OKRA, Part llI

Update on my fractured ankle,
It's been 4 weeks since my freaky accident , cast was changed after the sutures was removed but they placed 4 rolls of plaster so it is heavy. In 2 weeks I will have another x-ray and if everything is okay then I will get a walking cast.

Pain is a lot better although I still raise it on pillows. I am off narcotic pain meds and yesterday I only took tylenols.

i had only visited my garden 5 time in a month but DH goes to pick veggies evryday. He picks the okra even if they are only 2 inch. What a waste!!!

Happy gardening !!!

Belle

Gotta love 'em, huh?

Ok, ya'll, I'm only growing ugly okra. What's wrong? They have these marks on em that look like holes, only they don't go through the pods. And, my pods are coming out like fireplace starters...

Help?

Ants on any plants? And it really doesn't matterehat they look like if they taste ok- but look for bugs to be eating on the blooms, can you post any pix?

I have a ton of ants probably herding something-or-other. A Master Gardener I heard recently said to leave them alone, cause they clean up the aphis and what nots.

But, I'm thinking it's other than the ants. Can okra get sun scald?

Ants milk the aphids, true, then they start eating the okra, and the blooms, and it makes holes, and tips curl over, control the ants, and the aphids, they don't have ants like we do in the south, or master gardener lives in a well protected environment, good luck.

Ok. Thanks!

OKRA AND TEMPERATURE. I've been picking my 33 Stewart's Zeebest okra plants every other day for most of the summer. They won't go three days because if I wait that extra day some of the pods will get too large (9" or more) and some of those will be tough. I don't want to pick every day because if I do many of the pods will be barely my minimum size to pick, 2 1/2", and I won't get so much okra. All through this hot summer I've found that if I pick okra every other day I'll get 80-some pods and most of those will be of a good, ideal size (4" to 5") and very tender.

I've found that all this is strictly related to temperature. If I'd kept track, I bet I could have come up with a formula by which I could calculate average daily air temperature by the size and number of okra pods I harvest - really. During the hottest spells this summer we've had many days with highs in the high 90's and low 100's with nighttime lows in the 80's - summertime Missouri at it's finest, yecch! Okra loves it like that, I guess because the climate is like that of equatorial Africa where it came from. When temps are that hot I'll harvest almost 3 pods per plant on average and the pods will be toward the larger end of the 2 1/2" to 7" range where I want them.

If there's a cooler day, though, or if we get some clouds or a shower then okra yield is significantly reduced. If that happens the harvest will be 2 pods per plant on average (haven't dropped below that yet) and the pod size will be toward the smaller end of the range. The total weight of pods picked drops to about half if there has been a cool day in the 70's, so I know production is going to drop off a lot as we move into fall. I think it's interesting how much temperature affects okra production - it REALLY likes the heat!

Well, pickin them shorter helps control what amount you have to freeze, chuckl, makes them really tender for gumbo

I have an okra update.

I took Kitt's advice and started blasting the aphids AND the ants from the back of the okra leaves. I think the plants are much happier. But, I'm still not getting a whole lotta okra, and still wondering if it's the variety or am I expecting too much? If you only get ~3 pods per plant, it follows that you need a WHOLE LOTTA PLANTS to get a whole lotta pods, right?

Well, my space only allowed for 3 plants directly in RB #1, and 7 additional plants in individual buckets. I'm getting about 7 pods every other day from the combined plants. Should I be getting more?

Plus, I visited my 80+ yr. old neighbor across the street (yeah, the one who grew humongous tomatoes from my seedlings...), and her SCRAWNY okra plants, with hardly any leaves on them, are cranking out like gangbusters! What is really going on here? LOL!

Here's a pic of the okra that must've been getting bitten by the ants, now that Kitt has explained "herding" and "munching"!

Just curious-the across the street thing- what is different about the location of your plants from hers- and are you trimming the lower leaves? It can help reduce where the plant sends nutrients to, hot humid sun, can you increase this? are they planted as deep as hers, or are hers in ground?

Hers are in the ground (one small raised bed) that she tops off with MG Garden soil every season. The bed runs N-S and seems to get full on sun all day (which mine doesn't).

I'm not trimming any leaves. I don't think she is either. She just snaps the pods off. I think mine might be planted deeper than hers. He stalk diameters are larger than quarter size.

