Chickpeas/garbanzos

[12540dumont]

I have done them in autumn, and you need to have not too much frost. The only problem is the gophers had a field day with them in the fall. Gophers love both types of garbs.

Steev, try boiling for 20 minutes, put a lid on and let sit for an hour. Boil again. Otherwise before I boil them, I dump a batch on sand paper and roll them around with my gloves.

Joseph, I have some seed for you. I didn't know you were doing chickpeas!

[Joseph Lofthouse]

I don't know if I'll be able to stick with chickpeas long term. They are so small and delicate that they require weeding: Not something I care to do much. It's too easy for the chickpeas to get lost. At least now I know what they look like!

However, one thing I have noticed about landrace growing, is that the plants adapt to the farmer's methods. Perhaps one of these days i will find a vigorous chickpea that can outgrow the weeds, or strangle them, or poison them.

[Joseph Lofthouse]

I found volunteer garbanzo beans today. Woo Hoo! That's super early germination. I moved them into their own row. Perhaps one of these years I will find some garbanzo beans that can go into winter as small plants. That'd sure help with weeding which is my biggest problem with garbanzos.

[steev]

My biggest problem with garbanzos is that I've not succeeded in naturalizing flat-leaf parsley on the farm. Cooked garbanzos, salt, olive oil, crushed garlic, and chopped parsley (not that crinkly crap!), marinated overnight; that's fine chow!

[Joseph Lofthouse]

Ooops. I inadvertently started a garbanzo bean selection/breeding project this spring. Last year I successfully grew garbanzos for the first time. So I have plenty of seed to be playing around with.

I noticed that some volunteer garbanzo beans were sprouting in my garden very early this spring... Hmm. That means they are cold tolerant. I transplanted them to their own row. Then I planted some in pots indoors to transplant outside. There were huge differences in speed of germination, so I have been pulling out the slow germinating and slow growing plants. Garbanzos get lost among the weeds in my garden so quick germination is important to me. About ten days ago I put them outside to harden off. It has been snowing on them, and there have been plenty of frosty nights and a few hail storms. Some have not been visibly damaged by the cold, and some are severely damaged. Today I culled the plants that were damaged. I am left with about 15% of the starting population. That's great odds for a plant selection program. I intend to transplant into the garden in the next few days.

I also planted some general population seed a few days ago into the field.

I want to try overwintering garbanzos as small plants next winter. In any case, I intend to continue selecting for early emergence, frost tolerance, and quick vigorous growth. Seems the best strategy for keeping them ahead of the weeds. (You don't expect me to deny my nature and actually weed the garden?)

Garbanzo & Fava Beans

[oxbowfarm]

Joseph, approximately how many varieties did you start with? Currently I just grow Hannan Popbean from Carol Deppe. I've not grown other chickpeas I've acquired due to her warning that cross pollination with other chickpeas can result in the loss of the popping ability. Since getting them to parch/pop has been more miss than hit, I'm considering whether to forget about that quality altogether and focus on some kind of adaptavar approach like what you are doing.

[Joseph Lofthouse]

I haven't tried Carol Deppe's popping chickpea.

I started with perhaps 5 varieties of chickpea. I don't remember which other than they included ottawagardener's chickpeas. They were planted packet-to-row, but got harvested in bulk due to weeds and weather.

[12540dumont]

Ox, I had the same problem with Carol's popping beans.

I started a pile of chickpeas in February. The gophers have eaten half of them. But despite the drought, the rest are doing fine.

[oxbowfarm]

Are you sure Joseph? I know I sent you some in the fall of 2012.

[ethin]

I'm trying chickpeas this year. Boring supermarket soup-mix variety. The ones in the image are a germination test/head start. I was not sure if some of them where still viable as they where almost 15 years old and the internet was very unhelpful as to how long of a growing season they would need.


 It would appear that even though the seeds from two different sources (same brand different decades) looked the same I have two different varieties. It's a little hard to tell from the image but the plants in the middle have fan shaped leaves instead of frond like.

I'm very interested to see how this turns out.

[templeton]

So did the 15 year old seed germinate?
T

[Joseph Lofthouse]

Apr 6, 2014 19:21:04 GMT -5 oxbowfarm said:

Are you sure Joseph? I know I sent you some in the fall of 2012.

Thanks oxbowfarm. Sure enough... When I look through the bulk seed there are mottled black/tan seeds that match the phenotype of Carole's popping chickpeas.

[ethin]

Posted by templeton
11 hours ago
So did the 15 year old seed germinate?

I didn't keep the seed separate so I'm not 100% sure but the overall germination rate was high, 80-90%.

However the seed I tried to start in soil just rotted, the ones in the image where started on paper towels. The ones I direct sow might not survive my soil ecology. 

[blueadzuki]

Yes, they do sometimes have a problem with rotting. I planted a handful of chickpeas I pulled out of bags of "healthy bean mix" I got from a Korean grocery. But all of them damped off. Pity. I may go and try and get some more bags though as some of those chickpeas were HUGE. and I mean huge, a few of them when soaked and imbibed, swelled up to the size of a small fava bean. See pic below, taken back before they all died (long row are chickpeas, short row are Andean lupines and some roundish common beans)

[imgrimmer]

interesting to hear that they can be cold tolerant. I never thought this is possible, but until last year I thought they can`t grow here...