Hummus lovers rejoice: You can learn how to grow chickpeas in your vegetable garden. Chickpeas, also called garbanzo beans, cecci beans, and Egyptian peas, are a staple in diets across their indigenous Mediterranean region. And like other legumes, they’re easy to grow and the plants improve the soil. Plus you can enjoy chickpeas fresh from the garden, much like shell peas, or harvest them at the end of the growing season for drying. In this ultimate guide for how to grow chickpeas, you’ll learn all about growing chickpeas on a small scale. Read on for tips on sowing, caring for, harvesting, and enjoying these tasty and nutritious beans.

Why grow your own chickpeas 

Until now, you may not have thought much about how to grow chickpeas. There are a lot of reasons why you might want to give this pulse some space in your garden:

• Chickpeas are in the legume family. Legume plants take nitrogen out of the air and work with beneficial bacteria to fix the nitrogen in the soil via nodules on their roots. They leave the soil with more nitrogen than it had to start.
• Chickpeas are interesting-looking plants. Their blooms may be white, pink, blue, or purple, depending on the variety. Their pods are small—2 inches or less—and their shrubby growth habits are different than most other garden plants.
• Chickpeas are a versatile ingredient in the kitchen. From the obvious hummus to cold salads, hot soups and stews, curry dishes, and more, their uses abound.
• Nutritionally, chickpeas are significant. Potassium, iron, vitamin B6, and magnesium are some of the nutrients they offer. As is the case with other legumes, chickpeas provide a lot of protein and fiber, too. In fact, 1 cup of chickpeas provides 39 grams of protein!

Where to plant garbanzo beans 

Chickpeas are considered cool-season legumes and can be grown in climates around the world. How to grow chickpeas differs based on your climate. In temperate zones, which describes most of the United States, you’ll grow chickpeas as a spring or summer crop; in tropical regions, as a winter crop.

The best-performing varieties for temperate gardeners are kabuli chickpeas. Dried, these chickpeas mature in shades of white or beige and have a smooth surface. In the semi-arid tropics, desi chickpeas are better suited, with their thick seedcoat and rough, angular seeds. While each plant grows a number of pods, each pod only contains one to three chickpeas. To grow any quantity of chickpeas for home use, you’ll need to dedicate some space to this plant. (Move over, corn and potatoes!)

In considering how to grow chickpeas, choose a garden bed with well-drained soil in full sun. They will do better in a sandy bed than one that’s full of clay, and they will not produce as well in partial shade. 

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When to plant chickpea seeds 

Chickpea seedlings will tolerate some frost. Direct seed them a few weeks before your springtime last-frost date—when the soil has warmed to at least 41 degrees Fahrenheit—so they can get established before summertime heat sets in. (Check your soil temperature using a soil thermometer.) Chickpeas grow best at daytime temperatures of 70 to 84 degrees Fahrenheit and nighttime temperatures between 64 and 70 degrees Fahrenheit. Above 95 degrees Fahrenheit, plants will drop their flowers and reduce their production. 

How to grow chickpeas from seeds 

Before planting, mix compost into the planting bed. While the chickpeas don’t need nitrogen, they do need a balance of other soil nutrients—including phosphorus, potassium, and micronutrients—for healthy growth. A soil test can help you determine if anything is deficient in your soil and would require additional fertilizer.

If legumes haven’t been grown in this space before, inoculate chickpea seeds with Rhizobacteria before sowing. Also called an inoculant, this supercharges the population of bacteria that affix to legume plants’ roots and pull nitrogen into the soil. This inoculation gives the nitrogen-fixing process a boost.

Plant chickpeas 1 inch deep and 4 to 6 inches apart. Eventually thin so the plants are 6 inches apart. Space rows 2 feet apart. Expect them to germinate in 7 to 14 days. In short season climates, get a head start on the growing season by sowing the seeds indoors 2 to 3 weeks before you wish to move the plants to the garden.

How to grow chickpeas

After your chickpeas germinate, apply a layer of mulch to suppress weeds, reduce the likelihood of fungal issues, and conserve moisture in the soil. Also consider watering. Chickpeas benefit from watering during dry periods, but if your garden is getting regular rain, they’ll do fine. Too much water is an issue as this can make them drop their flowers and pods.

As legumes, chickpeas can be affected by some of the same diseases and pests as their bean and forage cousins. Among diseases, fusarium wilt is one to know. A result of the Fusarium oxysporum fungus, plant leaves turn yellow or brown and collapse, the lower leaves dry out and die, and the whole plant weakens. Prevent fusarium wilt by mulching so soil doesn’t splash onto plants and waiting 3 years before planting chickpeas in an area that’s had fusarium wilt.

