Okra

[12540dumont]

Joseph, You'll have to make pickled okra if this keeps up.

[steev]

Don't know where my mixed seed from last year is; somewhere in the pump-house, I think; the soil is warm, so I need to get it planted. I've found my packets of varietals, but what the farm produced is what interests me, given that it may be more adapted to the farm. Getting okra as tall as me will be easier than it was for Joseph, as I'm not as tall as he. I'm not competitive; I just want to eat some okra on a reliable basis.

[imgrimmer]

steev Do you sow Okra directly into the ground? Are you in the south?

[steev]

Found my saved seed; planted directly ~200' of mixed seed.

I'm in NorCal; nights are now mid-50F and days mid-90F; the soil is getting very warm; having had mediocre results with transplants several times, I thought I'd just plant direct, having plenty of seed. The seed being a mixture of four varieties jumbled together, the experiment is afoot.

[reed]

I have never grown it before, not sure I like it but I had some seed so I put them in direct and they popped right up. Seed was a couple years old but looks like all or nearly so sprouted.

[kyredneck]

Joseph, your okra story is so cool. You inspire me. Thanks for showing me how to do these things.

[Joseph Lofthouse]

I started the okra, and bunch of seeds in a 3" pot, and then pricked them out to plant into individual pots. The okra did not like being potted up... So next year if I make okra transplants, I intend to put them into somewhat large pots, say 2", and then plant 3 seeds in each pot, and cull to the most vigorously growing plant. No potting up next year. Transplanting is definitely worth my while, It gets the seeds sprouted quickly, and gets plants into the garden that are big enough to not be immediately devoured by bugs.

Despite my foibles as a farmer, many of the plants survived and have been producing excess fruits for the farmer's market.

August 29th.


September 12th.


Hard frost expected in a day or two. Be interesting to see if some of them keep producing okra until November like they did last year.

This is what the foreign okra looked like early in the season. I culled a good number of them due to poor growth. The bugs culled some. I accidentally chopped some because they are not in my weeding mental map of desired species. (Looked like weeds). Sultani had a lot of diversity, so some plants were culled and some plants thrived.

[Joseph Lofthouse]

Bwah ha ha!!! Interesting how things have changed since I first grew okra 5 growing seasons ago...

Jul 26, 2011 19:28:51 GMT -5 Joseph Lofthouse said:

My garden sure doesn't have what it takes for okra to thrive. And I since it is such a socially out of favor vegetable around here I don't have any inclination to develop a cold-tolerant or short season strain. Imagine that: Biological reasons for a vegetable to be a social misfit.

Sweet potato is another species that falls into that category for us.

For what it's worth, this week I received three packets of sweet potato seeds in the mail...

[imgrimmer]

I try to grow Okra since some years, last year I harvested the first seeds. And all died by phytophtora infection in pots. Okra is definately not suited for sowing in pots for me.
But one of yours survived and is now about to bloom.
I do have Hibiscus sabdariffa growing aside doing much better, but as it seems Okra and other Hibiscus seem to have a pollinating problem in my garden.
I saw bumble bees on the flowers and did hand pollination nothing worked really well, so far.
Anyway thank you for your Okra!

This year I do have my first sweet potato plants from seeds still small and I guess no tubers underneath. Variation is amazing no plant is like the other.
Wish you good luck!

[steev]

Joseph: that's a far better crop of okra than I've gotten so far, but I will persevere, being quite fond of okra; last couple weeks, I've been harvesting seed from the few plants that sprouted.

I'm surprised that you have Green Gages still; mine were done months ago, and the Purple Gages have been finito for a month, at least.

[flowerweaver]

Well, the okra is almost as bad as the zucchini...one day a flower, the next this--yikes! For the record, I have large hands for a woman.

[castanea]

Sept 20, 2015 19:16:13 GMT -5 flowerweaver said:

Well, the okra is almost as bad as the zucchini...one day a flower, the next this--yikes! For the record, I have large hands for a woman.

What variety is that?

[flowerweaver]

castanea part of my okra landrace project--it's Beck's, from local Texas hill country gardener Malcom Beck of Gardenville in San Antonio. I've got Hill Country Red, just about as big but tinged with red, and many others. These varieties are now offered at Baker Creek.

[12540dumont]

Well, it's been 105 for 2 days in a row, so even the okra didn't like it. The pods on got huge, but the new flowers just croaked.

Bloom and shrivel, it's the new normal. Careful Flower, that rain looks like it's headed toward you.

[castanea]

Sept 21, 2015 20:24:09 GMT -5 flowerweaver said:

castanea part of my okra landrace project--it's Beck's, from local Texas hill country gardener Malcom Beck of Gardenville in San Antonio. I've got Hill Country Red, just about as big but tinged with red, and many others. These varieties are now offered at Baker Creek.

Thanks. I've grown Becks. I like the fat okras especially Star of David. There's just something about the flavors I like. Unfortunately this year all of my fat okras either didn't germinate or croaked while very young.