2022-09-15T07:00:00Z
We’ve had very little success growing chickpeas in the past with the last two years yielding very poorly. Something here loves chickpeas and come harvest there are loads of empty pods with holes in them.
I found a source of a few different colours so I’ll try again. Sample below. The green, brown, white and black chickpeas are desi types, i.e., small whereas the kabouli types are much larger. Fingers crossed that this diversity produces better results!
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Oscar D
What do you suspect the chickpea predator is if you had to guess?
Ray S
Not sure but it’s probably the larval stage of something, given the neat exit hole in each pod. This season I’ll check pods as they develop just to see what it might be.
Lowell M
I’ve seen two types of insect larvae that eat the seeds out of my pigeon peas, beans, and sesame pods. One is a small green oval shaped caterpillar, discreet looking, another is a longer brown, gold, speckled caterpillar, kind of pretty but still pesky. I’ll try to get pics.
Beautiful mix you have. I love those forest green desi chickpeas.
Debbie A
Love the mix of colors, Ray!
This year I bought bulk chickpeas from a Hispanic grocery store. The germination rate was very good, and I was able to save a couple handfuls of seed. The thing I don’t understand is that the parent seeds were large, like the ones on the right of the photo, but the progeny, after drying, were small like the ones on the left. Does anyone know if commercial chickpeas are dried differently to maintain a larger size? Or are they hybrids? The progeny were a fairly uniform population, however.
Ray S
Couldn’t find any definitive information on whether commercially grown chickpeas are hybrids or not. The information I did find suggests not, at least not here in Australia.
Perhaps the commercially grown ones are pumped up on applied fertliser!
Debbie A
Thanks for checking! Definitely no fertilizer on mine.
Elizabeth J
I’ve grown both desi and kabouli and am a big fan of fresh garbanzos. I bought a bag of green seed from an Indian market that showed close to 100% germination, but it doesn’t seem to like my conditions so no harvest yet.
Justin .
‘Desi’ means local, right? Local to where? I’d be interested in the potential of growing chickpeas in the UK, I had wondered about Northern India (I wonder if they grow any in cooler parts of Himachal?) and Afghanistan types…
Ray S
First sowing, which was direct, was a disaster. Slugs wiped out all but a couple of plants. I’ve resown into seed trays for planting out in a few weeks. I’ll hold off direct sowing until I can reliably grow a decent crop!
I pre-germinated the seeds before sowing into the seed tray and the forest green one was by far the best with 100% germination. Next was the brown with about a third germinated, then the black with only a few. The white have yet to show themselves. I’ll hang on to the ungerminated seeds for a few more days
These lovely beans magically appeared here 
@RayS we can’t wait to see your updates when you harvest the next round.
When are you all planting your chickpeas? I had assumed that all legumes wanted heat, but then someone mentioned that chickpeas are an early spring crop. We’ve had some seed production during summer, but pretty low. I was going to try planting them earlier in spring and see what happens.
I currently have lentils out for a winter cover crop, and they are thriving and surviving freezing temps. Don’t know about seed production yet…
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@HAnderson I plant chickpeas as early in spring as I can manage. I haven’t tried them at other times. If I manage to harvest a decent crop I’ll start experimenting at different times.
We are having a very cool summer so the summer legumes are struggling. I would dearly love a reliable chickpea crop to spread the risk as it were.
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Hi Ray, I started with the same problem as you (little holes in the pods and no crop) and this year, after landracing and harvesting earlier (drying inside rather than in the garden) I finally have my first really good crop! (the photo is just a sample of the crop to give an idea of the colors, not an idea of the productivity). I absolutely looove the color palette coming up! I was threshing and cleaning my seeds late into the night yesterday feeling like a kid opening wrapped up present! I was so curious to discover each color variation different from the previous ones. Good luck with your project, keep us updated!
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@Anphlo I’m excited now. Love the colour range you’re getting. At what stage did you harvest your chickpeas? Plump but still green pods? A few pods drying down?
few pods drying down but many still green but plump.
That’s great. Je vous remercie.
Hello all chickpea lovers! This is some of my chickpea crop this year ready to get simmered in a stew. If you have had a good crop this year consider making a donation of some of your seeds. I’m the seed steward for this crop. Deadline is November 24th. See details on how to do that : Crops for 2024 – Going To Seed
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