Plant fava beans now?

[heidihi]

I was told to go ahead and put my fava beans in now to grow them next summer?

really?

in my climate? (temporate, maritime, high to low 40's for most of the winter but maybe a week or so total of scattered days of frost ..gray ..rainy ..wet)

I have enough to try some and see how it goes but does anyone else plant broad beans or runner beans in the fall?

I will plant them with the garlic I think since it is all tilled and planted anyway!

[raymondo]

If your winter temps never get below about 25°F and the ground doesn't freeze, go ahead and plant fall favas. You'll get a nice early spring crop.

[paquebot]

One year I must have dropped a few when harvesting in the fall since there were several volunteers the following spring. You're probably Zone 8 out there so should be no problem for them to survive.

Martin

[heidihi]

ok I will put some in today then thank you!
I will also put some scarlet runners in
I am in zone 8-9 it varies where you look to be honest I say 8 is a "safe" assumption
I am always stunned at what will winter over and reseed here! just about anything actually! even tomatoes but they only come up in the compost heap ..everything else is really too cold

[robertb]

If I was going to plant them before winter I'd have done it around October, giving them time to come up and overwinter as small plants. I've had several failures due to waterlogging, and between that and the big freeze last winter, I'm now planting in early spring and cropping a bit later. If you're going to do it, use one of the tougher varieties; Aquadulce Claudia is a good one.

[atash]

Heidihi, I too tend to think of September through maybe November (pushing it) as being the times to fall-plant Favas (aka "broad-beans").

Raymondo's and Paquebot also have a point about possibility. They might make it, or just "lay low" until it warms up enough to actively grow. They're pretty tough.

I suggest holding off until late February this year, because we have already had some brutal cold. My minimax thermometer already hit 20F and according to the news some parts of the area hit the teens.

Whether that would kill a Fava or not depends on the variety. Most Favas are hardy to about 20F, some are hardy to about 15F, and at least one, Banner, takes down to 10F.

Sea-tac hit 0F in 1955. Right now we are having the most severe La Nina event since then. For some reason Sea-Tac can get a bit chilly despite being not all that far from Puget Sound; downtown Seattle bottomed out at around 9F. I dunno if we will see temps that low this year but the possibility exists. If it does get that cold, our landscaping is going to look different in the Spring. Some of our native plants are killed at temperatures that low! (and in fact that happened in 1955, when Salal was killed in Whatcom County).

As for varieties, I do suggest trying Banner. It's from the UK where it is used as...ha ha...a winter cover crop fancy that...but the beans are perfectly edible and in fact, more bean-like than a lot of other European varieties--they are more like Egyptian Favas (known in Arabic as "Foule"). Most European (and Chinese--the Chinese eat them too) Favas tend to have unnaturally broad but thin beans, tough skins, and a rather Lima-bean like flavor. I prefer the more bean-like qualities of the ancestral Fava. They work great served cooked but cold and marinated in salads, or you could make falafil out of them. Contrary to what most Americans have been lead to believe, although it spread throughout the Ottoman Empire a long time ago and is now a ubiquitous fast-food, Falafil is Egyptian in origin, traditionally made by Copts for Lent, and it is made out of Fava Beans not Chickpeas.

Which brings up an important point: the reason Falafil in the USA is made from Chickpeas instead of from Favas as per the original Egyptian recipe, is because some fraction of the population is vulnerable to a condition known as "favism". There is a chemical in Fava beans that will rip your hemoglobin apart. Most people are immune to it because we break down that chemical before it hits our bloodstream. Some people lack some enzyme needed to do that.

The people who are vulnerable to Fava beans tend to have ancestry from the Mediterranean basin--ironically exactly the part of the world where Favas originate and remain a staple in some countries!

If you've never eaten them before, try eating just a few while you're with someone who can rush you to the emergency room if a problem happens. Not a joke.

I ate plenty before I knew about the condition. It's not particularly common, the problem is the severity. It can kill people.

[atash]

BTW, you fall-plant only Fava beans. In some parts of the world, Chickpeas but I think we're a little too cold for that (though I would love to get hold of some Iranian Chickpeas selected for winter cold-hardiness).

Runner beans are perennial but not that cold-hardy, and they aren't wintergreen anyway. Traditionally you plant them indoors in April in something like a peat or coir pot, and plant the whole thing out when soil temperatures are high enough, around late May or early June.

Whether they survive subsequent winters (dormant) depends on the winter, and maybe your soil (light and sandy better for survival; they don't like cold wet soil).

Scarlet Runners are grown mostly because they're pretty, the beans are a little "meatier" than those of the common or what some people call "French" beans, and they are more tolerant of cool summers. Being perennial they continue bearing a long time if the weather holds out. Oh, and some people love the dry beans, which are similar to those of common beans but bigger and rather attractive, being mottled and very glossy.

They also have another peculiarity: unlike common beans they do not self-pollinate. So you lose unpollinated blossoms. The good news is they usually have lots to spare, and the blossoms attract their primary pollinators (in the New World anyway), Hummingbirds.

[heidihi]

thanks Atash for all that great info!

I planted some yesterday ...I have plenty of seed and figured what the heck if I get a small crop early it will be worth it ..I did not plant any runner beans but some might take seed themselves the vines that fell and were not pulled out I just pulled out and buried in the box ...either they will rot or they will grow! that box is going to be rededicated to other vegetables this year