Heavy Hitter Okra

[fourteenmilecreek]

Dan,

In zone 6/7 I plant heavy hitter okra about May 1st or later, until June 1st. The earlier you can plant, the better, up to a certain point --- as okra will become stunted in cool, wet weather, if planted too early.

I plant about every 12" to 18" inches, then thin the weak plants, keeping the strong ones 3' feet or more apart. My best plant grew as a result of deer eating 300 plants to the ground in one night, leaving only 5 plants alive in two 150' foot rows.

[snickeringbear]

Here is a tip for okra planting that will save a lot of grief for folks just learning how to grow it. Okra can be planted starting 2 weeks after frost free date for your area. Any earlier will usually result in a poor stand of stunted plants. Rows should be at least 4 feet apart. Seed should be spaced in the row according to plant type, small dwarf varieties can be 12 inches apart, large spreading varieties should be 3 feet apart. Prepare the soil very well by tilling and cultivating until the soil is a fine powder. Put 8 seed in a clump in each hill keeping the seed as close together as possible. Cover them over with 3/8 inch of soil and step on the hill to firm the seed into the soil. Note, if you pre-sprout your seed, don't step on them! Placing the seed very close together will permit the seed to sprout and pop off the compacted soil layer. Thinning and cultivation is simpler because the seed are properly spaced to start with. As the seedlings grow thin until only one or two plants are left in each hill.

[fourteenmilecreek]

Word of caution: Heavy Hitter has a huge, gnarled, root system that mirrors its spreading branch pattern. Somewhere, I have photos that compare Heavy Hitter okra roots, to regular Clemson Spineless okra roots (There is no comparison). Clemson Spineless grows a non-branching okra stalk with roots that match. The Clemson root sort of resembles a carrot; with a long, thin, tap root that is easily pulled in Winter.

Heavy Hitter's root resembles a spreading tree root, and is almost impossible to pull up by hand in Winter.

(Do not plant Heavy Hitter okra seeds in a clump, unless you plan on pulling up all but one plant).

If two Heavy Hitter plants are within a foot, or closer of one another, they will overlap roots; and both plants will suffer as a result. If you reference the 2nd photo on page one of this post you will see an example of two Heavy Hitter okra plants that were sowed on 24" inch centers. The Coca~Cola can used as a reference in that photo was 4-7/8" inches tall, and 2-1/2" inches wide. As you can see in the photo, the girth of each Heavy Hitter okra stalk is equal to the girth of the Coca~Cola can. I guarantee they were not easily uprooted in the Winter of that year.

Had these two Heavy Hitter okra plants been grown farther apart, they might have branched even wider.

[glen]

I have never tried growing this variety but this is my plan. I live in Panama on a small 500 meter lot. The lot is heavily planted in fruit tres and small palms and there is very Little open garden space left. So, I plan to plant the okra in between fruit tres and in the sweet potato patch that takes up quite a bit of space as well. At this point there is still plenty of sunny spots though since the fruit trees and palms are small. I am not going to plant in rows. I will plant in between things. Allowing 3 or 4 feet of space in between the okra plants. I plan to use a pick mattock to prepare 3 foot circles of ground for each plant, mixing compost and rice husks in each circle. The plan is to plant 40 plants although it might be less than that depending on my space. I believe that a family would have plenty of okra with just 5 plants planted this way. I plan to plant in the middle of April, about a month before the rainy season starts. Once the rainy season starts I shouldn't hardly ever have to wáter this plant since the root systems are deep and highly developed. We have a long rainy season and it stays very hot all year so I should have a very long okra season. There is almost no okra grown here so I should be able to save seed without any fuss at all and stay true to this strain. I am looking forward to it. I have questions though. Can okra seeds be frozen? If not, what is the best way to preserve the seeds? What is the best size for harvesting this okra? I plan to sell it at the local market in order to see if people will buy it here. Will it transport OK in mesh bags? I will be transporting it on a motorscooter so I need suggestions on the best way to get it there without damaging the okra etc(I live about 2 miles from the market). Will the okra produce for many months in my climate? We have a hot, rainy season that starts in May and ends in Dec. Wondering if the plants will just get tired in the middle of my rainy season and just quit producing or will it continue to produce for the entire rainy season. I have experience with a different variety. They got tired and quit producing after the plants got about 6 or 7 feet tall or about 2 months of producing. Maybe I could just prune these Heavy Hitter plants to get a second crop? Thanx. Glen

