Growing Broad Beans, also Fava bean

Vicia faba : Fabaceae / the pea or legume family

Jan F M A M J J A S O N Dec
              P P      

(Best months for growing Broad Beans in USA - Zone 5a regions)

  • P = Sow seed
  • Easy to grow. Sow in garden. Sow seed at a depth approximately three times the diameter of the seed. Best planted at soil temperatures between 6°C and 24°C. (Show °F/in)
  • Space plants: 15 - 25 cm apart
  • Harvest in 12-22 weeks. Pick frequently to encourage more pods.
  • Compatible with (can grow beside): Dill, Potatoes
  • Broad bean flowering
  • Egyptian broad beans
  • Shelling broad beans
  • Young beans on plant
  • Young broad bean plant

It is a rigid, erect plant 0.5 - 1.7 m tall, with stout stems with a square cross-section. The leaves are 10 - 25 cm long, pinnate with 2 - 7 leaflets, and of a distinct glaucous grey-green color. Harvest 90 - 160 days depending on how cold the weather is.

In windy areas it is best to provide some support with posts and string, otherwise the plants will fall across each other. Pick the tops out once beans start setting to prevent blackfly.

Culinary hints - cooking and eating Broad Beans

The fresh beans are eaten steamed or boiled. As the beans mature it is better to remove their tough outer skins after cooking.
The leafy top shoots of the adult plants can be picked and steamed after flowering.
Small beans can be eaten whole in the pods.
Broad beans will freeze well. Remove from pods and blanch.

Your comments and tips

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13 Aug 24, Tom Berghella (Australia - temperate climate)
I am having troubles with my broad beans. They all have curly leave and stopped growing. What can I do?
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15 Aug 24, Celeste Archer (Canada - Zone 7b Mild Temperate climate)
Curled leaves are usually a sign of distress. There are lots of things that could be distressing the plant -- so you need to provide more information, or figure out what is stressing the plant, then address the issue causing the stress. Is there any white powder (powdery mild) om the leaves? This might be a moisture issue. Or, are there aphids on your plant (little bugs sapping the nutrition from your broad beans) ? Could you be overwatering or underwatering ? Any chance of a nutritional deficiency (potassium, nitrogen, molybdenum, magnesium) ? Are there any climate issues (like wildfires create a lot of smog - that can stress plants). Is it perhaps too hot in your area: from the net: Like peas, favas grow best when temperatures are 60˚ to 65˚F (15c - 18c) and soil is moist. Temperatures much over 80˚F (27c) result in loss of quality, reduced production, and pest problems.
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21 May 24, Phil Knight (Australia - temperate climate)
I have 10+ year old seed stock. Last season all 10 seeds failed to germinate. This season I am attempting to germinate inside until emerging in controlled environment. I soaked 24 hours and then placed seeds on damp paper towel in ziplock bag. I am concerned about mold appearing on seed. I cleaned off mold and sprayed with diluted hydrogen peroxide. Seeking advice. Thanks in advance
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28 May 24, (Australia - sub-tropical climate)
Seeds are probably useless after 10 years. For beans germinate rate decreases after 3 years.
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17 May 24, Peter (Australia - temperate climate)
Central Coast NSW. Broad Beans. I have had a pretty good strike rate with my Broad Beans, as they grew they were toppling over. I used Bamboo Stakes to hold them up. They are now about 3 ft tall at the end of my stakes and still growing vigourisly. I really dont want to use Tomato Stakes, What shall I do. Thanks in Advance
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21 May 24, (Australia - temperate climate)
Sounds like you have a choice - use tomato stakes or just let them fall over.
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25 May 24, Peter (Australia - temperate climate)
Yes, I think you are right anyhow, I have plenty of Tomato Stakes, will just get em out and go for it. Thanks for the Reply. Cheers. Pete.
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20 Jul 23, Joseph (Australia - sub-tropical climate)
1. Our Broad beans are having plenty of flowers for one month, however, not forming the pods. 2. Plants are having branches and too many leaves, whether it requires pruning? 3. Is the leaves edible? raw or by cooking?
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21 Jul 23, Celeste Archer (Canada - Zone 5a Temperate Warm Summer climate)
A few things : 1. Do not DEAD HEAD the flowers - the flowers will turn black and wither, and will look ugly, BUT the bean STARTS forming at the base of the dead flower - if you remove the dead flower you might pull off the start of the bean. 2. Everywhere you have a flower, you should get a bean (or two), the beans usually start coming in from the bottom of the plant upward. 3. All parts of the fava bean plant (from the ground up) are edible - flowers, stalk, leaves -- I use the leaves and stalk as my greens in scrambled eggs (once the eggs are pretty much done, just add the fava bean greens in the last 10 seconds, incorporating/folding in and removing from the heat). The first time you try this, it may not be that great, but after 3 times it is rather nice and you might miss them if you don't add them to your eggs. The greens also make a great pesto and can garnish a soup. I have never pruned my fava beans.... but since I do take branches for use in cooking... perhaps I have never let my plants get out of control enough to need to prune them ?????
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02 Jul 23, Simone (Australia - cool/mountain climate)
I planted seeds a couple of weeks ago but no sign of germination. We are getting frosts most mornings in the upper Blue Mountains NSW. Am I too late? I heard they grow better from seed or should I try to germinate inside first?
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Update June 01, 2021 - I have lots and lots of fava beans - and am continuing to get more and more. It looks like it will take until the end of the month to bring them all in. So these beans will take about 320 days from planting to full harvest. The haul was great and I am pleased with the overwintering process - very pleased. The beans that I planted in spring are still a ways off from producing beans -- the plants are also much smaller, and I doubt they will put forth as many beans as the favas that were overwintered. The overwintered favas are a mess, with the tarp damage and some favas rocketing up to what looks to be 9 feet, reaching for the sun (they are in a shady location) - but I am pleased. If I had only grown the spring planted favas, I might have given up on favas all together...... but overwintering seems to be the key here in Victoria, British Columbia for a really good crop of beans...... and I would even grow these in the winter for the greens -- they take a bit of getting use to (as did spinach for me when I was a child) -- but once you get use to the greens they are great. The greens taste like fava beans, and not like any other green. I have a few corrections from my first few posts: 1. when I said I lost 1/3 of the plants that were not covered during the really cold week --- it should have said I lost a third of each plant that was not tarped: so if the plant was 9 feet, I had to cut it back to 6feet. The number of plants actually lost was zero. While I only lost a portion of SOME of the tarped plants and when there was a loss it was about 10% of the plant. Also the plants not covered where in a much windier location (think one step and your off a 12 foot drop and in the Pacific Ocean--so lots of wind) -- the plants that were covered where a couple of meters away from the drop off, and there is noticeably less wind there. So whether or not the tarp really makes a difference here is still debatable; the difference may have been wind chill. 2. when I said I used the fava bean leaves as a garnish in my soups over the winter; it was really more akin to a side salad on top of my soup -- big handful of leaves -- sometime harvested based on a branch breaking due to wind. Stems were ground into pesto. Again, I'm very pleased with overwintering my favas; and expect that in the future I will only overwinter rather than spring plant. Winters here are RAINY with lows at about -2 (and extreme lows as cold as -6 last winter), it is also overcast here during the winter with very few sun breaks.... luckily I get a lot of reflection off the water when the sun does peak through. I grew 4 varieties of fava; including the extra early violets; all performed well; the violets are the prettiest if you take them to the dried pod stage; they all taste about the same.

- FaithCeleste Archer

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