Focus on... Broad beans

Want to cultivate the best broad beans for the tastiest pickings? Lucy shows you how to guarantee happy harvests of fava bean flavour - and even plant some now

- Luncy Chamberlain

WITH autumn-sown varieties ready now, and even certain seed varieties started off this week managing to crop come September, the humble broad bean (aka fava bean) has more growing potential than you might think. Here’s how to make sure you are getting the most from your selections.

Grow a bean feast

If you’re like me, you’ll be eyeing up a bed of autumn-sown ‘Aquadulce Claudia’. But there is still time to sow and plant broad beans if you choose the right variety.

There are four main types of broad bean: Seville (autumn-sown types), longpod (such as ‘Exhibition Longpod’, with seven or so seeds per pod), Windsors (such as ‘Green Windsor’, the standard spring-sowing types); and fanpodded (such as ‘The Sutton’, with multiple pods on compact plants).

Seed colour varies, too. Greenseeded varieties like ‘Imperial Green Longpod’ are, by some (not me) claimed to be tastier than white-seeded types such as ‘Witkiem Manita’. Others (‘Red Epicure’ and ‘Karmazyn’) yield eyecatching red beans. Look out for the heritage variety ‘Crimson Flowered’, too.

Making the perfect pods

Such a range allows us to eat fresh beans from June until October. Hardiest types germinate at 5°C (41°F); those marketed for sowing now are more tolerant of drought. Spring sowings can be made in pots for transplanting later. The extensive root system warrants deep sowing (at least 1½in/4cm deep).