How to grow Brinjal/Eggplant from seeds?

Do you or your mom love to make Baingan Ka Bharta at home? Or make very healthy Eggplant chips and Masala? What if you can grow your own Eggplants at home and it just as easy as going to the grocery store and buying it! here you have the added luxury of knowing just how clean and chemical-free your food is.

First, let’s see the kind of potting mix you need. Brinjal likes a well-Draining, Sandy soil. You can use a mixture of Sand, Garden soil and Compost or manure, keeping the sand on the heavier side.

You can now get your seeds. You can buy them online or your local nursery or gardening shops. The best time to sow these seeds is right after the monsoon season.  

To sow these seeds, you can just place them in soil, not too deep inside and place the pot in a partially shaded area for around 2 weeks. Water them just enough to keep the soil moist. Seeds like the moisture for germination. 

After a month or so, your baby plants should be ready to get their own individual homes. You can use pots that are over 15 inches. Gently take the individual plants out of the pot without damaging the roots and then place them in their individual pots. 

You can add a little more compost or manure into this potting mix. Keep these pots in the same location as before so they can acclimatize. After a week or so you can keep them in a bright indirect lit spot. Eggplants love the full sun so try to keep them in a spot where they’ll get a lot of it!

After the plant has grown around a foot tall, you can notch the top few leaves at the stem, which then will make the rest of your plant bushier!

You can water this plant often enough to keep the soil moist. Don’t let it dry out.

Now it’s just a game of waiting and watching. After around 2 months from germination, it will start blooming, which you’ll be able to see at the nodes. This is when you can start giving it a fertiliser( May I suggest our hassle-free Plant food Sticks by LazyGardener). Keep a check for any pests. Only use a pesticide if necessary. 

And just after 3 months from planting the seeds, you’ll have ready brinjals that you can harvest! You can cut the at the base of the vegetable.

If properly taken care of, this plant can live for over 5 years!

And there you have it guys! You can now make a delicious eggplant dish and be proud that you grew it yourself!

That’s it, guys!

I hope you have a lovely day!

Until next time,

Gayatri Vaidya ©