Zeedman
Garden Master
I concur with @Bluejay77 's comments. In my area, the garden usually gets a light frost or two before the killing freeze. For pole beans (which are most of the beans I grow) this has the effect of killing most of the foliage & vine tips, but not the stems or pods. Immediately following the first frost, the vines abort all the younger pods, and the remaining pods mature & dry at an accelerated pace. In a "normal" year, there will be at least another 10-14 days before the killing freeze, and for some pole beans, I may harvest over half of the dry beans during that period.Sometimes when I'm growing pole bean seed and I see that the pods are swollen full of seed and some pods have already begun to yellow out. I cut the vines at the ground level to stop water uptake. I also sometimes will take the time to trim away most of the plants leaves exposing them to sun and wind to speed up and enhance the drying process.