For me, one of the main reasons for growing a garden is to focus on the things that I love to eat. Winter sowing chickpeas is a great way to ensure that I’m able to do exactly that. While I don’t have the healthiest eating habits, I absolutely love chickpeas in any form. From stews to roasted, chickpeas are something I’ve always wanted to grow at home.
After a failed attempt at growing this delicious crop last year, I’m fairly certain that I’ve finally figured out exactly what needs to be done. In many ways, growing chickpeas is very similar to growing garden peas, in that they thrive when the weather is cool. I learned the hard way that they definitely do not like it when the weather gets too hot in the summer. This is what caused a lost crop last season – I simply waited too late to plant them.
While chickpeas can definitely be direct sown in the garden as soon as the soil can be worked, I really wanted to get a head start on the growing process. I winter sowed my chickpeas into a large cell tray at the beginning of January. As of mid February, the seeds have already germinated and are starting to grow. It is likely that I’ll be transplanting these into the garden in early to mid March. I’m not too worried about any late periods of cold weather, as last year’s crop even encountered some late season snow and persevered without loss.
Have you ever grown chickpeas before? I would love to hear all about it in the comments below!
I have never grown chickpeas but I also love to eat them. I assumed they would require hot weather of which we don’t have very much. Maybe I will try some.