Rising lentils: protein-packed legumes

Lentils are one of the most nutritious foods in the world. They are filled with protein and fiber and are often referred to as "superfood". In fact, lentils are the oldest legumes grown and probably one of the first domesticated plants in human history. Growing lenses have been around for thousands of years.

In large religions such as Judaism, lentils are used as "funeral food" because their round shape reflects the eternal cycle of life. People in India use lentils as a staple and are often found in curries or as a thickener for vegetarian stews. And in Italy, lentils are the side for a traditional New Year's sausage festival.

But how do lenses grow? Are they easy to harvest and do they grow well in most regions? Let's talk about all things lens-based, from sowing to storage!

Good products for growing lentils:

Brief instructions on care

Growing lentils is a great way to include a healthy protein crop in your garden. Source: quinn.anya

All about lenses

Lens culinaris, the lentil plant, has many different names. The term "lens" refers directly to the word "lens", which not only refers to its botanical name, but also to its shape. The legumes resemble small lentils.

In Ethiopia, the lens is called a knife. Turkey calls it Mercimek. Masser or Red Dhal is the term for lentils in India and Adas is the Arabic term. The Japanese call it Heramame.

Lentil crops are grown annually and belong to the Fabaceae family. The pods contain edible seeds, with each pod producing at least two seeds that can be divided if desired. The vine itself is fairly slender with hairy, upright, branched stems.

These vines produce delicate flowers in mostly white and rarely purple, pink and blue, which are arranged on grapes. Each grape contains 1-4 flowers. The leaves of the lenses are arranged alternately. Each leaf consists of 4-7 separate leaves with an oval shape. Lentil pods are between 0.1 and 0.3 inches in size. Yellow, black, green and red-orange are common colors of lentil seeds.

The lentil plant does not grow annually in the following years. It reaches about 20 inches in height before any significant amount of flower or fruit.

Plant lentils

A young lentil sprout is forming its first real leaves. Source: pjparra

Planting lentils is easier than you can imagine. They are a wonderful harvest that you can add to your garden and bring a rewarding harvest. So let's go over what you need to know to get started!

When to plant

Lentils grow best from spring through to the hot months. In spring, sow the seeds indoors about 2 weeks before the last frost date. Transplant them outdoors in the garden. If you start right in bed, wait until after the last frost. The soil should be approximately 20 ° C (68 ° F) for successful seed germination, which will occur in about 10 days.

Where to plant

Lentils are often planted in containers as well as in garden beds. However, young plants must be protected from frost and wind. Choose a place with full sun, but protected from strong winds.

Lentil plants grow as branched vines. They tend to spread and need enough space. The plants need a low grid for support and lots of air circulation.

How to plant

To plant lens culinaris, the seeds must first be inoculated with a natural bacterium called Rhizobium leguminosarum. These rhizobacteria bind to the newly formed roots and absorb nitrogen from the air to transfer it to the roots and soil, which allows the plants to grow more vigorously. For this reason, inoculated plants can also be great nitrogen fixers in your garden!

Inoculate the seeds on the day of sowing. Wet the seeds and roll them into the powdered inoculant to coat them well. After coating, sow the seeds either in starter pots or directly in the ground. It is usually best to sow about 1 inch deep. Dilute the seedlings to a distance of 5 inches as they emerge and choose only the strongest ones to be left over. If you are running multiple lines, you must place the lines at least 18 inches apart. Germination should take about 10 days at soil temperatures around 68 degrees.

Container-started plants should also only be diluted to the strongest seedling and planted at least 5 inches apart. Transplant at the same relative depth as in its container.

maintenance

The leaves of the lentil plant are colored deep green. Source: hcvst6

When growing lentils, they need some specific things to make sure they are well established. Now let's go through some of them!

Sun and temperature

Full sun is ideal for growing lentils. Aim for 8 hours of good sunlight a day for the best development.

Your lenses start best in cool weather but warm soil. They can be grown in cooler, temperate weather, but they tend to perform best when it is comfortable outside. They are sensitive to frost and will be damaged if they fall below 50 degrees.

These plants tolerate hot weather and sometimes have smaller harvests when it gets too hot. Temperatures over 90 degrees over a longer period of time can significantly reduce the harvest size.

Water & moisture

One inch of water a week is the minimum goal for your lenses. They may like something a little more in hot weather. The best time to water is early in the morning so that damp leaves can dry out during the warmth of the day. Try watering at ground level instead of wetting the foliage.

When the pods start to dry, stop watering. This allows the pods to dry out properly and the lentil plant is weakened, which makes later harvesting easier.

Growing plants can be exposed to a number of diseases that are more common in wet conditions. A lower humidity range of 30-40% is almost ideal for these plants. Many parts of the world use the drier seasons to grow their plants.

ground

Although they are not picky about the type of soil itself, lentils cannot tolerate damp soil. Well-drained soils that are rich in organic substances are ideal. These are best grown in a neutral to slightly alkaline pH range of 6 to 7, preferably with a lot of compost that is worked into the soil so that the plants can thrive.

Fertilize

Where many plants are nitrogen dependent, lentils follow the standards of beans, peas or other legumes. Your main need for nitrogen is immediately after germination. After that, the vaccine you provide can cover up to 80% of your nitrogen needs.

For this reason, your fertilizers should focus more on phosphorus and potassium. Phosphorus is a relatively high need for good root development, with potassium being crucial, and a high demand for flowering and pod development.

When growing lentils, start with a soil that is rich in organic materials. This should provide the required nitrogen early on. As the lentil plants develop, you can apply an organic granular fertilizer with low N, high P&K content. One or two applications of this fertilizer should be sufficient for the season.

