Having put winged beans (Psophocarpus tetragonolobus) in the cold sowing bottles, I changed my mind and dug them out again. They are a warm weather bean and if they can’t grow when I follow the instructions, treating them the complete opposite would be a bigger mistake.
By the time I had decided to do this, they had already been out in the cold and rain for a few days but they did look a bit better than when they were put in. The beans have a very hard covering which should be scarified, then soaked in warm water for 24 hours. That’s what I decided to do, yet again. The shell was still hard although it was obvious the wet compost had started to soften it to some degree.
I nicked the shells and put the beans in a thermos flask of warm water. It is quite cold here so water doesn’t stay warm long and I felt the flask would keep the water at a better temperature. I have now re-potted the beans in paper maché pots and put them back in the five litre-bottle, but will be kept indoors meantime.
The water bottles make very good propagators whether indoors or out, so even if you don’t have a greenhouse to start seeds off in, any container which would let the light in and hold in the heat, would help.
Sweet Peas in a two-litre bottle
Sweet Red Peppers in a one-pint bottle
From: Pinterest
From: fivegallonideas
That’s the last of the winged beans now, so this will be a ‘do or die’ attempt with them. If any survive, it will be interesting, if not then it will be time to move on to try something else.
themagnoliatreeblog 
I like your reuse of containers. I have started using soft fruit and cherry tomato punnets with hinged lids as little seed pot propagators. I’m sure when I volunteered at Castle Bromwich Hall Gardens we were growing winged beans outside. Although I wasn’t involved in propagating them so can’t help. I suspect you may find them a nuisance needing potting on in the warm for a while yet…..That reminds me though I was going to have another try with giant achocha, which I was determined to start off nice and early this year.
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I’ve grown Achocha Fat Babies for two or three years now and tried the ‘exploding’ Achocha once. There is quite a difference in temperature between Castle Bromwich Hall Gardens and here. Milk bottles are quite good as propagatorsand cutting the top off leaves a neat pot. I have a square bottomed gutter shelf in the greenhouse and the one pint milk bottles fit perfectly. My daughter is in Cheshire so if I can get the winged beans to sprout, I may let them go to warmer climes!
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I think many people try the exploding cucumber just once!
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Trying to get seeds from it was hilarious!
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