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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10 Aug 09, Rosemary Anderson (Australia - cool/mountain climate)
Tall healthy BB plants with many flowers but none setting. Does anyone know the reason or remedy?
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08 Aug 09, Teash (Australia - temperate climate)
After my harvest of broad beans last year, we took them all out of the garden and placed them on a composting pile, you guessed it in about 2 months I have BB everywhere, so I have just let them go, I have had BB over the winter, not a lot but enough for 1 decent feed per week. My advice to all you BB lovers, if you get lots of ants, give them a good spray with some soapy water, you may need to do this weekly if you have the time. If you see lots of bees around your flowers you will have lots of BB. Last year I just placed a rope around the bottom of mine and one around midway up to try and keep them together. One can never have enough broadbeans, blanch them quickly and freeze them if you have to many, mine generally dont last that long. Hope I have helped you in some way.
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08 Aug 09, Ian Purdie (Australia - temperate climate)
My Italian neighbour came up from Sydney four days ago and inspected my BB's. "What's the problem? I see no problem. Don't worry about ants. Already you have good pods" Where? Yep there were some small pods which in four days since have grown four fold and now stand right out. He went on to say that it was the cooler weather [for here] which had held them back. "When they get to 1.5 metres you will have more than you know what to do with". Thanks all.
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06 Aug 09, Marion English (Australia - temperate climate)
Emma I have finally got pods coming out looks like being a good crop my plants would only be about 2ft tall but very bushy and yes the tops are delicious also planted fairly close together
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06 Aug 09, Teena (Australia - temperate climate)
Hi. I have a beautiful tall (1.5M) BB plant and many other small ones which were planted much later. ALL of the plants have ants around the new growth. There doesn't seem to be any other insect around at all. Do I need to do anything? And, flowers are dropping off the big one but I can see any beans forming. Is this normal? PS. I am a very new gardener. Teena
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28 Jul 09, New farmer (Australia - cool/mountain climate)
I have 2 locations in my backyard to grow the broad beans, but the result is totally different, one area the beans grow very well, but the other place, there are no leaf left, all gone, I don't know why?
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27 Jul 09, Ian C. Purdie (Australia - temperate climate)
I've had my broad beans in for quite awhile now. Central Coast NSW and flowering vigorously but lower, earlier ones dropping off. No budding pods. Today I noticed ants quite active but I can see no evidence of aphids? Grew BB previously in Sydney no trouble.
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25 Jul 09, Marilyn (Australia - cool/mountain climate)
Beans in flower and plants are 5ft tall. Flowers are just starting - when can we expect the setting to commence?
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25 Jul 09, Barb (Australia - sub-tropical climate)
Previous years I've harvested broad beans around October, so it's still very early. This year I was late getting them in, so they're still small, not yet flowering. Watch out for any ants - usually means they're farming aphids feeding on the tops of your broadbeans. Last year I put vaseline around each of the the broad bean stalks which stopped the ants, and the broad beans didn't seem to mind.
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24 Jul 09, rex (Australia - sub-tropical climate)
do you prop bean plants up between two wires or rope please
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Showing 301 - 310 of 344 comments
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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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