"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.

Just happened to come across this post. I'd say 95% of my peppers were grown from store bought fruits. They have been productive and haven't given me much problems except for when I brought them outside from indoor growing. One of my sweet bell peppers is fully loaded, it has 6 or 7 giant fruit on it and 1 of them is starting to turn colour now. Here is a picture of my scotch bonnet also grown from store bought fruit.... Unfortunately I didn't put it in a good location because it's surrounded by green beans and a couple corn plants and fava beans.... The good news is the fava beans are almost ready so they'll be gone within a week, two max.

I usually buy navels because they are seedless. I'm surprised that you have come across some that have seeds, pammyfay. Like someone mentioned, perhaps they were mis-marked? I love the Halo's and take the mesh bag out of the crate and put them in the fridge. They take up less space that way, and keep a long time when chilled. I like the navels at Walmart. They are loose, not in a bag and cost about 68 cents each. They are always sweet and good! I sometimes peel them with a tupperware peeler, but most of the time I cut them into wedges and eat them like Ravencajun, I just pull the orange section off with my teeth. Be sure to wash the orange before cutting open! I cut the orange in half lengthwise, then cut each half, lengthwise, into four pieces. Quick and easy!

I'm not sure what's happening here any more, but I am not getting any notifications from Houzz, except for ones that I signed up for. I would like to add, however, that I have known a few people who take casual conversations with strangers a bit too far, and this includes my father and maternal grandmother, who were very much alike and therefore hated each other. Both of them would talk way too much with (or to) people that they did not know and share way more information than the innocent victim wanted to hear. I do not feel that I am like either of them, and I like to keep conversations mutual. I am as interested in hearing what the other person wants to say as I am in sharing information with that person. For me, sharing is a two-way street, and I am not interested in creating traffic jams. OTOH, I have also been the victim of people who want to share too much information, especially when stuck next to someone on a plane. Sometimes this can be excruciating but other times it can be entertaining. I've heard some very funny stories from people on planes, as well as some very boring ones.