Does anyone presprout their beans before planting? If you do, how does that work out for you? Do you feel it shortens the time for the seedlings to emerge from the soil?
I presprouted all my bean seeds last year, and I'm planning to do it again this year. It was kind of an experiment, but I feel like the pros outweighed the cons by the end of the season.
I used those 2-lb salad mix tubs, with 2 wet dishtowels (one below the beans and one above), and kept the tub under a grow light for warmth. Most beans germinated in about 3 days (which, as other people were saying, can lead to loss of the seeds if you're not planning ahead for exactly the right amount of time). Some smaller, harder beans (like greasy-type beans) seemed to take about a week.
For beans I had a lot of, I presprouted just until the root appeared (in theory, as long as the timing worked out), then planted them out. The main benefit of this seemed to be that *sprouted* beans can withstand colder soil. In soil cold enough that an unsprouted seed would just rot, the presprouted seed did okay; so that gave a head-start to the season. And the seedlings do emerge from the soil faster, since they're already got a head-start.
For beans I only had a few of, I presprouted the seeds then planted them into 4" pots until they looked hearty enough to transplant. Once transplanted they did kinda just sit there for a couple weeks doing nothing while their roots took hold in their new home. So I don't know if transplanting bean starts actually results in a quicker grow time, but it did help weed out dead seed, and it got the plants to the point that they could resist pests (general nibbling, digging animals, etc.) better. (...Except for when my cat nibbled the tops off two of the four of my Harriet's Black Hook while they were still under the grow light. Grr...) And then once the roots took hold, they took off and grew like normal.
