Legumes
Broad bean
Vicia faba
Timings for your region
Suggested: Moderate · Explained in the glossary
Sow outdoorsmid February – early April
Harvestearly June – late July
Practical tip
The first thing into the bed — as soon as the soil can be worked. Pinching out the tips once the first pods set keeps blackfly down.
Origin & history
The broad bean is the only bean Europe knew before Columbus and was long simply “the bean” in Europe — grown since the Neolithic, a staple in the Middle Ages, later displaced by the potato and the American common bean. No wild form is known to this day; the species exists only in cultivation. In Erfurt it even became the nickname of the locals, who are still called “Puffbohnen”.
Varieties
For the garden, large-seeded long-podded varieties with five to seven beans per pod are the ones worth having; the small-seeded field beans sold by agricultural merchants are fodder and green-manure stock. There are explicitly hardy varieties: sown in November they are ready some two to three weeks earlier than a spring sowing. Broad beans are open-pollinated but bumblebees do cross them — grow only one variety if you want seed true to type.
Care
The thick, hollow stems snap easily in wind and rain: either earth them up or run a string along both sides of the row on canes before the plants are knee-high. No feeding — the plant supplies itself through root nodule bacteria. What matters is even moisture from the start of flowering; if the soil dries out while they are in flower, the blossom drops and hardly any pods set.
What can go wrong
Mice often take the swollen seed out of a spring-sown row completely; if you want to be sure, raise the plants in pots and set out ready-grown seedlings. In warm damp weather and crowded stands, brown, sharply defined chocolate spots appear on leaves and stems — wide spacing, airy rows running with the wind and removing affected leaves keep it in check. Bean rust with its rust-brown pustules usually only arrives in high summer, which is why an early sowing is simply finished before then; after that, leave four years before broad beans return to the bed.
Harvest, storage & kitchen
Pick from the bottom of the plant upwards as soon as the beans show clearly through the pod but the scar on the seed is still pale — once it turns black the beans have gone mealy. Young beans are eaten with their skins; larger ones are worth double-podding: boil briefly, cool in cold water, then slip off the tough skin. Surplus freezes well after blanching, and fully mature beans can be dried right through for the store cupboard.
All timings are guide values for the given climate, not a guarantee. Weather, aspect and variety all have a say.