Broad beans

Vicia faba

Broad beans are the first beans of the year, big and tender inside fat pods. Sow them in autumn, or from late winter into spring. Tall kinds need a stake at each corner of the row with string run around them. Once the first pods form, pinch off the plant tips to keep blackfly away.

Looking after it

Water: Normal watering is all they need. In the ground, soak them well when flowering starts and again two weeks later. Pots dry out fast and need water often. Feeding: They need very little food. Like all beans, they add nitrogen to the soil, so in the ground they need no feed at all. In a pot, give a high-potassium liquid feed every two weeks from the first flowers.

Harvest and keeping

Pick the pods when they are full but the beans inside are still small. The scar on each bean should be white or green, not black. Check the lower pods every few days, because they ripen fast. Eat the shelled beans soon after picking. To keep them longer, blanch and freeze them.

What can go wrong

Blackfly. In late spring, small black aphids crowd onto the soft shoot tips. Pinch off the tips once the first pods form. Squash or wash off any that are left.
Chocolate spot. Dark brown spots appear on leaves and stems, worst in damp weather and on crowded plants. Give the plants room and don't add any nitrogen feed. Clear away the old plants after harvest.
Mice. Seeds sown outdoors in autumn and winter vanish because mice dig them up and eat them. Start the seeds in pots under cover instead, then plant them out.

Growing facts: RHS, UC ANR and seed-company sowing guides. Broad bean care: RHS. pH: Oregon State University and University of Connecticut extension.