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Chickpea plant, we need the seeds, the ones we eat and which today constitute an important ingredient in a healthy diet. Especially those who follow a vegetarian or vegan regime owes a lot to chickpeas because it is a source of protein (15-25%) of food quality among the best within grain legumes. The chickpea plant is annual, has a branched and rather deep root, it can even reach an altitude of -120 cm, which is why it is particularly resistant even in dry conditions.
Chickpea plant: varieties
THE chickpea seeds they have different characteristics from time to time depending on the type of chickpea plant but in general they are all rounded. They can be though smooth in certain types, or wrinkled, angular and "ram's head". Even the colors can change from plant to plant, the most common is yellow, but there are some varieties that produce red or brown colored chickpeas.
From the point of view of the marketability of the seeds, size is important. There are chickpeas plants that produce large ones, others small ones. The former are the most popular in areas such as Italy, Spain and North Africa while in the Middle East, Iran, India the most popular are chickpeas because used to prepare foods that require powdering.
When planting chickpeas
To understand when to sow the chickpea plant you need to know that it is able to withstand the cold much less than the broad bean. The best time is therefore the end of winter, to then collect the seeds in July-August. This applies to climates like ours, while where winter is mild, it can also be sown in autumn.
Usually the chickpea plant begins to bloom from the low knots and then continues for a few weeks, adapts as anticipated, even to the hot-arid climate but it does not tolerate excessive humidity.
Chickpea plant: how to grow it
If we are going to grow a chickpea plant, we begin to understand if we have the right soil to do it. It doesn't need to be very fertile, it is even better to avoid clayey ones with a bad structure because there is a risk of water stagnation forming. The soil where these plants grow must preferably be light and deep, so that the roots can sink into it.
In Italy the chickpea area is decreasing, the remaining one is located mainly in the South. The chickpea plant does not exist in the wild, but only cultivated, its origins are Asian, it is widespread especially in India and Africa where even the ancient Egyptians cultivated it. In the world, the chickpea is the third most important legume of grain, after the bean and the pea.
Chickpea plant: sowing
You can buy a chickpea plant to grow or start from scratch. It is not very easy to start from the seed, but not impossible either. On Amazon we can find a 100 gram pack of chickpeas for sowing a few euros to see if our green thumb is really green.
In this case the variety we would get is medium-early, the plant would then be about half a meter tall.
Chickpea plant and moon phases
The Moon phases partly affect the cultivation of the chickpea plant that in general gets by on its own. It does not require special cultivation care, only occasional tamping or, if necessary, a treatment against rabies or against insects. To deepen, however, the moody character of this plant, I recommend you to read Moon and sowing.
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