How to grow chickpea

Do this early — about 1 to 4 months before you sow, while you can still choose your field.

Pick a field where chickpea, lentil, pea or bean has not grown for at least the last 3–4 seasons — wilt and root-rot fungi build up in the soil under these crops and cannot be sprayed out.

Choose your best-draining field — a gentle rise or slope, not a low, black-cotton dip that holds water. Chickpea roots rot in any ground that floods or stays wet, and that rot has no cure.

Walk the field after a rain and mark where water pools or drains slowly. Cross those low, wet patches off — they are where you lose the crop.

Plan to sow toward the end of the rains, so the crop grows down onto the water stored deep in the soil and flowers after the heavy rain has passed.

Where you can, follow a cereal such as maize or sorghum with your chickpea — it breaks the disease cycle, and the chickpea leaves free nitrogen in the soil for the cereal next time.

In the 3 weeks before sowing, buy seed of a variety bred to resist Fusarium wilt and Ascochyta blight — ask the dealer or check your recommendation. This resistance is your main defence; no spray fixes wilt.

Choose your market type: desi (small, dark, tough seeds — hardier in heat and dry spells) or kabuli (big, cream seeds — worth more, but they need kinder weather). Keep plump, whole seed; throw out any shrivelled, cracked or holed seed.

If chickpea has never grown in this field, buy a sachet of Mesorhizobium ciceri inoculant — a cheap powder of helpful root germs. It lets the crop pull its own nitrogen from the air, so you barely need fertiliser. Keep it cool, in the shade, and use it before its expiry date.

Buy a small dose of phosphorus (P) fertiliser too (such as single superphosphate) — phosphorus is the one nutrient chickpea really pays back, feeding the roots and the nitrogen-fixing germs. Your recommendation gives the amount. Chickpea needs little or no nitrogen fertiliser.

Store the seed, inoculant and fertiliser dry, off the floor, and away from food, water and children. Keep the label and receipt in case the seed turns out poor.

Loosen the soil a spade deep (about 15–20 cm) so the seed can go down to the moist layer and the deep roots can follow.

Break the big clods to a rough, crumbly tilth — but do not work it to a fine dust, which sets into a crust the deep-sown seed cannot push through.

Level out any hollows where water could pool. On a slope, work across the slope so rain soaks in evenly instead of running off.

Do this in the last few weeks before sowing, while the soil is still workable — a seedbed opened too early bakes hard and loses the very moisture you are trying to keep.

Sow as the rains end, when the surface is drying but the soil is still moist at sowing depth — two to three finger-joints down. Push a finger or a stick in and check that damp layer is there before you sow.

Place the seed deep: about 5–8 cm (roughly two finger-joints) in normal soil, and 10–12 cm (about three finger-joints) on dry, rain-fed land — right into the moist soil. Chickpea comes up well from this depth; shallow seed dries out and dies.

Set the spacing: rows about one and a half hand-spans apart (30 cm), and seeds about half a hand-span apart (10 cm) down the row. Your recommendation may fine-tune the seed rate for your variety.

On new land, dampen the seed lightly and dust it with the Mesorhizobium ciceri inoculant (the root-germ powder) just before sowing, in the shade — the germs die in hot sun. Sow the coated seed the same day.

Drop your small dose of phosphorus (P) fertiliser in the furrow, with or just below the seed. Cover and firm the soil. Do not water the field, and do not let it flood — wet soil rots the seed and the young roots. Wash your hands after handling the fertiliser.

From about a week after sowing, walk the field twice a week, in a big 'W' so you cover the four corners and the middle — not just the edge by the path.

Cutworms: look for young plants cut clean off at ground level (worst overnight). Scratch the soil around a fresh-cut plant to find the fat, grey, curled-up caterpillar, and squash it.

Damping-off: look for seedlings that rot and topple at the soil line, leaving bare gaps — worst in wet patches. It is a sign the field is too wet: drain any low spots and never water.

Dry root rot (charcoal rot): on warm, dry patches, look for young plants that yellow and die. Pull one and check the root — dark, shredded, and greyish, sooty-black inside, like charcoal dust.

Count how many plants are up against what you sowed, and note where the gaps are, so you know how the stand is doing.

If cutting spreads night after night, go out after dark to hand-collect and destroy the caterpillars, or bait as your recommendation advises — you cannot re-sow the lost plants.

From about 2 weeks after sowing, as the bush starts branching, walk the 'W' twice a week, looking closely at the leaves, stems and growing tips of about 10 plants at several stops.

Ascochyta blight: look for brown spots ringed with tiny black dots (like specks of ground pepper) on leaves, stems and pods. Stems can girdle (rot right around) and snap. It spreads fast in cool, cloudy, wet spells — mark it the moment you see it.

Fusarium wilt: look for single plants or small patches that suddenly droop and dry while the rest stay green. Pull one and split the stem near the ground — a brown or black streak running up inside confirms wilt. Uproot and carry those plants away; do not compost them.

Aphids: look for clusters of tiny soft green or black insects on the shoot tips and under the leaves, with sticky, shiny 'honeydew' and curling tips. A few do little harm; heavy build-ups spread virus — note if they grow.

Phosphorus hunger: dull, dark, stunted plants, sometimes with reddish or purple older leaves, can mean the soil is short of phosphorus — note it for next season's P.

Weed once the crop is up and the weeds are still small — within the first 2–4 weeks after sowing, before the weeds outgrow the young chickpea.

Hoe shallowly between and within the rows — chickpea's feeder roots are near the surface, and deep hoeing cuts them.

Pull the weeds out roots and all where you can; chop the rest off at the base. In dry areas, leave the pulled weeds lying between the rows as a light mulch to hold moisture.

