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Lentil
The driest-growing, earliest-sown pulse in the garden: a small cool-season legume that asks for lean soil and little water, and pays back in shelf-stable protein that cooks in twenty minutes.
Lentils are eaten cooked. Boiling until tender destroys the lectins and trypsin inhibitors in the raw seed, which otherwise cause stomach upset - unlike beans, no soaking is needed. If you sprout them, use seed sold for sprouting, rinse twice daily, and cook the sprouts for anyone pregnant, elderly, very young or immune-compromised: raw sprouts of any seed carry a genuine Salmonella and E. coli risk, because a warm damp sprouting jar suits bacteria as well as it suits seed.
Overview
The one thing to knowThey are among the most drought-tolerant food legumes there is: on most soils a spring planting needs no irrigation at all, and rich, wet, heavily fed ground actually makes them worse.
Lentils are the pulse for people who want a pantry crop without a long hot season. They go into the ground with the peas - germinating from about 40°F - grow into knee-high, fine-leaved, tendrilled plants, and finish in roughly 100 days, drying down on the plant into the small flat seeds you already know from soup. They are among the most drought-tolerant food legumes there is: on most soils a spring planting needs no irrigation at all, and rich, wet, heavily fed ground actually makes them worse.
Be clear-eyed about scale before you commit a bed. Each short pod holds only one or two seeds, and a single plant yields a fraction of an ounce, so lentils are grown by the row and the patch, not the plant - reckon on roughly 1 to 2 pounds of cleaned lentils from a 25-foot row, sown thickly. What you get for that space is real: a crop that needs no trellis, no feeding, and almost no water, that fixes its own nitrogen and leaves the bed better, and that stores for years in a jar. Colors and classes matter in the kitchen more than in the garden - brown, red, French green, and black beluga lentils all grow the same way and cook completely differently.
Quick facts
- Sprouts in
- 9 days6 to 14
- Soil to sprout
- 65 °F40 to 80
- Life cycle
- Annual
- Seed to save
- About 100 days after planting80 to 115
- Height
- 16 in12 to 24
- Spread
- 8 in5 to 12
- Cold
- Takes light frostdamaged below 20°F
- Heat
- Struggles above 90°F
Full sun · low water · well-drained soil · 2 in apart (1 to 4) · direct sow
When to plant
Nothing is open today. Spring sowing opens 6 months, Mar 13 to Apr 10.
- Direct sow Mar 13 – Apr 10 Opens in 173 daysAbout 4 weeks before to at your last frost (Apr 10 here)Sow with the peas, as soon as a spade goes into the ground easily. Seedlings take light frost, and the whole point is to have the crop flowering and drying before high summer.
Frost here: last around Apr 10 (Mar 27 to Apr 24 most years), first around Oct 25. Zone averages, your own yard may run a week or two either way.
Life stages
Seven stages, about 3 months from sowing to the first pull. Windows are typical; your zone and weather move them.
Germination
Day 0 to 9 from sowing- WaterSow 1 inch deep into cool, workable soilevery 3 daysLentils germinate from about 40°F, so they go in with the peas rather than with the beans. Water in at sowing, then keep the bed just moist - cold soggy ground rots the seed.
- InspectInoculate on ground new to lentils or peasLentils nodulate with the pea/vetch group of Rhizobium. In soil that has never grown peas, lentils or vetch, dust the seed with a pea-and-lentil inoculant so the roots fix their own nitrogen; after a couple of legume seasons the bacteria are already there.
Watch for- Seed rotting in cold saturated soil
- Birds and mice working a freshly sown row
Seedling
Day 9 to 28 from sowing- ThinThin to 1-2 inches in the rowLentils are sown thickly on purpose - a dense stand holds the slender plants up against each other and shades out weeds. Thin only where seedlings are piled on top of one another.
- WeedWeed early, because lentils compete badlyA lentil plant is small, slow to canopy, and one of the least competitive crops there is. Get the bed clean in the first month; after that the stand closes in and largely looks after itself.
Watch for- Weeds outgrowing the young stand
- Light frost nipping the tips (seedlings recover from a few degrees below freezing)
Vegetative
Day 26 to 55 from sowing- WaterWater sparingly - lentils are a dry-land cropweeklyLentils are among the most drought-tolerant food legumes and resent wet feet far more than dry ones. Roughly half an inch of water a week is plenty on most soils; skip watering entirely in a normal rainy spring.
