Normally I don't bother chitting bean seeds (meaning French beans). You get beans wet, they sprout fast, easy, no trouble, just like peas right? Light or dark, it shouldn't matter? However . . .
- The seeds I have are packaged to be sold by December 2021, so I'm a little outside their freshness date. I wanted to be able to see what sprouts and what doesn't (but my assumption is those seeds should be fine since they were for last year, and worked with no problems)
- Soil moisture and rainfall has been uneven, I wanted to give the seeds a head start
I soaked each type of seed overnight, drained them, placed them in clear plastic containers. The seeds took on water, have at least doubled in size. . . and nothing. No radicle showing, nothing. The seeds were on my indoor plant stand with florescent lights.
I was wondering if light is the problem. Do they need dark to finish germination?
Right now, the plastic containers are wrapped to block out all light.
So my question is, which is right: (1) keep them dark (except for a visual check occasionally)?, or (2) bring the containers back into the light? (3) or seeds are probably bad, replace them?
Or something else?
Thanks for any suggestions.