They’re all so beautiful. I find the flowers of the species delightful.
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I was pleased to find a plant with 
crimson-y flowers. Previously, I had no known crimson flower varieties, but I did get a pack of GTS seeds this year, so that’s the likely source. Big thank you to all who contributed to that!
Elsewhere, I’m attempting to start a “do as little as possible” clay-buster fava mix. Last month (May 15), I used a stick to poke holes in hard/compacted clay (previous year grew potatoes on top of the clay in straw mulch) and just dropped the seeds in. Then kicked whatever material i could over the hole with my shoe. They took quite awhile to sprout (2+ weeks, no pre-soak), but it seems they focus on the tap root first so no worries there. I’ll compare these to a group I planted by dragging a shallow furrow in the clay.
My suspicion (from very informal tests last year) is that, when in clay, the favas do a little better with LESS ground disturbance. So poking-a-hole is better than attempts to fork, furrow or otherwise try to loosen up the ground… but we will see.
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@mtttthwww_vdp did you get any plants from these side shoots to replant Here’s offspring?
My favorite fava reading material this morning: Fava-the Magic Bean - Scientific American Blog Network
"When he wasn’t busy coming up with theories about triangles, Pythagoras spent his time coming up with reasons to hate beans. Ancient philosophers including Aristotle and Cicero attempted to explain Pythagoras’s aversion to fava beans. One theory was they were forbidden due to their resemblance of both male and female genitalia.
Another theory regarding their appearance was they were shaped like human heads. Therefore, eating fava beans was analogous to eating the head of one’s parents. It was also believed a chewed bean smelled like the blood of a murder victim when left in the sun. Cannibalism is never an appealing option, unless of course, the fava beans are served along with a nice Chianti."
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Thanks, this was a nice overview of a lot of the fava tales and myths. Favas occupy both ends of the boring/mundane <———>weird/wild/magical spectrum
Regarding H E R O’s side shoot offspring: at this point it seems that the fava bean has fallen a ways away from the stalk, so to speak. The 2 seeds that germinated aren’t the most vigorous plants, though one was getting nibbled on by a mouse or something… so I guess the jury is still out. But there are other plants in the grex that do resemble H E R O quite closely so we will see how they turn out.
This batch of favas has a relatively nice garden bed compared to those out in the clay, so using some puppies to stress the plants and toughen them up…
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That sounds like a good use for puppies in the garden! (Laugh!)
FAVA harvest started. Just for the pleasure, I sorted some of them by colour and shape to take a picture.
some I have enough of to share with european fava breeders.
special thanks to mathew and wojcieck who swaped seeds with me last winter , helping me create my first grex 
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Oooh, so pretty! That looks like a great start to your landrace. 
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I have a question for all fava beans growers 
this year I have sown 6 varieties together and they were doing fantastic until drought and extremely hot weather came. In effect, majority of the plants have died, and those who set the seeds gave very little of them. Seeds are also substantially smaller than the one I have sown. Majority of them are like a half of the parent seed. My question is - would you use such seeds next year, as survivors, or rather would you start over?
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I would use those seeds next year, as survivors, and also get a bunch of new seeds.
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same as emily, suggested, I would keep all the survivors , mix them with what is left of the original mix, and add new ones.
I can send you some of my mix and if you have enough, I would gladly get some of your survivors in my next round.
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You could plant them, but hard to say if they are viable or not without trying. They might be small because they are way immature and not gonna germinate or they might be small because conditions didn’t allow them to grow big and plants matured them early. I would not count on them to germinate, but you never know.
Hi from Sweden!
Enough of lurking, been around for months but never posted a thing. Here we go. Right in the middle.
I grow on 66 North, just South of the Arctic Circle.
Favas are beginning to ripen now 
I didn’t direct seed this year as our Spring was so delayed and so cold that I gave up waiting, I mean my garlic came up late May to give you an idea. A solid four-five weeks after it usually does. So I sowed in trays around the time of the year I usually sow anyways and planted out young plants instead.
