Anyone ever grow lentils?

While enjoying a good lentil soup tonight my husband asked me how lentils grow and that led to a discussion of growing lentils in the garden. Has anyone ever tried it? I see that there are few seed sources but I guess I could use the ones I buy at Whole Foods or some other good grocery? I live in South Texas and we are about to experience our first freeze of the year - maybe.

I love lentils but have never thought to grow them! Your question inspired me to do a little googling and I found this:

http://www.ehow.com/how_2059820_grow-lentils.html

But somehow, I don't think it is quite that simple.

Then I found this, which seems definitive -- looks doable:

http://www.hort.purdue.edu/newcrop/afcm/lentil.html

[excerpt]
IV. Environment Requirements:
A. Climate:

Lentil is adapted to cool growing conditions, and the young plants are tolerant of spring frosts. This allows for early spring planting dates.

Lentils have been grown extensively in the semi-arid parts of the world, where they have slightly lower yields, but good seed quality. High humidity and excessive rainfall during the season encourages vegetative growth, which prevents good yield and can reduce seed quality. Ten to twelve in. of annual rainfall will produce high yields of good quality seed. Excessive drought and/or high temperatures during the flowering and pod-fill period also reduce yields.
B. Soil:

Lentil is adapted to all soil types, from sand to clay loam, if there is good internal drainage. Lentil does not tolerate flooded or waterlogged soils, and does best on deep, sandy loam soils high in phosphorus and potassium. Good drainage is required, because even short periods of exposure to waterlogged or flooded field conditions kill plants. A soil pH near 7.0 is best for lentil production.

But, THEN! THIS is the prize google catch, I will have to go back and look at this one more closely, check out the article title:

http://oldvegiepatch1972.googlepages.com/pea.html

"How to Grow Organic Peas, Snowpeas, Lentils and Sea Monkeys - including tips on dealing with lack of worms, proliferation of zombies and the existence of god"

LOL!

Okay, now someone who has actual experience growing lentils might post.....

Okay, that last one was too bizarre to be reading right at bedtime--but extremely humorous!

Any idea how many plants (or what area, which ever measure makes more sense) you would need to get, say, a cup of lentils for a pot of soup?

Well, I will allow as how I did once try to grow beans for drying (as opposed to eating fresh, aka "green beans") although it was not lentils I chose to attempt.

I had only a few plants and my problem was exactly that, space. I can't recall numbers, but I only got a few cups of dried beans from my plants.....

but hey, lentils are littler.......

LOL

This might be a good experiment for me. From your info above, it sounds like I might have some really good growing conditions for the little lentils, should I ever decide not to plant 1001 other things in it! :)

I grew Hutterite and Yellow Woman beans, when I did that...... one of the issues was I learned I had to lay the entire plant out for the beans to dry -- now, I am not sure how I got that info or if there is a better way (I feel sure there must be!) but at that time I did not really have drying space sufficient even for my few plants.

Anyway, lentils seem to need some rather specific conditions -- your climate may be too dry? (don't take my word for it tho, goodness, what do I know? ;-) )

Well, your info says 10 - 12" rainfall per year, and we're about that. However, I'd probably do them on irrigation, since our rainfall tends to come 7" in the summer and 5" in the winter, with nothing between March and August. Still, they obviously like dry and no humidity, and we can do that!

Okay, I'm thinking I'm going to have to try this with some storebought lentils! My planting guide says get them in NOW, so I better get to it. Think good thoughts for me--I'll try to remember to report in as they go!

Hmm... maybe same spacing in my SFG as bean plants, you think? Say, 9 plants to 1 square foot?

I shall observe. You may envision me as standing at the corner of that square foot, interested expression on face, hands quietly folded behind back, perhaps whistling a tune from time to time.

Seriously, good luck! storeboughten lentils ought to work -- they sure do sprout when you soak 'em so I don't see why not.

}fascinating{

Hmmm....d'ya think I should soak them before planting? I've only ever cooked them before, this is all new to me!

