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Post by Sheila on Jun 2, 2021 16:42:20 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. Is it possible to get on a waiting list to get seeds?
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Post by Heavyhitterokra2 on Jun 4, 2021 17:54:55 GMT -6
Sheila, I apologize for taking so long to respond to your question. My computer went on the 'fritz'somewhere around May 28th, so I've been offline for quite a few days. George got me going again, and for that, I am very thankful. I'm not keeping a waiting list this year as I normally do, due to the unprecedented numbers of people wanting seeds. (I'd have a waiting list a mile long). This year, it will just be first come first served until I run out seeds. Of course, that's kind of how it always goes, though I try to prioritize as much as possible. Last year, I had an unusual number of seed requests and was completely swamped with orders. I ran out of inventory about the first week of January 2021. That has never happened before. I usually harvest my Heavy Hitter Okra Seeds around the end of October. (That's just a general guideline, as it all depends on the weather). I noticed today that there were 'BOOTLEG' seed distributors popping up out there. Just for your personal knowledge, "BAKER CREEK RARE SEEDS", and my own personal website, "DRY CREEK FARM STORE / " are the only legitimate distributors of Heavy Hitter Okra Seeds. Central Florida Seeds is selling a knock-off / un-authorized version. This is their website: centralfloridaseeds.com/products/okra-heavy-hitter-abelmoschus-esculentusIn order to maintain surety, and quality, it is recommended that seeds should only be purchased from verified sources. I can't guarantee that what you might get from other vendors is actually what you are paying for, as I only harvest a few select plants each year and sell those seeds until I run out. Other vendors no doubt harvest the entire field, 'culls, runts, and all' I don't do that. (If a plant produces fewer than 100 pods per season, I cull it). Those plants are pulled up and burned. Only seeds from my very best ever go to market.
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Post by Heavyhitterokra2 on Jun 4, 2021 18:03:10 GMT -6
As you may have noticed above, I had to change my user name to heavyhitterokra2, as I have changed operating systems and the website no longer recognizes my IP address or whatever it normally reads.
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Post by Heavyhitterokra2 on Jun 5, 2021 19:40:39 GMT -6
Last planting Date of 2021 Heavy Hitter Okra Note, for posterity: I just now finished planting the last of my Heavy Hitter Okra seeds, all 1,600 of them. What an aching back! Seed #1 was planted on April 29th, 2021. The last seed was planted on June 5th, 2021, a span of 38 days, or one month 8 days. Mostly cloudy, very rainy weather with several weeks of below normal temperatures.
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Post by rdback on Jun 6, 2021 8:24:09 GMT -6
Congratulations Ron! A very satisfying accomplishment, I'm sure.
Wanna come plant mine? lol
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Post by Heavyhitterokra2 on Jun 6, 2021 15:17:32 GMT -6
I'd probably better save my energy for the replanting after the insects and wildlife find out I've finished my job.
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Post by chrysanthemum on Jun 6, 2021 15:50:50 GMT -6
I just put one more seed on to soak because I bent the stem of my most tender Heavy Hitter seedling this week when I was putting palm mulch around the plants. I was doing it handful by handful, but some fell where I didn’t want it, and iit didn’t take much to bend the stem. I was amazed that it actually held on for a couple of days, but it succumbed today in the bright sun. I guess I’m as bad as insects and wildlife because that accident cost me a full twenty percent of my plants. The other eighty percent (four remaining seedlings) will be grateful for the mulch because it looks like we’ll have more heat and sun this week than they’ve been getting. I really can’t imagine planting 1,600.
I have one empty 10 gallon planter on my back deck where I grew a spring crop of Napa this year. In general I think plants tend to do better in my raised beds than in pots, but I decided to give that space over to one sole Heavy Hitter Okra plant. I’ll be interested to see what it does.
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Post by Heavyhitterokra2 on Jun 6, 2021 23:23:22 GMT -6
chrysanthemum,
That's terrible news about your okra/mulch accident. (shoot me an email to heavyhitterokra@gmail.com).
Our weather has been just about the opposite of yours, here in Northeastern Oklahoma. If you had told me a couple of years ago that a flannel shirt would still be feeling good in mid-June, I'd have thought you were crazy! We've had summers past when the temperatures reached 100 degrees in June. Ninty degrees would usually be the norm by the last weeks of May; but this year, it's still getting cool enough in the evenings to want a wool blanket at night. Memorial Day Weekend, we camped out in the woods, in the pouring rain, and it got down to 43 degrees while we were shivering all night long in our soggy tent.
Right now, it's 62 degrees out and the forecast calls for rain nearly every day this coming week. My okra here is yellowing and stunted from weeks on end of below normal temperatures and cloudy, rainy, muddy weather. I think this year, Spring might actually be starting off cooler, cloudier, wetter, and later than it did in 2020. (If that's even possible).
