If you're growing beans for eating as green beans you harvest by thickness rather than length. Most standard varieties of round-podded beans are best at about pencil thickness.

Some varieties will continue to yield successive flushes of beans. Other varieties, being bred for a single, machine harvest give one crop and die.

I cannot recall how prolonged a harvest Provider will have. But if you keep them from drying out, you'll get your optimum harvest. Also, unless you have a WHOLE LOT of them, I'd suggest freezing for the surplus. Here's how I do it:

1) Pick and rinse beans.
2) snap & string pods (if necessary)
3) Bring to boil a pot of water
4) Drop beans into the boiling water and let simmer (or steam) for 2 minutes.
5) drain beans from boiling water with a collander
6) briefly rinse beans under cold water
7) drop beans into an ice water bath (which should be already on hand and ready)
8) drain beans and bag them in ziplocks, label and freeze.

George
Tahlequah, OK

macmex that is how my mother does it, However may I add if you prefer to have them individually frozen, you need to place them on a cookie sheet and par freeze them, then bag and freeze.