I sow my seeds into heated germination flats and transplant, when ready, into cell packs. This was how I was taught to do it in college, how I did it when working for a commercial business, how I taught hundreds of students to do it, and how I did it myself when I was growing thousands of bedding and vegetable plants. I still do it this way, now that I'm only growing a few hundred plants. It's efficient, convenient, and beneficial for the plants. I can sow 100-200 seeds into one plastic flat. I heat mine with heating cables buried into the germination mix. My successful transplant rate from the crowded germination flat is exceedingly high, probably 98%. Young seedlings don't falter for one millisecond due to this second step...rather, they burst into rapid development. I use a much coarser potting mix for the cell packs, to be sure. The cells I use are either 36 or 48 to the sheet, plenty big enough for a hefty, sturdy plant ready for the 'real world'. They can stay in a cell that size for several weeks, waiting for conditions to be right. I feel no need for a larger finished plant. The smaller ones catch up to the larger in no time, anyway. Why do I propagate this way? The germination medium is, by necessity, fairly fine textured (ProMix) and I absolutely do NOT want to grow any plants in that stuff for more than a few days after germination. The few flats that I heat take up very little space and once transplanted, I'll only use 9 or 10 liners filled with the cells. That makes it easy enough for me to take them outside during the day and bring them back in at night, if the temperatures are too low. Seedlings are much tougher than people realize. When grown properly, their stems are sturdy and springy. Though I sow them VERY close together in the flat, they prise apart very readily and without detectible damage. The filled cell packs will be pre-drilled with little holes so that the seedlings plop right in. I do one flat at a time, watering them in thoroughly with my misting nozzle when done. One thing to remember is that root systems will regenerate and regrow rapidly. This is true for all kinds of plants. As a matter of fact, root pruning is how we encourage a flush of new root growth in woody plants and houseplants. The fibrous roots of young bedding plants are not likely to cause the seedlings any problems at all during a proper transplant process. Here is a link that might be useful: flats and cell packs

I often put 4 seedlings into a tray cell that size, one in each corner. As soon as they grow two pairs of true leaves (much smaller than those in the photo), I use an ice tea spoon to scoop out each corner's tomato plant and transplant into a 9 oz. plastic cup. I just use the spoon to cut through the roots. I never lose one, and the plants I grow are just as healthy as they would be if each was started in a separate cell.

Fran Berner Landfrauen is definitely a very good bean, extremely tasty. However it has one disadvantage and that is its lateness. So I urge you to grow at least one other. For example Kwintus, which will go right through the season and produce early and late. Another you might like to try is Kentucky Wonder. A yellow wax bean, Neckargold, also produces early. You can never grow too many different tall growing beans. I usually grow over 20 varieties every year. Do they taste better? Not necessarily, but there are many more tall varieties than bush varieties, so you have much wider choice. Often bush varieties are agri-business varieties because they can be machine harvested. High yielding and ripening all pods evenly on the same day. Not so good for gardeners who want to harvest over a long period. I cannot promise that the tall varieties I grow and love will taste equally good at your location, because weather and soil and cultivation influences flavour, but I can promise that you will find a huge choice of tasty beans amongst the tall varieties. They may need trellising, but it is so much easier to pick standing upright, than having to bend and stoop. Good luck

You have lots of options - Certainly you can let them grow. Last year I did just that with a bunch of volunteers. It does make a mess & I think the hardest part was trying to harvest. Just be prepared to feed them (maybe some compost tea) and keep them watered. Remember the roots will go out for more than 4ft in each direction. So don't just water near the stems. If the nutrients are there they'll be ok. Another problem with the crowding is if they get any disease, it will spread quickly esp. powdery mildew. Just be prepared to trellis them and try to keep up with pruning, ha - they WILL grow fast if they like it there. If I was going to thin them - I would use scissors. Don't forget tomatoes root very easily and you can experiment with some of these just to see if YOU can do it. It is sooo much more fun if you don't care if it takes. You might even try just sticking them in the soil - wet soil - and keeping it watered to see how they do. Try a couple different ways. Good Luck with whatever you decide, Gumby_CT - who thinks gardening is one huge experiment, ha!