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Broad Bean Plant Description
Broad bean is a bushy, hardy annual that can grow from 3 to 4 feet tall. The plants have square stems with leaves divided into leaflets. The Pods are 6 to 8 inches long and contain 4 to 6 flat, oval white, yellow, green, or pinkish-red seeds. The broad bean has white flowers that are splotched with brown.
Botanical Name: Vicia faba.
Also called: Fava bean, horse bean, Windsor bean, butter bean, faba bean.
Hardiness Zone: 3 to 11, depending on varieties.
Harvest after about 150 days.
Size at Maturity: Between 2 and 5 feet tall.
Planting Dates: Mid-October - November/December
Harvest Dates: May - July.
Broad Beans Growing Conditions
- Broad beans grow best in a sunny location, sheltered from the wind.
- They will grow in most soils but prefer a soil pH of 6.0 to 6.8.
- Plant broad beans in loose, well-drained soil rich in organic matter.
Want to Read: How to Grow Broad Beans
Did you know that Broad beans "Fava beans" are one of the world’s most powerful nitrogen fixers?
What Does Nitrogen Fixing Mean?
Nitrogen fixation is the process by which nitrogen changes into an available and useful form source for the plant. Legume plants like broad beans draws nitrogen from the air and converts it into a form that can be stored in their roots, and this can be done with the help of nitrogen-fixing bacteria that live on their root nodules. While the plant is growing, it holds the converted nitrogen in its roots. But as soon as the plant dies, it’s released into the soil, this nitrogen will be used by other plants. Nitrogen is essential for plant growth, so nitrogen fixers are hugely helpful to farmers and gardeners alike.
Once the plants flower and produced beans, broad bean plants fix nitrogen on their roots for the benefit of themselves. First nitrogen goes into pod production, then the plant releases nitrogen into the soil as it dies back. This process naturally enriches the soil, and provide food and energy for the next crop of plants.
Why is Nitrogen Important for Plants?
All plants need nitrogen to grow successfully. They use it to manufacture amino acids, proteins, nucleic acids and other components necessary for life. Without nitrogen, they can’t survive, and because of its critical role in plant health and growth, gardeners often add nitrogen to the soil in the form of artificial fertilizer.
Is it worth leaving the roots of legumes, such as broad beans, in the soil to give nitrogen to the following crop?
Many legumes, such as peas, beans and some green manures, add nitrogen to the soil that will benefit the crops you plant nearby and in the same space the following year.
Not only broad beans enrich the soil, they also eliminate the need for artificial fertilizer, making them a hugely sustainable crop to grow!
Cover Crops
What are Cover Crops?
A cover crops are plants that moderates deterioration, improves soil health, throttles weeds, encourages biodiversity and add a variety of other benefits to our food growing spaces. During fall, a common practice by many gardeners is to plant cover crops to improve soil health, as the previous season’s plants exhaust the soil's good nutrients.
There are 3 main cover crops:
. Grasses
. Legumes
. Broadleaf Non-Legumes
Broad Beans As Cover Crops
Aside from growing broad beans for their rich and edible seeds, you can also grow them as cover crops for your garden. Broad Beans add nitrogen to the soil when it is growing. This type of legume are nitrogen fixers, and they improve soil quality by adding nitrogen to it, rather than taking away from it. After the plant starts to flower but before the beans begin to grow, cut the plants at the soil line to leave the nitrogen in the soil. Otherwise, the plant will use it. The nitrogen grows as small balls on the roots of the plant. By leaving broad bean roots in the soil while planting your next desired crop, this will ensure that your plants get the nutrients they need. Broad beans also enhance soil texture, stifle weeds, sustain microbials in the soil food location. So you must plant them early to get a great root structure and the plants will be mature enough to be tilled into the soil in early or mid-winter.
. To grow broad beans as cover crops, you should cut them immediately after they start to flower. Do not allow them to flower completely because flowering also consumes energy. But if you want their tasty beans, simply wait until the plants produce the pods before you cut them. Then cut them, and mix them into the soil.
. You should mix them with the soil immediately after cutting them so that you can trap as many nutrients as you can. Remember to cut them from their roots first before mixing them with the soil so that they do not grow back.
Tilling them is easy. All you need is a shovel.
. Bury the plants evenly and deep into the soil so that they are covered with at least 2 inches of soil. For best results, do this in early or mid-winter so that their nutrients can be used by your plants in early spring!
. To completely enrich your soil and be certain that the plants will decompose, add homemade compost or any organic fertilizer to the soil. I always add well aged composted chicken manure. This organic fertilizer does not just enrich the soil, but also provide some decomposing fungi that can speed up the decomposition of the broad beans. Next growing season, your soil should reach of nutrients and ready for planting, as much of the broad beans will have decomposed.
Watch How to Fertilize With Chicken Manure Video
The Benefits of Fava Bean as Cover Crops
. Provide extra Nitrogen to the soil and improve the soil structure.
. Can be used to practice crop rotation.
. Broad beans help to trap and release soil nutrients.
. Make a great addition to the compost pile.
. No needs for commercial fertilizers.
Want To Read More:
Broad beans have been cultivated for thousands of years and the reason for this is simple, they are very nutritious, they are easy to grow, and they have many uses in the garden, broad beans as a cover crop, have one of the highest nitrogen-fixing rates!
So why not growing broad beans either for their seeds or as cover crops?
If you have any tips for growing broad beans, we'd love to hear them - please share them in the comments below.
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