2020 was a nightmare year for getting my okra started. I actually lost about one-fourth of my plants to an early October freeze last year, before the seeds had time to mature in the pods because it was mid-June before our temperatures got right for planting. We had a killing frost on May 8th, 2020. So between those two freeze dates, we had a very short growing season. This year, we had a snowstorm on April 20th and the entire month of May was below normal in temperature with endless days of rainy weather. Time, and time again, I'd germinate seeds, then get rained out for days on end and not get my planting done. Things like that make it really hard to plan ahead.
I did, however, manage to finish planting all of my raised beds and finish tilling my entire garden this weekend (June 5th), before the forecasted rains were due to arrive later on Monday afternoon. I'm sure happy about that. It has been about a month since the last time it was dry enough out there to work the soil. The weeds were getting taller than my plants.
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Post by chrysanthemum on Jun 7, 2021 17:12:43 GMT -6
I’m sorry that you’ve been having such a tough time with the rain and cool this spring. In a sense we’ve been having the same weather. It’s just that we are so much farther south that our cooler temps have been warm enough to make for good gardening weather for most of my plants. They haven’t been suffering from too much heat and sun yet. The okra and sweet potatoes probably would have enjoyed more sunshine, but they’ve been fine (I hope). I’ll include a picture of one of my bigger okra seedlings, and you’d be a better judge than I. This is five weeks out from germination, I think, but it will be hotter this week, so I bet it will shoot up. Our first really good chance of frost is around the end of October, so I’ve got time left. I have three seeds wrapped in a wet paper towel now, two for spots in the garden that need replacing, one for the empty planter on my deck. Baker Creek was generous in packing the seed packet. I bought a fifteen-seed-minimum packet, but they included more than twenty. I’ve used about half as I don’t sow and thin. I just plant what I think I can fit into my space. (I over planted tomatoes this year because I wasn’t expecting such lush growth. I am pruning tomatoes out of necessity, but I don’t think you can tell by looking at the plants.). If I need to replace any other Heavy Hitter Okra seedlings, I still have some seeds to do so. It is definitely my goal to be conscientious about saving seed this year from this variety if I can get the okra to maturity. I’m glad you’ve been able to get planting done before the next round of rain. I still can’t really get my mind around 1,600 seeds, though, (or how you shelled out all of yours, plus the seeds you sent to Baker Creek). I am very grateful for all your hard work.
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Post by Heavyhitterokra2 on Jun 7, 2021 21:25:44 GMT -6
chrysanthemum,
Looking good!
You should be seeing small branch buds start to form at about the third set of true leaves, one bud at each leaf node, between the leaf and the main trunk. Blossom heads begin forming at about the fifth set of true leaves (around 55 to 60 days). Pods begin to form the first day of blossom drop. It takes about 8 weeks for the pods to mature into viable seeds.
About packaging seeds, here's how I do that:
Starting in late October, I begin shelling out all of the okra seeds by hand. I crack open each okra pod over a white enameled dishpan, then discard the spent pod pieces, swish the seeds around like I'm looking for gold, cull out any off-color, or small, or deformed seeds, fish out any trash, then dump them into a larger container for weighing at the end of the day.
It takes about 75 pods to get a good pound of dry seeds. I shell out about 4 pounds of seed per day before my back gives out from leaning over and squinting at the bottom of a dishpan.
A 5-gallon bucket brim-full of seeds weighs about 26 pounds. When the bucket gets full, I pack the seeds into heavy, woven seed bags, placed inside heavy cardboard shipping boxes. I pack 20 pounds of seed into each box, then ship them to Baker Creek as I get each order packed. When Baker Creek receives them, they germ test the seeds, weigh them, send me the results, then if we agree, they pay me about the first week of January.
In the meantime, I shell out my own personal seeds, cure them for 30 days, package them in glass canning jars, and store them for winter in a cool, dark, dry place. In winter, I pull up the old plants, plow the garden, raise seedbeds, lay plastic, and wait for Spring, so I can start over from scratch. It's kind of a year-round job.
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Post by Sheila on Jun 8, 2021 9:34:25 GMT -6
Thanks for responding. Yes, I have seen bootleggers. One person selling 5 seeds for $15. I have it listed in my favorites with Baker Creek. I will continue to keep an eye out between them, your site and DRY CREEK FARM STORE. Thanks. Sheila, I apologize for taking so long to respond to your question. My computer went on the 'fritz'somewhere around May 28th, so I've been offline for quite a few days. George got me going again, and for that, I am very thankful. I'm not keeping a waiting list this year as I normally do, due to the unprecedented numbers of people wanting seeds. (I'd have a waiting list a mile long). This year, it will just be first come first served until I run out seeds. Of course, that's kind of how it always goes, though I try to prioritize as much as possible. Last year, I had an unusual number of seed requests and was completely swamped with orders. I ran out of inventory about the first week of January 2021. That has never happened before. I usually harvest my Heavy Hitter Okra Seeds around the end of October. (That's just a general guideline, as it all depends on the weather). I noticed today that there were 'BOOTLEG' seed distributors popping up out there. Just for your personal knowledge, "BAKER CREEK RARE SEEDS", and my own personal website, "DRY CREEK FARM STORE / " are the only legitimate distributors of Heavy Hitter Okra Seeds. Central Florida Seeds is selling a knock-off / un-authorized version. This is their website: centralfloridaseeds.com/products/okra-heavy-hitter-abelmoschus-esculentusIn order to maintain surety, and quality, it is recommended that seeds should only be purchased from verified sources. I can't guarantee that what you might get from other vendors is actually what you are paying for, as I only harvest a few select plants each year and sell those seeds until I run out. Other vendors no doubt harvest the entire field, 'culls, runts, and all' I don't do that. (If a plant produces fewer than 100 pods per season, I cull it). Those plants are pulled up and burned. Only seeds from my very best ever go to market.