Make sure you choose organic rather than crystallized sources. Lentils are sensitive to different types of salts and the roots can be easily burned by them.

An additional nutrient that your lentils can enjoy is sulfur. A small dose of sulfur, which is used when you feed your baby for the first time, allows the seedlings to absorb the PK fertilizers a little better. Be warned that if your soil is on the alkaline side, it may not need the sulfur because it may already exist.

Pruning / training

In general, lentil culinary products do not need to be pruned during the growing season. There are some exceptions to this rule. One way is to remove diseased or pest-damaged material to prevent the disease or pest from spreading further. Another reason is to provide an air flow for densely packed leaves.

However, they need to be trellised, which often reduces the need to cut to open the plant. While climbing alone, using plant binders can help secure the stem to the grille and provide additional support.

Propagation

The easiest way to propagate lentils is through seeds. It is rare that another method needs to be used as these annuals grow quite easily from seeds.

Lentil seeds should be planted 1 inch deep after being vaccinated according to our planting instructions above. If you want to skip vaccination, you can, but the lenses need extra nitrogen fertilizer. It is recommended that you inoculate your seeds before planting.

Harvest and store

If the plants dry out before harvesting, the lentils dry. Source: morecoffeeplease

So you spent all the time growing seeds to become big, strong lentils. What now? Let us go through everything you need to know about harvesting lentils and storing them for later!

harvest

The actual process of harvesting lentils is fairly simple. When the pods start to dry, stop watering the plants. Wait for them to dry, then pull out the vines and pluck the pods. The vines themselves can be added to your compost heap to decompose.

You will then need to remove the seeds from their bowls and place them on a tray in a cool, dry place to stop drying out.

storage

Storing your dried lentils is incredibly easy. Store them in an airtight container in a dark cabinet. Adding a food grade desiccant pack to the container can help reduce moisture that may still be in the container. If kept completely dry, they can last quite a long time, but are best used within a year of harvest.

Troubleshooting

Lentil flowers are pretty nondescript, but still pretty. Source: Annabelle Orozco

There are a number of problems that can arise when lenses are growing. Most of them are not serious, but no less difficult to use. Let us examine the problems that might arise.

Growing problems

Are lenses not very competitive with weedsand can actually suffer when they're young seedlings. Keep the area around your plants free from weed growth. Be careful when removing weeds that are near the slender stems of your younger lentils, as the roots of the weeds can be tangled with those of the lentils.

Air circulation is a necessity. Try to make enough space around them when the vineline plants are trained on their trellis. This reduces the likelihood that many fungal diseases will spread from leaf to leaf.

Pests

There are a number of pests that can cause problems for your lenses. As a rule, however, these problems are not serious. However, you should continue to address them to reduce the pest population in your garden.

Two sucking pests, Aphids and Thripsare opportunistic pests on the lens. If they can, they choose juicier targets, but are ready to settle for the foliage of your vines. Yellow spots on the leaves are a symptom of aphids hiding on the underside and thrips on flowers are common. The populations of both can be greatly reduced by regular use of neem oil on all leaves, both top and bottom.

The Wireworm is another trouble. These click beetle larvae live in the soil and eat organic matter, and they really like the roots of their legumes. They can be treated with a pyrethrin spray or with useful nematodes. Crop rotation also reduces the likelihood of their occurrence.

Grubs can dig into the lentil seeds and prevent their germination. If you plant more seeds than you need, this problem will be reduced. You can also avoid this entirely by starting your legumes in pots.

Finally, that westbound plant bug (also called the Lygus bug) the leaves and the fresh, undried lentil husks are delicious. They are more fascinated by the strawberries growing nearby, so you may find them pulled away from them. Pyrethrin eliminates adults, but to reduce the population of their wingless nymph stage, you should also keep weeds away if they slip between weeds and then travel to your plants.

Diseases

Two forms of root rot are common with lenses: Fusarium root rot and Rhizoctonia root rot. Both are caused by soil fungi. The use of a biofungicide like MycoStop shows a certain effectiveness against Fusarium, but somewhat less against rhizoctonia. Inoculation with Rhizobium leguminosarum appears to work better against Rhizoctonia. In either case, it's best to avoid over-watering, as this reduces the likelihood of any of these fungal causes developing at all.

Another disease that often occurs when it rains heavily in spring and the floors are damp Ascochyta plague. This appears as a gray spot on leaf surfaces with a brown ring around it. It can spread to the pod and also damage the seeds. Remove damaged plant material and treat with a copper-based fungicide to reduce further spread. Not over water.

Sclerotinia stem rot, often called cotton rot or white mold, is another problem you may encounter. This materializes as a white, cotton-like mass of fungal spores on trunk surfaces. It is incredibly difficult to treat this form of stem rot when it sticks in the stem, and many organic fungicides are ineffective. Some useful mycorrhizas and bacteria can be used as soil supplements (Pseudomonas chlororaphis, Bacillus amyloliquefaciens, Pantoea agglomerans) as they appear to improve the lens' ability to resist infection. Monitor lentil plants for signs of problems and remove and destroy damaged plants if an infection occurs.

frequently asked Questions

Q: Are lentils easy to grow?

A: You can be sure of that! As long as you have everything you want, you should be able to harvest a great, protein-rich legume for your kitchen.

Q: Can you grow lentils from the supermarket?

A: Yes, you can use dry lentils from the grocery store to grow the plants. However, avoid dark-lined to gray spots. If you find ones that look like this, avoid this batch as everything has been exposed to the Ascochyta Plague.

Q: How many lentils does a pod contain?

A: Each pod contains up to 1-3 lentils.

The green thumbs behind this article:
Lorin Nielsen
Lifetime gardener