Chickpea · Southend-on-Sea, England, United Kingdom
When to plant chickpeas in Southend-on-Sea
Main outdoor window
7-28 Mar
The window this page is built around.
Timed from last spring frost
21 March
In Southend-on-Sea, on your chosen risk.
Ready to pick
15 Jun - 15 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 Southend-on-Sea
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
25 Jun - 16 Jul
Counting back 144 days from your first frost so the crop matures in time.
Sow direct
7-28 Mar
Two weeks before your last frost.
Harvest
15 Jun - 15 Jul
Chickpeas through the year
Against the frost risk in Southend-on-Sea
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 Southend-on-Sea.
The median frost-free season here is 261 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 Southend-on-Sea
Other grains to time
Growing chickpeas in Southend-on-Sea
When should I plant chickpeas in Southend-on-Sea?
Aim for 7-28 Mar in an average year. If you would rather not gamble on the weather, wait until 28 Mar - 18 Apr - by then frost has finished in nine years out of ten.
When will chickpeas be ready to harvest in Southend-on-Sea?
Expect to start picking around 15 Jun - 15 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.