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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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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03 Jul 23, Celeste Archer (Canada - Zone 5a Temperate Warm Summer climate)
Let's start with the germination temperature: 7c to 18c is the ideal germination temperature for FB, further the temperature needs to be sustained (over 5 or more days). So it needs to be warmish for the seeds to germinate. They will however happily reside in the soil until those temperatures are met (within reason- excess moisture causing rot etc.). The growing temperature for fava beans is between 4c and 24c. The kill temperature is -4c to -10c depending on the variety. What happens between the kill temperature and the grow temperature is a "waiting/holding" time (the plant is alive, but is sort of in limbo until the temperature is good enough again to grow). Above 24c the plant is starting to experience heat related symptoms and again is just holding on (unless the temps get to hot and kill the plant). You need to think about temperatures - what temps do you expect over the next month ? Based on the temperatures, do you think you seeds will germinate ? Then think about the grow temperatures -- if the seeds sprout will they be able to grow ? Generally if you want to grow fava beans in winter you plant them in late summer - so they germinate and grow enough BEFORE the cold weather -- during the cold weather (provided your are does not get too cold) the beans will be able to stay alive and grow a slight bit -- so you can harvest greens during winter and some beans -- then spring comes and the fava plants put forth LOTS of beans and then die. That is to say, the fava bean plant does not grow very much in cold weather and I find that typical of most plants that I want to over winter. They need to have a head start in decent weather and then they kind of SLOWLY inch their way to the finish line. Over wintering is a means of keeping the produce fresh - think of it this way - if you had produce in the fridge it is no longer growing, in fact it is in the process of dying, losing valuable nutrients daily. If you have a plant in the winter ground (that can handle overwintering), it is alive, GROWING REALLY REALLY slow, but it is alive and NOT losing nutrients. I guess what I'm trying to say is, super performance is generally not required, or expected, we are just looking to hold nutrients when we over winter. Clearly some plants are better for overwinter than others - in my area FAVA BEANS are a good choice.
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28 Feb 23, Cam Eckersley-Brinich (USA - Zone 9b climate)
I'm requesting favorite recipes using broad (fava) beans, as they are rarely offered in the produce section, and I'm not a fan of canned veggies of any kind...Thank you!
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03 Mar 23, Celeste Archer (Canada - Zone 5a Temperate Warm Summer climate)
The nice thing about fava beans is you don't have to cook them -- and you don't have to shell them (if they are still young -- they are young enough to eat whole UP TO THE point where they have plumped up fully and the pod is NOT YET fibrous -- once the pods are fibrous the pods need to be discarded (keep the beans) because the fibrous pods are too difficult to digest and will cause lots of discomfort). OK -- so I use my young pods raw (entire pod -- and some leaves and stalk) to make a pesto. I use this pesto as a dip. I also chop up the full pod and use them in stews (Garnish with some leaves). I use the leaves and some stalk (chopped up) when I make scrabbled eggs -- adding the fava once the scrambled eggs are about 15 seconds from done -- in other words just incorporating them into the scrambled eggs and then removing from the pan. If your unsure about what I mean when I say fibrous -- if you where to put the full pod in a blender/chopper -- after you chop, look at the mixture -- if the pods where too fibrous you will see "MESH" yes "MESH" -- looks like pieces of wire mesh -- pick these out and discard these. I NEVER DOUBLE SHELL -- the beans are always good -- but may need to be softened up like any dried bean needs to be.
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23 Sep 22, Evelina Lynch (USA - Zone 7b climate)
When can I start beans zone 7b
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26 Sep 22, Anonymous (USA - Zone 5a climate)
Go to Broad beans, set your climate zone to USA 7B and it it all there when to plant in the calander guide.
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29 Aug 22, Kimberly Johnson (USA - Zone 9a climate)
I want to grow beans for planting in October. What is the best beans to grow?
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04 Sep 22, (USA - Zone 9a climate)
Any probably will do. It is about planting at the right time - try a few and then you may prefer one to the others.
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Showing 11 - 20 of 344 comments
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Update: May 11: My fava flowers are turning into beans; already a couple of dozen beans with many of the other flowers on route to becoming beans. I overwintered this crop; starting in August and expect to have full bean production in June. Here is what I found when I overwintered; the plants had more time to grow; and therefore are larger and have a more profuse flowering. I am expecting more beans. The overwinter process did take 10 months from planting seeds to getting beans, however I didn't consider this a real estate hog because I'm hard pressed to think of any crop I would have planted over winter in that space that would have done better. Additionally, I planted favas in spring of this year (April'ish) and am expecting beans in July/August. That is to say the overwinter took longer (10 months), but clearly I am getting more beans earlier in the year (about 6 weeks earlier- it probably would have been sooner if the location was better). I did also enjoy some of the overwinter fava bean leaves as soup garnish so that was also a big plus. Additionally, there were small amounts of beans here and there through out the winter. I suspect there would have been more had the location been in sun, or part shade (the over wintering location gets several hours of sun but a lot of light is reflected on them). I am pleased with the overwintered favas and will over winter again. Our nighttime temperatures in winter hit about -6c but this was only for several nights. Mainly nighttime temperatures here are closer to -2c. After a nighttime temp of -6c (it was a little colder but not much) I covered one patch of favas for several nights (cold spell), and I did not cover the other smaller patch (which is in a windier location). Both patches survived, both are producing - I did have to remove about a third of the plants that where not covered due to wind/cold damage but they rebounded back just fine. My research tells me that favas have a kill temperature of anywhere from -5c to -10c depending on variety.... also if the temperatures dips that low for 1 hour, your probably fine; it has to sustain the temperature (5 or 6 hours) to actually kill the plant (soil temp also comes into play). Again, both patches where fully exposed during the first cold night, but then I managed to cover one of the two patches and the covered patch did fair much better (excluding tarp damage due to poor construction). Both patches survived and are now thriving and producing beans. So getting around to my answer for the original question: how long until you get beans; it's really a matter of how long until all the "setting pods" criteria are met: 1. ample water while flowering - favas need a lot of water to set pods; so once you see flowers; up the watering 2. temperatures (somewhere between 5c and 23c with 17c being about perfect for pod formation) 3. light: about 6 hours of good sunlight and REFLECTION counts in this case - some plants absolutely need direct sunlight, some plants are fine with reflected light or very bright shade. Your shortest number of days for bean production will be about 80days. To get beans in 80 days figure out what months you expect the conditions to meet the above three criteria and count back to figure out your planting date (allow about 10 days for germination) - that is 80 days to beans DOES not include germination time the 80 days is from seedling to beans. Your longest number of days for bean production (provided your area can meet the pod setting criteria) will not exceed a year (under normal conditions) with 10 months being the most reasonable longest number of days. You should remember, that the fava leaves are a very nice green and I certainly reached for them over the winter more than once. All above ground parts (so not the roots - but the stem, branches, leaves, flowers and beans) are edible. Of course G6PD can be an issue and people with G6PD should clear up their problem (increased iron intake via natural sources - cast iron cookware, cocoa etc. - and it could take 6 months) before considering consuming fava (leaves, flowers, beans). Also, G6PD'ers need to really really avoid eating any green part of a tomato plant (small leaf by accident, or part of the stem attached to a tomato). Best of luck.

- Celeste Archer

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