In the pest realm, black aphids—aka cowpea aphids— can infest chickpeas and leave behind deformed leaves and shoots, as well as curled leaves. On the plant, you’ll see shiny, black, soft-bodied aphids. These look similar to, but are a different insect than, mites. You may also notice the sticky honeydew substance aphids secrete or the resulting growth of sooty mold. Alfalfa mosaic virus, too—alfalfa is a legume, after all—is a disease transmitted by aphids. Your best line of defense is to monitor for aphid activity and remove them by hand before they get out of control. Spraying the plants with a hard jet of water is perfect for knocking them from the leaves.

When to harvest chickpeas 

You have two choices in how to use chickpeas: green or dried. This will determine when you harvest your chickpeas. Chickpeas mature about 100 days after planting. With just a few plants, or a few rows of plants, you won’t need to harvest by combine the way the commercial chickpea growers would. 

To harvest green, or fresh, chickpeas, wait until the chickpea fills out the pod, then harvest as you would a green bean or pea. Start checking your chickpeas about 90 days after germination so you don’t miss the window. 

To harvest dried chickpeas, let the plants turn brown before collecting the pods. Ideally, this will happen in the garden. If you’re racing upcoming bad weather or need to make space in the garden, you can wait until the plant turns yellow, cut the entire plant, and bring it inside. Use garden snips to harvest. Don’t just pull the plants from the bed as leaving the roots of legumes in the soil to decompose adds nitrogen. Lay the plants on a garage or basement floor, or hang them from rafters, if that’s an option. Whether you’re harvesting dried chickpeas from the garden or from cut plants, allow the pods to dry and split open, then collect the seeds.

Enjoying chickpeas fresh

There’s more than one way to eat a chickpea—no offense, hummus—and eating fresh chickpeas is something that we don’t often get to experience in the US. Unless you learn how to grow chickpeas in your own garden, your most likely option for eating them is as a dried bean. (Even the canned chickpeas from the grocery store were made from dried beans.)

When picked as green pods, chickpeas can be eaten fresh. We like to eat them right from the garden, like shell peas. The fresh chickpeas look just like cooked, dried chickpeas, except they’re a spring-green color. Or you can enjoy fresh chickpeas by treating them like edamame—fresh soybeans popular in Asian cuisines. Remove the fresh chickpeas from their pods, blanch them, and eat them as a snack or salad topping.

Drying chickpeas for later use 

In harvesting and storing dried chickpeas, you’re setting up your kitchen with a versatile pantry staple. After allowing the chickpeas to dry on the plant, remove them from their shells and store them in an airtight container in a dry place out of direct sunlight. They will keep like this for a year.

Cook dry chickpeas like any dried bean: by soaking them in water for 8 hours or more. Drain them, put them in a heavy-bottomed pot, and cover them with fresh water. Bring the pot to a boil, then turn it down to a simmer, and cook until they’re tender. This should take somewhere around 40 minutes, depending on the type of chickpea. Now they’re ready to use in your favorite recipes. 

Chickpeas can also be ground into a gluten-free flour at home using a grain mill. The resulting flour is known as gram flour or besan. The Italian flatbread farinata—or French flatbread socca—is made with chickpea flour. (A favorite farinata has the addition of caramelized onions for a delicious and hardy snack.) Nan-e nokhodchi cookies from Iran are sweet and savory, with gram flour, pistachio, cardamom, and rose water. Pakora fritters from India are traditionally made with gram flour. Many recipes exist for other chickpea-flour baked goods, as well.

Additional tips on how to grow chickpeas

A bonus reason to grow and harvest dried chickpeas is the aquafaba. This is the liquid left behind after simmering the dried chickpea into its edible form. If you remember any Latin from school, you’ll recognize that aqua is water and faba is bean. The starchy, protein-packed bean water makes a great egg substitute, thickener, and cooking liquid.  You can even whip it into icing for a cake. It’s nice to use the aquafaba from cooking dried beans at home instead of from a can of chickpeas because there are no additives or preservatives.

Now you understand why chickpeas are second only to soybeans in worldwide production. Their value is in their versatility! And they’re not hard to grow. It will take no time for you to hone your skills in how to grow chickpeas at home. Choose the best seed variety for your climate, plant when the soil is the right temperature, care for the plants as you do the rest of your garden, and then harvest according to your culinary plans. These plants will provide nutrients to your soil as well as your family.

For more information on growing legumes, be sure to visit these articles:

• Pole bean support ideas
• How to grow green beans: The ultimate guide
• Growing black beans in a garden
• Snap peas: A grow guide