Chickpea Seeds – Tan Garbanzo Beans / Chana

Grow Your Own Chickpeas for Homemade Favorites

Chickpeas (Cicer arietinum), also known as garbanzo beans or chana, are bushy annual legumes grown for their tan seeds. Plant them in a sunny vegetable bed and harvest mature chickpeas for thoroughly cooked hummus, curries, soups, and stews.

From sowing a small garden row to shelling your first dry pods, growing chickpeas adds a rewarding pantry crop to your gardening season. Their nutty flavor makes the harvested beans a versatile ingredient in home cooking.

Available Packet Sizes

• 30 seeds
• 1 oz
• 1/4 lb (4 oz)
• 1 lb
• 5 lb

Select your preferred size when ordering. Weight packs are sold by weight, not a guaranteed seed count.

Plant Highlights

• Botanical name: Cicer arietinum
• Common names: Chickpea, garbanzo bean, chana
• Life cycle: Annual
• Growth habit: Bushy, upright plants
• Seed color: Tan
• Light: Full sun
• Soil: Well-drained soil, without standing water

Sowing and Germination

Direct sow into a prepared garden bed in early spring around your local last-frost period, adjusting timing to your climate. Avoid cold, saturated soil. Chickpeas need a sufficiently long growing season, with dry weather helpful during pod maturation.

• Sow approximately 1–2 inches deep.
• Space seeds approximately 3–6 inches apart, leaving room between rows for access and airflow.
• Water after sowing and maintain moderate moisture during establishment without waterlogging.
• Keep weeds down while seedlings grow slowly in cool conditions.

If starting indoors, use deep individual pots and transplant carefully with minimal root disturbance. Germination and maturity vary with weather and growing conditions; a fixed harvest date is not guaranteed.

Growing Care

Choose a sunny, open site. Water at soil level as needed and avoid keeping foliage wet. Allow plants room to branch and maintain good airflow. Reduce unnecessary watering as the crop matures and pods begin to dry.

Harvesting Dry Chickpeas

For dry chickpeas, allow pods to mature and dry as the plants turn brown. If rain threatens, move harvested plants or pods to a sheltered, well-ventilated area to finish drying. Shell the pods and dry the chickpeas completely before storage.

Store fully dried harvested chickpeas in a sealed container in a cool, dry place. Sort, rinse, soak as appropriate for your recipe, and cook thoroughly before eating.

Important Seed-Use Information

Sold as planting seed, not ready-to-eat food. Do not eat planting seeds or assume they are suitable for raw sprout production. Use only seed specifically labeled for food sprouting for that purpose. Do not consume raw or undercooked chickpeas, and do not eat the entire plant.