[macmex]

Glen, I consider Ron and Daryl (Snickeringbear) to be more knowledgeable than I, when it comes to okra. However, I have experience in tropic and subtropic growing. I once read about a fellow who had okra in a climate similar to yours. He said he had one plant which produced year after year. You'll have to try it to see what Heavy Hitter does in your rainy season.

I lived at a high altitude (7000 feet) in Mexico, for 5 years. Okra would never have made it there. But we had the rainy season from Juno until October. Plants like tomatoes, started in late February, grew well. But, unfortunately, when the rain and accompanying cool came, they would die.

Your plan for how to plant okra sounds very sound to me. I've seen many different plants, like peppers, grown that way.

Okra seed, indeed, almost any seed can be frozen, as long as it is sufficiently dry beforehand. Seal it in air tight containers. I once grew some tomato seeds which had been kept frozen for something like 20 years. They came up as if they had only just been harvested.

Pruning? Maybe Ron has experience with pruning. I have never pruned okra.

So glad you drop in and participate here! ¡Un abrazo fuerte en el año nuevo!

[glen]

Macmex, thanx for the tips on the sedes. I live in an área where sedes are not sold except to farmers. Also, there are so many micro climates in Central America that you can only really be an expert on the área that you live in. Even here in Panama we have different microclimates because some people live in different elevations. I live in an área that gets the least amount of rain in Panama although when our rainy season starts we get a fair amount of rain. It is hot as hell here and we have just entered the dry season. It is 90 degrees at my desk here at 1230 in the middle of the day today. It is so breath takingly hot right now that I am not going to bother to plant anything else new until the middle of April, just before the rainy season starts. I am just now trying to learn how to wáter my yard. My tendency is to want to wáter everything all the time but I have been instructed to cut back on my watering to every 3 days. Hard to do but I have been told that I must harden my plants and tres or I am going to go crazy trying to keep them alive because the plants will not bother to set down deep roots. I live in gardening hell, where wáter is scarce for most of the year, sedes are almost imposible to get, the soil is not so great. Other than that, living is easy. Okra is not available here. My theory is that the okra here regressed to its wild state and people just gave up on it. I occasionally see ferrel okra here and in fact, have some growing now. They produce very Little if any okra. I have seen some other beautiful okra plants here that do not produce much fruit. I plan to change this by introducing the heavy hitter variety into my área. I will sabe sedes etc and share them. Only the old timers here remember it. They call it Nyahoo. I am very excited about the prospect of bringing okra back to my province because it is very easy to grow and people here need heat tolerant veggy's. I have already started growing sweet potato's and have been sharing slips and seed with the locals. They don't grow that in my province either and it is super easy. I have been eating sweet potato's for many months. Anyway, Thanx for sharing.

[macmex]

Glen, I was aware of the micro climate issue. I wish it were possible to develop a "sliding scale model" to somehow predict climate, based on altitude, latitude, distance from the coast and mountain ranges Still, I thought my observations might help in some way. I know, before I left the USA to live elsewhere I was pretty oblivious to the challenges.

It always amazes me how any given area may have blind spots in regard to possible crops. The last place we lived in Mexico had a perfect climate for sweet potatoes. They even sold them in the market. But all of them came from elsewhere. I planted sweet potatoes right off and had great success. Yet it was difficult to convince anyone else to try. The reason given for their reticence was "Sweet potatoes are not grown in this region." When I pointed out that I did. They would shrug and comment something like, "You are a foreigner." But with time and success, without being pushy, people will sometimes adopt a new crop. It took over 8 years, but we did get guayabas accepted by a fair number (same story as with sweet potatoes).

