Crops & Breeds › Vegetable Garden
🫘 Fava Beans
Vegetable Garden · growing reference
| Days to maturity | 85 days – 100 days, by type |
|---|---|
| Germination | 12 days |
| Direct sowing | +5 days vs transplants |
| Spacing | 6″ in the row × 18″ between rows |
| Planted as | seed |
| Water | ~1–1.5 in a week |
When to plant
In USDA zone 6, for example: Plant around Mar 18 — as soon as the ground can be worked.
| Spring | |
|---|---|
| Zone 3 | Apr 17 |
| Zone 4 | Apr 9 |
| Zone 5 | Mar 29 |
| Zone 6 | Mar 18 |
| Zone 7 | Mar 4 |
| Zone 8 | Feb 15 |
| Zone 9 | Jan 23 |
Dates are the typical window for each zone's average frost dates — your own last frost can differ by a couple of weeks. Zone 10 and warmer is effectively frost-free: plant to the season, not the frost. Southern Hemisphere: shift six months.
Fava Types
- Broad · 85 days · 0.5–1 lbs/plant — Big flat pods for shelling — the eating fava (Windsor types). Also called broad beans.
- Field · 100 days · 0.2–0.4 lbs/plant — Small-seeded tic beans — livestock feed and cover-crop ground.
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