- FertilizeDo not feed nitrogenLentils fix their own nitrogen. Extra nitrogen builds soft leafy growth that flops, holds moisture in the canopy, and sets fewer pods. A little phosphorus and potassium on poor ground is all they want.
Watch for- Aphids on shoot tips
- Plants flopping over in rich or over-watered soil
Flowering
Day 58 to 80 from sowing- WaterKeep the ground evenly moist through bloomThe pale lilac-and-white flowers are small and easy to miss, but this is the fortnight that sets your crop. A drought or a heat wave above about 85°F during bloom aborts flowers and thins the pod count.
- InspectLeave the flowers alone - lentils self-pollinateLentil flowers pollinate themselves before they open, so no bees are needed and varieties stay true side by side. Nothing to do here but keep the plants healthy.
Watch for- Flowers aborting in a heat wave
- Powdery mildew starting in a crowded, still stand
Pod fill
Day 68 to 95 from sowing- WaterWater steadily while the seeds plumpEach short, flat pod carries only one or two seeds, so every pod counts. Even moisture now makes full, heavy lentils instead of shrivelled ones.
- InspectCheck for dark blotches on pods and stemsAscochyta blight shows up as tan spots with dark margins on leaves, stems and pods in a wet season, and it rides into next year on saved seed. Mark and skip any blotched plants when you choose seed to keep.
Watch for- Tan-and-dark lesions on pods (ascochyta blight)
- Pods staying flat and empty after a hot spell
Drying down
Day 92 to 108 from sowing- WaterStop watering as the lower pods turn tanLentils ripen from the bottom of the plant upward. Once the lowest third of the pods go tan and the leaves start to yellow, cut the water off so the crop cures on the plant rather than rotting or resprouting.
- InspectWatch the forecast, not the calendarRipe lentil pods shatter easily and a wet spell during dry-down stains, moulds, or sprouts the seed. If rain is coming, pull the plants a few days early and finish them under cover.
Watch for- Rain forecast during dry-down (pull early and cure indoors)
- Pods shattering and dropping seed if left too long
Harvest
Day 85 to 115 to the first pull from sowing- HarvestPull whole plants when two-thirds of the pods are tanDo not wait for every pod - the lowest ones shatter while the top ones are still green. Pull or cut the whole plant when about two-thirds of the pods are tan and rattle, and lay or hang the plants under cover for one to two weeks to finish.
- DoThresh in a bag, then winnowPut the dry plants in a pillowcase or feed sack and tread or beat it, then pour the mixture between two buckets in a breeze so the chaff blows away. Spread the cleaned lentils to dry another week before jarring.
Watch for- Lowest pods shattering while the top of the plant is still green
- Small holes in stored seed (bruchid weevils)
Harvest
- About two-thirds of the pods tan, dry, and rattling
- Lower leaves yellowed and dropping, stems going straw-colored
- A seed cracks rather than dents when you bite it
- Pull whole plants when two-thirds of the pods are tan
- Thresh in a bag, then winnow
Per plant 0.1 to 0.7 ozPicking pull once
Cook with lentils
Watch out for
5 to know. 2 are high-risk: Bean Weevil, Ascochyta Blight. 1 is active in September.
Bean WeevilSeverity High PestnowOn lentils the culprit is usually a related bruchid (Bruchus lentis) rather than the bean weevil itself, but the story and the fix are identical: eggs ride home from the field inside the seed, so freeze the cleaned lentils for a week before they go into a jar.
Round holes in stored beans, fine powdery dust in the jar, tiny beetles emerging, and hollowed or tunneled seeds.
Freeze or heat-treat infested lots to kill the weevils; discard heavily damaged beans; keep new stores away from old to prevent reinfestation.
Harvest and dry promptly; store fully dried beans airtight; and above all, freeze shelled beans for at least a week before storing to kill any eggs and larvae.
A small beetle (Acanthoscelides) whose larvae develop inside stored dry beans, hollowing the seed and boring round exit holes - the classic ruin of a jar of home-grown beans. Eggs are often already in the pod at harvest.
Ascochyta BlightSeverity High DiseaseThe disease most likely to end a home lentil crop in a wet spring, and the reason to buy fresh seed after a blotchy year rather than replanting your own.
Round to irregular tan or ash-grey spots with distinct dark brown margins on leaves, often peppered with tiny black specks in the centre. Dark sunken lesions girdling stems, so whole shoots wilt and die above the point of attack. Sunken discoloured blotches on the pods, and stained, shrivelled, or pitted seed when you shell them. Damage worst after a cool wet spell, heaviest low in a dense canopy, and often spreading outward in patches from one starting point.
