Post by philip on Sept 5, 2014 15:05:48 GMT -5
I have been growing the "hannan popbean" chickpea variety from Carol Deppe for two years in brittany now. Last year i sowed 12 seeds and only 2 germinated. I harvested 190 chickpeas from those two plants.
I was quite happy about that. This year i sowed 50 chickpeas and got 38 plants, 33 i planted out and left 5 in pots for backup. No slug damage like the year before. The plants grew very well so i was looking forward to a good harvest and maybe some homemade hummus. Today i harvested and shelled 11 plants ,a third of what i grew that have been hanging upside down drying in my shed for 2-3 weeks
I got 194 chickpeas from my eleven plants. Pretty bad result so far. Problems this year were rodents eating quite a few chickpeas, a type of mould/fungus on the pods causing the chickpeas to rot and get soft and pods that were just empty. I also selected for one chickpea per pod and discarded any pods with two or three. I read that Carol recommends this in order to have equal size chickpeas for popping.
I tried popping some but it didn't really work. They didn't increase in size but just cracked. They tasted good though. If i had gotten such a bad result the first year i would have probably stopped growing them but the first year was so good that i know they have great potential. As you can see in the picture some chickpeas are still fresh and green but i think they will dry anyway. I am not sure if the pods are still rotting while they are drying. I am wondering if selecting only the chickpeas from pods with one pea will result in more plants with one pea per pod. I suppose and hope that selecting and replanting only the best chickpeas year after year will result in this variety becoming more adapted to my garden and to cool, moist conditions in general. I gave seeds to several people and am curious to hear how the plants did for them.
I was quite happy about that. This year i sowed 50 chickpeas and got 38 plants, 33 i planted out and left 5 in pots for backup. No slug damage like the year before. The plants grew very well so i was looking forward to a good harvest and maybe some homemade hummus. Today i harvested and shelled 11 plants ,a third of what i grew that have been hanging upside down drying in my shed for 2-3 weeks
I got 194 chickpeas from my eleven plants. Pretty bad result so far. Problems this year were rodents eating quite a few chickpeas, a type of mould/fungus on the pods causing the chickpeas to rot and get soft and pods that were just empty. I also selected for one chickpea per pod and discarded any pods with two or three. I read that Carol recommends this in order to have equal size chickpeas for popping.
I tried popping some but it didn't really work. They didn't increase in size but just cracked. They tasted good though. If i had gotten such a bad result the first year i would have probably stopped growing them but the first year was so good that i know they have great potential. As you can see in the picture some chickpeas are still fresh and green but i think they will dry anyway. I am not sure if the pods are still rotting while they are drying. I am wondering if selecting only the chickpeas from pods with one pea will result in more plants with one pea per pod. I suppose and hope that selecting and replanting only the best chickpeas year after year will result in this variety becoming more adapted to my garden and to cool, moist conditions in general. I gave seeds to several people and am curious to hear how the plants did for them.