I am using something like this with no problem.
Longtext is working fine.
The only difference here is that I am not using the @Lenght annotation.
@Length annotation is a net.sf.oval.constraint.Length, you should try to stick with the play.data.validation.* annotations.
Here is my example:
@MaxSize(4000)
@Column(length=4000, nullable=false)
public String description;
If this does not work, check how long is the String you are persisting? Is it possible that its size is greater than 1000? (maybe spaces on a textarea)
Hope it helps you.
Renato