Her eggplants (again, my seedlings) are 1/2 as tall as mine, but they're fully loaded with fruits! I think it must be her sunshine all day. Nothing in the way of her sun...

Shoot...

n-s is the old way of garden planting- the sun rises and falls across the plants. Hers are in ground, thats why they are the way they are, you would need a lot more ebucket to support okra trees, they just seem to thrive better in ground, it may be because of the nutrients/moistures dosed at different amounts thru the ground. Yours are awesome for in containers tho, I would say you are getting the max you can get with what you have.

i disagree, i have grown in ground (raised bed) as well as EB and my okra in the eb produced like crazy.

Araness, what cultivar did you have the best success with please?

I have Clemson Spineless, Cowhorns, and I think I have at least one Zee's Best growing. I did notice that the three okras growing in RB #1 grew super fast when I set them, and caught up to, and passed, the five okras that had been growing in the EBs for several weeks.

I planted only Stewart's Zeebest this year, and they're really doing great now. Of 33 original plants I think moles killed about 4 of them while they were small - but I picked 116 okra pods from the rest yesterday. I'm picking okra every other day.

I THINK the Stewart's Zeebest variety from Baker Creek Seeds isn't quite stable yet - my various plants are showing different charactistics. A few plants are bearing pods with a very bad trait that I don't want to carry on - the pods have sharp spines and if you happen to rub them from the pointed end toward the stem end, the spines stick in your fingers and HURT. Then if you happen to rub your eye - well, I don't want that to happen any more!

Of my other plants, a few bear very skinny pods and have few branches. Others have many branches and much thicker pods. I've settled on one plant at the end of one row that I'm going to save seeds from. It has a lot of pod-bearing branches, no spines on the pods, and it's always good for at least 5 or 6 pods when I pick so it's the most productive plant I have. Those are the seeds I want for next year, and I'm going to save seeds from that one plant with good characteristics instead of ordering seeds, because I don't think Baker Creek's strain is stable yet.

Thanks for the feedback Ozark.

Umm, not sure what you are disagreeing with- support of the eb versus ground, or the location of gymgirls' eb's not producing as well as her nex door neighbors' ? Eb can do just great, but from the description of her neighbors garden, she's in a better locale and has created an in ground e bucket- and it was other veggies this is happening to between the 2 of em as well. Not puttin down the ebuckets

I just sowed 6 Clemson Spineless plants today...late, I know so we'll see how it goes. I plan on playing hookie from work tomorrow so I can get some stuff done in the back yard, like assemble a couple of raised beds for said okra. The RB will be in an untested part of my yard but I believe it will have adequate sunlight. I hope my crops are successful this fall!

I'll most certainly be back to read more of the posts, but I'm here as I'm giving okra a try in my container garden. I don't eat it but my Dad does so I thought I would give it a try.

I've got to purchase some seeds, and just wonder what varieties would be good ones to start with? now if this has already been answered in this thread no need to reply as I'll find the answer when I come back to read more tomorrow.

I'm growing in 5 gallon containers, and was thinking one plant per container? or could there be 2 to a container?

thanks for any suggestions and help yall.

Jan

Only One okra per 5-gallon container
..

Linda,
I only visited my garden 3 times because of my freaky accident. Dh said I have tons of of s eeds next year.
I have to check them today.

Belle

Belle,
I'm gonna need some seeds!

The first time I saved seeds from okras (when they weren't cross-pollinating!!!) I tried to cut the dried pods from the stalks and had seeds flying everywhere.

Then I had an better idea. I carefully cut huge branches from the main stem (with the pods still on them) and put them into a large garbage bag, tied the end, and beat the
H _ _ L _ outta that bag with a stick. All the pods burst open inside the bag. Then, I cut a hole at the bottom of the bag and poured out all the seeds!

Voila!

Hope that tip gets me a few seeds! LOLOLOL!

Linda

Gymgirl,

What was the final outcome of the seed that I sent you?? Between dogs digging up containers and my trips to Florida, nothing of mine survived. I was only able to get ONE pod from a HCR that lasted through July. Cowhorn got 3 or 4 plants, but too much for the 5 gallon Square Root pot. Didn't get a pod off any of those. Baker Creek replaced the Zeebest & HCR seed, but 1 of the 2 was the same lot # as what was shipped this spring. When I seed start for next year, I'm going to make sure EXACTLY which seed is started, and document it's performance.

