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 43°F and 75°F. (Show °C/cm)
  • Space plants: 6 - 10 inches apart
  • Harvest in 12-22 weeks. Pick frequently to encourage more pods.
  • Compatible with (can grow beside): Dill, Potatoes

Your comments and tips

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11 Oct 13, Debbie (Australia - temperate climate)
We have had a fantastic crop of broad beans (our first year growing them) and wondered if anyone knows about drying them. You often see recipes for using dried fava beans but we are not sure how to go about this. We do have a food dehydrator but there is no mention of broad beans in the instructions.
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22 Oct 13, Andrew S (Australia - temperate climate)
G'day Debbie Best way we dried the beans was to either keep them in the pod on the plant and let them dry naturally as summer picked up , or place them on a drying rack in the shade on a hot day. Again we found the best ones were those that dried in pods. What you don't eat becomes next years crop. Going to try some in a plate drying this year.
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28 Sep 13, Craig (Australia - temperate climate)
My broad beans were planted from seed the end of march. I have used seasol + seasol vegetable concentrate once a week lightly watered in a watering can mix then a deep water. The flowers started in July and the plants are 200cm high. the beans started beginning September and are now in full bloom. be patient and topping the plants to avoid over-growth and limiting new bottom shoots will help stimulate the beans. water morning and evening for late bloomers. When the bees start to move on your in for a bumper crop.
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13 Sep 13, frank (Australia - cool/mountain climate)
My broad beans plants are being eaten from the upper stalk to middle of stalk including all flowers, leaves and baby pods. What is eating them???No parrots around yet !! or Possums ?? sending me crazy
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04 Sep 13, Larsy (Australia - temperate climate)
My broad beans appear to have rust spots appearing on the leaves. I want to save seed from these plants. Will the rust affect the next generation if the seed is saved?
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04 Sep 13, Lee Patterson (Australia - temperate climate)
I did ask a couple of times about my Broad Beans. They are now fruiting but I pulled all the Brussel Sprout plants as they did no good.
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28 Aug 13, Antonio (Australia - tropical climate)
My broad beans plants have plenty of flowers but after more than one week with flowers I can not see any pods. What is wrong with them? When should I see fruit pods?
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30 Aug 13, joe (Australia - temperate climate)
flowers may show for a month or more..don,t worry.the warm weather days will get them moving. also there is a only a few bees around im trying to get my basil and and lavender into flower. and hopfuly attract more bees.this may help also.
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21 Aug 13, Robin Scott (Australia - temperate climate)
Something that I have found useful with broad beans. Like many gardeners, we have a problem with cabbage white butterfly, and I found quite by accident that after they have finished their working day, they retire to the broad beans for the night. Had me puzzled as to why until I realized that their white wings with black spot are very similar to broad bean flowers. Just go in at dusk and pick them off!
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18 Aug 13, Lee Patterson (Australia - temperate climate)
My Broad Beans plants are quite high and have the flowers on them and plenty of BEES which I haven't seen in the garden for ages. I still have no fruit on them. Should I just leave them or pull them out. Also Brussel Sprouts with no fruit. Can anyone help. Thank you.
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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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