🫘 Superaguadulce Fava Bean

What it looks like

Why this variety

Superaguadulce is the fava for gardeners who loved Aquadulce and wanted more of it: a long-podded type in the same family, celebrated for an extended harvesting window, which means fresh favas over a longer stretch rather than a single glut. Pods are long and well filled, beans are large and tender, and plants are vigorous and upright, giving a steady supply for fresh eating, freezing, and drying. If Broad Windsor is the classic and Aquadulce is the early cold-hardy one, Superaguadulce is the generous one — the variety that keeps the fava season going when other types have finished.

The extended window is a genuine kitchen advantage, because fava harvests are famously feast-or-famine: one week nothing, the next week a mountain of pods to shell before they toughen. A variety that staggers its pods gives you time to actually cook what you pick, freeze the surplus properly, and enjoy fresh favas for weeks instead of days. Superaguadulce’s large, tender beans are also excellent for the classic preparations — pureed with herbs, tossed with pasta, or simply blanched and peeled — where bean quality is the whole dish.

If you are new to choosing between cultivars, the Varieties Matter guide explains why the name after the plant matters as much as the plant itself. And if you want the whole clan at a glance, the broader Fava Bean guide covers fava beans generally.

How to grow

Fava beans in Florida are a winter crop, full stop, and that is actually good news: they are one of the few vegetables that genuinely enjoy the months when everything else is sulking. Sow in fall, once the worst heat has passed, and let plants grow slowly through winter, staking them if a windy spell threatens — favas are tall, upright plants, two to four feet, and a top-heavy plant in a winter storm is a fallen plant. They laugh at frost that would kill a tomato, they fix nitrogen all winter, and they flower early, feeding the first bees of spring. The catch is heat: if your favas are still standing when real summer arrives, they will stop setting pods and start complaining, so plan the harvest for late winter and spring, and treat any June pods as a bonus.

Sow as for other favas: fall in mild climates, early spring in cold ones, seeds 1 to 2 inches deep and 6 to 8 inches apart in rows 24 inches apart, in full sun and fertile, well-drained soil. In Florida, fall sowing is the way, with harvest in winter and spring. Stake plants, pinch growing tips once lower pods set to discourage aphids and push energy into pods, water steadily, and mulch to keep roots cool. Because the harvest window is long, keep picking regularly — pods left too long get tough and starchy, and regular picking encourages more pods.

Water & feeding

Favas want steady, even moisture — about an inch a week — and they show drought stress fast, dropping flowers and making tough, small beans. Work worm castings into the bed at sowing, water at soil level, and mulch to keep roots cool and moist through winter dry spells. Skip nitrogen fertilizer, because favas fix their own, and extra nitrogen makes rank, floppy growth that falls over. Once pods start to fill, keep water steady rather than feast-and-famine, because uneven watering is how you get beans of wildly different sizes in the same pod.

Common problems

Aphids on tips are the main pest; pinching tips and washing aphids off are the main controls. Chocolate spot, rust, and other fungal diseases appear in wet, crowded weather, so spacing and soil-level watering matter. Heat stops pod set, so a planting that runs into summer heat is finished, however long its window was supposed to be — plan the sowing so the harvest falls in cool weather. Waterlogged soil invites root rot, so drainage is essential, especially in a wet winter.

Harvest

Harvest pods as they fill, over several weeks, shelling fresh beans for immediate cooking or freezing, and leave later pods to dry for dry beans. Fresh beans blanch and peel easily for the creamiest texture; dry beans store a year or more. Freeze blanched, peeled beans in bags, and save seed from healthy plants, noting that favas cross readily — isolate from other fava varieties if seed purity matters. Superaguadulce is open-pollinated and comes true from saved seed when isolated.

Saving seeds

Superaguadulce is the fava for gardeners who loved Aquadulce and wanted more of it: a long-podded type in the same family, celebrated for an extended harvesting window, which means fresh favas over a longer stretch rather than a single glut. Pods are long and well filled, beans are large and tender, and plants are vigorous and upright, giving a steady supply for fresh eating, freezing, and drying. If Broad Windsor is the classic and Aquadulce is the early cold-hardy one, Superaguadulce is the generous one — the variety that keeps the fava season going when other types have finished. As an open-pollinated fava bean it comes true from seed: fava beans in Florida are a winter crop, full stop, and that is actually good news — they are one of the few vegetables that genuinely enjoy the months when everything else is sulking. Sow in fall, once the worst heat has passed, and let plants grow slowly through winter, staking them if a windy spell threatens: favas are tall, upright plants, two to four feet, and a top-heavy plant in a winter storm is a fallen plant. They laugh at frost that would kill a tomato, they fix nitrogen all winter, and they flower early, feeding the first bees of spring. The catch is heat: if your favas are still standing when real summer arrives, they will stop setting pods and start complaining, so plan the harvest to finish before summer. The extended window is a genuine kitchen advantage, because fava harvests are famously feast-or-famine: one week nothing, the next week a mountain of pods to shell before they toughen. A variety that staggers its pods gives you time to actually cook what you pick, freeze the surplus properly, and enjoy fresh favas longer. The full method is in the Saving seeds section of the Fava Bean guide.