I direct sowed some Stewart Zeebest in a 5 gallon Square Roots pot, one germinated in about 10-12 days. The other didn't poke through for another month, and that has me stymied as to why it took so long.

I would say some of your drawback is sunlight. You've got a lot of shade in your yard, but like you said about your beans on the patio, how did they grow?? I'm in the opposite end, no shade whatsoever.

Kevin

thanks Kristi

Jan

Hey, Kev!
All my okra plants grew in full sunshine all summer long. I have shade in the middle of the yard, but the periphery is very sunny.

I believe my okras may have crossed, which might have accounted for the mutant pods I kept getting. Also, ants and aphids were ferocious, and a lot of the pods I did get were chewed on by the ants.

Toward the end of my patience, when I finally figured out how often to pick them (before the ants started chewing), I managed to collect about two gallon-sized freezer bags of pods.

I never got good production from the HCR or the Zeebests. Most of the pods I saved came from the ole tried and true Clemson Spineless.

P.S. I have two okra stems (I topped 'em to take them out) and one okra plant still growing in RB #1, and they need to be gone. However, these stems are huge! The two that were topped two weeks ago have put out new growth so the root system isn't dead. But, it probably goes down deep in my raised bed.

I need ya'lls advice on how to remove these stems and roots systems from this bed. I don't think I can just leave them there, because this is the bed for my root crop (turnips, beets, carrots). Won't they run into the stems and roots underground if I don't take them out?

I'm thinking I could dig down about 11" and use the sawsall to cut the stems off at that level, then backfill. These root veggies (except any mutant carrots) shouldn't go down deeper than 11", yah think?

Lemme know soon! Thanks!

Linda

Tryin to remember, think if the bucket only has the okra, you may find the whole bucket is roots. Any way or where you could just dump the bucket and shake the dirt? Or have they rooted on thru to the ground? They will grow until a hard freeze- I have had them slow for a lite frost, but not die, and yeah, even in Jan they are hard to dig down to, think if you sawsall em they might still sprout from available left behind roots, tho perhaps not shortened that deep.

No, Kitt!
I had seven okra plants growing in free-draining buckets, and three plants growing in Raised Bed #1, the bed I'm about to need for my root veggies. The buckets are even re-sprouting!

I cut two plants in RB #1 down, leaving about a 2' stem. The last one is about 6.5' tall and still growing in that bed. They, the bell peppers (loaded with peppers, duh), and the last of the eggplants (loaded with blooms), have got to vacate the space so I can sprinkle my turnip, beet and carrot seeds.

Thanks!

You need more buckets. Okra doesn't give up easily. I don't know Gymgirl, let us know what you decide to do and if it works.

Kitt,
(Use your best Joan Crawford voice here):

"No more plastic buckets!!!!"

I sent 60 plastic buckets to my cousin in Hotlanta, GA last summer, via a DGer with a trailer heading that way!

Don't get me wrong, though. I'd use an eBucket in a New York minute if I had to. But, since I have the space in my yard, I'm expanding toward a more aesthetically pleasing edible landscape design.

If I had ever figured out a suitable camouflage for buckets, I'd probably still be using them!

Chuckl, I understand perfectly! I am home- almost cuz I stopped at Walmart for staples. Jeez! We don't have fall so they bring in the northern colors- (I got lost inside store)

All those are my wedding colors. Amazing nostalgia everytime I walk into a Wally World or Garden Center!

Linda,

Thanks for the reply as to how your okra seeds turned out. The biggest thing I learned from the late start was that it didn't produce anything with the heat killing the young plant production. They hardly had any leaves and no pods. Looking at the root balls they looked to be of decent size and lots of hair. The only other thing I can think of doing would be to add more liquid fertilizer more often.

Kev,
I totally agree about the fertilizer. I had no idea they were such heavy feeders AND drinkers. I noticed the more I watered, the faster the pods developed.

yeah, they would happily grow in a marsh- or a shallow water pool like an amaryllis

That's good info Kitt!

I could make that happen. Actually, I'm seeing now that I can make okra eBuckets with huge self-watering reservoirs out of the 25-gallon cattle molasses tubs I have been holding on to.

Good thing I didn't drill holes in all of them!

Looks like I'm not out of the container garden business just yet!

It would make it easier to protect the other plants when removal time chanced, and 25 gal would keep 3 plants well, unless you trim lower leaves, then 4 plants could be planted...

Thanks, Kitt!

Okra is so delicious when fry it.. try it mates