Fava beans as a living trellis

[UnicornEmily]

Hey, has anyone ever used fava beans as a living trellis?

I'm looking at their big ol', thick, tall stalks that need no support, and I'm looking at my peas, which are equally cold hardy, and I'm thinking . . . "Can I get away with it?!"

It would be super convenient to not need to put in trellises for my peas.

[William Schlegel]

I got some pea seed mixed with my favas. My fava growing technique was super lazy. I rototilled them in to sawdust and woodchip pile bases. It didn't go great for the peas. A few survived. With greater care and careful spacing it might do a little better.

[Steph S]

I don't think the favas I grew this year would've made much of a trellis - they did blow down a bit.

But I grew short peas with a short sturdy barley (touted for "no lodging") and that worked really pretty well for the peas - maybe not so well for the barley.   I planted short rows six inches apart, alternating barley and peas.  It seemed a bit gappy as the peas slumped over to one side row of barley or the other, so perhaps they could be planted even closer.  The peas produced a very nice crop at the spacing I used.   It was good enough, I would definitely do this again.

I also planted some peas in the gaps of my late winter/early spring wheat planting.  These did not do so well for some reason, possibly the timing.  Wheat may have gotten tall enough to shade before the peas had a chance to cling on.  Or there may have been more competition for water, due to tighter spacing.  IDK.   More experiments required.

[Jeremy Weiss]

I'd say you're major problem would be the turgidity of the fava stems. They may look thick and sturdy, but most of that thickness and sturdiness is based on water, not cellulose or lignin. So the moment they start drying up and getting flaccid, they're going to start flopping over, and taking whatever is wrapped around them down with them.

Corn works as a trellis in part because, even when it is dead and dried out, a cornstalk is still a pretty hard, sturdy thing. A fava stem is usually not.

[UnicornEmily]

Ahhhh, good to know.  That's disappointing!  I'll probably give it a try anyway, but I'll consider myself warned that it may not work.