🫘 Masterpiece Green Longpod Fava Bean

Vicia faba ‘Masterpiece Green Longpod’
The long-podded classic: slender pods up to a foot long, packed with six or seven green beans — and made for the freezer.
Sun
Full sun, 6-8 hrs
Days to harvest
90 days (12-16 weeks)
Spacing
6-8 inches apart in rows 18-24 inches apart
Soil pH
6.0-7.5
Zones
Cool-season annual; in Florida, a fall-to-spring crop — sow in fall or late winter, harvest before summer heat

What it looks like

No verified photo of ‘Masterpiece Green Longpod’ itself was found, so the pictures below show the species — the same plant, photographed generally.

Masterpiece Green Longpod Fava Bean (Vicia faba ‘Masterpiece Green Longpod’) — Broad Bean (Vicia faba) seed Germination
Broad Bean (Vicia faba) seed Germination. Photo: Tess Watson from Edinburgh, Scotland, UK, CC BY 2.0.
Masterpiece Green Longpod Fava Bean (Vicia faba ‘Masterpiece Green Longpod’) — Vicia-faba-1010893
Vicia-faba-1010893. Photo: myself, CC BY 3.0.
Masterpiece Green Longpod Fava Bean (Vicia faba ‘Masterpiece Green Longpod’) — Vicia faba, also known as the broad bean, fava bean, faba bean, field bean, bell bean, or tic bean
Vicia faba, also known as the broad bean, fava bean, faba bean, field bean, bell bean, or tic bean. Photo: Vinayaraj, CC BY 2.0.

Why this variety

Masterpiece Green Longpod is the fava that made long pods a selling point: slender, pale green pods up to 30 centimeters long, well filled with six or seven green beans each, on vigorous plants that stand well. It won the Royal Horticultural Society’s Award of Garden Merit, and it is the variety people mean when they say a broad bean is excellent for deep freezing — the beans hold their quality in the freezer better than most.

The flavor is the other half of the reputation: fine, green-seeded beans with remarkable taste quality, picked young for tenderness. If you have ever shelled a fava and wondered why anyone bothers, Masterpiece is the answer — big pods, plenty of beans per pod, and a harvest that actually justifies the shelling time.

If you have not grown the species before, start with the Fava Bean growing guide for the general picture, then come back here for what makes this variety different.

How to grow

Sow Masterpiece in fall or late winter in Florida, 2 inches deep, 6-8 inches apart in rows 18-24 inches apart, in full sun and rich, well-drained soil. Plants reach about 3 feet tall (up to 1.5 meters in ideal conditions), so give them room and a simple stake-and-string support in windy spots — tall favas lodge, and a lodged fava is a slug hotel.

Work worm castings into the bed at planting for gentle, slow-release nutrition. Pinch out the growing tips once the first pods have set: this deters blackfly and encourages bushier plants, and it is the single most useful fava trick there is. As a legume, Masterpiece fixes nitrogen, so skip nitrogen fertilizer and let the nodules do their work.

Water & feeding

Keep soil evenly moist, about an inch a week, especially when plants are in flower and pods are forming — drought at this stage means small, tough beans. Water at the base; wet foliage in humid weather invites chocolate spot. Mulch to hold moisture and keep the root zone steady.

Common problems

  • Black bean aphids on shoot tips — pinch tips once pods have set, blast with water, encourage ladybugs.
  • Chocolate spot in wet weather — improve airflow, space plants, avoid working wet plants.
  • Rust in humid conditions — rotate beds and remove affected leaves.
  • Poor pod set in heat — sow early enough that pods fill before summer heat; in Florida, fall sowing is your best friend.

Harvest

Pick pods from the base of the plant upwards when they feel well filled and the beans inside are still tender, about 90 days from sowing (12-16 weeks). Pick regularly to encourage further cropping. Picked very young, broad beans can be eaten pod and all, topped, tailed, and steamed whole; mature beans are blanched and slipped from their skins. Surplus beans freeze beautifully — which is the whole point of growing a variety famous for it. As with all favas, note the favism caution when sharing: a small number of people with G6PD deficiency can react seriously to fava beans.

Nerdy fact: A pod up to a foot long holding seven beans is not just a vegetable — it is a packaging decision. Masterpiece Green Longpod puts more beans per shelling session than almost any other fava, which is why shelling it feels productive instead of penitential.

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Saving seeds

Masterpiece Green Longpod is the fava that made long pods a selling point: slender, pale green pods up to 30 centimeters long, well filled with six or seven green beans each, on vigorous plants that stand well — an old English cultivar from 1894, winner of the Royal Horticultural Society’s Award of Garden Merit, and the variety people mean when they say a broad bean is excellent for deep freezing. As a seed-maintained, open-pollinated cultivar it comes true from seed: let a few pods dry fully on the plant, shell out the beans, and store them cool and dry, then sow in fall or late winter, 2 inches deep, 6 to 8 inches apart. Keep other fava varieties at a distance, since bees cross-pollinate favas. The full method is in the Saving seeds section of the Fava Bean guide.