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Fava flowering check-in

If they're a cover crop, the best time to cut them is when they start to flower.

When we suggest this

  • Your noteYou haven't noted a planting date or a stage yet (we ask even when a date is set).
  • Climate averageThe date falls from 60 days before your typical last spring frost to 30 days after your typical last spring frost, based on 1991–2020 climate normals.

What would stop us suggesting it

  • When you note a new stage, or the timing window ends.
  • When you mark it Done or Doesn't apply. "Doesn't fit my setup" stops it for that plant this season.

What to do

  1. Look for white and dark flowers along the stems.

What we can't know

  • When they were sown, if you didn't add a date.

Flowering time depends on sowing date and weather.

Where this advice applies

All US regions.

Fava sown in fall usually flowers from late winter to spring.

Bay Area guidance puts flowering around late February–March; later sowings can bloom into May.

Exceptions

  • Fava you've already noted as flowering or later.

Sources

  1. UC Sustainable Agriculture Research & Education Program. Bell Bean (Cover Crops Database). Accessed September 26, 2026
  2. UC Master Gardener Program of Contra Costa County. When to Cut Cover Crops. Accessed September 26, 2026

Reviewed

Sources checked Sept 2026 · awaiting expert review

Gardenplanner research (AI-assisted), pending extension-qualified review

Rule id and version: fava.flowering-checkin@1