Thank you this is very helpful.
My harvest represents approximately a doubling from what I planted. It’s my best harvest after three years of learning to grow favas. For this crop, I began with one diverse Going to Seed packet plus a very small amount I saved from last year and a few more I received from the Serendipity Seed Swap! (US) in 2024.
In my garden in Eastern Kentucky, USA I have a lot of pest pressure on direct sown crops during the late winter and early spring. I think that favas have the potential to overcome this, either because the pests are less interested in them or maybe because they germinate in those temperatures and are no longer desirable to the voles, birds, etc that are eating my direct sown seeds during that time.
Of these two theories, I tend to think the correct one is that the favas germinate quickly. This year I started planting favas in early February. I wonder if I could try planting even a little earlier next year. Sometimes we have one or two nights as low as 0 degrees Fahrenheit, -17 Celsius. Those cold shocks and the pests are the concerns I think about the most.