moldy beans

[tnkrer]

First year growing beans ..

I use a sprout box to sprout the seeds before they go into seed trays or their own cups. sprout box is a big lunch box with many small dixie cups covered with a lid. A thin layer of Diatomaceous Earth is at the bottom of each dixie cup. Each dixie cup holds one variety of seed. The lunch box is on a seedling mat. this allows the temperatures inside to stay within 80-85 F. I have got almost 100% germination on most of my seeds with this method. (Lettuce seemed to have problems at higher temperature)



I was sprouting beans with this method and couple of varieties worked great. (vermont cranberry bean, Flamingo) while a few others, I got less than 50% germination and half of the beans became moldy. The picture shows blue lake bean



Is the problem with my sprouting method? the beans? or is this not a problem and the mold is fine?

[habitat_gardener]

Probably too wet. I'd throw away the moldy ones.

I germinate my beans in 6-packs, then plant them in the garden a week or two later. Beans germinate pretty fast.

For germination temperatures, I look at the Johnny's Selected Seeds catalog (but the info is easily available online, too). Bean germination happens at 59-95 F, optimal at 86 F, with some variation depending on the variety. Some varieties are more tolerant of cooler or moister soil.

Lettuce is about 41-84 F, optimal 75 F, which is why the heat mat didn't work for lettuce.

[Labradors2]

I think it would have been better to have left the lids off as there was just too much humidity. Beans sprout amazingly fast, so at least there's lots of time to start again.

Linda

[tnkrer]

Thanks Linda and Habitat_gardener
could be too wet. The beans soaked up all the water on the first day and DE had completely dried, so I added more water and then it stayed wet after that.

Because it has become nice and warm outside, I planted all the sprouted beans directly in ground. I hope that works out ok. Made a small hill with my container mix (raybo's 3:2:1) and planted the sprouted beans in that hill instead of in the ground.

I plan to do the same for few more beans and this time no lid and less water ..

[Stvrob]

Im kinda suprised that any of your beans survive this method.

[RayR]

I use this method all the time, whenever a seed develops mold it is because the seed is dead.
The mold never grows on a viable seed.

[tnkrer]

Stvrob, first year doing beans for me, so I am trying to do what works for my other seeds. And the sprout box is just a more elaborate system of the more oft used moist paper towel method. I also tried it for one bean seed (vermont cranberry) and it worked very well. So then I went and did that for all beans.

RayR .. I have couple of beans in there that have mold and have sprouts. (The sprouting bean has much less mold than the non sprouted ones) So while mold may not originate on a viable seed, it certainly can spread to it.

[RayR]

Originally Posted by tnkrer

Stvrob, first year doing beans for me, so I am trying to do what works for my other seeds. And the sprout box is just a more elaborate system of the more oft used moist paper towel method. I also tried it for one bean seed (vermont cranberry) and it worked very well. So then I went and did that for all beans.

RayR .. I have couple of beans in there that have mold and have sprouts. (The sprouting bean has much less mold than the non sprouted ones) So while mold may not originate on a viable seed, it certainly can spread to it.

Yes it can spread to sprouted seed but it's the seed coat it is after since its dead matter, Saprophytic fungi only break down dead organic matter for food. They won't touch living tissue. If you had one that attacked living tissue it would not be a fungal mold, it would be an oomycete damping off pathogen like Phythium or Phytophthora.

[Father'sDaughter]

I see dead tomato and pepper seeds get moldy all the time, so I'd go with that answer.

I typically start beans inside, but decided to direct sow them all this year. The bush beans (Provider) went in two weeks ago and are already 6+ inches tall. The pole bean seeds went into the ground last Sunday and they all came up by Friday. I think I'm going to skip starting them indoors from here on!

[Tormato]

Originally Posted by Father'sDaughter

I see dead tomato and pepper seeds get moldy all the time, so I'd go with that answer.

I typically start beans inside, but decided to direct sow them all this year. The bush beans (Provider) went in two weeks ago and are already 6+ inches tall. The pole bean seeds went into the ground last Sunday and they all came up by Friday. I think I'm going to skip starting them indoors from here on!

For the past few weeks, we've had great weather. Try to imagine outdoor starts with the weather we're having today and tomorrow, and that weather extending for a week or more. That's why I always start some beans indoors.

[tnkrer]

RayR, FathersDaughter ..

Experimented again with three beans, not touching each other, made sure that they were not dripping with water and the lid was off, so not too humid. The result was two seed germinated beautifully and one became moldy



So I have to watch out for dead seeds .. Can't tell by looking at those though