There is no cure for infected tissue. Pull and bin badly affected plants rather than composting them, keep off the stand while it is wet, and harvest what is sound. Above all, do not save seed from an infected crop - buy fresh clean seed and start the line again. Protectant fungicides are used commercially at early bloom, but for a home planting rotation, clean seed, and airflow are what actually decide the outcome.
Start with clean, certified seed rather than saved seed from a stand that showed any blotching - this is the single most effective step, because the fungus travels inside the seed. Rotate at least three years out of the same pulse, and do not plant next to last year's stubble, since spores blow and splash off old straw. Sow into well-drained ground at a sensible density so air moves through the canopy, and do not work among wet plants. Where resistant varieties exist for the pulse you are growing, use them.
A fungal blight of cool-season pulses - lentil, chickpea, pea and faba bean each have their own closely related Ascochyta species - that spreads in cool wet weather by rain splash and infected crop debris. Tan-to-grey lesions with dark margins appear on leaves, then girdle stems and sink into pods, and the fungus grows through the pod wall into the seed itself. That is what makes it serious for anyone saving their own seed: the disease overwinters inside the seed and in last year's straw, so one wet season can carry into every planting that follows. Severe infections defoliate plants, shrivel the seed, and stain the crop.
Root RotSeverity Medium DiseaseLentils are sown into cold spring ground and are unusually intolerant of wet feet, so this is the commonest cause of a thin or patchy stand.
Sow into raised, sharply drained beds, resist watering cold soil, and rotate away from peas and vetch.
Wilting in the middle of the day on a plant whose soil is damp - the classic tell, and the reason people water a rotting plant and finish it off. Leaves yellowing from the bottom up, dull off-color foliage, and growth that stalls for no visible reason. Whole shoots, or one side of the plant, collapsing while the rest still looks fine. Soft, dark, or mushy tissue at the base of the stem or at the crown, sometimes with a sour smell. Lift a failing plant and look at the roots: healthy ones are firm and pale, rotted ones are brown or black and slimy, and the outer layer slips off between your fingers leaving a thread of core behind. Seedlings that topple over at soil level are the same problem, called damping-off.
There is no cure for tissue that has already rotted, so act on the conditions rather than looking for a spray. Stop watering at once and fix the drainage - open up compacted soil, or move the plant to a raised, sharply drained position or a container. Lift a badly affected plant, cut away every soft dark root and rotted section with a clean blade back to firm pale tissue, and replant only the healthy parts into fresh free-draining soil or mix. Often the better move is to give up on the plant and save its offspring instead: cuttings, offsets, or divisions taken from firm healthy growth root readily and give you a clean start. Bin the rotted material rather than composting it, and correct the drainage before you replant, because the rot comes straight back in the same wet spot.
Drainage is the whole defense. Match the plant to the site first - something that wants sharp drainage will not survive heavy clay or a low, water-collecting spot however well you tend it. Where the ground is heavy, plant on a raised bed, berm, or slope, or grow in a container. Set plants at the depth they were already growing, since burying the crown or the root flare is a common cause of rot, and keep mulch pulled back a few inches from the stem base instead of piled against it. Water the soil rather than the calendar: check that the top inch or two is dry before watering again, cut back hard in cool weather and winter dormancy, and never leave a pot standing in a full saucer. Do not plant or dig in soggy ground, and go easy on rich amendments for plants that want it lean. Rotate annual crops, and start with clean healthy plants and fresh mix.
Root rot is not one organism but a group of soil fungi and water molds - Pythium, Phytophthora, Fusarium, Rhizoctonia and others - that sit harmlessly in most soils and only turn destructive when the ground stays saturated. Waterlogged soil drives the air out, the roots suffocate, and the weakened tissue is invaded and goes soft, brown, and stringy. Because the damage is underground you usually see it first as something that looks like drought: wilting, yellowing, stunting, a plant that does not respond to being watered. Overwatering, heavy compacted ground, a low spot that collects runoff, a pot with no drainage or a saucer left standing full, and cold wet soil in winter are the usual causes. Once roots have actually rotted there is no cure - this is a problem you prevent rather than treat.
AphidsSeverity Medium PestThe pea aphid is the species that matters here - a big green aphid that works the growing tips and flower stalks of lentils, peas and vetch and can carry pea enation mosaic and bean leafroll viruses into the stand.
