How Beans Grow by National Gardening Association Editors If
you've ever walked by containers of bulk seed in a garden store,
you may have been surprised by the many different colors, sizes
and shapes of the beans -- even by the variety of designs on the
seed coats and their descriptive names: 'Soldier', 'Wren's Egg',
'Yellow Eye', 'Black Eye', and others. Maybe you were impressed,
too, with how big some of these seeds are. Underneath the large,
hard seed coat is an embryo, a tiny plant ready to spring to
life. When you plant a bean seed, the right amount of water,
oxygen and a warm temperature (65°F to 75°F) will help it break
through its seed coat and push its way up through the soil. The
Seed of Life Most of the energy the young plant needs is stored
within the seed. In fact, there's enough food to nourish bean
plants until the first true leaves appear without using any
fertilizer at all. As the tender, young beans come up, they must
push pairs of folded seed leaves (or cotyledons) through the
soil and spre