Lentil (Lens culinaris)

Month on the bottom, temperature up the side. The pale green background is what the plant can survive at all -- fatal above or below it, labelled directly on the chart where that applies to your zone. The coral band is its ideal range, and only fades in during the months this zone would actually have the crop in the ground -- reusing the exact same sowing/harvesting data as the calendar further down the page. The blue line is real monthly climate data (not a modelled estimate) for a representative rural/agricultural location in this zone -- a small farming town or agricultural research station rather than a major city, to avoid the warmer bias city weather stations have. For the actual verdict on how well this crop does in your zone, see the badge at the top of the page -- that's based on the site's own researched yield figures, not this chart.

1. Sow direct early in the season. Sow direct, and sow early -- lentil genuinely tolerates cool, frosty conditions while young, far more than most other legumes on this site.
2. Let the crop establish through cool, moist weather. Cool, moist conditions early on suit lentil well and its good drought tolerance takes over as the season warms and dries.
3. Watch for pods turning yellow. Per the crop database, harvest when pods turn yellow -- that colour change is the genuine signal the crop is ready, not a fixed date.
4. Pull plants once pods rattle. Pull whole plants once the pods are dry and rattle with the seed loose inside, rather than picking pods individually.
5. Thresh, dry further and store airtight. Thresh out the seed, spread it somewhere warm and airy for a final week of drying, then store in an airtight container.

Pick your zone under "Temperature Range by Month" above and this updates too. Lentil is viable in every zone on this site, including Boreal and Alpine where it's challenging rather than easy -- notice how much earlier its sowing window sits compared to most other legumes here.

Lentil is a genuine calorie staple when dried at 3,530 kcal per kg -- in the same league as wheat. Mediterranean gives the best yield here, and it's the only crop in this batch that's at least somewhat viable in all 8 zones.

Figures per plant sown, dried weight, from the site's own crop database. Maritime, Boreal and Alpine already reflect the 60% penalty applied to challenging zones.

Lentil varieties differ mainly in colour and whether they hold their shape when cooked. All the varieties below are open-pollinated (OP), meaning seed saved from them breeds true and is worth keeping under this site's seed-saving approach; none are F1 hybrids.

Lentil is mostly self-pollinating with very low crossing risk. The main skill is harvest timing -- pods ready when dry, tan and rattling.

Lentil is grown here specifically for dried storage -- whole plants are pulled once the pods are dry and rattle, then threshed and given a final week of airing indoors before going into an airtight container.

Stored this way in a cool, dry place, dried lentils keep for a genuinely long time -- years rather than months, the same storage league as wheat, oats and this site's other dried staples.

Genuinely one of the more trouble-free legumes on this site -- aphids are about the main pest worth watching for, and even they rarely cause serious damage.

Good weeding while plants are young matters more than pest control -- lentil's small stature means it's easily outcompeted by weeds early on, before its own canopy fills in.

Lentil fixes its own nitrogen via bacteria in root nodules, genuinely improving the soil for whatever's grown there next -- factor that into a wider rotation plan, not just a calorie one.