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Santa Cruz, CA

Because of illness in the family, I'm amending the patch pretty late this year. Last year, we planted favas in the fall and tilled them in in the spring. My questions are: 1. Is it too late to plant favas? (I could get the fava's pre sprouted in my oven before planting them so I think they would grow.) 2. How mature do favas need to be to make a difference to the soil? More then 4 months old? 3. I've put five loads of manure on the patch already, so should I just forget the fava's this year since it's pretty late to start planting? 4. Last year we hand planted each fava seed. How do other growers plant? (Hand planting is very time intensive and I'm looking for another possible alternative.)

Thanks for the help!

1/18/2007 12:34:40 PM

Montoursville, PA

Consider buckwheat for a late fast germinating and easy to till at any stage of the process. It gives fast root mass collects little other than Phos in the leaves but uses even less of the soils energy that most covers. Decomposes fast when tilled in. Will not upset anything you have going on in the patch per you post.

1/18/2007 6:04:02 PM

San Jose garysand@pacbell.net

christine

last year i did fava, i scattered them around the garden, then took a 2X2 board, and just pushed them into the ground, then just rake some dirt over

Gary

1/18/2007 9:03:34 PM