First to ripen is my Savitaipale outcross (why am I not surprised? It was weeks ahead everything else last year as well), with some random beige ones (a few pods), and then some Black Russians are starting to come in.
No reds or yellows yet; I shelled maybe 3% so far and those are mainly the Savitaipale offspring, where Savitaipale is a Finnish landrace I put into my grex last year and let it do its thing:
Savitaipale 2022
As to what went into the ground for 2023:
Mixed stuff from 2022
Everything got planted in long rows, semi-separated by colors. Meaning, I allow adjacent rows to cross, but didn’t pour together everything mindlessly and I pick the rows separately so I should be able to see last year’s results, too. In the past I’d been getting mushy colors when let to their own devices. So in 2023 I separated them roughly as: purples and purple andigena types I sourced since, then reds, then dark purples and blacks, then reds again, then beiges, then greens, then a green/beige mix, then yellows (Ianto’s Yellow and IY outcross), then more reds.
And some new stuff I got, including more andigena types, a noname Swedish landrace that’s “been in family for 30 years”. Then two little pebbles that look like marbles from an andigena mix, and some Ur Kupina which is about the only one I isolate, as in, I grow them at home, in pots for the first time.
Then some pix from today, 97% not shelled yet
** to be absolutely replanted favorites **
same
mix, 80% Savitaipale outcross + some randoms
same
I got some new, plumper and much rounder Black Russians so the bumblebees clearly have done their job last year. Exactly what I wanted!
Sorry for the long post!
/Cathy
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welcome Cathy ! I am delighted to read about one more landracer on european soil. Easier for seed exchanges.
You seem to have an extraordinaty collection , congratulations !
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Beautiful collections! Does the flavor vary much between the different colors? And do you cook them differently?
Hello Cathy, awesome collection od favas.
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I’ve been wondering if the colors affect the flavor, too!
Hi All,
sorry for the late reply, I’ve been largely “off” for the summer, as usual over here 
Anyway, to the questions and comments:
– Sure, I’d like to share and trade!
– Don’t know if the colorful ones taste differently, because this is my first year that I have enough favas to actually be able to cook up a separate “red” or “purple” meal to test. Still not enough of the more exotic/Andean types, like Ianto’s Yellow or Ur Kupina. I keep every single clean seed for planting, see my comment on quality below.
Harvest/update pix maybe in another post, I need to take pictures 
Ur Kupina: the seed quality on those was disturbing. Most never germinated as they had 4-5-6 holes! They just rotted away. I only got two plants from 20+ seeds.
Actually, all the Andean mix I received was of disturbingly low quality, with stains and marks that, to me, look suspect. I had to grow them in isolation, in pots, at another location because I didn’t dare to plant them with the rest. I’m not even sure they’ll ever be mixed into my grex. Maybe if I get clean looking seeds for two years in a row. It’s always intereesting to experiment with new genetics and hope that it will improve a grex but sometimes it’s just too risky – for me anyway. I don’t know what these spots are but I don’t want them in my population.
I’ll try to grow them isolated again next year and see if I can move beyond the 15-ish acceptably clean Ur Kupina seeds I have as of now. Like, ever. Not a large population 
Andean seeds after soaking them (before planting in isolation):
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Some of the fava bean seeds I collected this year had marks like that. They seemed to come from plants that were less cold hardy and suffered a little bit in the winter. Many plants that had a seed or two like that also had clean seeds, so I think your chances of getting clean seeds eventually are excellent.
Are you freezing these seeds while they’re dry, to make sure to kill any possible pests they might be harboring? I should have done that this year, but I didn’t know to do that. I will from now on.
Oh, I plant in the spring, my climate is extreme, not even kale will make it through my winter. So they aren’t suffering in the winter as they’re not in the ground. Yes, I freeze seeds when dry, I freeze them for several months at a time. The Andean and all other obscure seeds I froze for five months after reception. Those in my pix I also soaked in 10% bleach right before planting, for five minutes like I soak potato onions before planting as I really didn’t trust them. Haha!
Smart thinking!
Ahh, yes, if your winters are extreme, planting fava beans in the spring makes the most sense. What are your summers like?