Growing Hydroponic Brinjal in Cocopeat – Seed to Harvest

Last updated on October 28th, 2022 at 03:05 pm

Step by Step guide to growing Hydroponic Brinjal in Cocopeat

Growing Hydroponic Brinjal in cocopeat is fun and easy but first let’s learn a bit about Eggplant in general to understand things better. Brinjal or Eggplant (Solanum Melongena) belong to Solanaceae Family just like Tomatoes and are native to South India. It is a tropical plant that require long warm growing season and it doesn’t like cold temperatures especially below 20 degrees Celsius where it’s growth slows down considerably or stops until temperatures rise again.

Eggplants are perennial but they are mostly grown as annuals because in winters suitable temperatures have to be maintained in order to get optimum yield and growth. They love warm weather and can grow well even in high temperatures. Most Suitable temperature range for growing brinjal or eggplants is between 20-35 degrees Celsius. Eggplant fruits can vary in colours and shapes depending upon varities such as Dark purple, Pink, Green, Black,etc.

Seed Starting Process for Hydroponic Eggplants

To grow Brinjal in Hydroponics and to start Eggplant seeds we need a seed starting media which in this case is Cocopeat and we are going to use same media for further growing Hydroponic eggplant hydroponically. I use propagation tray to germinate seeds and here you can see in images below I have cocopeat and propagation tray. Always use high quality brinjal seeds for best germination rate. I used a year old seeds so I sowed 3-4 seeds per cell to ensure enough germination and all seeds were healthy so all germinated.

To start hydroponic eggplant seeds :-

1. Fill Cocopeat in all cells just little bit below the cell edges or rim
2. Sow 1 seed per cell or 2-4 seeds per cell if seeds are old
3. Cover the seeds with enough cocopeat to hide them. Brinjal seeds should not be sown more than 1/4 to 1/2 inch deep
4. Drench the cocopeat for seed to germinate. Use plain R.O. water or any water with EC 0.3 ms/cm or TDS below 150 ppm

Germination and Seedling Phase

Given the right conditions, Eggplant seeds germinate within 3-5 days and you can see in image below that all seeds germinated and had to later thin the seedlings to have 1 seedling per cell. Thinning means to remove any excess seedlings that you are not going to need. So, I removed all extra seedlings leaving just one seedling per cell

Feeding Nutrient Solution to Hydroponic Eggplants

I start feeding seedlings nutrient solution when first two leaves of the seedling are completely open and start with a weak nutrient solution strength such as EC 0.5 ms/cm or TDS 250 PPM and then increase strength by EC 0.2 ms/cm or TDS 100 PPM every week not to exceed 450 PPM mark until transplantation stage. pH is always kept between 5.5-6.5. Brinjal seedlings are ready for transplant in around 25-30 days when first pair of true leaves emerge and there are total four leaves. Below you can see Eggplant seedlings at 25 day mark ready to be transplanted

Growing Eggplant Hydroponically in Grow Bags

For Growing Eggplant hydroponically I chose Drain to Waste method to grow Hydroponic Eggplants where nutrient solution is not recirculated and excess leachate is discarded off. I ordered some grow bags online for this purpose and growing media I used was 70% Cocopeat and 30% Perlite . You can also use 100% cocopeat if you want, I mixed perlite with cocopeat because it promotes more air flow resulting in oxygenation in plant root zone. Also, to grow Brinjal in Hydroponics I used Drip Irrigation method in place of hand watering to supply nutrient solution to brinjal plants

To transplant brinjal seedling in grow bags, you just need to make a little space with hand in the middle and then place the seedling in that spot and firm the cocopeat around that seedling

Growth Phase of Hydroponic Brinjal Plants

After transplanting eggplant or brinjal seedlings, I started hydroponic nutrient solution for eggplants once a day at strength around EC 1.0 ms/cm or TDS 500 PPM until there’s 10% leachate of supplied quantity of nutrient solution. Reason behind 10% leachate is to avoid build up of salts keep growing media salts composition healthy. Strength of nutrient solution was increased by 150-200 PPM every 7-10 days with pH between 5.5-6.5. Below you can see plant growth at different stages after transplantation

Harvesting Hydroponic Eggplants

At 50 days after transplant, after successful hand pollination, hydroponic brinjal flowers had turned into fruits and first batch was ready for harvesting. At this stage full strength nutrient solution around EC 2.3 ms/cm or TDS 1150 PPM was being fed to the plants and was continued till termination

Hydroponic Nutrient Solution Recipe for Hydroponic Brinjal

To make Hydroponic Nutrient Solution for Eggplant I used the same DIY Hydroponic Nutrients recipe I use for other Fruiting vegetables such as Hydroponic Bottle Gourd or Hydroponic Broccoli. Please see below for hydroponic fertilizer details :-

• Calcium Nitrate 90 grams
• Magnesium Sulphate 53 grams
• Mono Ammonium Phosphate 10 grams
• Mono Potassium Phosphate 13 grams
• Potassium Nitrate 15 grams
• Potassium Sulphate 62 grams
• Iron EDTA 12% 3 grams
• Micronutrient Chelated Mix EDTA 300 mg

Above mentioned salts quantities are to be dissolved one by one in 100 Liters of water and it will give you 100 Liters full strength solution of around EC 2.3 ms/cm or TDS 1150 PPM. You can further dilute this nutrient solution by adding plain R.O. water or any water with EC below 0.3 ms/cm or TDS 150 PPM and dialing it down to your required EC/TDS value

If you want to know step by step information on how to make hydroponic nutrient solution then you can Click Here

You can measure EC or TDS with the help of EC/TDS meter and pH with the help of pH meter

pH of hydroponic nutrient solution for hydroponic eggplants is always to be kept between 5.5-6.5 at all stages

You can also watch my Hindi YouTube video for more Information on growing Brinjal in Hydroponics by clicking the link below or If you have any questions you can ask them in comments section below