Try to weed on a dry day with dry leaves, so you do not spread Ascochyta as you move through the crop.

From about 6 weeks after sowing, when the flowers open, walk the 'W' twice a week.

Pod borer: shake a few plants over your open hand or a cloth and look for small green-to-brown caterpillars with pale stripes down the side, and for caterpillars chewing the flowers. Count how many plants carry one.

Hang pheromone traps — small traps baited with the female moth's scent that lure and catch the male moths — and count the moths caught in each trap per night, so you know when a wave is building.

Act when you find about 1 caterpillar per plant, or the traps catch 5–8 moths per trap per night — that is the point where the borer costs you more than the spray does (see the pod-borer control task).

Ascochyta: in cool, wet weather keep checking the leaves and young pods for the brown, black-dotted spots — wet flowering weather lets the fungus onto the pods.

Spray only when scouting hits the threshold — about 1 caterpillar per plant, or traps catching 5–8 moths per trap per night. Do not spray by the calendar; spray on the count.

Choose a caterpillar-only product first: a natural germ spray (Bt — a bacterium that harms only caterpillars) or the caterpillar-virus spray (NPV). These spare the bees and helpful insects. Keep an approved chemical insecticide for a heavy attack only.

Measure the dose with the cap supplied and mix into a full knapsack (15–20 litres); spray to wet the plants and flowers without dripping. Spray in the cool of evening, when caterpillars are out and bees have stopped visiting.

Protect yourself: wear a long-sleeved shirt, cover your nose and mouth, and spray with the wind behind you. Keep children and animals away, keep spray off all food, and wash yourself and the sprayer afterwards.

Respect the pre-harvest interval — the number of days the label says to wait between spraying and picking, so no poison is left on the seed. Never pick inside that window.

If the count is below threshold → do not spray. A needless spray wastes money, kills the borer's natural enemies, and speeds up resistance.

Keep walking the 'W' twice a week through podding, from about 9 weeks after sowing.

Pod borer: now look for round holes bored into the pods, often with the caterpillar's rear end sticking out as it eats the seed inside. Count the pods and plants with fresh holes, and keep watching the traps.

Dry root rot (charcoal rot): on dry, hot patches, look for plants that go straw-yellow and die early, from the base up. Pull one — the lower stem and root are dark, shredded, greyish-black and sooty inside. Nothing sprays it; it is a drought-and-heat disease.

If a patch is dying of root rot but the pods are mature and filled, harvest that patch early rather than lose the seed as the pods shatter.

Re-spray for pod borer while the count is still over threshold (see the pod-borer spray task) — but respect the wait before harvest.

Spray again only while the count stays over threshold (about 1 caterpillar per plant, or 5–8 moths per trap per night), leaving about 10–14 days between sprays.

Rotate to a different product group each time (Bt, NPV, and any approved chemical in turn) — using the same one over and over lets the pod borer stop responding to it (become resistant).

Measure with the cap supplied, mix into a full knapsack (15–20 litres), and spray to wet the pods and leaves without dripping, in the cool of evening.

Protect yourself: long sleeves, nose and mouth covered, wind behind you, people and animals kept away, spray off all food, and wash afterwards.

Count back from your likely harvest and stop spraying in time to clear the pre-harvest interval on the label — the wait that keeps poison off the seed you will eat and sell.

If the count has dropped below threshold → skip the spray. Needless sprays cost money and breed resistance in the borer.

Check the crop is ripe: the plant is yellow, dry and has dropped most of its leaves, the pods are tan / straw-brown, and the seeds are hard and rattle in the pod. Bite one — a ripe seed is hard and cracks, not soft. (This comes about 3 months after sowing, but the plant's signs, not the calendar, tell you.)

Pull the whole plants up by hand (chickpea lifts easily from dry soil) or cut them at the base. Do it in the cool of the morning, when the pods are slightly damp with dew and shatter less.

Heap the plants and let them dry a few days on a clean sheet, mat or swept hard floor — never on bare soil, which pushes damp and dirt back in.

Thresh by gently beating the dry plants with a stick or treading them, then winnow the chaff away in the wind. Go gently with kabuli, whose big seeds crack and split under heavy beating.

If the seeds are still soft or dent when bitten, the crop is not ripe → leave it standing a few more days and check again, rather than pulling it green.

Spread the threshed seed in a thin layer on a mat, sheet, rack or clean hard floor in the sun — never on bare soil, which pushes damp and dirt back into it.

Turn it several times a day so it dries evenly, and cover it or bring it in if rain or heavy dew threatens.

Test it: bite a seed. When it cracks sharply rather than dents or squashes, it is dry enough (down to about 13% moisture) to store safely.

If a seed still dents → keep drying for another day or two, and test again before you store any of it.

Make sure the seed is bone dry first (the bite test cracks, not dents) — sealing damp seed traps moisture and rots it.

Sort out any seed that is already holed, powdery or has beetles in it before you seal — one infested handful can breed thousands.

Seal the dry seed in hermetic bags (PICS / triple-layer — three bags one inside the other) or a clean, airtight container or metal drum, filled near to the top and closed tight, so the trapped air runs out and any weevils inside suffocate.

Store the sealed containers off the floor, away from the wall, in a cool, dry, shaded place. Open them as little as you can — every opening lets in fresh air and beetles.

If you must use ordinary sacks, mix in an approved pulse-storage protectant (follow the label, keep it off seed you will eat within weeks, and wash your hands), and keep the sacks off the floor.

If you open a bag and find fresh holes, fine powder or beetles → sort and re-dry that seed, reseal it airtight, and use that batch up first.