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Pulse growing guide
Chickpea is a cool-season, drought-tolerant pulse sown directly into moist soil after the rains. Inoculate the seed, sow it deep enough to reach moisture and keep the crop on the dry side.
Use healthy, disease-free seed: wilt and Ascochyta blight are both carried on seed. TNAU treats seed 24 hours before sowing with a fungicide or with Trichoderma viride (4 g per kg), then coats it with Rhizobium. Biological agents go on before the Rhizobium, and fungicides are not combined with biological agents.
Inoculate with a chickpea-specific rhizobium where chickpea has not been grown recently, after paddy rice, or on poor soils. TNAU mixes one 200 g packet per hectare with cooled rice starch (kanji) as a sticker and dries the seed in shade for 15 minutes before sowing.
Not needed. Chickpea seed absorbs water readily and needs no cold treatment.
Not needed. Sow into moist soil instead; deep sowing reaches the moisture the seed needs.
Seed germinates fastest at 28-33 °C (82-91 °F), in about 5-6 days. The crop itself grows through the cool season and tolerates heat only when soil moisture is adequate.
5-8 cm (2-3 in) in irrigated or moist soil. In dry soils 10-15 cm (4-6 in) is acceptable for desi types, but deep sowing reduces yields of large-seeded kabuli types.
Deep, fine-textured soils such as sandy loams, clay loams or well-drained clays, neutral to alkaline (pH about 5.5-9.0), prepared to a fine tilth with well-rotted manure. Avoid waterlogged, saline or sodic land.
Sow into soil with good stored moisture after the monsoon. Do not water heavily before or after sowing; wet soil favours collar rot.
Seed germinates under its soil cover; choose an open, sunny field.
About 5-6 days at 28-33 °C; slower in cooler soil.
Do not transplant. Dibble single seeds 10 cm (4 in) apart in rows 30 cm (12 in) apart; in the Indian subcontinent rows of 30-45 cm (12-18 in) are common.
Chickpea competes poorly with weeds. Hand weed about 15 and 30 days after sowing.
Keep the crop on the dry side. If winter rain fails, give one irrigation at early pod filling, about 45-50 days after sowing; in heavy soils or late sowings irrigate once at branching and once at pod initiation.
Mid-October to mid-November is the ideal sowing window in India; earlier or later sowing clearly lowers yield. In Tamil Nadu rainfed chickpea is sown in November.
TNAU applies a small basal dose before sowing (12.5 kg N, 25 kg P2O5, 12.5 kg K2O and 10 kg sulphur per hectare for rainfed crops, doubled under irrigation).
TNAU found paired rows of chickpea with one or two rows of coriander gave the best return.
Harvest when the leaves turn yellow and shed and the pods are dry. TNAU varieties CO 3 and CO 4 mature in about 85 days.
Sow inoculated chickpea seed into moist soil in the cool season for a reliable crop of desi or kabuli peas.
Yes where chickpea has not been grown before, after paddy rice or on poor soils. A field that grew a well-nodulated chickpea crop recently usually does not need it.
Nipping is a common practice, but a trial reported by ICRISAT found no yield effect from nipping at 20 and 40 days after sowing, so it is optional.
Rarely. Chickpea grows on stored soil moisture; one irrigation at early pod filling is usually enough, and waterlogging harms the crop.