I have a theory about okra and Latin America. I suspect it arrived with the Spanish. Perhaps they used it in their own cooking, or for feeding slaves. It escaped and became feral. One time I hiked for miles in a very remote area where most people only spoke Huesteco. There was okra growing along the trail. I asked my companion about it. He explained that the only thing they did with it was toast the seeds to make "Nescafe." He had learned to eat it from a missionary with Alabama roots. One time he gathered some and asked his mom to cook it for him. She was frightened and afraid it would kill him. But of course it didn't. Another time the Mexican church group we collaborated with sent a delegation to Cuba. While fellowshipping with some of the Cuban brethren, they heard how the Cubans often suffered for lack of greens in their diet. One of the Mexican brethren looked down at his feet and recognized a number of feral plants which are quite popular as greens among his own people. He showed the Cubans. They were thrilled! Cross pollination is a good thing.

Do they eat much squash where you are at? I bet the local variety is tough as nails for your climate. Also, where did you get your sweet potato start? The market? My youngest spent time in both Panama and Ecuador. I don't always ask her about the vegetable varieties available. But she did comment that Ecuador has a HUGE variety of sweet potatoes, even varieties with colorful, mottled flesh. My personal experience, in Mexico, is that any sweet potato would grow and produce in their climate. But the regionally available ones out produced the imports by a long shot. Sweet potatoes should be grown and eaten WHEREVER they can be! Of course, okra would be a great boon too.

[glen]

We have the big Cuban pumkins here. I grow them myself. They take no care or wáter to grow. They just need space. I bought my first sweet potato here in a grocery store in a larger town. A small sweet potato cost me 1.39. It was a Little over a half lb. Now I have a large back yard garden full of sweet potato's.
I replant immediately after harvesting using staged plantings. They seem to be able to grow all year. Okra on the other hand does not seem to want to Bloom this time of year. It grows like hell but you just get big, plants with no okra. I know it does grow here though since I planted some a few years back in April, right in front of the rainy season. Got a decent crop.

I have had good success with malabar spinach, luffa, bittermelon, yard long beans, peanuts, sweet potato's, Chili peppers, italion tomato's, and a few other things. Looking forward to planting more okra. Its going to be a smashing success.

I had okra growing along a sidewalk in town 2 years ago. It had a good crop. Not a single okra was taken. Anyone walking on the sidewalk could have picked some. People here help themselves to your fruit tres if they growing along the Street. They just aren't interested in okra for the time being. I will try and give it to folks if I have a big crop but I do not expect much excitement over it. People here mostly eat carbohydrates like Green plantain and yucca and rice. Not much veggy's. They have a very poor diet.

[glen]

Double post

[macmex]

One idea, which may help introduce okra, would be to make tasty meals with it and either invite a neighbor to dine with you, or else to drop by a container of the food, ready to reheat. Just and idea.

Here's a funny one for you. Back when we first moved to Mexico I got to talking with a friend about beans. Mexicans are probably to beans, what Eskimos are to ice. Most of rural people eat a whole lot of them. Anyway, one of my "ranchero" friends asked me about how Americans eat beans. I mentioned that in New England, where my family hails from, they make baked beans. He was very interested. So, I made a batch and dropped some off at his home. A few days later I ran into him and asked how he liked the "American beans." He smiled and replied: "Well, I tried to eat them. But I couldn't. So I gave them to my dog. He couldn't either!" I love cross cultural stuff, even when it sometimes makes my head hurt

I once grew the Cuban Pumpkin, when we lived in Northern Indiana. It did "okay" there. I think it preferred much more heat. Sounds like you have a real winner for your climate.

[fourteenmilecreek]

Glen,

The okra should transport in mesh bags okay, but transport better in a fruit basket, so the pods remain undamaged from shuffling, and bouncing around. The tender pods scrape and bruise easily and cannot be handled roughly, i.e., dumping from one container to another. The slightest scrape will turn brown very quickly, and soon make the pods unmarketable. Okra pods respirate through tiny pores in the outer shell, and drown very easily in water. Don't wash them before shipping. They do like very high humidity however. They seem to store best if placed in a porous fruit basket with a plastic bag placed over the top, so the water that sweats out of the pods can condensate on the bag and drip back down over the pods. I frequently weigh them out in 5 pound lots and place them in plastic grocery bags. Then, I very loosely tie the bags shut to keep in moisture and place them in fruit baskets for transportation. Be careful not to tie the bags so tight as to prevent air flow for an extended period, because the moist okra will quickly grow a fungus that smells like wet gym shoes, or dirty socks. It can be stored overnight in sealed plastic bags, if kept refrigerated, but does not like cold temperatures very well. My week old okra pods kept in a fruit basket with a plastic bag over the top, looks much better than the grocer's day old okra out on display.

