"I plan to pre-sprout them so that I only plant the ones that are definitely viable..." Too much labor. A bag of seed is $1.50 - just soak the beans overnight and plant. Plenty will come up. Trust me. "I have no idea exactly what variety these are, how long it will take them to mature and put out fruit, etc. " It makes little difference; they are all about the same. "I do know that they are most likely bush beans, but I do plan on giving them some support if necessary. " It won't be. Let em do their thing. My questions are: "1. If I am planting one 4-ft row, would 4 plants be too many for that space? I may not get many... DH seem to believe that the time and effort to harvest them may far outweigh the relatively cheap cost at which they can be purchased and low output of bean plants." Plant them 4" apart all around - 9-12 per SQUARE FOOT. DH is RIGHT, TOO. I grow them as cover and forage for chickens. And I eat some. But it takes a LOT of plants to make a season. Machine methods make them cheap. But you don't need to adopt them. Grow in sq . foot groups. "2. Since there is a chance that they may be slightly more vine-y than bush-y, is there also a chance that I might be able to clone them?" Don't bother - too much labor again for cheap seed. Just plant more beans. And it won't work anyway; theu don't grow from cuttings. "3. If I pick off pods at some point, will this at all encourage them to grow more? Yes, They keep producing for 2-3 pickings, when picked green. "Say for example, if I pick them off to dry them myself, as opposed to waiting for them to dry on the vine? Can you even do that?" Three pickings: 1. When young pods are about 3-4" long; eat like snap beans. 2. When matured, but still soft and green, as "edamame" or Southern-type "field peas," 3. When completely dried as cooked beans and seed. "4. I understand that they might not set pod once temps reach 80 and above. Being in Chicago, that means potentially by mid-June, but more likely July and August. If they have not set pods by then, will they never set pods, or will they simply set pods later in the season after it cools off again?" Pinto's, Navy's, Limas - they will struggle setting in the heat. Black beans, field peas/cowpeas, lentils, pigeon peas - they love the heat. "5. If they do set pods before the temperature gets too high, and I harvest them, will they again set pods once the weather cools again?" Possibly. They don't last long, and too early will subject them to bean beetles. Once they give their all, I suggest you chop em em up and compost em. Better to grow two crops than try to hold one. "6. I have read in many places that you are actually supposed to wait for the plant to DIE before harvesting the beans. How accurate/efficient is this?" For dried beans, sure. But once the pods are obviously dried, pull the plants up and re-use the space. "7. Lastly, again being in Chicago, we tend to have a very wet fall season. I understand this can complicate the drying process, so what would the recommendation be as far as harvesting the beans before they might be completely dry on the vine, but before the weather gets too wet?" Plant in late May and add plantings every two weeks until mid-July. Your last bunch will come off end of September/early October. Once the beans are mature, you can pull the plants, broom them and hang until completely dry if you wish. By then you will have had your fill of beans, I assure you.

Yep, what Ruthie said. Now, you didn't say if they were pole beans or bush beans. If they are pole beans, I would pick all mature / over mature beans now. If you don't, your plants will quit producing. I don't know what Zone you're in, but you should be able to harvest pole beans into mid/late September. Bush beans generally produce one flush of beans, then they're done. I have read that if you cut your bush beans down to six inches (some folks use a lawnmower!), they will come back and produce another flush. I've never tried it so I don't know if it works or not. I guess it would also depend on your Zone as well. Anyway, throwing them away should be your last choice! You should either freeze or shell, depending on moisture content, as others have said above. Good luck. Rick

Thanks. The description on the Supernano Marconi Gold sounds interesting -- a yellow, half-runner, Romano would be an excellent addition to my bean selection. I'm happy with the current yellow and purple bush beans -- Dragon Langerie is the bean I plant when I can only grow one and Royal Burgundy Purple Pod is a definite improvement on the old Royalty Purple Pod for my purposes (which may not be anyone else's purposes so anyone inclined towards purple beans should try both). So its the pole and half-runner types in yellow and purple that I'm wondering about. As for the cowpeas, I won't say that you couldn't pay me to eat beans in the shell stage, but it wouldn't come cheap. ;-) :-D LOL I've never enjoyed limas, shell beans, or any form of dry bean except lentils and garbanzos. Are there any particular cowpea varieties that are better as snap beans than others? I'm enjoying learning to grow the heat-loving veggies I've never had before.

There are both red & purple yardlongs. Chinese Red Noodle (the most popular red cultivar) has a longer DTM than some of the black seeded cultivars, but still does well here. I tried a purple-podded yardlong (from an SSE member in the deep South) and it appeared to be daylength sensitive, with no flowers before September. The few pods which did form before frost, though, were dark purple, not red; so I know both colors exist.