Daft broad bean Question

[binley100]

Ok I know this is a really daft question but:-
My broad beans are chitting as per T_S 's instructions and are producing a white thing out the side. Is this the root or the stem . Just so's I know to plant them the right way up.
ps I don't mind if you laugh.

[Jeanied]

*Ching Binley! Not a daft question - that's the root! Once the root has got anchored it will send up the shoot.

[binley100]

Thanks Jeanied. Feel a bit of a plonker for asking but usually just stick them in compost and hope for the best

[BarleySugar]

Gravity takes care of it anyway, the root knows to go down, and the shoot up, so even if they were upside down the plant would work it out eventually

[Jeanied]

Is that a seed germination rule, I wonder, that the first thing to grow is the root?

[Two_Sheds]

Gravity takes care of it anyway, the root knows to go down, and the shoot up, so even if they were upside down the plant would work it out eventually

Not nessecelery ... I planted some 'upside down' one year, and the bean just grew round and round in spirals under the soil.

[binley100]

So which ways up ?

[Jeanied]

Up is when the bean is on its edge and the root is pointing downwards. It is more difficult to tell if the bean has not sprouted so people plant them on their edges rather than sides.

[binley100]

AAH I can see clearly now . Shame it's not the magic piccies

[BarleySugar]

Strange, about the gravity bit, I've never had any problems, and when I spoke to son no 2 about it, who's doing biology at uni, that was his explanation (he calls it geotropism). I better tell him it's not necessarily true. Seeds that fall from the plants must always fall the right way up I suppose.

[Jeanied]

That's an interesting one, BarleySugar - the bean would never fall from the pod and land on its edge. But when I left a whole pod on my lottie bench from late summer to autumn, it split and the whole row germinated in the position they were formed in. So it seems that the sowing position needs to imitate the seed distribution position.

[Flobalob]

This is a guy talking about 'Runner beans. Same I guess for Broad beans.
Intresting what he has to say about them rotting if planted incorrectly.
Runners, Step Two

[Flummery]

For donkeys years farmers have bunged in field beans by casting them willy nilly into the soil. They cope.

[Rocketron]

Is that a seed germination rule, I wonder, that the first thing to grow is the root?

Yes, it is.

[binley100]

Okay the rooting broad beans have now been sown with the root pointing down. Let's see if they grow now.