BTW, how well do you carry a tune? :)

I carry a tune excellently well. They are usually not very heavy, you know.

*haha*

I have no idea about soaking, however, but probably not, the dried beans I planted that one time did not require soaking. I just brought that up because I had been thinking, were they going to be viable propagation-wise, as some things store bought are not, and the sprouting said, yes, they are viable. If you follow.

I do follow--makes excellent sense. I have soaked beans, peas and corn seeds before, and haven't seen much of a difference in germination than unsoaked, but I know some people are fans of the soak, so I thought I'd ask.

And, since you can carry a tune, you are more than welcome--as long as you promise not to laugh at the fact that I tend to hum--very atonally--when I garden... Perhaps you can drown me out!

Here's a link to the Sasketchewan Pulse online growers guide to growing lentils. Perhaps some of the information in this booklet will be of help:

http://www.saskpulse.com/media/pdfs/ppm-lentil.pdf

It looks like 12 plants per square foot is the recommended seeding rate.

This message was edited Nov 18, 2008 11:59 AM

Wow, GM, some great stuff in that post! Thanks for sending it. I just wish I had read it before we planted the lentils today--I think we didn't get them deep enough. However, the "we" includes my 4-year-old, so who knows what exactly we'll have going. :) I may sneak out and stick a few more seeds down a little deeper, to hedge my bets.

Think positive growing thoughts!

I have just put in 8 Pigeon Pea trees...it is urud in India, similar to lentils. The trees aren't large...the are a green manure, nitrogen fixer and the 'peas' are edible and delicious whether fresh or dry.

Carol

Urid dal is the black gram that is white inside. It is sold whole, split and split and skinned. Urid dal is the one that is ground to a paste with rice, then fermented to make iddlis, dosas, vada, pappadam etc.

Here is the wiki listing. Is this what you planted?
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Urad_dal

Is it possible that you are growing toor dal?
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pigeon_pea

GM...you are too right!!! Another lesson in "look it up yourself...", thanks. Yes, it is toor dal I am growing. I have about 20 more seedlings I am thinking of planting 'out' to use as green manure on our property. Waste not, want not!!! I like the green peas and look forward to using the toor...

Thanks for the correction.

Carol

Toor dal is sometimes called "arhar dal" in some regions, so if someone says the words quickly, it is easy to confuse with the urid dal, (sometimes spelled urad dal or urd dal).

I have only seen pigeon peas growing like a bush/tree. The urid dal grows like mung beans (since it's another variety of mung).

There are many good ways to make toor dal/pigeon peas. I'm sure you'll enjoy them.

I started some lentil seeds this spring and transplanted them when they were about 4" tall. Over the next 3 months they grew maybe an additional TWO INCHES. Pooh.

Hmm... that is not encouraging. I of course am checking my recently-planted seeds obsesively, watching for signs of germination. Of course, the radishes I planted the same day aren't even up yet, so I don't know what I expect... Those things are the speediest germinators I ever saw!

Jill, I think my failure was more on my part, and the soil/area where I transplanted them. I DO intend to try again!

So, I finally have an update on the Great Lentil Project:

Ta-DAH! The lentil blooms...

I think they're about 8" high right now, and a very pretty plant. Turns out my daughter must've dumped all the seeds (except one) in about 2 square inches. I transplanted a bunch of them around when they were about 2" high, and they didn't seem to mind. I"m going to let them keep going and see what happens. However, if each of those tiny blooms makes one tiny lentil, one square foot is nowhere NEAR enough to grow enough lentils to do anything with!

Hey there! I was just wondering about your lentils the other day! What a pretty plant it makes but yeah, I can see you would need more for a pot of soup, LOL!

Someone else started another thread about growing lentils, here: http://davesgarden.com/community/forums/t/967225/

Have not looked at it just now but as I recall it has some links about cultivation and there was a mention of how few lentils per plant.......

Thanks for the update!

Kyla