I dont wanna tell you your method of germing is no good because if it works for you.....it works for you... But something I learned in my short time doing this, the one thing I've learned to do well is get seeds to sprout... I suck at most everything else but I got good at this.... You are soaking your beans way to long bro.... I know everyone says you need a taproot showing or the seed needs to start to split etc.... not true... The key to beans popping is the moisture.... once the seeds start to sink, which can be done in as little as 4-8 hours or less by giving them a stir once in a while, I use bottled spring water for the soaking part also.... Once you see the seed sink, that means its absorbed as much moisture as its going to.... Yes it hasnt split, and you arent seeing a taproot, 100% correct... but you dont need to see that, as far as I know roots dont like light and go the opposite way so why ever expose them to it is my take.... anyhow... onward...
Once you get them to sink, take a solo cup or whatever your gonna use to germ in, fill with your medium, I have had the best success with Fox farms light warrior, I only use it for germing seeds... anyhow soak the medium with aerated tap or whatever you use, dig in 1/4 to 3/8ths of an inch or so right in the middle, drop your soaked seed in with a tweezers and cover it back up.... After that I'll take a spray bottle with the aerated tap water and wet the top of the cup once more.... Put it under a CFL or the like and walk away...... within 2-5 days you'll have sprouts...
Theres even more to it if you wanna get real crazy as to which way you should point the seed as the tap root is going to come out one side or the other, if you look at the seeds you'll see where it detached from the plant it grew from, I am not 100% which end the taproot comes out of, but there is an article here somewhere that describes this in detail, I think sub wrote it so it may be in the stickies but I dont go that far, I just drop the seed in and let it do its thing... I dont put baggies on them, although its not a bad idea if you have a low humidity problem but my opinion on why you didnt get sprouts is because they were over saturated to begin with, then with the bag over them keeping the humidity at 100% they just kinda melted... Humidity should be high but not 100%....Also, these things need wet and dry cycles. If and when you try this method, you'll notice the sprouts actually pop out of the soil once it starts to dry a little.... I actually put a small fan in the area, not directly on the cups but in the general area just to keep some air moving...
Moisture is good... too much or too little is bad but the middle is a very broad spectrum and isnt all that important for sprouting seeds... having the humidity high in the 80-100% range is more important for clones, not so much for seedlings... I'd say 40-70% RH is fine... closer to 50-60%RH is what I'd go for..... but seeds are easy, you almost have to try and make them not germinate.... Since I started doing it this way I've never not had a seed sprout, I've had them push themselves out of the soil completely and die because I buried the seed on top of a big chunk of perlite, but they always sprout....
Give it a try....... Again, I'm not saying your method or anyone elses is wrong but the paper towel method is way to dangerous for me, and soaking them for more than the amount of time it takes them to sink is over saturating them, sub actually recommends not even soaking them.... but hes recommending that with his seeds, and you are correct TGA beans have a high germ rate but as long as a seed is viable it should pop if you follow my instructions....
I'm gonna be popping some beans in the very near future myself which I'll be documenting the grow so I'll show it in as real time as I can.... They will be TGA beans but I'll do a couple freebies I have just to show that it'll work with anything but try it next time, you wont regret it and most of all its easy and requires basically no intervention once you put it in the dirt which is a good thing, touching them and dealing with the taproot etc.. is just a way to screw them up in my opinion, the less human intervention the better, they didnt make it millions/billions of years because we jumped in to help.....
