Fava breeding

[Greenie DeS]

I often end up hanging plants upside down in my greenhouse and carport. I'm probably less humid than you though. Hope they turn out well!

[Tim DH]

My Broads got hammered by black fly (aphids) this year. Never known it so bad.

On harvesting I discover that they've also been got by bean weevils! That is curious, because I haven't grown Broads here for at least three years, so where did they come from? Anyway, those little blighters are now dying en masse in the corners of my drying window.

The good news is that this year I have a good range of colours.

Tim DH

[Steph S]

Those are beautiful, Tim!
I've managed to dry a handful of pods and cracked them open.  Ten out of 30 seeds from Black Russian pods are large and tan.   
I went looking for info on seed coat inheritance and found this:
https://link.springer.com/article/10.1007/BF00022862
Inheritance of seed coat colour in broad bean Vicia faba

Black and red seed coats behave as recessive in F1.

I take this to mean that my tan seeds are an F1 cross with the lone Aquadulce plant that was in another bed about 20 feet away.  So even though I didn't see pollinators on the plants, there was obviously a fair bit of activity.
This is a really convenient trait, since there's no trouble telling the F1 from the black or red coated parent.

[Tim DH]

Hi Steph,
      Interesting article summary. But I don't fancy paying to see if it has some nice pictures!

Tim DH

[gmuller]

In my latest grex growout, I noticed a single plant with lovely lavender flowers, so went looking for info on flower colour. I found an article mentioning yellow flowers. Does anyone know of a line with yellow in the flower?

on another note, I've sent grex seed to about 20 growers in central Victoria as part of a cooperative landrace breeding project. Seems like most of the packets have disappeared into the ether. Ah well.

I had 2 or 3 plants germinate in late summer/autumn from fallen seed. One has set pods in winter, and is so floriferous i will select some seed for growout.
GM

[Joseph Lofthouse]

I have not observed yellow flowered favas.

I have seen:

• White/black
• Crimson
• Pink
• Black/brown

[gmuller]

the journal article was
The Study of Genetics of Flower Color in Faba Bean Reveals Generous Diversity to Be Used in the Horticulture Industry in the journal HortScience https://doi.org/10.21273/HORTSCI15238-20

"The known flower colors in faba bean are wild type, white (absence of any pigments in the wing petals), yellow wing spots, solid brown, pink, diffused yellow, and red (Cabrera, 1988; Duc et al., 2015). Flower color has been used as a morphological indicator of high (wild-type) tannin content as one of the important antinutritional factors in seeds. The seeds of colored-flowered faba beans have high tannin content and white-flowered faba beans are low in tannin (Martín et al., 1991; Zanotto et al., 2020a)."

[William Schlegel]

The first sprout has sprouted on my greenhouse Montana Rainbow Favas.

I also planted direct seexed this weekend separate patches of the Montana Rainbow Fava and the new grex I am thinking about calling Montana Rainbow 2.0. I've added San Luis Fava from Native Seed Search and Crimson Fava from Wild Dream Farms to the second grex this year.

[William Schlegel]

All the favas are now blooming, early greenhouse planting, a later planting, and both direct seeded patches.

[William Schlegel]

I sort of failed at Fava growing in 2024. I didn't get them all harvested. That means I have less seed stock than normal.

I am kind of fascinated by Arik Pelman's effort to grow food which uses Favas as a primary crop.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TNR8JfHah00

He actually sows 350 square meters or 3767 square feet or about 0.09 acre a year. That would take 6.88 lbs. of fava seed to plant. I am guessing I have that much or close enough.

[Steph S]

I got enough seed for a 4X8 bed probably, from last year's favas.  Just a mix of crossed seed between Black Russian and Aquadulce.   There was less of the black scab on pods this year, which I was glad to see.

