
Watering1
Brinjal is shallow rooted and needs frequent watering: every 4 to 5 days in summer and every 10 to 15 days in winter. Furrow irrigation is the usual method.
Weeding1
Hoe shallowly after the first irrigation to kill weeds and keep moisture in. Three or four hoeings are needed in all. Earthing up after top dressing helps.
| When | What | How much | How |
|---|---|---|---|
| Land preparation | Well rotted farmyard manure or compost | 8 to 10 tonnes per acre | Add after 4 to 5 ploughings and level the field. |
Varieties and yield
250 to 300 quintals a hectare
Yields vary with the plot, the seed and the season.
Pusa Purple Long
Long fruited, early
Pant Samrat
Long fruited; field resistance to bacterial wilt and phomopsis blight
Punjab Sadabahar
Long fruited
Pusa Kranti
Oblong fruited
Pusa Ankur
Small round fruits, early
Pusa Purple Round
Round fruited; resistant to little leaf
Pant Rituraj
Round fruited; for winter and summer planting
BR-112
Round fruited
Hisar Shyamal
Round fruited
Pusa Purple Cluster
Small fruits in clusters; field resistance to bacterial wilt
Pests and diseases1
Organic and cultural controls only.
Shoot and fruit borer (Leucinodes orbonalis)
Signs
Caterpillars bore into shoots and fruits; the holes stay plugged with black excreta and the shoots droop and wither. Worse in the rainy season.
What to do
- Clip infested shoots and fruits regularly and destroy or bury them in a pit.
- Mass trap the moths with pheromone (Leucinlure) or water traps, 40 an acre about 10 m apart, from 15 days after transplanting.
Prevention
- Plant two border rows of saunf or coriander to bring in natural enemies.
Stem borer (Euzophera perticella)
Signs
Young caterpillars bore into the stem and tunnel down the pith; plants droop and die.
What to do
- Pull out and destroy infested plants.
- Apply neem cake around the base of the plants at transplanting, 200 kg per acre.
Prevention
- Do not keep a ratoon crop.
Hadda beetle (Epilachna vigintioctopunctata)
Signs
Grubs and adults feed on the leaf surface; leaves turn papery.
What to do
- Collect and destroy eggs, grubs and pupae from the leaves.
Mealybug (Phenacoccus solenopsis)
Signs
White waxy insects on leaves, stems and fruits suck sap; leaves yellow and wither.
What to do
- Remove crop residues from fields that were infested before.
Prevention
- Rake the soil and keep the field free of weeds and debris.
Root-knot nematode (Meloidogyne species)
Signs
Leaves turn patchy yellow; knot-like galls on the roots.
Prevention
- Follow crop rotation.
- Grow marigold in infested land.
Damping off
Signs
Seedlings die before or after they come up and topple over.
What to do
- Sterilise the nursery bed by burning a 10 to 12 inch stack of farm trash on it.
- Treat seed with Trichoderma viride, 4 g per kg of seed.
Phytophthora fruit rot
Signs
Fruits start rotting from the tip.
What to do
- Collect and destroy plant debris.
Little leaf (phytoplasma, spread by leafhoppers)
Signs
Leaves become very small; plants are stunted and bushy and bear no fruit.
What to do
- Pull out and destroy infected plants.
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 pickingNo published guide covers this for the Sub-tropical foothills, so this is an AI suggestion. Check it with local advice before you rely on it.
Pull out the plants after the last picking and destroy any with little leaf or wilt. Follow with a cereal or a cabbage family crop rather than another tomato family crop.
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.
Growing under cover1
For an early crop, raise seedlings under low cost poly arch tunnels or thatch houses in the cold of December and transplant 40-day-old seedlings into trenches in January.
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.
- Package of Practices for Vegetable Crops 2020 (Brinjal; insect-pest and disease management in solanaceous vegetables; vegetable production in trenches)Directorate of Extension, SKUAST-JammuRead the source
- Production 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
- AESA based IPM package: BrinjalNational Institute of Plant Health Management (NIPHM) and Directorate of Plant Protection, Quarantine and Storage, Government of IndiaRead the source
- Brinjal: package of practices (source NHB)Vikaspedia (Government of India), citing the National Horticulture BoardRead the source
- Brinjal (eggplant): varieties developed by IIVR and cultivation detailsICAR-Indian Institute of Vegetable Research, VaranasiRead the source
- Horticulture: Vegetables: Brinjal (season, seed, cultural practices, manuring, irrigation, yield, varieties), TNAU Agritech PortalTamil Nadu Agricultural University, CoimbatoreRead the source
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