Are you sure the tops haven't been chewed off by mice or rabbits? That's what I always assume when their leaves are missing.

My wild guess is that something underground ate those leaves before they had a chance to grow. I see this happen with millipedes, but in that case there is generally quite visible damage to the bean itself. If the bean looks like it has been munched on then it's possible whatever did that also munched the leaves off. If the bean is smooth, plump, whole and light-colored, then I have no idea. If it is millipedes, it only gets worse year after year. The small ones just love to get inside of beans and peas.
As an experiment you might try planting some beans inside a piece of folded-over paper towel. I do this to exclude millipedes and it works wonders with my peas. Without it, millipedes wreck them. I would try this even if you don't suspect millipedes. Beans get hit so hard in the soil I won't even direct seed them anymore. I start them in pots in my cold frame and transplant them. My next door neighbor doesn't do this and her beans are in sad shape while mine are climbing like crazy. I haven't tried the paper towel trick with beans yet, but I may next year.

Sowbugs are a possibility as well.

Dan

I think it is an internal weakness in the seed. You might get more of it in cold and wet weather, but I have had scadillions of this over the years. You may have 5 good ones and then one of the described above.

This is interesting. I had alot of this this year. We had a long very cool spring, even after the frost date. That could explain it. I just sowed fresh seed in the skipped areas. It came up and caught up pretty quickly.

No one seems to recommend it, but I started mine inside. 2 beans each in little 3oz cups. As soon as they sprouted I snipped off the 2nd bean where there was one and moved them to 4" peat pots. They grew in those for 3 weeks and then moved outside. I just ripped out the bottoms of the pots and planted them, so no real root disturbance. They are now more than halfway up my cattle panel arches, full of flowers and just this morning I saw about a dozen tiny little beans. Its my first time with pole beans and I am feeling pretty happy.

cutworm is a possibility too, I guess.
I wonder if the paper towel trick would work on peas that get eaten underground by mice? I presprout my peas, and that seems to keep the mice from being interested in them.

thanks everyone for the advice on the beans I planted them this year in a new spot and the beans came up but over half of them have no leaves or just dried up ones they have the bean pod with a stem and no leaves? could be cut worms and such like you mentioned or some other kind of bug millipedes etc. so I planted more lets see what happens now. When and if I get a new green house I can try them in pots but mainly start plants in my house but don't have the room for over 100 bean plants but I could do some like that and the others in the ground and see if that makes a difference thank you again

If the bean seed pod is still attached to the top of the stem then the leaves are trapped inside the pod and may or may not eventually free itself. I usually get around 5% of this in my spring planting but I usually don't see it much with my fall planting in late July. It may be from a weak seed or possibly inadequate moisture during germination. Soaking the seeds for a few hours or overnight might help by softening the seed coat.

I lay most of the problem to cold and wet soil that rots part of the seedling.

Lonejack, if you are referring to a clinging seed coat, I see that fairly often. Inadequate moisture during emergence is the most likely cause. If detected promptly, I find that treating with a spray bottle of water a couple times in a day enables the seed coat to free itself (although sometimes gentle help is necessary). For some reason, this seems to be more common in beans started as transplants.

If the cotyledons emerged but no leaves, they may have broken off underground. This can occur if the beans are planted too deeply and/or the soil is too hard. When this happens, you can dig where the sprout emerged, and find the broken stem & missing leaves. My gardens are clay loam, and this happens occasionally, especially if rain packs down the soil surface after planting.

If the cotyledons are cracked, this can indicate old or weak seed.

As others have mentioned, there are also a great number of birds, insects, and animals which might nip off the tender end of the sprout as it emerges.

Bean transplants overcome most of these issues (which is the main reason I use them) but they only make sense for pole beans, due to their higher yield per plant. A small number of plants can still provide a decent yield.

It is NOT caused by pests or disease. We had that problem and found that it is by bean seeds that weren't harvested properly. Get some better seeds & make sure they are a high quality seed. We hate to waste our time! Can't remember the term for it but it is "something"- head. Check with ag universities. They know.

Amy - I believe the term you are looking for is 'helmet head'. I get it occasionally on my indoor started peppers and tomatoes mostly.

Can you post pictures?

Sorry no pictures. Just picture a tomato or pepper seedling with the cotyledon leaves trapped in the seed coat and unable to expand out.

Fordhook 242 lima beans are the classic example of the problem. Unless conditions are WARM AND DRY ENOUGH, there are a lot of the beans without good leaves, but just a stub and maybe one cotlyledon and a diseased center.

according to the Farmer's Almanac - https://www.almanac.com/fact/my-green-beans-come-up-with-only

bad seed

Cold soil, planting too deep, or bad seed. Starting beans in pots as transplants will usually overcome germination issues with beans. My bean transplants this year are from 2015 & 2016 seed, and had nearly 100% germination. Indoor light is not even necessary to do this, since the beans can (and should) be moved into sunlight immediately following germination. This is the best way to guarantee a good stand, where direct seeding has proven to be problematic.