Can you take the beans you buy at the store and plant them?!

Question:

Can you take the beans you buy at the store and plant them?

like chick peas, kidney beans and soybeans...? sesame seeds? poppy seeds? flax seeds?

Additional Details

4 months ago
I was thinking of buying laura soybeans and planting them for soymilk...they say those are the best for soymilk?? not sure of the difference between oil beans and Dinah beans (my sis is Dinah)

4 months ago
the laura beans I read from someone on here make the best tasting soymilk. Fairview Farms sells them. http://www.fairviewfarms.com/ I have not tried this yet.One soymilk maker recommends them also.

Answers:

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4 months ago
I was thinking of buying laura soybeans and planting them for soymilk...they say those are the best for soymilk?? not sure of the difference between oil beans and Dinah beans (my sis is Dinah)

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4 months ago
the laura beans I read from someone on here make the best tasting soymilk. Fairview Farms sells them. http://www.fairviewfarms.com/ I have not tried this yet.One soymilk maker recommends them also.

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The beans usually work, the seeds in the spice jars often don't!

The reason is that many/most imported spices are required to undergo sterilization to kill any unwanted 'critters' that might be present. The treatment also usually kills the seed.

A good rule of thumb (but it's not 100%) is that if the tiny print (hey, we're veggies! we're good with tiny print) shows the products originated in North America it will usually sprout. If the country of origin is outside N.A. it's usually dead.

The damp paper trick works well, but I'd add that you should do it with ten seeds to get a live percentage so you know how many seeds to plant in each hole!

Oh! Almost forgot that many/most of the beans, legumes and corn found in the store came from hybrid plants! That means you don't exactly know what the plants you get will be like. I'm not speaking of getting weird frankenfood type plants. Just that some might do better than others or (from experience) you might have some tall, lanky soybean plants that give small, hard oilseed soybeans and some shorter, bushier soybean plants that give large soymeal type beans that the health stores usually call "Dinah" soybeans.

Edit:

I'll go into a little more soybean detail for you and try to keep the science level low. There are now hundreds if not thousands of different cultivars (names) of soybean. As a general rule the smaller beans have higher percentages of oil than larger beans. This makes them better if you want soybean oil. The larger beans have a higher percentage of protein, which is better if you're more interested in protein than oil. Thus, as a general rule, the larger beans are preferred for soymilk, tofu etc.
I've never really worried about it too much since IMO for home use the difference is fairly minor. In a quart of soymilk you're talking about (plus or minus) less than a teaspoon of oil. The smaller beans I've seen are roughly the size of a small navy bean and the largest are like large pinto beans.

I can only find one reference to a soybean 'officially' called "Laura" and it seems to be a mid to large size bean and it also appears to be Round-up resistant. Don't take my word for that information! With so many different cultivars, reliable information is only likely from the source of the seed! If these are from a bin at a health food store there really isn't a way to be sure other than to try to track back to who they got the beans from.

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Try putting them on absorbant paper, kitshen paper, or tissues, on an lid, to hold a little water.
Put them in a sunny place and keep a little water up to them.
Its fun to watch them grow.
I'm not sure about the dried seeds, but peas and beans often work.

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Yes, some will grow and as one other poster stated they might be from hybred plants so you will probably get a mix of plants.

You can usually get organic seed from the health food store.

You also need to know a little about your climate & what zone you are in. If you want to grow your own edamame you need to buy specific seed.

Research the soybean variety you are going to plant so you know when to start watching the pods to dry---if they are drying & a rainstorm threatens you need to be able to pull the plants or remove the pods and have a place and screens ready for them to continue drying or you will end up with a moldy mess!

Several seed houses do sell the edible poppy seeds to grow your own. Some things are a pain to harvest so be sure to check it out first! {alfalfa is one I think is a pain plus they can become a real pest}

If you want to grow your own seeds for sprouts start with the larger seeds like mung bean, radish {small but very easy to harvest}, tritacale {wonderfully sweet}, etc. and soak overnight before planting for faster germination. {try soaking in warm water in a thermos or closed jar wrapped in a towel to keep warm longer}

If you have a short season & need to plant early or a cold snap threatens, use milk jugs, jars, etc. filled with warm water around your plants & they will most likely make it thru.

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yes

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