Very strange bean indeed!

[fran]

Me again - sorry - but this is fascinting me!

Last w/e I sowed a few beans in propogator, two of which are a climbing bean Cobra. One of these (the other hasn't even shown yet), is now about 4 inches high - very strong shoot but with the leaves coming straight out of what looks like the original bean at the TOP of the shoot, 4 inches up! The other end of it is going straight down into the compost.

Have I got a triffid, or do Cobra always grow like this? I thought the bean stayed beneath the soil - the roots grew down from it, and the shoot grew up from it. What's going on? Is the bean going to turn into another set of leaves or just shrivel up and drop off?

Any answers welcome.

[Cutecumber]

It is normal for the bean to split and the two halves stay attached to the stem. The first set of leaves form above this.

[fran]

Thanks Cutecumber. Much relieved.

Thought there might be something strange in the air in SE London! It's just that the runner beans haven't grown like that at all and the bean has stayed under the soil. Perhaps I didn't plant it deep enough.

[Snadger]

The two bean halves are the seed leaves or cotyledons!

[smallblueplanet]

Here's my post from a thread about faux butter beans (spagna bianco)

"If you google for info on the spagna bianco you'll find that it is a runner bean and so cannot be a butter/lima bean? lol! Apparently this can be discerned when the bean germinates as 'if the seed halves stay underground (hypogeal) then it is a runner bean'.

Runners stay underground, frenchies don't.

[fran]

Very interesting! Not having grown Frenchies before I was a bit flummoxed but all OK now! Thanks.