Popping beans (Nunas) are Phaseolus vulgaris, just like common beans... but yes, they are short-day plants. In most of the Temperate Zone, that means they don't flower until the equinox, around mid-September. That's too close to frost for most of us to get seed. I've grown a few legumes here that were daylength sensitive, such as rice bean, hyacinth bean, and some tropical yardlongs... they got luxurious growth, flowered late, even gave me a few immature pods to sample, but get no ripe beans.
There were (and probably still are) breeding projects to develop day-neutral Nunas, and there are already cultivars out there... but they are all patented, and heavily controlled. From what I've read, they are tied up in litigation over indigenous property rights. I know someone who grows them, but the Material Transfer Agreement prohibits them from sharing seed.
Pretty sad, when a product of conventional breeding - developed in a Land Grant institution, supported by our tax dollars - is as tightly controlled as a GMO. Especially when so many gardeners would be interested in them, were they to be made available. I wonder if they ever will be???
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