Chickpea · Hejiang, Sichuan, China
When to plant chickpeas in Hejiang
Main outdoor window
14 Jan - 4 Feb
The window this page is built around.
Timed from last spring frost
28 January
In Hejiang, on your chosen risk.
Ready to pick
24 Apr - 24 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 Hejiang
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
7-28 Jul
Counting back 144 days from your first frost so the crop matures in time.
Sow direct
14 Jan - 4 Feb
Two weeks before your last frost.
Harvest
24 Apr - 24 May
Chickpeas through the year
Against the frost risk in Hejiang
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 Hejiang.
The median frost-free season here is 325 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 Hejiang
Other grains to time
Growing chickpeas in Hejiang
When should I plant chickpeas in Hejiang?
Aim for 14 Jan - 4 Feb in an average year. If you would rather not gamble on the weather, wait until 8 Feb - 1 Mar - by then frost has finished in nine years out of ten.
When will chickpeas be ready to harvest in Hejiang?
Expect to start picking around 24 Apr - 24 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.