Fava Broad Beans are Starting to Grow and Form Little Beans

After all the blossom drop without a bean ever forming, we have our first Windsor Fava broad beans. It just took a few warm days and the pollinators finally made it out to the plants. At first the bees seemed more drawn to the weeds but my husband took care of that with the lawnmower. The flowers are lovely with white petals and black markings, strangely enough when the flowers are pollinated the stem on the flower thickens and straighten up so the beans actually point to the sky. The ants seem really drawn to the plants and flowers so they may be doing the actual pollinating, and it is a sparse pollination the plants are getting for every cluster of five flowers perhaps one is being pollinated.

I have seen one aphid on the fava broad bean plants and am keeping a close watch because aphids are supposed to be such a menace for the plants. Aphids suck on the tender parts of plants distorting the growth. The intermittent heavy rain every few days may be helping on the aphid front.

To make growing fava beans worthwhile half of the garden would probably have to be planted and overwintered with just broad beans.

To Till or Not To Till the Garden and Mow Down the Fava Beans

Silver green colors of Windsor fava broad bean.

Overwintered self sowed free range lettuces

The overwintered free range or self seeded lettuces were mowed down by my husband as their bed was covered in weeds preparing to flower so he wanted to catch them before they spread. The lettuces are coming back quickly with the warm weather. The overwintered fava beans have been enjoying the heat as well and are laden with blossoms but not a single bean has yet to form, admittedly there are very few pollinators about especially since the weeds were mowed down. But still the fava beans are over knee high and not a single pod has been born.

I am still debating whether or not to till the whole garden. Starting over is alluring and oddly seductive. There is the whole clean slate put your plants where you want them thing, but the fava beans are growing so well and it would be lovely to taste some for the first time. My husband says they are utterly delicious.

It has been very warm for such an early spring with temperatures around 86 degrees Fahrenheit (30 Celsius). I have been seduced by warm temperatures before and made the mistake of planting tender tomato, eggplant and peppers out early only to lose dozens of home raised seedlings. This was in an early April in the high mountain desert rather than the river country where I live now. Those lost seedlings were very large and well hardened off, it was a mistake I have learned from.

Big beautiful worms are living in the fava bean bed, I was pulling some weeds and managed to pull up a few lovely worms. Here's to a gigantic harvests of gorgeous vegetables.

Over Wintering Broad Windsor Fava Beans

Something is amiss. Some creature is nibbling on the fava bean plants.

More Broad Windsor fava bean damage by an unknown assailant.

Oh how lovely. The delicately veined thick succulent leaves.

Already branching out reaching for the sun.

The Broad Windsor fava beans are growing fairly quickly in the cool mild weather. In just two and a half weeks the plants are already branching out and forming multiple stems. They are such pretty plants with their thick leaves and delicate colors. Fava beans are supposed to get four to five feet tall and they say 10-20 plants per person should be enough to supply you with tender tips that can be eaten like spinach, young pods eaten like green beans, young beans can be quickly boiled for 3-5 minutes and eaten like spring peas, and the old beans can be dried and saved for winter soups and stews.

I'm hoping the broad beans were planted late enough to ensure flowering in early spring when insect pollinators are around. Otherwise I might have to resort to hand pollinating with a q-tip.

Broad Windsor Fava beans and Free Range Radishes

Broad Windsor fava bean sprout.

Two rows of fava beans.

Free range radishes of the Icicle and maybe Cherry Belle types.

Sprouting Sugar Snap peas.

The Windsor fava beans were planted out just a week ago and it looks like we had 100% germination of the two rows. Hopefully the 30 plants will over winter well and produce enough beans for two people in early spring. The leaves and tips of the plants are edible and are said to a spinach slight peppery flavor. The fava bean bed has free range radishes and lettuces that have reseeded themselves and are quickly sizing up in the cool weather of fall.

I am excited since this will be my first time growing fava beans and planting out crops for the fall.

The peas that were planted out 2 weeks ago have sparsely sprouted so I'm pre-sprouting the next batch of Sugar Snap peas before planting them.