Planting Fava Bean Seeds. 2.13.16

Fava Bean Botanical Illustration

Fava Bean Seeds.  2.13.16

  Today I planted a packet of fava beans.  The variety was "Windsor", from Johnny's Selected Seeds, although that variety is available via many sources.

The illustration is via Wikipedia, public domain due to age. 

Fava beans have been grown since the bronze age (Wikipedia).  They have been found in Egyptian tombs.  Ancient Greeks and Romans grew them.  They are eaten in cultures around the world, but minimally in the US.  I have never eaten them.

I became interested in favas due to reading about their utility for soil building.  Favas are a kind of legume, different species from the better known American garden beans.  They are very cold tolerant, whereas most beans require warm summer sun and soil.   Favas can survive through the winter in the Pacific Northwest (OSU dept of horticulture), or can be planted as soon as the soil can be worked.  Which is now.  The raised bed soil is easily worked and friable.

Never having grown favas before, let alone eaten them, this is all new to me.  Documenting here as we see what happens.

They are planted deeper than most seeds, due to size.  I planted in furrows  about 1 to 2 inches deep.  After planting, I did not water because it is pouring rain.

Fava Bean Seeds in Furrows.   2.13.16

They will need protection from deer and rabbits.  This raised bed already has chicken-wire fencing to 5 feet, taller than they are expected to grow.  I should add a top of bird netting so the avian herbivores don't dig them up.  Might not be a problem, these are much bigger compared to the pea seeds that birds dig up and eat.

It may be a few weeks to germination, in this cool weather.  Expect to post when that occurs.

Raised Bed. Progress Report.

I pulled the soil thermometer out of the soil.  The air temp outside was 50F. The temp of the soil was 60F inside the row cover tunnel. This row of radishes has germinated. The snow peas seem to be germinating.  At the front are some cuttings I stuck into the soil.  Buddleia, a rose. And German Camomile plants. This is the first raised bed.  I started itlast fall. Garlic and Multiplier onions have perked up nicely. Chinese Chives starting to grow.  Looking nice for Feb.  On the right, the "Illinois" heritage Chinese Chives have put on 2 incesh of growth, thick and lush. The bigger growing, less delicate Changchun Chinese chives are on the left.  Very hard to see. They are starting to grow.  They will catch up and pass the Illinois Chives, growing much larger by mid Spring.  I also planted more seeds of the Changchun Chives. If they germinate I'll have a big stand of them.

Garlic and Onions: Progress report

The German Porcelain garlic has grown rapidly. These were planted 9/27. A few were visible last week. Most are 2 or 3 inches tall. Some of the multipliers (Egyptian Walking) are also about an inch above ground, but most are not.

These are the Yellow Potato Onions that I planted 9/9/12. I think roughly half are growing. Time flies. That's about one month. I'm not concerned about the ones that are not visible yet. Chances are it's too early to think about it. With fall rains starting, no need to water now. Once the plants are clearly visible, I'll weed better. I don't want to injure new sprouts. The Inchelium Red Garlic, planted 2 or 3 weeks earlier, is way behind the German Porcelain Garlic. I see one sprout, about an inch tall. I'll feel antsy until many more of them are visible.

Puttering.

Today was a chance to putter around the growing greener yard. Nice, chilly late winter morning.

- After debating for a day, I checked the weather-channel predictions, and planted this Hardy Chicago fig. It was grown from a cutting last Winter. Reading the tag, I started the cutting 1/10/06, from a 2-node cutting (similar to the ones that I started about one week ago). I did add some home made compost to the hole, along with eggshells and soil from a more improved part of the garden, mixing with the soil in the hole. It's mulched with some leaves, but later in the Spring I intend to add some more compost plus a top layer of bark mulch. The top bud is pruned off to encourage branching. I hope that the buds havent swelled to a vulnerable point yet. I'll have to watch the predictions and cover it if a hard freeze is anticipated.

- some of the perrenial tops are pruned and chopped for the composter. The yard looks a bit cleaner. There are more that need trimming.

- 3 more bags of Starbucks grounds are added to the tomato bed.

-Lettuce is "winter sown" in an outdoor container. The lettuce seeds are about 1 year old. They should still be viable (according to one site, lettuce seeds can survive 5 years if stored properly); not much lost if they are not. The container is left exposed on the back (southern exposure) deck. Onion seeds, apparently, last only one year. I threw in some bunching onion seeds which, if they grow, great, but since they are from 1995, they may not. Later, I also winter sowed some radishes and spinach, also 1-2 years old.

At last, a day with a little 'life' to balance 'work'. It's been a hard few months, and I worked without a complete day off for the past 2 weeks straight through, so I took the weekend off. No homework done this weekend either.