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Post by Heavyhitterokra2 on Jun 8, 2021 18:42:28 GMT -6
Thanks, Sheila!
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Post by heavyhitterokra on Jun 9, 2021 3:08:00 GMT -6
Hey guys! I got my Green Country Seed Savers account to recognize my computer again, so I can now edit my writings and leave likes on my friend's posts and such.
Last evening, I noticed that I have several skips in various rows of okra in my garden for whatever reason. It looks like I'll be soaking another 100 or so extra seeds this morning, to repair the damage before it gets so hot out there that the 'Chimney effect' from using black plastic becomes a problem. At temperatures above 90 degrees F. hot air will begin to escape from each hole cut in the black plastic and will literally 'cook' the leaves off of any seedlings trying to spread their young leaves above this tiny 'furnace-like' opening, effectively making it impossible to start most seedlings beyond July 1st. (That's just one of the drawbacks to using black plastic in hot weather). Of course on the flip-side of that, the black plastic warms the cold soil during less than favorable planting conditions in early Spring, and has many a time saved my tender seedlings from damage by light frosty morning air. So, like most anything in life, it's got its Pros and its Cons. It has been my experience though, that the pros of using black, generally outweigh the cons in a mild Spring setting.
The 'chimney effect' is not a total loss though, and can be easily defeated by removing a portion of the black plastic, stripping it back to the bare soil to let it cool before seeding, or by replacing a section of the black plastic with new plastic, placing the white side up where seedlings will be planted instead. It's very versatile and is a quite effective weed barrier at all times.
Well, it's time to go turn the chickens and the geese loose to graze. The sun will be up any minute now, so I'd better go get my chores started.
I love Springtime mornings just before dawn! There's nothing quite like the magic of that!
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Post by heavyhitterokra on Jun 15, 2021 18:14:54 GMT -6
Irrigation I should have had this all finished a month ago, but I've been running behind.
I finally got my irrigation all hooked up and running today, just in time for it to be 95 degrees and no more rain for a while. (I'm soaked through from sweating). I had eleven rows of drip tape 150' feet long to hook valves to, then, I had to lay out 110' feet of new header hose because my rows are spaced 10' feet apart.
The hardest part of this job is pushing the barbed fittings of the valves into the header hose. There were eleven of them to do. It's a reinforced header hose, dipped in blue plastic, about the size of a fire hose. You have to poke holes in it that are smaller in diameter than the barbed fittings on the valves. Then you push the barb through the tiny hole that you poked. When the water pressure comes back on, it pushes the flat side of the barbed fitting against the inside of the hose so it won't leak. It doesn't look like it would work, but it does. (if your pilot hole is the correct size that is). Too large and it will blow the barb back through the hole when you turn the water back on.
Actually, that might not be the hardest part, it's just very tedious work because there were eleven of them to be done. Each row has an individual shut-off valve, in case a rodent ruins one of the lines. That way, you can shut that one line down for repairs and still irrigate the rest of the garden. The hardest part might be putting the Tee fitting and end plugs inside the blue header hose. I use 1-1/4" PVC to do that. The hose is slightly smaller than the PVC pipe I use, so I have to stretch the ends of the blue hose with an exhaust pipe flaring tool before the PVC will fit inside, then, I secure it with hose clamps. If it's too loose from stretching, you'll never get it to stop leaking. If it's too tight, you'll never get the hose stretched over it.
That sure was a happy-making thing to get the water turned on out there. I didn't water the garden today, it hasn't been that long since we've had heavy rains. I just ran it long enough to blow all of the air out of the lines and check it for leaks.
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Post by heavyhitterokra on Jun 17, 2021 3:27:01 GMT -6
Here it is, 4:00 am, and I find myself waiting for the sun to come up again, so I can go back outside to mess around in the garden. I'll try to get a few photos today. I just barely figured out how to download pictures using the new Linux operating system that George installed for me. I wanted so badly to go ask him how to do that, but also wanted so badly to figure it out on my own. I think I've finally got it whipped, but who knows how many copies I ended up with in what files, trying to find the right button.
Thanks, George, for forcing me to use the few rusty brain cells I have left. (They were pretty dusty.)
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