Many of the bush beans that I have planted in my garden poke through the soil with the dicot leaes are missing. As the plant appears the stem contains the two sides of the bean, split open and just a short green stem where the leaves should be attached. Obviously the plant cannot continue to grow but instead just rots away. This happens to about 1/3 of the bean seeds planted.
I plant my bean seeds with a handful of blood meal, bone meal and wood ashes. Could that be burning away the dicot? Could a pest be eating the dicot as the bean opens underground?
I woud love to know the answer to this because it has happened for several years now. I have to replant, sometimes twice to get a full crop of beans.