Chick Peas in Oklahoma

10 years ago

Can we make Chandra come back? LOL

(We found a great Tahini paste in Stillwater.) The kids are scarfing the dip 2-3 times a week now.

The support in my neck and less pain allows me to work on lower back exercises. It's working! I'm getting stronger every day. I'm losing my fear of putting shovel to dirt. Gollies, the last time I put shovel to ground KAPOW ... was out until surgery. I'm still skiddish.

Planning for next year's garden. And I'm taking notes.

40 chick pea plants. No playing around with these. Serious consumption and storage needs.

I've been reading they like:

"quite arid and in low nutrient and fast draining soil, and must be planted very early - like February or March! With cool soil"

I have that brown clay soil. The first few inches is perfect enough if I pick a spot I haven't amended. I don't know how deep the roots are.

I have some alternative places to plant just outside the garden that are on a slope and out of the way of the normal rain-water run off. But it may be too dry and acidic there. Moss grows in this area.

Perhaps scatter them throughout and find which works best. But I'm new to gardening so I probably wouldn't be able to tell if it was the location or my own miserable failings.

How far apart should I plant? The suggested 6-8" apart seems a bit dense for our moisture.

Do they need support?

How early do you think I need to start seedlings? Will the tenders survive a late frost? Heck, they're not beans and they're not peas. Should I start them like gourds?

Do you think our native bugs will be a huge problem? If so, I might consider a cover material for a row or two. (Bill's working. Yay!)

Any of ya'll familiar with storing your chick peas?
Fermenting them?
Use Chick pea flour?
Shelf life?
Seriously, the internet states all different types of info.

Can I use store-bought beans? If not, which ones should I order from the upcoming catalogs (Gosh, already!)?

Can the rabbits eat chickpea greens?

How's Larry?

Bon?

????? (lol)

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Comments (6)

Macmex
10 years ago
"Can we make Chandra come back?" I WISH!

I grew chick peas in Mexico, on the high plateau, for a couple of seasons. We were in a arid environment with flood irrigation. I started mine in February, which was right after danger of frost had past. Six to eight inches spacing seems about right. I planted mine in rows. They have "ferny foliage." They didn't need support, being low and bushy. I picked mine as the pods (which usually contained 2 seeds a piece) dried. I treated them like dry beans by freezing the dry seed for a couple of days in an airtight container. This would kill weevil eggs.

Garbanzos are HARD! I didn't grind them for flour. However, I used them just like soy, making tofu and garbanzo milk. I also LOVED them toasted, ground and used as a coffee substitute. I liked that better than real coffee.

If I were you, since you have time, I'd purchase a bag of garbanzos from the grocery store. Then I'd do a germination test by wrapping about 10 of them in a damp paper towel and keeping that inside a plastic bag. After about 5-6 days I'd see how many have sprouted. This enables you to calculate a germination rate. Store bought usually doesn't germinate as well as seed purchased from a seed company. But it is much cheaper.

George
Tahlequah, OK
chickencoupe
Original Author
10 years ago
Thanks, George! I definitely needed to read about freezing them. In fact, I've never heard about freezing any beans before!

The more I work with and read about garbanzos, the more I love them. Some processes seem laborious.

But if all else false it looks like the garbanzo coupled with sesame or others to complete proteins are just too versatile to not work with!

Dropping the technical mindedness (like if that does me any good?) and getting a "feel" for what these lovelies desire in soil, I consider a spot in the "yarden" where there was once a black walnut tree. Darn it!

I bet I'll need to build up some soil somewhere to keep them away from the clay. That would be okay, but a lot of time is going to need to happen before that many raised beds appear

I need a back hoe lolol
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chickencoupe
Original Author
10 years ago
I'm cutting ground for these tomorrow. I need chick peas and I don't have any!
chickencoupe
Original Author
8 years ago
I grew garbanzo beans, this year. I purchased seed from the grocery store. Of course it was wet. So, I was surprised they continued growing. Eventually, they developed a few pods. It was good to, at least, see them grow to that point.

Today, I checked. The pods were empty. Some were still green and puffed up. Empty. I checked the yellowed and dried pods. Empty.
wulfletons
8 years ago
Thanks for the update....I was wondering how they were doing for you. Empty pods are a little frustrating!
chickencoupe
Original Author
8 years ago
Yeah. Someone suggested that water stress can cause false impregnation. Seems that, on a regular year, I would have gotten beans. At least that's encouraging.