A cold-tough, upright bean that germinates in chilly spring soil and delivers plump green seeds before summer heat arrives.
Vicia faba · also called Broad bean, Faba bean
Windows are counted from the average date of your last spring frost.
It fills the early-season gap when little else is producing, and its roots partner with soil bacteria to bank nitrogen that benefits the following season's crops. Young shoot tips and flowers are edible as well.
A little history. Among the oldest cultivated legumes of the Near East and Mediterranean. Small nectar glands at the leaf joints, outside the flowers, feed ants and beneficial insects through the season.
Sow seeds 2 inches (51 mm) deep, and aim for 6 inches (15 cm) between plants once thinned. Sow 2 inches deep, water once well, then keep soil damp but never soggy — seeds rot in cold, waterlogged ground. Seedlings emerge in 7–14 days.
Water deeply once a week from first flower through pod fill. Water when the top inch of soil feels dry. Aim for about 1 inch per week including rain.
Feed at planting only; add nothing more unless leaves go pale. What to use: compost worked into the bed; a low-nitrogen 3–5-5 if soil is poor.
Once the lowest pods start to fill, pinch out the top 3–4 inches of each stem. This removes the soft tips aphids prefer and pushes energy into the pods. Cook the tips like spinach.
It's ready when for green shelling, pods are plump, glossy, and 6–8 inches long, with seeds you can feel as distinct bumps. For dry beans, pods turn black and rattle. Grip the stem with one hand and snap or twist each pod downward with the other; pods hold tight and pulling straight out can uproot the plant. Start at the bottom of the stem and work up over several weeks.
Unshelled pods keep 5–7 days in the refrigerator. Shell just before cooking. Dry beans store a year in a sealed jar kept cool and dark.
Sow a second batch 2–3 weeks after the first for a longer green harvest, but stop once daytime highs approach 75 °F (24 °C).
In mild-winter areas, fall-sown plants overwinter as 4–6 inch seedlings and resume growth in late winter for a harvest 3–4 weeks earlier than spring sowings.
Artichoke
Fava roots bank nitrogen with the help of soil bacteria, and most of it becomes available as those roots break down — useful for a hungry, long-lived artichoke planting. Sow favas in the open ground between young artichokes and cut the spent plants off at soil level so the roots stay put.
Oca
Favas finish in early summer, just as oca's tuber-forming stretch begins, and the nitrogen banked in their roots is released into the bed as those roots decay. Clear the fava tops and let oca spread into the space.
Mashua
Mashua climbs and bulks up late in the year, so an early fava crop in the same bed uses the cool months and leaves nitrogen-rich root residue behind as it breaks down. Cut favas at the ground rather than digging them out.
Gooseberry
Fava flowers open early and are heavily worked by bumblebees, which also visit gooseberry blossom in the same weeks — helpful in a cool spring when few other flowers are open. Their roots also leave nitrogen behind for the bush as they decay.
Spinach
A row of tall favas casts light shade on the south side that can hold spinach in leaf a little longer before it shifts to flowering. Sow spinach about 12 inches out from the fava row so it still gets morning sun.
Phacelia
Phacelia flowers draw in hoverflies, lacewings, and tiny parasitic wasps, whose larvae feed on the black aphids that colonize fava shoot tips. Sow a short strip at the end of the fava row so it blooms as the beans begin to flower.
Potato
Favas root deep and straight down while potatoes work the top foot of soil, so the two draw on different layers rather than competing. Keep 18 inches between rows so you can hill potatoes without disturbing fava stems.
Fennel
Fennel roots release compounds that reliably stunt most garden vegetables, favas included. Grow it in its own corner or a separate pot well away from the bean rows — planted apart, its flowers are still valuable food for hoverflies and tiny parasitic wasps.
Onion
Old companion charts have long kept beans and the onion family apart, and no mechanism has been demonstrated. If your bed is small, treat this as optional advice rather than a rule.
Garlic
Gardeners have long separated garlic from beans, though trials have not confirmed any effect. Both are grown over the same cool months, so if you do interplant, watch only for competition for water and light.
Give the pea and bean family 2 years away from this spot before any of its relatives return.
The cabbage family, the beet family or grasses and grains thrive in this ground next season.
A giver: its roots bank nitrogen that is released as they break down, so cut plants at soil level and leave the roots. Follow with cabbage-family crops, beets or chard, or a grain. Keep peas and beans out of this bed for 2 years.
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