The feeding itself is rarely worth treating on a vigorous planting.
Dense clusters of tiny insects packed onto shoot tips, flower buds, and the undersides of young leaves. Curled, cupped, or distorted new growth that never opens properly. A sticky shine on the leaves - and on whatever sits under the plant - that later goes black with sooty mold. Tiny white cast skins left behind where a colony has been feeding. Ants running steadily up and down the stems, which is often the first thing you notice. Mottled, streaked, or misshapen leaves that do not grow out can mean a virus the aphids brought with them rather than the feeding itself.
Knock the colonies off with a hard jet of water and repeat every few days - on most plants that alone ends it. Pinch out or prune off the worst-infested tips rather than treating the whole plant. If colonies keep rebuilding, spray insecticidal soap or horticultural oil directly onto the insects, covering leaf undersides, and repeat weekly until they are gone; treat early or late in the day, and never spray a wilted or heat-stressed plant. Avoid broad-spectrum insecticides - they kill the ladybugs, lacewings, and parasitic wasps that were about to solve the problem for you, and aphid numbers usually come back worse afterward. Anything you spray must be labeled for the plant you are treating; follow that label and observe its pre-harvest interval. On anything you eat, wash leaves, heads, and buds well before use, since aphids hide down in crowns, folds, and tight growth.
Go easy on nitrogen: the soft, lush growth that heavy feeding produces is exactly what aphids breed on. Check new growth once a week through spring and early summer so you catch colonies while they are still small, and rub the first few out with your fingers. Leave flowering plants nearby and skip broad-spectrum sprays - ladybugs, lacewings, hoverflies, and parasitic wasps do most of this work for free, and they only stay if there is something for them to eat. Keep ants off the plant where you can, since they protect aphids from those predators. Water steadily so plants are not stressed, and check any new plant over before you bring it home or move it indoors, since aphids usually arrive on something else.
Aphids are small soft-bodied sap-suckers - green, black, gray, pink, or waxy white, and mostly wingless - that gather in dense colonies on the tenderest new growth: shoot tips, buds, and the undersides of young leaves. They breed extremely fast in mild weather, so a few can become hundreds inside a week. Their feeding curls and distorts soft growth, and the sticky honeydew they excrete coats everything below and turns black with sooty mold. Ants often farm and defend the colonies for that honeydew. A few aphids are normal on almost any plant and a healthy plant shrugs them off; only dense, persistent colonies do real damage, and some aphids also spread plant viruses as they feed.
Powdery MildewSeverity Low DiseaseUsually arrives on lentils only at the very end of the season, once the pods have filled and the plants are drying down anyway - in which case it is cosmetic and needs nothing.
A thickly sown, unstaked stand in still air is where it turns up first.
Round white powdery spots on the upper leaf surfaces that spread and merge until whole leaves look dusted. It usually starts on the oldest, lowest, most shaded leaves and works upward, so check there first. Look at the undersides too, and at stems, buds, and flower stalks, which get coated as it advances. Leaves that yellow, brown, curl, or go crisp and drop early under the coating. New growth that opens small, crumpled, or twisted where the fungus has reached the shoot tips. On plants where it gets onto the fruit, a dull gray film, russeted or scarred skin, and cracking. Late in the season, tiny dark specks scattered through the white felt - that is the fungus setting up to overwinter on the debris.
Start early: sprays protect healthy tissue, they do not clean up leaves that are already coated. Pick off and bin the worst leaves as soon as you see them, and open the plant up by thinning or pruning so air moves through. On anything that regrows quickly, shearing the whole plant back forces a clean flush and beats spraying. If it keeps spreading, potassium bicarbonate, horticultural oil, or neem applied weekly will hold it - cover both leaf surfaces. Sulfur also works, but it burns the foliage of some plants, should never go on in heat, and must not be mixed with or applied close behind an oil spray. Whatever you use must be labeled for the plant you are treating: follow that label and observe its pre-harvest interval on anything you eat. Do not compost badly infected material. Late-season mildew on a plant that is finishing anyway is usually cosmetic; on a crop still filling out it is worth acting on.
Give plants room. Crowding and still air are the biggest single driver, so space at the full recommended distance, thin seedlings properly, and divide or prune out congested growth until air moves through the plant. Full sun and an open position help; deep shade and a still corner against a wall are where it always starts. Water at the base rather than overhead, and water early in the day so nothing stays damp overnight. Keep plants evenly watered - drought stress at the roots leaves them far more susceptible, even though the fungus itself likes dry air. Go easy on nitrogen, since soft lush growth is the most vulnerable. Where resistant varieties exist for what you are growing, choosing one is the single most effective thing you can do on a plant that mildews every year. Clear infected leaves and stems away at the end of the season rather than composting them.
