Paddock selection
Select paddocks which have:
- Well drained soils with a pH above 5.5 in Calcium Chloride (CaCl2), heavy deep clays, heavy loam, sandy loam and Salmon Gum soils. Avoid soils with a pH below 5.5 (CaCl2), saline soils, high boron soils and Wodjil soils. Chickpea has poor tolerance of low pH where aluminium toxicity can be a problem.
- A soil structure and slope which allows good drainage—avoid shallow soils.
- Little or no risk of sulphonylurea carry over.
- A low broad-leaf weed burden.
- Few rocks can be left relatively flat and even after sowing for harvest.
- To minimise the risk of diseases, do not grow chickpeas more often than one year in four in the same paddock and at least 500m from last seasons chickpea stubble.
Varieties
Variety selection should be based primarily on ascochyta blight tolerance and yield. Current varieties include PBA Slasher, PBA Striker, Ambar and Neelam. It is prudent to assess yield capacity of current varieties for your region using the National Variety Trials website.
Sowing
- Sowing window: low rainfall: April 20–May 25, medium rainfall: May 15–June 15.
- Sowing depth: aim for 5 centimetres (cm), will come up from 8 cm with moist soil conditions.
- Sowing rate: 40–45 plant per square metre (m2) is optimum which corresponds to a sowing rate of between 90–100 kilograms per hectare (kg/ha).
- Row spacing: up to 50cm appears to have little effect on yield.
Inoculum
Always inoculate chickpea seed with Group N inoculum. This applies regardless of the cropping history of the paddock, inoculation is recommended in all circumstances. Slurry inoculated seed must be sown within 24 hours of application into moist soil. All chickpea seed should receive a fungicide seed dressing to reduce ascochyta blight, however, fungicide seed dressings are toxic to rhizobia. The pickle and inoculation procedures must be done separately with the pickle applied first (may be applied months in advance) and allowed to dry before inoculum is applied.
Fertiliser
Chickpea is effective at extracting phosphorus and shows no yield response to additional P at soil levels above 20 milligrams per kilogram (mg/kg) (Cowell test). If soil levels are between 10 mg/kg and 20 mg/kg add at least 8kg P/ha. Remember that approximately 3.5kg of P is exported in one tonne of chickpea grain.
Diseases
Ascochyta blight management:
- No more than one chickpea crop in the past four years.
- At least 500 metres (m) away from last years chickpea paddock.
- Before sowing apply a seed dressing of P-Pickle T. This gives four weeks of protection after which it becomes time to assess requirement of follow up fungicide applications.
- Two fungicides, Mancozeb and Chlorothalonil, are permitted for ascochyta blight management in chickpea. Number of in crop applications will depend on variety, rainfall and plant development. When applied at label rates trials indicate Chlorothalonil has better efficacy than Mancozeb. Figure 2 gives an indication of the response to multiple foliar fungicide applications for susceptible, moderately susceptible and resistant varieties. (trial conducted 2005).
Ascochyta blight symptoms
At the seedling stage leaf tips wilt then die, plants are pruned back often killed. Symptoms in older plants are tan coloured lesions, often round in shape, containing rings of small black spots. The small black spots are the fruiting bodies and appear as ‘pepper specks’.
Botrytis grey mould (BGM)
BGM infects plants at any stage of growth but will be worse during canopy closure under moist warm conditions. BGM affects flowers and pods reducing yield and quality. BGM is often controlled during management of ascochyta. However if fungicide sprays to control ascochyta are not being applied BGM must be monitored.
Chickpea is a susceptible host to the root lesion nematodes (RLN), Pratylenchus neglectus and P. penetrans. Nematode numbers will increase during the chickpea phase and negatively impact on yield of following wheat crops. If RLN numbers are high on your property then, it is advisable not to sow chickpea.
Irrespective of level of resistance to ascochyta the yield of all varieties is improved with fungicidal suppression of early infection. It is recommended that foliar fungicide be applied when protection from the seed dressing is depleted approximately four weeks after emergence.
Weed management
Choose a paddock with a low broad-leaf weed burden and do not sow chickpeas into a pasture paddock.
The most effective weed control strategy is to level the paddock by harrowing then use the range of post-sowing pre-emergent options available, simazine, Balance®, Bladex® and metribuzin. Balance® is compatible with simazine. Adding simazine at label rate, 1.0–2.0 litres per hectare (L/ha), to 100 grams per hectare (g/ha) of Balance® post sowing pre emergent to a levelled paddock is recommended to control grass weeds and add to the effect of Balance® on broadleaf weeds.
Grasses can be effectively controlled post emergent with a range of group A herbicides however post emergent broadleaf weed control options are limited. Broadstrike® is registered at the 4–6 node stage of the chickpea. It is not effective on large radish, more than 10cm wide, and weeds should be targeted when small. Always read product labels.
Pre- sowing options for chickpea include
- Simazine 50% flowable 1–2 L/ha
- Cyanazine (Bladex®) 2 L/ha
To be incorporated at sowing
- Triallate (Avadex®) 1.6 L/ha
- Trifluralin (400ai/L) 1–2 L/ha
- Pendimethalin (Stomp®) 2 L/ha
Post sowing pre-emergent
- Isoxaflutole (Balance®) 100 g/ha
- Simazine 50% flowable 1–2 L/ha
- Cyanazine (Bladex®) 2 L/ha
- Metribuzin 150-300 g/ha
Post emergent
- Flumesulam (Broadstrike®) 25 g/ha
- A range of grass selective herbicides
Insect management
Chickpea is highly susceptible to native budworm. Crops need to be monitored from flowering through to pod fill. Small grubs less than 1cm are damaging. Economic threshold for control can be as low as 1 grub per 20 sweeps of a sweep net.
Harvesting
Paddocks should be chosen and prepared to be as flat as possible. Otherwise short crops will be difficult to harvest. Choosing a level paddock with no sticks or rocks will enable more efficient harvesting. The crop is ready to harvest when the stems and pods are light brown and the seed is hard and rattles within the pod. Seed moisture needs to be less than 14%. Pods will be shed if harvest is delayed.
Suggested harvester settings are as follows:
- Reel speed same as ground speed.
- Spiral clearance high.
- Fan speed high.
- Drum speed 400–700 revolutions per minute (rpm).
- Concave clearance 10–25 millimetres (mm).
- Top sieve: 20–25mm.
- Bottom sieve: 12–16mm.
Seed Supply Enquiries
AUSTRALIAN SEED & GRAIN P/L
Berkshire Valley Rd
PO Box 183, Moora, WA 6510
Tel: 08 9651 1069
Fax: 08 9651 1542
Email: info@austseedgrain.com.au
EDSCO Eastern Districts Seed Cleaning Co
Cnr Mill St & Mather Road
PO Box 21, Kellerberrin WA 6410
Tel: 08 9045 4036
Fax: 08 9045 4539
MultiSEED Productions
4 Brockman St, Esperance WA 6450
Tel: 08 9071 1053
Fax: 08 9071 5007