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Last edited on 1 Nov 2026. View history

crimson flowered broad bean Crimson Flowered Broad Bean

Vicia faba

A variety of fava bean

How to sow crimson flowered broad bean: Direct seed outdoors

Sun requirement for crimson flowered broad bean: Plant in Full Sun

A broad bean with striking crimson flowers and small bright green beans, six to a pod. Seedlings are transplanted at 25 cm in two rows per bed. It has done better in the cold than others in its collection. Watch for blackspot. A New Zealand line gifted in the 1990s.

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Crimson flowered broad bean facts

Lifespan

Annual living and reproducing in a single year or less
Optimal temperature 18–28 °C
Absolute temperature 5–32 °C
FAO EcoCrop
Optimal rainfall 650–1000 mm/year
Absolute rainfall 250–2600 mm/year
FAO EcoCrop
Optimal soil pH 6–7
Absolute soil pH 4.5–8.6
FAO EcoCrop

Crop cycle

100–150 days
FAO EcoCrop

Max altitude

2700 m
FAO EcoCrop

Optimal light

very bright to clear skies
FAO EcoCrop
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 crimson flowered 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 crimson flowered 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 crimson flowered broad beans

  1. Dig compost into the bed 2 weeks before sowing
  2. Set or refill beer traps for slugs and snails 1 week after sowing every week
  3. Put in stakes and string 4 weeks after sowing
  4. Weed between the rows 4 weeks after sowing
  5. Check for aphids on the tips 8 weeks after sowing every week
  6. Pinch out the tips once pods set 3 weeks before first harvest
  7. Pick pods while the beans are small at first harvest every week
  8. Cut plants down and leave the roots in 6 weeks after first harvest

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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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