We had great success with some pole beans we planted a few years ago, even though we didn’t get around to planting until very late in the season. This year I wanted to plant those same beans again, but the bag of beans is really old. I didn’t want to plant them and not know if they were going to grow, so I decided to sprout them inside before planting them.

This is an experiment. I don’t know how well it will work.

When it was snowing outside, I soaked some bean seeds for about 8 hours (while I slept). In the morning, I drained the water and put a paper towel in the bowl below the beans. I covered the bowl with plastic wrap, poked a few holes, and waited for the beans to sprout. They did sprout, but they also got pretty stinky along the way. Maybe my beans were too old, maybe I kept them too wet or too dry. I don’t know, but I do know that about half of them sprouted, and I planted them. None of them have emerged from the ground yet, so this may still be a total failure. In case that happens, Charmaine planted a few rows of beans seeds for planting this year, and not sprouted inside. They are the control group.

I hope they all work, but even if they don’t, it’s been a fun experiment.