The Easy-To-Grow Cover Crop That Enriches Soil And Is Also Drought-Resistant

Because they are primarily grown for food, you may not think of the chickpea (Cicer arietinum L.) as a useful cover crop. Indeed, chickpea is the world's fourth largest grown legume crop, but it's also a drought-resistant, nitrogen-fixing candidate as a cover crop for home gardeners. Cover crops are low-maintenance and serve myriad purposes for gardeners—from enhancing soil by adding organic materials and preventing compaction and erosion to suppressing weeds (check out cover crops that will help suppress weeds in your garden). Flowers that come in purple, white, pink, or blue make chickpea a particularly delightful choice as a cover crop.

The beauty of legume cover crops such as chickpea is that they are among the ways to add nitrogen to your soil for a healthier garden in no time. Root nodules on the chickpea take nitrogen from the atmosphere and fix them in the soil. Importantly, however, they cannot do so without being inoculated with Rhizobium bacteria, with which it has a symbiotic relationship. If you decide on chickpea as a cover crop, be sure to pick up the inoculant specifically formulated for chickpea, which comes in peat or granular form, andfollow label instructions. Chickpea is a pulse crop (pulses are the term used for edible seeds), and chickpea has shown its capability to fix more nitrogen than its fellow pulse crops. Before you choose a nitrogen-fixing cover crop, you'll want to look into easy ways to tell if your garden soil is lacking in nitrogen.

Drought-resistance is important for chickpeas because of their significance as a protein-rich food crop (the peas are 20% protein). And their deep taproot makes chickpeas relatively drought-resistant. Of the two types of chickpea—Desi and Kabuli—the Desi type is more drought-resistant. In the United States, Kabuli chickpeas are usually called garbanzo beans. Because drought is an increasing issue worldwide that is responsible for 60% of chickpea crop losses, scientists are working on developing more drought-resistant varieties. 

To grow chickpeas as a cover crop, plant in sandy or silt loam soils with good drainage and a pH ranging from 5.3 to 7 or higher. Chickpea does not tolerate wet soil and will die rapidly with wet roots. Plant 3 inches apart and 1.5 inches deep. Determine the expected date of the last frost in your area and plant chickpea a month before that. Your chickpeas will take up to 10 days to germinate and grow up to 2 feet tall. Chickpea self-pollinates its flowers.