The Fava is King!

[bower]

Question about leggy favas: should I plant them deep? or prop them up.
They were under lights that were raised too far and quickly got six inches tall with a sprout of leaves on top.
There are little 'hooks' all along the stem that are more slowly becoming lower leaves. Just wondered if they would root if I plant them deep.
The pots they are in are totally shallow, cell packs for some. I just sprouted them indoors because friends here had little to no survival when seeding direct.

[PlainJane]

Yikes, wish I could say I’ve deep planted favas but have only done tomatoes and to some extent eggplant.
I think I’d be inclined to plant as-is then pinch once they show new growth.
Keep us posted!

[bower]

They're outdoors now and got a real soaking overnight (as did the ground), so I'll be looking for next opportunity to plant them. I think the little stubs are fast becoming leaves so I won't do them deep, I'll rig up some lines to give them a little support until they get more of a root balance.
Thanks Jane!

[karstopography]

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Planted a patch of Windsor and Robin Hood Fava beans today. Hopefully, no abnormal cold this year and these can come through winter without cold damage.

[GoDawgs]

@PlainJane How much cold can favas take?

[bower]

Just wanted to comment about the favas I grew this summer. I tested them for drought tolerance - put them in as a rain fed crop cover and gave them no water. It was pretty dry, and they didn't do much in the heat, but they stuck it out and produced a few pods. They really took off though in the fall when it got cooler and I bet they could've gone late but I needed the bed for garlic. I was impressed that they could make it all season without any care. And they weren't well protected at all but the critters didn't touch em.
There are a couple of plants left in another bed and I'm not sure but probably completely dead as we had several nights at -5C.
That was a mix of home seed of Black Russian and Aquadulce Smeralda crossed into BR.

[karstopography]

@PlainJane How much cold can favas take?

Obviously not @PlainJane but I do have experience with fava beans in cold weather. 15° isn’t absolutely 100% lethal to windsor fava beans, but darn near close. The only fava beans that did survive 15° F were covered with freeze cloth and/or piles of leaves. Those that did survive were set back for a month or possibly longer.

I don’t know exactly where the do not cross line on temperature is with fava beans is, but it might be a combination of time, temperature and exposure to drying winds. A mild frost is inconsequential. Hours below 25° might require some active measures being taken to mitigate wind and time below freezing.

[PlainJane]

@karstopography I think you are right. Last year Jacksonville had a hard freeze, down to about 27 degrees at my house. I did cover the favas and they survived, but were slow to restart any significant growth.

[PlainJane]

One of this season’s experiments is this Cambridge Scarlet fava.
This is one of 2 red flowered varieties I put in this year.

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[karstopography]

Looks like all the Windsor and Robin Hood fava beans I planted November 18th are up and growing well. Nearly all if not 100% germinated. I acquired some Sweet Lorane Fava seeds recently and might stick in a few of those in before too long.

Between the Windsor and Robin Hood I have about seventy or seventy five individual plants planted in a block, all more or less 6-8 inches apart. These are as much ornamental as potential food. Something pretty and green and sort of tall for the cool season.

[karstopography]

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My fava are maybe a bit over 1’. They grow faster when the weather is above 65° or so. This upcoming week has temperatures getting into the low 70s, I expect a growth spurt.

[PlainJane]

I can’t wait for mine to start podding up.

[Hornad]

I planted fava and peas back in September, they are both growing nicely but something nibbled on the peas

[bower]

Yeah one takeaway from my vole infested summer is that favas are one crop not touched by the beast. Carrots was the other.
Peas grains and greens were high on the vole menu preference.

[GoDawgs]

Once again I've been tempted to try fava beans but after a lot of back and forth thinking, I've come to the conclusion that there's just no real good time slot to grow them here. If planted later in the fall to avoid the heat in September and early October, that leaves a short window until frost and cold spells pay occasional visits. Planting in spring late enough to avoid freezes doesn't leave much time before the heat comes back. So I think I'll leave the favas to you folks in Florida, southern Texas and the west coast !

[karstopography]

@GoDawgs Sweet Lorane is a smaller, dual use cover and food crop type of Fava bean that is supposed to handle temperatures down to 10°. I planted about 20 or so Sweet Lorane fava seeds. Sweet Lorane aren’t all that small dried, definitely bigger than pea sized, but quite a bit smaller than Windsor Broad Beans.

Zone 8a means 10-15° in the typical winter doesn’t it? Seems like a small bed of Sweet Lorane Fava could be worth a roll of the dice.

[GoDawgs]

@karstopography, every once in a great while we'll get down to the teens but usually the lows will be in the 20's when a big cold front comes through. Got one coming in tomorrow with four mornings with lows ranging from 24-29. On the new temp zone map we're now just inside 8b but nothing has really changed here.

Edited to add: That four cold mornings forecast has been changed to two, tomorrow and Thursday with less wind than expected. Good news. Less to cover today.

[karstopography]

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Windsor Fava evidently have the ability to bounce back from a night at 19° and the next at 20°.

They are blooming like crazy and look great. Robin Hood fava on the other hand are dead from the cold.

[Hornad]

Long pod fava from Hume Seeds didn’t survive a week of 15 degrees with no snow cover. Interestingly the tips stayed green after they thawed, so maybe they would have done better if they were shorter than 8 inches