A winter growing pulse crop, planted in mid to late autumn and harvested in late spring or early summer. Faba beans fit well in rotation with winter and summer cereals or cotton, making those rotations more productive and profitable. Nitrogen fixed in the root system becomes available to the next crop, reducing the need for fertiliser nitrogen, and levels of soil-borne diseases such as crown rot and root lesion nematode are reduced by growing faba bean as a break crop.
Key attributes
- Winter pulse that lifts soil nitrogen
- Break crop for cereal root diseases
- Improves yield and quality of following crops
- Responds well to irrigation on heavy soils
- Suits grain or green manure use
- Growers report improved soil tilth
About this variety
Faba bean is a cool season pulse grown across southern Australia as both a food legume and a rotation tool. It is sown in mid to late autumn and harvested in late spring or early summer, developing quickly through July to September as it flowers and sets pod. Flowering stops as daytime temperatures approach thirty degrees, which is what sets the northern limit of where the crop is worth growing.
The plant reaches about a metre and a half, erect, throwing stems from its base over a taproot that carries a mass of fibrous roots through the top thirty centimetres of soil. Flowering begins low on the stem in early varieties and progressively higher in later ones, then continues up the plant over six to ten weeks. Like most legumes it sets far more flowers than it can carry, and fewer than fifteen per cent go on to make pods. Honeybees working the flowers cross-pollinate at rates commonly between twenty-five and thirty per cent.
Where faba beans earn their place is the rotation. Sequences that put a faba bean phase between winter and summer cereals, or ahead of cotton, are consistently more productive and more profitable than those without a legume, because yield and quality lift in the crop that follows. Up to forty per cent of the crop's nitrogen sits below ground, cutting the fertiliser nitrogen the next crop needs and adding to soil organic nitrogen. Growers also report better soil tilth afterwards.
Planting & grazing notes
Plant mid-late autumn, harvest late spring-early summer; flowering/podding July-September at 15-25°C, stops near 30°C; tolerates mild frost but not severe frost; inoculate with Group F; sow 5-8cm deep, dry sowing an option; up to 40% of crop nitrogen is underground
Disease & pest resistance
Good overall disease resistance including reduced susceptibility to chocolate spot and rust; resistant to Ascochyta blight; reduces crown rot and root lesion nematode pressure as a break crop. Early sowing of faba bean within the sowing window is important in the medium and lowrainfall zones but responses are inconsistent in the high-rainfall zone. • Sowing rate can have a major effect on yield and disease resistance.
How it's sold
| Form | Pack | Status |
|---|---|---|
| Bare | 25 kg | In stock |
