This particular plant is also called garbanzo beans and gram, and they are also regarded as beans. The botanical name of this plant is called Cicer arietinum. This plant is a tender annual legume, and also a bushy plant that grows to about 18 inches tall, it also has pairs of dark green, compound leaflets that look exactly like vetch.
The Chickpea yield
Make sure you grow 4 to 8 chickpeas
plants per each household member.
The land preparation for the Chickpea
Make sure you plant the chickpeas in
full sun. If you grow the chickpeas in a partial shade the yield will reduce. Try
as much as possible to grow the chickpeas in a loose, well-drained soil that is
rich in organic matter. Make sure you add aged compost to the planting beds in
advance of planting. Try as much as possible to avoid planting the chickpeas
where green manures have just grown or in a soil that is high in nitrogen, because
this may result in green leafy growth, not actually seed production. Make sure
you also add potassium and phosphorus to the soil.
The Chickpea planting
time
This particular plant is a cool-season annual crop
that actually requires about 100 days to reach harvest. This plant are frost
tolerant but they actually grow best where daytime temperatures is between 70
and 80º and where the night time temperatures do not dip below 65ºF. Make sure
you sow the chickpeas in the garden as early as two to three weeks before the
average last frost in spring. This plant requires a long growing season. If you
actually want to get a head start on the season, you can sow the chickpeas
indoors in a peat or paper pot and later transplant the pot and plant to the
garden when the plants are about three to four inches tall.
The Planting and
spacing of Chickpeas
Make sure you sow the chickpeas 1½ to
2 inches deep, and spaced them 3 to 6 inches apart. Make sure you thin successful
plants to 6 inches apart, also make sure you cut away thinned plants at the soil
level with scissors so as not to disturb the roots. Make sure you space rows 18
to 24 inches apart. Make sure you do not soak the seed before sowing and also avoid
heavy watering after sowing to keep seeds from cracking. If you allow the Chickpeas
to grow a bit crowded it will really offer each other support.
The watering and
feeding of Chickpeas
Try as much as possible to keep the planting
beds evenly moist until the plant have pushed through the soil. Make sure you water
regularly during flowering and pod formation. Try as much as possible to avoid
overhead watering, this can cause the flowers and pods to fall off. Make sure
you mulch when the weather is warms to conserve the soil moisture. Also make
sure you add aged compost to the planting beds in advance of planting. Make sure
you side dress the chickpeas with aged compost at midseason. Try to avoid
adding nitrogen-rich fertilizers to the planting beds. This plant is like other
legumes that can set up a mutual exchange with soil microorganisms called
nitrogen-fixing bacteria to produce nitrogen compounds used by plant.Some of the companion plants of Chickpea; summer savory, strawberries, Potatoes, cucumbers, corn, celery. Make sure you don’t plant the chickpeas with garlic.
How to Care for
Chickpeas
Make sure you avoid handling them
when they are wet or covered with heavy dew, because this may lead to the spread
of fungus spores. Make sure you keep the planting beds free from weed but you
can cultivate around the Chickpea plant carefully so as not to disturb the
plant’s shallow root system. You can rotate the chickpeas with other legumes to
add nitrogen to the soil.
How to grow Chickpea in
container
This particular plant can be grown in
containers 8 inches deep, although the space that is actually required for a
useable crop makes the chickpeas a poor choice for container growing.
How to control Pests in
Chickpea
Chickpea is like any other plants that also face pest challenges. The pest that attack chickpeas are bean beetles, aphids, flea beetles, mites and leafhoppers. You can control Aphids, leafhoppers, and mites by spraying them away with a blast of water from the hose or you can use insecticidal soap. Make sure you look for their eggs and infestations and crush them between your fingers and thumb. You can also pinch out and remove large infestations. A pest like Aphids can spread bean mosaic virus. Try as much as possible to keep the garden clean and free of debris so that the pests cannot harbor or over-winter in the garden.
How to control disease
in Chickpea
Chickpea plant is like any other plant
that also faces some disease challenges. This particular plant is susceptible
to mosaic, anthracnose and blight. Try as much as possible to plant a disease-resistant
varieties. Make sure you keep the garden clean and free of debris. Make sure
you also avoid handling plants when they are wet so as not to spread fungal
spores. Make sure you removed diseased plants, you can put them in a paper bag
and throw them away.
How to Harvest
Chickpeas
This particular plant will be ready
for harvest in 100 days after planting. Don’t forget that the Chickpeas that are
meant for fresh eating can be picked when the pods are still immature and
green. In the case of dried chickpeas, they can harvested when the leaves have
withered and they have turned brown, you can place the plant on a flat, warm
surface and then allow the pods to dry. The seeds can be collect as the pods
split. Starting a commercial Chickpeas farming can be very profitable if it is done in a proper way. To get a step by step guide on how to start commercial Chickpeas farming you can purchase the book on AMAZON STORE. To purchase the Chickpeas cultivation book click the button below.
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