Chickpea Casal Vouga
The Casal Vougal chickpea combines ornamental beauty and remarkable resilience in a single legume plant.
About the variety. A medium-sized variety (50–70 cm), with elegant pinnate foliage and white, serrated flowers with great decorative effect. Undemanding in terms of soil — tolerates poor ground — and highly drought-resistant, making it a robust choice for dry climates. The chickpea ranks among the most nutrient-rich legumes, and this local variety combines hardiness with excellent food quality.
Itinerário técnico
Um guia de cultivo passo a passo, da sementeira à colheita.
Sow direct four to six centimetres deep in rows. Germination takes seven to fourteen days. In southern Europe sow in late winter or early spring; further north, once the soil has warmed well. Do not transplant. It is a dryland crop above all and dislikes excess moisture at any stage. Sow into soil that has already dried out and do not water at sowing: the seed rots easily in cold wet ground.
It prefers light, chalky and very free draining soils and tolerates pH up to 8.0. It puts up with poor ground better than almost any other crop. Never in heavy waterlogged soil, where the roots rot quickly. In acid soil, correct with lime the previous autumn.
It likes heat and dryness, between 18 °C and 28 °C, and is one of the most drought resistant crops in the garden. It stands light frost when young. Excess humidity at flowering and ripening is its worst enemy, which makes the humid Atlantic coast the least favourable area. On the Portuguese coast choose the sunniest airiest spot and space the plants well, because morning fog encourages ascochyta blight. Inland in Portugal and Spain it is the classic dryland crop: sow in February or March, to use the winter moisture, and harvest in July. In France it is grown outdoors from the centre southwards; in the north and in Germany it only pays in light soil and in the warmest spot of the garden, sown in April. In Italy sow in March in the centre and south and in April in the north, always in well drained soil.
It fixes its own nitrogen through root nodule bacteria, so it should not be given nitrogen fertiliser. Add mature compost only if the soil is poor and, if needed, a little wood ash for potassium. Feeding nitrogen is the classic mistake with this crop: it produces huge plants with few pods.
It needs practically no irrigation in a Mediterranean climate. One supporting watering at flowering, in a very dry year, improves yield. Excess water gives plenty of leaf, few pods and root rot.
Hoe often and always shallowly, because the roots are short, near the surface and break easily. The best method is to prepare the bed two or three weeks in advance, let the first flush of weeds germinate, remove it and only then sow: that gives you a decisive head start. A thin layer of sieved compost between the rows greatly reduces later work.
Pod borer caterpillars bore into the seeds while still on the plant and are the main pest: apply Bacillus thuringiensis at flowering if you find eggs. Aphids attack the soft tips. Leaf miner draws pale tunnels in the leaves in spring, with no serious consequence: it is not worth treating. Weevils drill into stored seed: freeze it for forty eight hours before storing. Birds pull up newly emerged seedlings: cover the row with light netting for the first two weeks.
Ascochyta blight makes dark spots with black specks on leaves and pods in wet springs and can destroy the crop: use clean seed, sow with wide spacing and do not work among wet plants. Ascochyta blight is seed borne: never save seed from spotted plants. In a wet spring, a slightly later sowing in well drained soil escapes the worst of the disease. Fusarium wilt kills plants in infested soil. Use a four year rotation.
For green use, pick the pods when full and still green. For dry grain, wait for the plant to yellow and the pods to dry completely, pull whole plants and let them dry a few days more before threshing. Harvesting damp is the mistake that rots stored grain. Thresh by beating or treading the dry plants on a tarpaulin and winnow in the wind. Allow about 120 to 150 days from sowing to the first harvest of this variety. The reference colour is cream, and that is what tells you it is ready.
