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Post by hmoosek on May 20, 2021 18:46:38 GMT -6
I know, right.
Almost June and still cold mud for planting. I remember back when I was a kid, it would get hot enough to swim before school was out in May, like 90 degrees hot. What happened to all that? I hear ya! This year is crazy!
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Post by boiledpeanut on May 21, 2021 10:14:31 GMT -6
Just yesterday looking at the two young plants of heavy hitter grown from seed that Dennis sent me, they're a pretty plant!!
In fact I was actually so caught up in my admiration that I (outloud, mindlessly) actually said "you so puuuurdy" and in the accent of my VERY Southern father He aint the only bumpkin in the family!
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Post by heavyhitterokra on May 21, 2021 11:21:34 GMT -6
That's a sure sign of a dedicated gardener! Thanks, for sharing that.
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Post by heavyhitterokra on May 22, 2021 12:41:48 GMT -6
Now is just about the perfect time to be sowing okra in Northeast Oklahoma, daytime highs near 80, nighttime lows in the mid-60s, length of days getting longer, so your seedlings can feed off of those prime growing sunrays between the end of May into the first weeks of July. Everything is lining up perfectly right now.
Plus, The Farmers Almanac says May 21st-May 24th is the prime time to plant above-ground crops.
www.farmersalmanac.com/calendar/gardening
I had to take about half a day to load up a trailer with scrap iron to haul off to Tahlequah, then load up another truck to go to the dump on Monday, then, stop by the body shop to paint a hood for someone, then, I planted 300 or more Heavy Hitter Okra seeds, plus got an electric fence put in and hooked up to power before I got covered up with ticks and had to come home to throw all of my clothes in the washer and take a bleach bath. All in all, it was a fairly productive day.
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Post by hedgeapple on May 22, 2021 16:15:38 GMT -6
So, I had a few empty spots in my okra rows and decided to try soaking the seeds this time. After soaking them for about 16 hours and planting them (I didn't wait for root tips) they are popping up in 4 days, rather than 10-12 days without soaking. Big difference.
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Post by heavyhitterokra on May 22, 2021 17:25:11 GMT -6
I've planted okra seeds both ways on the same day, as an experiment. The seeds that were not soaked came up so sporadically, that I never tried that again. I had okra in that row that looked mangy all summer because the germination dates were so far apart. You're right about that Hedgeapple; soaking them makes a big difference.
Thanks, for sharing that. I haven't thought about that in a long time. That's a good tip to put out there for others, to maybe save someone some heartache and frustration on down the road.
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Post by boiledpeanut on May 22, 2021 22:55:28 GMT -6
I soaked mine before starting, their first lil root came up in about 3-4 days.
I actually soak every and any seed I can before starting - even tiny ones if possible.
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Post by hedgeapple on May 23, 2021 11:25:28 GMT -6
After about 20 hours of soaking:
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Post by chrysanthemum on May 23, 2021 16:02:33 GMT -6
I started soaking okra and corn seeds last summer when I didn’t have good germination on my first attempt. The soaked and sprouted seeds did so much better that it’s now my modus operandi for large seeds. I have three more Heavy Hitter okra seeds in water now to replace some that were disturbed a couple weeks ago by armadillo digging. I figured it would be better to start new plants than to hope that a damaged one would recover.
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Post by heavyhitterokra on May 23, 2021 20:56:38 GMT -6
chrysanthemum,
That's what I did here yesterday too. I had plants damaged by cold, too much rain, geese, insects, or whatever, and pulled them out to be replaced. Though it's hard to do, sometimes, it's just better to start over.
Thanks, to all of you guys who shared about seed soaking. I've never soaked corn seeds before, but that makes perfect sense. I suppose it just never crossed my mind?
I think George soaks almost all of his seeds. I've seen him post photos of tomato seeds that he had soaked on a moist paper towel before.
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Post by heavyhitterokra on May 23, 2021 21:00:10 GMT -6
This isn't typical of all of my okra plants, but a few of the seeds that I planted in late April are doing fairly well, though obviously stunted by cold weather.
Most of my seedlings are just now breaking ground or are just now developing their first set of true leaves. I've got a lot of skips in my rows from deer, geese, and insect damage. I think I replanted about 200 seeds yesterday.I need to till the weeds under really badly, but we've had rain here nearly every day for the past two weeks, and from the looks of the forecast, we can expect more rain every day this coming week as well. This okra was planted the first week of May. It would be much bigger than this if the growing conditions had been more favorable. It just never warmed up this Spring. We've had below normal temperatures and above normal 'rain events' not above normal rain amounts, just more 'drizzly-misty' rain than usual. May usually brings more 'toad strangling' rain than 'London fog' type rainy days. The lack of sunshine is really taking a toll on development of green, above ground growth. It would be nice if these plants were busy developing a healthy root system right now, but I kind of doubt that is the case, because with so much available moisture at the surface, they have no need to develop a stronger root system.My tomatoes are kind of lagging behind schedule this year too, but I suppose that's about all a guy could expect from the past 30 days of cool, cloudy weather and so many 'drizzly' rainstorms.
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Post by Tony on May 26, 2021 18:19:33 GMT -6
Info on heavy hitter okra
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Post by heavyhitterokra on May 26, 2021 21:56:17 GMT -6
Tony,
I've been out of inventory of surplus Heavy Hitter Okra seeds since about mid-January, 2021. All I have left is my personal planting stock. I'll need all of that to finish planting for the Fall 2021 harvest.
I have pre-harvest orders for the first 400 pounds of seed that I can produce, so demand is high and supply is low, since I'm the only supplier growing commercially this year.
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Post by heavyhitterokra on May 28, 2021 11:59:05 GMT -6
I planted another row and a half of okra yesterday before the storm. Now, I've only got 1-1/2 rows left to go. I'll have eleven rows, 150' long in total when I'm finally finished planting and replanting seeds. As usual, I've lost several hundred seedlings to wildlife this Spring. It seems like I do nothing but plant skips most days.
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Post by snickeringbear on Jun 2, 2021 8:50:38 GMT -6
I started some of the heavy hitter seed in my garden this year. Seed was 6 years old but gave a few plants. I'll have enough to save seed for next year.
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