I sell okra at the Farmers' Market, out of open wooden boxes, holding 60 of pounds of okra pods each. The lady across from me sells okra from one quart, wooden berry containers, pre-measured, weighing one pound per container. I sell out of okra several hours before she does, at the same price. People like to hand pick the pods out of the big wooden boxes, and place them on the scale themselves. It saves me a lot of sorting time, plus the cost of the little berry containers that cost .69 cents each. My customers pack and carry their hand picked okra in small plastic produce bags.

[fourteenmilecreek]

Glen,

Is it possible that the pollinating insects in your area are not pollinating the okra blooms during the rainy season?

[glen]

Ron, I am currently in the dry season. I have okra almost 80 days old and haven't seen the first Bloom. I actually planted the okra when we were still in the rainy season, In the last half of Oct. I have been watching the plants, they are just sitting there. No growth going on. It certainly is not for lack of heat out side. It is 85 degrees here at 830 am in the morning at my desk. I am not discouraged at all. Okra seems to be seasonal.

[snickeringbear]

It is most likely that okra is slightly day length sensitive. It would probably help if he got some genetics from Africa near the 20th parallel which would correspond to his climate and day length. I only have one variety of okra "African" from a compatible climate. It is way too spiny to suggest for a market crop.

[fourteenmilecreek]

Glen,

I had my best single okra plant production in 2011, with 65 consecutive days over 100 degrees, two weeks of which were over 110 degrees, on August 2nd that year, it was 115 degrees. We didn't get a single day under 100 degrees until Early September... We certainly didn't have any rain; but it took a diligent watering schedule, using Plasticulture and drip irrigation to get the okra to bloom and put on pods. I could only water half a dozen or so of my plants, as the water wells were going dry all around us. We were saving bath water, and dish rinse water in buckets for watering plants. The trees cast their fruit, and dropped their leaves. The ground was so dry that weeds never grew that year. We had high winds that Summer and when temperatures reached above 100 degrees the petals of the okra blooms would burn off, before pollination. The hot nights made okra bloom just before sunrise though, so the lucky ones had a few hours to get their business done before 11:00 am when temperatures pushed 100 again.

Okra doesn't mind heat so much, but it can't do without plenty of water. Also, I pruned all unnecessary foliage from the plants to avoid water evaporation. On days over 105 degrees there was very little happening in the garden, so most of my production didn't come on until temperatures dropped in September. If you can keep the plants alive long enough they might put on later in your season?

Maybe if you could find some old carpet, or cardboard, or torn rags, or cotton seed hulls, or something, you might be able to conserve water by covering the base of the plants, and trickle watering by gravity with a bucket of water sitting on bricks, or rocks? All you need is a very tiny pin hole leak in the bucket. My emitters drip 32 ounces of water per hour. It would take 4 hours to drip one gallon, or 20 hours to drip five gallons. Without emitters, this is best accomplished by siphon with a length of pinched tubing, or by a valve that is barely open to create a drip, or by a pin prick in a plastic tube. I made some homemade watering emitters from plastic milk jugs, and plastic bleach bottles with lids screwed on to slow the drip. (I got the idea from looking at a hospital IV feeding bag and tube). Without a screw on lid, even a pin hole will cause a steady stream of water that will empty the jug within seconds. If a white bucket of water is suspended within an inch or so of the ground condensate will form on the bottom, due to the cool water inside. A steel bucket full of cool water works best to create condensate, even scrap lumber laid around the base of the plants will form condensate and cool the roots.

We have an 80% chance of freezing rain here today; it seems crazy to conjure thoughts of the hottest Summer on record.