Chick Peas

Discussion in 'Planting, growing, nurturing Plants' started by cathy, Aug 21, 2007.

  1. cathy

    cathy Junior Member

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    Hi,

    We decided to experiment with growing some chick peas recently (I had left them soaking for cooking, forgot about them, and they sprouted - so I chucked them in the ground). We now have some healthy looking plants with pods on them, but I have no idea when to pick them. Has anybody here grown chick peas and can offer some advice.

    Thanks
    Cathy
     
  2. Cosmic

    Cosmic Junior Member

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    I would say when the pods dry out they are ready. cool having home grown chickpeas.
     
  3. han_ysic

    han_ysic Junior Member

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    chickpeas

    Hi there,

    Chick pea sprouts are amazing to eat. Just like with mung bean etc sprouts, add them to salad etc. Although I agree, growing your own plants is great too!!

    Hannah
     
  4. Terra

    Terra Moderator

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    Chick peas are grown as a agricultural crop and harvested dry , so if you want to store them you could do the same , or pick some green and use straight away .
    Terra
     
  5. cathy

    cathy Junior Member

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    Thanks for the replies,

    I wasn't sure whether they were picked green and then dried, but now I know to let them dry on the plant then pick them (assuming I want to store them as per purchased chick peas).

    But I never thought of using them as sprouts - they seem so large and dry compared to other sprouts. I'll give it a try Hannah.

    And Terra, do you use green chick peas differently to dried ones. I've only ever used dried ones (obviously since that's all you can buy). I tend to either cook them and use them in a salad, or I make hommous with them!

    By the way, I have them planted around my Sprouting Broccolis as an experiment in companion planting - a legume to help feed the broccoli and a visual disguise against the white butterfly. Interestingly, so far my broccolis have been pretty well clear of grubs, but I keep finding the odd grub on the chick pea foliage, and one had burrowed in and cleaned out a chick pea pod. Not a big problem - I just pick them off and chuck them to our visiting birds or to the skink who lives in our lounge room. Just unexpected since normally the broccoli seems to be the most desired home!

    Cheers
    Cathy
     
  6. TropicalRose

    TropicalRose Junior Member

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    Sounds like the chick pea could be a good 'sacrificial' plant to keep the broccoli free of grubs.
     
  7. cathy

    cathy Junior Member

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    Hi TropicalRose - I am hopeful that it will indeed turn out that the chickpeas work as both a visual confuser and/or a sacrificial plant (especially if the caterpillars don't take too many pods).

    They also provide a bit of shade, so maybe that will help the broccoli through the hotter days too. Since the chick pea seeds are easy to collect and keep, it may be a great, low cost, organic solution.

    But, it's early days yet, so maybe once the warmer weather hits I'll find that the broccoli is just as inundated as it was last year. I'll keep you updated.
     
  8. chickpeas

    What a nice idea.

    I had some organic chick peas in the cupboard which were too few for serve for two, so now they are sprouting and I'll give them a try in my veggie patch too! :D
     
  9. cathy

    cathy Junior Member

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    Hi dreamingwombat - glad to hear you are giving it a go.

    It will be interesting to compare results based on the different timing (oh and possibly different climate depending where you are). Mine are starting to yellow and die, so I will be picking the peas soon. We ate a couple of the peas raw earlier on, and they were very sweet and tender - just like baby peas.

    It seems that (at least this time) the crop is fairly small - only one pea per pod, and not many pods per plant. So I'm thinking that if I want enough chick peas to store for lots of meals, I'll need to plant a whole lot more. Sometime after I planted them, I read on the web somewhere that the flowers won't set pods at low temperatures (below 20 degrees if I remember correctly), so mine were probably in too early as I had much more flower than pods.

    But as an experiment I'm pretty happy. And still so far the broccoli is remaining bug free, so that's a real plus.
     
  10. Tas'

    Tas' Junior Member

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