Chickpeas/Garbanzo Beans

Acer Rubrum · #1

Has anyone here grown chickpeas before? I'm considering trying it next year. They look like interesting plants, even if there are only one or two seeds in a pod. Just wondering if anyone has any experience with them.

bower · #2

I had my first try this year with Black Kabuli Chick Pea.
I only had a couple of plants here and they didn't like it anywhere I stuck em in, apparently, as they did very little indeed and stayed rather small. One thing noticeable, they were part of a cover crop planting in my 'rain fed' garden (did not rain!). The only chickpeas that grew a foot tall, coincidentally had some clover right around them. The others were 2-3 inches tall.
The other really noticeable thing was that snowshoe hares didn't touch em. They ate everything else. Mowed it.
I also had a few seeds I stuck into gaps in the grains. These got about 6 inches tall and bore nothing.

At my mom's place I planted a double row of chickpeas with a row of barley in between. What a gorgeous crop, I can't believe I didn't get a picture. They make these nice fronds with frilly little leaves, very ornamental, close to 3 ft tall. Tiny flowers but also, very pretty. I haven't been into her garden lately, to check and see if there's any crop. Last time we did look, there were some pods but she said, there was nothing in em. Will let you know if I see anything interesting, when I do get out there.

Acer Rubrum · #3

Thanks for sharing your experiences. I'm going to have to dive into some research on these this winter.

bower · #4

@Acer Rubrum I was out there yesterday and checked the plants - many pods and all were empty! No idea why that is, but since I didn't get a single seed I won't be growing them again.