The Final Watery Bean Blog Entry

The water fed beans on cotton wool have surpassed all my expectations. One plant has reached the lofty height of 25cm, the second plant is at a slightly shorter height of 18cm. They both have many bright leaves and look healthy and strong. However, I do expect that the may have been a bit less spindly is they could have got some nutrients from some soil and had something a bit stronger to grab hold of than a pad of cotton wool.

Water Bean Autopsy
Even though I felt really guilty about killing a healthy living plant, I had to cut it open to see what it contained (all in the name of science).
The bean still had a little bit of the brown shell on it, and once remove there was a waxy feeling bean inside. Once this was cut in half I noticed three little white shoots (a bit like new roots) coming from the plant stem in to the bean and a small pale brown patch in the centre. There was one thick brown root coming out of the bean with many smaller roots coming from this.

I have enjoyed doing my bean blog and feel that maybe I have greener fingers than I first thought. It have been interesting observing them closely and my daughter has been excited at bery new development. Even though the bean blog has finished I will be continuing to grow the last bean to see just how far it will go.

This is the successful watery bean blog, signing off for the last time.

Berlin by Christmas!

My beans are now somewhat bedraggled, they are starting to with a bit and the once long green shoot has gone floppyand limp.

I should be pleased really as not only will I not have to scrutinise them for much longer, but also my hypothesis of what would happen when giving them salty water (that the salt would increase their organic metabolic rate and cause the bean to outgrow itself to death) seems to be correct.

But I actually feel quite sorry for them, however it has to be said that mother nature is a tough old bird and that plants will try their hardest to grow despite their growing conditions.

I think the growth factor is also affected by the chilly weather and without doubt also that the roots which are now quite numerous and long have no where to plant themselves, this probably means that by now, the nutrients and general goodness that a bean would normally get from the soil is not there, I am alos wondering if over exposure to light my be a factor? not sure about that one.



Anyway I will continue to watch them and hopefully they may perk up for Christmas, I think within the next week I will dissect one and see whats going on inside before they completely conk out.

The Watery Beans just keep broadening!!

My watery beans are steadily growing bigger and stronger. There are six leaves on each of the plants. One is three inches long with loads of tiny roots the other is just over two and a half inches long with just as many roots and beginning to peek over the top of the cup. I too am thinking that it would have been better to put each bean in their own cup to be able to check the variables a bit better. I do still want to dissect one, but as they are growing so well I feel almost too attached to one to kill one. But if it is the name of science then it may have to happen. It may also be interesting to put one in soil to see the whole life cycle of the plane. However, again I have only two beans and the bean experiment only has a few weeks until we have to bring it to a conclusion, so priorities in the name of science must dictate that a dissection is the only way to go.

Broad Beans: A History

Vicia faba, the broad bean, fava bean, faba bean, horse bean, field bean, tic bean is a species of bean (Fabaceae) native to north Africa and southwest Asia, and extensively cultivated elsewhere. Although usually classified in the same genus Vicia as the vetches, some botanists treat it in a separate monotypic genus as Faba sativa Moench.

These commonly cultivated plants can be attacked by fungal diseases, such as Rust (Uromyces viciae-fabae) and Chocolate Spot (Botrytis fabae).

Broad beans are rich in tyramine, and thus should be avoided by those taking monoamine oxidase (MAOI) inhibitors.
Raw broad beans contain vicine and convicine, which can induce hemolytic anemia in patients with the hereditary condition glucose-6-phosphate dehydrogenase deficiency (G6PD). This potentially fatal condition is called "favism" after the fava bean.[1][2]
Broad beans are rich in L-dopa, a substance used medically in the treatment of Parkinson's disease. L-dopa is also a natriuretic agent, which might help in controlling hypertension.[3] Some also use fava beans as a natural alternative to drugs like Viagra, citing a link between L-dopa production and the human libido.[4] (Taken from Wikipedia 'Broad Beans')

Broad eans are also known as Fava beans in America made famous by 'Silence of the Lambs'

Interestingly, when left to grow Broad bean plants will flower in certain conditions producing a pinky white type flower with long stalks and large green leaves

Beans Meanz Blog

My beans are doing very well, although one seems to have sprouted slightly more than the other, I wondered if this was because of the conditions for boths beans seem to differ slightly- is one somehow getting more light or salt water than another on the windowledge?
I think perhaps if I carried the experiment out again I would pu them in separate cups and gauge more accurately how much light each bean was getting from it position by the window.
But too late now.
The bean's root is quite long now and looks like it is looking for somewhere to bury itself (looking for soil I suppose) the shoots are green and quite long, in the cup both shoots are growing upwards (towards the light).
I am still feeding with salt water although, because they are not as dehaydrated as they were I am now starting to need to water water the beans less as the cotton wool seems to hold much more moisure which the beans are growing on and I assume taking the saline solution from via their newly grown roots.
I will add some photos- still looking for my camera lead to take pictures so for now I will add what I have found on internet that is quite interesting.

Lets get Disecting

Even though my boring watery beans do seem to be growing quite well I do think that disecting one of my beans and allowing the other to grow to its full potental is in fact the way to go. I think that I shall wait to the weekend, (unless they both start to look like they are going to pop their little clogs then I may have to bring the operation forward in my schedual) and will record the results and observations for you all right here!
xx

Ahh, wonderdog, I have just read your blog! I think an autopsy could be the way to go for your beans although you could give them a bit longer maybe they're just a bit slow!
I think I might cut one of mine up next week and leave the other one to grow to its full potential, or out grow itself as I think may happen with salt water feeding.

tis the season to be sprouting!

My beans are sprouting marvelously now, there has been a bit of a gap in my blog due to the week of school experience, but I am hoping now that I can turn my attention back to my beans.In the busy interim, my beans have split their shells in half and have sprouted a white and green shoot as well as growing a white and brown root on each bean.
They look very healthy, I am at the moment trying to find the lead for my camera so that I can upload some photos of the beans.
I am suprised that they have grown this well, as at the beginning I thought that perhaps they would not grow at all due to my giving them salty water.I wonder if this growth sprout is due to the effect of the salt on the plants/beans organic growth as I found when I researched into the effects of salt on bean growth on the internet- that the salt can cause the plant to grow quickly but at the risk of the plants longterm health/wellbeing and development.
I am going to research a bit more on the net, I am also considering MAYBE cutting one of my beans open to have a look at its cross section and what is going on inside the shell and bean itself.Are any of the other bean growers going to do this?

High Energy Has Beans...

The glucose solution beans have done nothing, despite the attentive 'watering' every day... the only thing i think they have begun to sprout is mould!

How are salty beans fairing?

I am contemplating an autopsy (on just one bean) to see if anything did happen inside the bean itself, any ideas?

Watery beans pics as promised