Chickpea · Handan, Hebei, China
When to plant chickpeas in Handan
Main outdoor window
9-30 Mar
The window this page is built around.
Timed from last spring frost
23 March
In Handan, on your chosen risk.
Ready to pick
17 Jun - 17 Jul
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 Handan
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 for autumn
1-22 Jun
Counting back 144 days from your first frost so the crop matures in time.
Sow direct
9-30 Mar
Two weeks before your last frost.
Harvest
17 Jun - 17 Jul
Chickpeas through the year
Against the frost risk in Handan
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 Handan.
The median frost-free season here is 236 days, against 100 to 130 days to maturity for this crop counted from sowing. That margin is what decides whether a late sowing is worth attempting.
Also in Handan
Other grains to time
Growing chickpeas in Handan
When should I plant chickpeas in Handan?
Aim for 9-30 Mar in an average year. If you would rather not gamble on the weather, wait until 25 Mar - 15 Apr - by then frost has finished in nine years out of ten.
When will chickpeas be ready to harvest in Handan?
Expect to start picking around 17 Jun - 17 Jul, 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.