Hi All - for the long beans, it is not really how long they get that determines when you harvest them. In the same plant, some will be longer, some will be shorter. It is the diameter that you should watch out for. I usually pick them when they are about pencil width and still turgid. After awhile, you can see when they are getting old, and the shell becomes pithy. At that stage, you could still eat the seed, but not the shell. This is last year's harvest - mine's are just beginning to get to about 5 feet now.
