Chickpea · Delhi, Delhi, India
When to plant chickpeas in Delhi
Main outdoor window
23 Dec - 14 Jan
The window this page is built around.
Timed from last spring frost
7 January
In Delhi, on your chosen risk.
Ready to pick
3 Apr - 3 May
If you plant at the start of the window.
The average last frost. Half of all years are later than this.
Step by step in Delhi
Each window is a range, not a single day. Earlier in the range buys you a longer season; later in it buys you a safer one.
Sow direct
23 Dec - 14 Jan
Two weeks before your last frost.
Harvest
3 Apr - 3 May
Chickpeas through the year
Against the frost risk in Delhi
Why these dates
Sow two weeks before the last frost in a climate with dry summers. Where late summer is wet, sow as early as possible so the pods dry before the rain arrives.
Seedlings tolerate about -4C. Flowers are damaged at -1C, so a late frost during bloom reduces the pod set without killing the plant.
Seed packets and extension guides express timing as weeks either side of the last spring frost, because that is the only reference point that travels. Chickpeas are timed for direct sowing 2 weeks before it, and this page simply resolves those offsets against the frost date computed for Delhi.
Also in Delhi
Other grains to time
Growing chickpeas in Delhi
When should I plant chickpeas in Delhi?
Aim for 23 Dec - 14 Jan in an average year. If you would rather not gamble on the weather, wait until 24 Dec - 14 Jan - by then frost has finished in nine years out of ten.
When will chickpeas be ready to harvest in Delhi?
Expect to start picking around 3 Apr - 3 May, based on 100 to 130 days to maturity from the planting date calculated for this location.
How much frost will chickpeas tolerate?
Seedlings tolerate about -4C. Flowers are damaged at -1C, so a late frost during bloom reduces the pod set without killing the plant.