Irrigation can save late-planted chickpeas

Now in its third year, the trial last year found later-planted chickpeas performed well if put under irrigation. 

Department of Agriculture and Fisheries senior research agronomist Doug Sands, Emerald, said for Central Queensland growers, April is an early plant, May is the middle of the season, and June or July plants are thought to be late.

Last year’s trial saw chickpeas go in the ground in July and August. 

“We found there was a tonne difference (in yield) between the July and August - with July on top,” Mr Sands said. 

“August looks like we’re getting a bit too late, we’re running into the heat which affects our yield.”

However as a further experiment, the August-planted chickpeas were split into two – with one half irrigated.

“With that irrigation we managed to lift our yields about 600kg, which tells us that the plant does have some resistance to heat as long as there’s moisture,” Mr Sands said. 

“That is different to the cereals - with wheat it doesn’t matter how much water you’ve got under it, when it hits the warm time in Spring it just stops.” 

This year’s trial is combining planting dates with row spacing trials. 

”From the previous three years’ of data we’ve accumulated we know that the early planting date isn’t very efficient in terms of translating dry matter into grain yield,” Mr Sands said.

“So we’re putting some treatments in there to try and control the dry matter production back until flowering, and then we hopefully will get a saving in water and nutrients that will then be used for flowering and grain filling.”

While the trial has previously seen a mixture of commercial varieties planted, this year there is only new variety PBA Seamer in the ground to limit variables.

Mr Sands said it was still “early days” with the trial, and that he is “not getting too excited about it just yet”.

The research was presented to a raft of interested farmers at a crop walk held at the Emerald Agricultural College. 

There was a large amount of support for the work, with many farmers interested to see this year’s results. 

The trial is funded by the Grains Research Development Corporation and lead by the team at the Queensland Alliance for Agriculture and Food Innovation (QAFFI).