Practice Abstract 42 - Chick pea cultural guide – Portugal – SOIL CONDITIONS AND SOWING DATES

Short title (native language): 
Chick pea cultural guide – Portugal – SOIL CONDITIONS AND SOWING DATES

Short summary for practitioners (native language): 
The soil should be in the best physical conditions to promote rapid and successful roots growth. Before sowing, it´s important to do a proper soil management and it also can reduces input costs and improves yields.
So, for sowing chickpeas (conventional mode) it´s advisable:
• Due to the chickpea’s deep root system, the best choice are deeply tillage operations (moldboard plough, mulch tiller, chisel);
• Try to make soil as crumbling as possible to facilitate seed cover;
• After sowing it´s advisable to use de rolling harrow. This operation promotes the contact between soil and grain which increases the success rate in germination.

Traditionally in Portugal the chickpeas were sown in spring. Chickpeas were sown on these dates to avoid wetter weather that would cause fungal diseases. Due to the genetic improvement techniques (development of varieties with resistance to fungal attacks) and the appearance of active substances against fungus, it´s possible to anticipate the sowing date and the yield/ha can be increased by it. So, in Portugal we have two sowing dates (depending on the variety to sow)
Winter Sowing Spring Sowing
Sowing date 15 Nov.-15 Dec. 15 Feb.-15 Mar.
Sowing density 150 kg/ha 100-120 kg/ha

Sowing can be done in two ways:
• Cereal seeder: line space – 17-25 cm;
• Pneumatic/monograin seeder: line space – 30-60 cm.

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