Rotting seeds?

Can any of you shed some light....I've been trying to sow french bean seeds but they keep rotting to white mush that stinks so bad! Only 1 has grown.

Is it a bad batch or an I doing something wrong?

Sowing the same way I have done in the past, in little window "greenhouse" boxes but this year in using the free council soil rather than bought compost.
2 courgette plants and 4 sunflowers have grown fine but I did sow loads of French beans which haven't.

 

Hi Snowbaby, Some of mine done this so I put them in some damp/wet kitchen towel and only put them into compost when they had sprouted, also used this method for runners.

 

Thank you! I'll try this to see if it helps

 

I think they are beginning to escape the seed shell! Fingers crossed!!

 

This is quite a common problem when growing beans . First time I grew French beans had the same problem. What I do now is mix and wet the multipurpose compost so it is just wet. if you squeeze , it will hold together but no water drips out . Then fill your pots with this and plant your seeds 3 to a pot . I put the plants outside early June and only keep the best growing seed in each pot.

 

I potted the seeds with shoots yesterday so hopefully they'll come on. Very slow though. My only seedling that took from when I posted this is so tall now!

 

Another thing to try is decent compost.I have bought cheap seed and potting compost and sometimes find the seedlings either rot off or just won't grow and seem to stay static for weeks

Also can have the same problem if I sow seeds in old compost as in compost that plants have died in flowerpots and have used the compost for seed sowing

Glad to hear that your beans are now starting to grow