A better 'gombo' or okra?

[bertiefox]

Having grown Hibiscus Manihot or Abelmoschus Manihot for several years, I'm impressed by its vigour and large pods. The leaves and flowers are edible and used quite a lot in different Pacific countries I believe.
It is SO like Okra or Gumbo, I'm wondering if there have been any attempts to cross it to make a much more vigorous okra. Our okra usually give up after a few feeble pods, even in a polytunnel.
My plan this year is to cross it both ways with Hibiscus Manihot and save the seed from the resulting pods.
Has this got any prospect of succeeding? The plants, flowers and pods look so similar that I'm convinced they must be closely related, but the purists demand the 'abelmoschus' name rather than hibiscus.
I'd be interested to hear if this is an experiment worth carrying out. If it is, perhaps others would like to try it this year as well. Hib. Manihot is worth growing just for the flowers in any case.

[castanea]

They will cross but the problem with Abelmoschus manihot is that it allegedely has very spiny pods. I've never grown it so I don't know personally. The last thing I would want to do with regular okra is introduce more spininess into the pods. Breeders in Asia have crossed them to introduce more disease resistance into regular okra.

Where do you live that manihot is vigorous and regular okra is not? That's unusual.

[bertiefox]

I agree the pods are very spiny as I tried eating some of them as okra, and it was impossible! Here (northern central France) the manihot grows in pots outdoors and makes huge plants with numerous pods, but the okra seems to give up, even in the polytunnel, as soon as the first two or three pods have set.
It was possible to use the manihot like a garden flower, just for its large yellow hibiscus flowers.

[waltseed]

I have crossed okra and A. manihot a couple of times. The amount of spines is intermediate between the two species, too spiny for me.
The F1 set no seeds, though I hand pollinated many flowers with okra pollen.
I think if the hybrid was doubled, it would be fertile, at least some.

[bertiefox]

Thanks Waltseed. At least I have lots of vigorous okra plants and A. manihot ones in the polytunnel at the moment so I will try to replicate your experiment and see how the results turn out.

[wildseed57]

I've grow both also, I like using A. manihot as a green over okra as the leaves are larger and better tasting. There are some dwarf okra varieties that might grow better for you, rather than the taller varieties. Pitre's short bush red cowhorn and Vidrine's Midget Cowhorn are two dwarf types, Burguny is a early variety at 55 days and Emerald is a Campbell soup variety that takes 58 days to mature. Your right about A. manihot having small very spiny pods and yes I tried to eat them which was a big mistake, I almost choked on the first one I tried it was like I had a mouth full of sharp spines, that is one thing I won't try again.
George W.