Brinjal Cultivation & Seed Production Technology

Botanical Name: Solanum melongena

Family: Solanaceae

Chromosome No. 24

Origin: Indo-Burma

Climate and Soil:

Brinjal requires a long and warm growing season. The plant is  sensitive to frost injury. Chilling weather for a long time may also damage the crop. A well drained and fertile soil is desirable for growing brinjal. It is a hardy plant and can be grown on different kinds of soil but does best on silt loams and clay loams. However to raise an early crop sandy or sandy loam soil is preferred.

Varieties:
A) Hybrid
1.Pusa kranti- PPLX Hyderpure×Wynad local- long type.
2.Pusa Anupam- Pusa Kranti×PPC- long type.
3.Pant Rituraj: T-3×PPC- Round type.
4. Pusa Uttam: GR×Rituraj.
5. Pusa Bindu: GR×Rituja
B) Selection
1.Pusa Purple Long. 2.Pusa Purple Cluster. 3.Pusa Purple Round. 4.Arka Shirish: Green type. 5.Arka Kusumkar: Green type. 6.Arka Sheel. 7.Punjab Bahar: Round type

Seed Rate : To plant an acre 300 to 400 g of seed is grown on raised beds.

Sowing Time : The sowing time of four successive crops of brinjal is given below :

1. The nursery for the first crop is sown in October and seedlings are transplanted in November.

2. The nursery for the second crop is sown in November. It gives seedlings for transplanting in the first fortnight of February. The seedlings of this nursery are required to be protected against frost. 

3. The seed for the third crop is sown in nursery beds in February-March. The seedlings are transplanted before the end of April.

4. The seed for the fourth crop is sown in the nursery beds in July and transplanting is done in August.

Low tunnel technology : 

During winter protection of brinjal plants from low temperature with low tunnel technology gives early and high yield. For this nursery should be transplanted in first fortnight of November on raised beds at spacing of 90 cm between rows and 30 cm between plants. In first week of Dec. iron arches are fixed and covered with transparent non perforated plastic sheet of 50 micron thickness. When the temperature starts warming up, remove the polythene sheet in second fortnight of February.

Spacing : 

Rows are spaced 67.5 cm apart and plants are spaced 30-45 cm apart in the row. 

Manures and Fertilizers : 

Apply 10 tones of well rotten farmyard manure. Apply 25 kg of N,  25 kg of P205 and 12 kg of K2O per acre. Apply all the fertilizers at transplanting. After two pickings, again apply 25 kg of N per acre.

Irrigation : 

First irrigation should be given immediately after transplanting. During summer irrigate the crop at 4-5 days interval whereas during winter season irrigate at 10-12 days interval depending on soil type. It requires 10-15 irrigations.

Harvesting: 

Fruits should be harvested when become tender and fully developed. Harvest every week in the peak season. Packaging of brinjal fruits in paper moulded trays followed by wrapping with shrink and cling film improves the shelf life and maintains the quality under ordinary market for one week.

Seed Production: 

The brinjal variety should be grown at least 200 meter apart from other brinjal varieties. . For seed production, the ripe fruits which turned yellow are crushed and stored overnight. The seeds are separated after washing with water and is finally sieved and dried. The washing is usually done in the morning so that the seed is dried during the day. The dried seed is packed and labelled.