Last edited on November 01, 2026. View history
Red Seeded Broad Bean
A variety of fava bean
How to sow red seeded broad bean: Direct seed outdoors
Sun requirement for red seeded broad bean: Plant in Full Sun
A healthy broad bean growing to 1 m, with red seeds inside green pods that stay red when cooked. Exceptional taste even raw. Transplant at 40 cm diagonal spacing. From Richmond, Nelson. Watch for blackspot.
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Red seeded broad bean facts
Lifespan
Crop cycle
Max altitude
Optimal light
What are growing degree days?
A plant grows with warmth, not with days. A growing degree day is one day's worth of useful warmth: how many degrees the day's average temperature is above the lowest temperature the crop grows at. Add them up from planting and you know how far along the crop is, whatever the calendar says.
Say that lowest temperature is 10°C. A day averaging 17°C gives 7 growing degree days. A day averaging 8°C gives none, as it is too cold for the crop to grow. That is why the same lettuce takes about 50 days in a summer and 90 in an autumn: it needs the same total warmth either way.
For red seeded broad bean, the FAO EcoCrop database gives a lowest growing temperature of 5°C and a shortest growing cycle of 100 days at its best temperature, about 1800 growing degree days to a first harvest.
Where you've told us where your garden is, we use this and the weather there to predict when your red seeded broad bean will be ready to harvest. We don't use it for how long a plant lives or when it finishes: we go by what members have logged for that.
Growing red seeded broad beans
- Dig compost into the bed 2 weeks before sowing
- Set or refill beer traps for slugs and snails 1 week after sowing every week
- Put in stakes and string 4 weeks after sowing
- Weed between the rows 4 weeks after sowing
- Check for aphids on the tips 8 weeks after sowing every week
- Pinch out the tips once pods set 3 weeks before first harvest
- Pick pods while the beans are small at first harvest every week
- Cut plants down and leave the roots in 6 weeks after first harvest
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Time to harvest
If sown now, expect a first harvest in about 100 to 150 days.
From the growing cycle in the FAO EcoCrop database, which is the same wherever it is grown.
Ecological requirements
Data from the FAO EcoCrop database for Vicia faba L.
| Family / Taxonomy | Magnoliopsida Rosidae Fabales Leguminosae |
|---|---|
| Life form | herb |
| Life span | annual |
| Habit | erect |
| Optimal soil depth | medium (50-150 cm) |
| Optimal soil texture | medium, organic |
| Optimal soil fertility | high |
| Optimal soil drainage | well (dry spells) |
| Optimal soil salinity | low (<4 dS/m) |
| Photoperiod | short day (<12 hours), neutral day (12-14 hours), long day (>14 hours) |
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