Pros for favas here:  animals don't bother them at all. no protection required.
Cons:  Animals don' eat them and we don't either.   Much as I appreciate a pure cover crop, it would be so much better to get a few meals.  But (1) they don't produce many beans and (2) they aren't large, but they have to be skinned to eat, so the smaller seeds are especially lossy.
I want to introduce one or more larger seeded varieties, to reduce the hassle of bean peeling.
Maybe we will take them up as a food?

For now I'm okay with them as a filler for fallow space which doesn't require maintenance.

[William Schlegel]

When I originally bought my first packet of "Early Windsor" from Garden City Seeds I imagined I would grow enough to eat. That proved to be challenging until I learned to plant them earlier. I still haven't tried them.

Phaseolus beans though I grew up eating- and at least in theory they are more productive. So, I think I will keep growing my favas as a cover crop but grow Phaseolus beans to eat. Though I should really at least try the favas!

[Cathy A]

What kind of yields do you fava breeders get per plant and per unit area?

I grew these once and they did well, but they didn't produce much food in a small space, do I didn't grow them again.

Perhaps there are much higher yielding varieties that have been bred, or could be bred?

The same goes for garbanzos or chickpeas.

[William Schlegel]

Favas are far more productive in my opinion than garbanzo/chickpeas or lentils.

I planted some favas once in some really good soil and the plants got much larger than usual as well. So, I think with really good care you might have much higher productivity per square foot than I usually see. I kind of taper off watering and let mine die so I can harvest them during our dry summer months. I think if I could keep them watered, they would keep growing.

I was seed saving favas for years before I learned from Joseph to plant them as soon as the snow melts usually in March. They were unproductive planted in May. I barely got my seed back.

They cross readily at an estimated 30% or so, but letting them mix is secondary in my opinion to understanding when to plant them. Also that calculation changes depending on your climate. They need cool weather to grow well and set fruit. March to May is really important for them here. In the PNW they can fall plant them. Where you are? You might need to try and see.

Though a caveat. I don't really think that they would deserve much space in a small garden or necessarily make a good breeding project. Sure try a packet of mine from Snake River Seeds or some other strain. If you already know you like and tolerate them fresh that's apparently gourmet eating. As a dry bean like most field crops that's probably something for larger gardens. From reading your posts I think you are quite serious about growing food in a small space. You might consider reading High Value Veggies by Mel Bartholomew if you haven't already.  He doesnt treat favas but he does beans I would lump favas with beans he gives regular beans a negative financial rating.

I think professor Alik Pelman gives them about 3500 square feet as a staple crop for one person. It's intriguing to grow one's own staples but it might actually not make sense financially in many cases. I happen to own about eight acres about 3.5 of which are easily accessible and were historically plowed before I bought the land. That means if I could hire a tractor to do my big plow ups like Alik does I might be able to approach his efficiency- though I doubt that the Canada thistle would let me on the weeding side of things. It absolutely loves my dense clay accumulation layer.

So my advice would be to keep favas to something like a 4×4 square in a small garden for fresh eating and seed saving. Or use as a cover crop / legume crop rotation. The How to Grow more vegetables ecology action folks grow them but they are trying to demonstrate a sustainable home grown complete vegan diet with human labor only- no annual fossil fuel inputs. Otherwise it might make better sense to use the space for parsnips. Also a staple but one that pays for itself economically.

Like many things much depends on economics which changes over time. In the 1700's and 1800s the Hidatsa had an valuable business model growing corn, squash, beans, sunflowers, and watermelons. Now field corn is so cheap it probably isn't economical to grow your own. However if you needed to grow your own calories it along with potatoes is likely one of your best options. Fava beans and regular beans are in that same boat. Good sources of staple calories, and relatively efficient, but too inexpensive to purchase to make sense.

Where I think these crops might make sense is as a lifestyle choice for people who want to reduce their environmental impact like Alik or for people who are concerned for the future and want to be positioned to already be living like they might need to in the future. However even if you agree with that philosophically you might need to adjust based on garden size.

[galina gardiner]

I had heard that they are eaten raw when small in some countries, even the whole pod, but I haven't tried that yet.

They are nice eaten whole and usually earlier than beans.