Powdery mildew is a fungal disease that coats leaves - and often stems, buds, and fruit - in a white-to-gray powder that looks like spilled talcum. It is not one fungus but a large family of them, each fairly specialised to its own group of plants, which is why mildew on one crop rarely jumps to an unrelated one beside it. Unlike most leaf diseases it does not need wet leaves: it thrives on warm dry days followed by humid nights, and it takes hold fastest where plants stand crowded in still air or in shade. The coating blocks light, so heavily covered leaves yellow, brown, and drop early. On many plants that is mostly disfiguring and arrives late enough not to matter; where it strips away the leaves a crop still needed to finish, it costs you size, sweetness, and quality.
Good & bad neighbors
Plant nearby
-
A thin nurse crop of oats gives the slender lentil plants something to lean on and keeps pods off the soil - the traditional answer to a lodging lentil stand.
-
The classic rotation partner rather than a bed-mate: lentils leave nitrogen and break the disease cycle for a following small grain, which is exactly why the Palouse alternates the two.
- Traditional pairings, thin evidence
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Shares the cool early-spring window and roots at a different depth; both like the same lean, well-drained bed.
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Fast radishes mark a slow-emerging lentil row and are out of the ground long before the lentils close in.
Keep apart
-
Not antagonism - a timing clash. Corn wants the bed warm and long, lentils want it cool and finished by midsummer; a tall neighbour also shades a crop that needs sun to dry down.
- Traditional pairings, thin evidence
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Long-standing garden lore; no controlled evidence that alliums affect legume growth or nodulation. Separate them if you like the tradition, but do not rearrange a bed over it.
Varieties · 8
You pick one when you add Lentil to your garden. Its days to maturity set your harvest window.
Red & yellow (masoor) lentils 2 varieties
Crimson
Small round seeds with khaki-brown skins over bright orange interiors.
red-lentilearlysmall-seededA small-seeded red lentil bred in the Pacific Northwest and one of the earliest lentils to finish, which makes it the practical choice for a short northern season or a hot southern one. The whole seed is brown-skinned; split and hulled it becomes the orange lentil of dal.
Red Chief
Round seeds with tan skins and salmon-orange interiors.
red-lentilearlyA widely grown red-cotyledon lentil, slightly larger-seeded than Crimson and similarly quick to mature. Cooks down to a thick, bright puree in about fifteen minutes - the workhorse for dal, thick soups, and anything you want smooth.
Brown & green field lentils 3 varieties
Pardina
Small, flat, warm-brown discs with a slight mottle.
brown-lentilspanishproductiveThe small Spanish brown lentil, and one of the most widely available lentil seeds in North America. Reliable, productive, and earthy in flavor, it cooks tender in about 25 minutes while still holding together better than a large green - a good default for a first lentil patch.
Richlea
Large, flat, pale khaki-green discs.
brown-lentillarge-seededA large-seeded Canadian green lentil grown widely across the northern Plains: bigger seeds than Pardina, mild flavor, and a good yield for the space. Softens readily, so it is a soup-and-stew lentil rather than a salad one.
French green (Puy-type) lentils 1 variety
French Green (Puy-type)
Small dark slate-green seeds marbled with blue-black.
french-greenshape-holdinggourmetThe dark, blue-flecked, peppery lentil sold as French green or lentille verte. It stays distinct and firm through 30 minutes of simmering, which is what makes it the salad lentil. Slower to finish than brown or red types, so sow it as early as the ground allows. Genuine Lentille Verte du Puy is a protected French appellation - seed sold elsewhere is the same lineage under a generic name.
Black beluga lentils 2 varieties
Beluga
Very small, round, shiny jet-black seeds.
belugashape-holdinggourmetThe tiny glossy black lentil named for its resemblance to caviar. It holds its shape and shine through cooking, has a rich, almost meaty flavor, and looks dramatic on a plate. The seeds are small, so a given row length yields less weight than a brown lentil - plant accordingly.
Black Beluga
Small, round, glossy black seeds.
belugashape-holdinggourmetThe same caviar lentil under its fuller market name, carried here so the packet you bought resolves. It grows and cooks identically to Beluga: glossy black, shape-holding, and quick enough at 25-30 minutes.
Grower tips
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