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     P P      

(Best months for growing Broad Beans in New Zealand - cool/mountain 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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25 Sep 12, Christine Visona (Australia - sub-tropical climate)
First time to grow broad beans, and pretty happy with it. I am now picking my mature ones. I rather like them both young and ripe but the ripe ones we deep fry and eat as nibbles. My question is how many pods can you expect from every stalk given good growing condition.
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30 Sep 12, bob (Australia - temperate climate)
Of course growing broad beans on southern coast of victoria where it is a rather cold winter is different from where you are. My beans are now 2 metres tall with many flowers but no pods yet; maybe 2 weeks. To answer your question maybe 20 pods per plant - numerous. Cant eat them all so we get the beans, blanch them and freeze them for eating over summer. Must be blanched before freezing
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29 Oct 12, Frans Littel (Australia - temperate climate)
I am in Perth WA and have been growing broadies for about 5 years and at the moment still have about 1.5kg of beans left from last year in our freezer , we have not had any luck with blanch the beans before freezing all we do shell the beans and freeze them when ready just cook them as if they just picked. Feel sorry for those who don't like broad beans. Frans
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19 Sep 12, marie. (Australia - temperate climate)
how do i know when the beans are ready to pick.They are 100mm long.
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30 Sep 12, bob (Australia - temperate climate)
mature pods grow to about 9 inches long with abt 8 beans per pod can start eating( pods and beans) when young, abt 4 inches long
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20 Sep 12, hz (Australia - cool/mountain climate)
Perfect for picking right now ! At this size they are nice in a stir-fry or steamed, when larger they need to be shelled and just the bean is used. I never let mine get big, except for the few rogues that I don't see till too late. Where I am, I won't get flowers for another month, and beans in November. Can't wait, I put twice as many in this year as they were so wonderful last year.
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17 Sep 12, harold dowling (Australia - temperate climate)
I would like to know if it is advisable to cut some of the stems off as there are sometimes 5-6 stems rising of one seed. It leads to a bit of overcrowding. The seeds were planted abt 60mm apart. Thanks
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30 Sep 12, bob (Australia - temperate climate)
Keep all the stalks growing; they all produce pods. Better a bit crowded as they stand together better in strong winds.
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09 Sep 12, Tracie (Australia - temperate climate)
My first time at broad beans - they started off well but got eaten by the white cabbage moth I believe - so they are quite damaged and I was about to dig them into the soil to plant tomatoes - but they have now shooted from the sides and formed new growth - should I leave them is there anyway they are still going to grow? They are only 20cm tall? Thx
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25 Aug 12, Andy (Australia - temperate climate)
My broad beans have plenty of flowers - but are not setting any seed - so no beans. Any ideas? Thanks Andy
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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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