Glucose solution - too much of a good thing?

Since the autopsy i have been considering different possibilities as to why my beans germination was unsuccessful. Initially i had thought that glucose would help the bean by giving it more energy, although i am aware that the bean has all the energy it needs for germination ready inside. The mixture was quite strong, about 1:10 glucose / water, a combination which works for me when i need high levels of energy at times of physical exertion. I had presumed that the bean would also be involved in a high level of physical exertion in germination, and the glucose would help!

I considered possibilitythat perhaps the glucose had made it too sticky for the bean to emerge, although the autopsy revealed that the bean had made no progress whatsoever on the germination front. Although there was evidence of moisture in the bean, perhaps there wasn't enough at its critical stages of germination.

A feasible theory on it's failure to germinate could be related to osmosis which would affect the water balance of the bean and absorption of moisture. If the sugar content of the water outside the bean was greater than the bean itself then water could potentially be drawn out of the bean.
To test whether the water was just too high in glucose i conducted a further experiment. I put a cube of potato in the remaining glucose solution, and one of the same size in water. If the water was easily absorbed the potato will get bigger, if it shrinks the water is evidently being drawn out of the bean. Interestingly over 12 hours, the water potato got bigger, and the glucose potato got very slightly smaller, showing that the glucose solution actually drew moisture out the potato.

Instead of the glucose helping germination, the concentration was so high that it actually hindered the absorption of moisture essential for growth. Although i had intended to help growth, i inadvertently jeopardised any chance of life that my beans may have had!

The last bean gets the chop

I'm now just a little concerned with the lack of progress the glucose solution beans have made, no plant has ever done as poorly as this in my care! After holding out as long as i could, hoping for change i have now decided that no germination period could be as long as this in 'favourable' conditions. With no signs of life, my beans have now had an autopsy, not to see cause of death in this case, but to see if there were any signs of life before death. The outer shell of my beans are quite brown and shrivelled now, and the inside revealed itself to be soft and creamy - not shrivelled at all. It is evident now that moisture has reached the inside, yet something was obviously inhibiting the beans growth. Water and glucose should have been an ideal solution for beans, yet i really can't see how it had no effect on my beans. I'm off to do some more research...

The Roswelll Autopsy

I have today done an autopsy on one of my beans (without the presence of any rheumy eyed aliens or reference to Area 51), the shoots are quite green still and are about two inches in length with the beginnings of leaves on the end.
However they do not look overly healthy with the outer shell being very brown and shrivelled which has allowed a somewhat small white bean to emerge.
I have cut the bean in half from the shoot downwards, the inside of the bean is a creamy white colour and is a little like a water chesnut in texture. Inside of the beans there are several brown rings (simillar to the rings in a tree stump), I am unsure of why these are present, I wonder if perhaps this is due to the salt which is rotting the beans cell structure by depleating its water intake and ability to hold the water within the cells.
The beans roots are now very brown in colour and shrivelled, I think this is partly because they have been unable to root themselves and also because of the salt effecting the beans growth.

I have quite enjoyed my bean blog, I have not grown anything from scratch for a while, I think I will not be watering my house plants with a salt water solution anytime soon!
On the whole my results were as I thought they may be from the research I carried out on the subjects of plants and beans and the use of salt solution watering.
It has also made me think about my own salt intake in my own diet and the effect it could have on my insides as it effected the beans insides.