[sloegin]

or anything else unusual?

[WirralWally]

Anyone tried growing chickpeas

Millions of Indians and Pakistanis. They have great success with them and grow nearly 10 million tons of them each year.
In the UK its a case of 'if you're lucky'.
The climate is all wrong here for them.

[paintedlady]

This year I did an experiment and grew a load of supermarket dried chickpeas - even if they don't produce anything, my intention was to use it like a sort of green manure and dig in the plants at the end of the season.  The seeds germinate surprisingly very quickly (but then we did have a warm spring/early summer) and grow to about 12-18 inches high and resemble vetch.  They have small flowers and produce several cute little pods with about 2 seeds in each so not the biggest harvest but you can squeeze loads of plants into an area (I just scattered the seeds in the bed) and you just leave them until the pods dry so no need to pick regularly like you would other legumes. Apparently they need at least 100 days of warmth and sunshine to be productive but I've concluded from the experiment that they can be grown in the UK in ideal conditions.  As these were supermarket chickpeas, perhaps there are cultivars more suited for our weather that would do much better.

This year I also tried amaranth and quinoa for grain ... the quinoa were very successful but unfortunately a spring heatwave killed off the amaranth seedlings (my fault - I underestimated how hot the mini greenhouse would get)  At the moment I'm picking the quinoa seed heads, drying off, threshing and washing the seed (have an outer coating of saponins which birds find detestable so leave them alone - you need to wash this off otherwise the grain tastes very bitter)  I would highly recommend sowing the quinoa in trays/pots at home to plant out rather than direct on the plot/garden, especially if you get a lot of fat hen weeds - you really cannot tell the difference between the 2 as they are closely related.  This year I seemed to have an especially rampant fat hen problem for some reason (maybe the harsh winter makes them more likely to germinate the following spring?) and for a long while I really didn't know if I was cultivating weeds or not    The plants grow about 4.5-6 feet tall, and the big seed heads make them top heavy and vulnerable to high winds so I'd recommend they are staked to prevent them falling over.  I'm so pleased with this year's harvest, I'm definitely going to grow loads more next year.

[prakash_mib]

I had two sowings of chickpeas. green variety and brown variety (both from supermarket)
green variety sown around mid may and quickly germinated and young shoot tops are good for cooking in a stir fry (thats why I grew them.. not for pods) I harvested two young shoots lot and let it go for flower. With the heat we had in june and july they went to form pod and I didnt get to pick them before they started mouldy so pulled them into my compost.
The second lot sown by very end of june (brown one) has grown and we had one lot of young shoot harvest. I can do second any time and they have flower heads already but not setting anymore pods.

Sowing idea -  In a space of 2X2 I sowed around 50-75 seeds and put a net on top. The plants grow through the net.

taste of shoots -  very so lightly tangy and very good for stir frys (cook like spinach)
green ones tasted less tangy than brown ones
 

[sloegin]

Thanks so much for all the info.
 I love to eat chickpeas i always stick to a vegetarian diet when i'm in India.
 I have visited 4 times, love it there
 Do the chickpeas need to be soaked first?
Prakash - Have you tried fenugreek, curry leaves, kerala?

[prakash_mib]

Thanks so much for all the info.
 I love to eat chickpeas i always stick to a vegetarian diet when i'm in India.
 I have visited 4 times, love it there
 Do the chickpeas need to be soaked first?
Prakash - Have you tried fenugreek, curry leaves, kerala?

didnt soak them. felt like more than 100% germination ( )
fenugreek leaves  - tried it 4 years back unsuccessfully (I didnt had plot by then). Its on the cards for next season.
curry leaves - cant be on outdoors at all (probably couple of sunny/humid days in a year). there has been a discussion in this forum will try to fid it and update this thread with that link.
kerala is a state in india ( ) if you mean karela (bitter melon) I have tried it this year and it has taken ages set fruit but I think the cold weather will eat them (they are just about 10mm sized)

The other things I tried unusual are
garden huckleberry - wonderfully tasting leaves when cooked with split yellow mung and green berries for pickling with yogurt and salt

amaranth - 2 failed sowings. 1 successful sowing where it grew about 2 inches and got harvested for leaves cooking. I have 4-5 plants now which is of a foot tall. not expecting any seeds from them for next sowing.

black eyed peas - for leaves cooking. never had a chance to pick them young as I was away for a month and when I returned the plant went stringy (nevery produced any fruit though)

dudhi (calabash) went mad and still fruiting. great taste in stews or just a soup with lentils. better then marrows

snake gourd - after looooong wait I had two fruits about 6 inches length. from 4 plants. dissappointing but ticked off as success

luffa - I can see it has set fruits two pencil thick 4 inch long ones. but not hoping for them to get to good size with the cold approaching.

lablab (edible) - it tried to grow, grow and grow and finally I can see flower buds now (whats the point???)