"lagniappe" wrote in message

Are the large white dried lima beans, the sort you
buy in the grocery store for soaking, cooking, and
eating, fertile? Or do they do something to them
to keep them from being viable?

They are probably fertile and just naturally dried as that is the easiest
(and also the cheapest) way of getting them to the consumer.

I have a particular
brand that I buy in 1-lb bags for cooking and eating,
that I particularly like. Can I plant these and
expect to get enough to germinate that I can grow
them and then have a source of fresh seeds? Or do
they irradiate or heat them or something else to make
them sterile?

Assuming these very-dried beans are viable, what is
the best way to proceed? Just bury them, or soak
first?

First you really do need to know whether they were F1 hybrids. As others
have already mentioned, these do not come true to type but that is not
especially important if you just want to have go at growing them. What IS
important is that many members of the bean family (and this included Limas)
can contain cyanogenic glucocides which is a poison. This can be
ameliorated by the common practice of repeated adding and discarding water
during cooking.

Now the offspring may just be a good bean and cause no problems but if the
F1 turns out to have a lot of the poisons then that is obviously not a
desirable outcome for you.

I would advise that you find a source of open pollinated beans and stick to
them or ask/search/do a googe hunt for the American Seed Saver group.