Healthy soil and sustainable growing

[Dieter Brand <diebrand@yahoo.com>]

Here in Portugal fava beans are ideal for the winter. But we have relatively

mild winters with only some occasional night time frost. They germinate at

low temperatures and don't mind a little frost. What I find most interesting

though, is that they will produce more biomass during the winter months than

any other winter annual. Most other winter annuals, even when sown in the

autumn, will not grow very much before the weather gets warmer in spring.

If I sow them in the autumn, I can cut them in March or April for transplanting

a summer annual into, or wait till May or June for harvesting the beans for

eating or for next year's seeds.

 

The other advantage is that you don't need to plough prior to sowing. They

will grow through an existing stand of grass or weeds. I usually plant them

between the summer vegetables a couple of weeks before harvesting the

last of these. They will then grow through what remains of the summer

vegetables. The seeds need to be covered though, or else they will be eaten

by worms and other small animals. I usually make a hole with a stick

throw in a bean and close with my foot. Ideally, I would like some sort of

hand-driven planting device, because planting a larger area can be

hard on the back.

 

Another specificity of favas is that the N fixed by the root bacteria

does not diminish after flowering as with other legumes, hence you can

cut them after flowering and still take full advantage of the fixed N.

 

Weed suppression is not bad if you plant closely, but not as good

as with a mixture of rye and vetch for example.

 

Dieter Brand

Portugal

 

Phil Bunch <pbunch@cox.net> wrote:

Bobby G mentioned using fava beans as a cover crop. I also am interested in this plant due to its adaptation to constantly cool conditions. The following is a link to information on favas:

 

http://extension.oregonstate.edu/catalog/html/em/em8697/

 

Some interesting characteristics:

·         Wide ph tolerance

·         140 lbs/acre nitrogen accumulation (this is affected by pH),

·         3.5 tons/acre of dry matter accumulation.

 

Phil Bunch

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