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Post by chrysanthemum on Oct 10, 2021 15:11:05 GMT -6
We ate some okra last night for dinner, but it’s slowing down now. It hasn’t stopped yet, though I did accidentally break off the tippy top of one of my tall plants the other day. I was trying to bend it down to harvest very gently, and it just snapped. I used loppers yesterday to cut off most of the stalk so that it could focus energy on these branches at the bottom. They still look happy. Here’s a picture of the deck plant that I’m using for seed saving. There are a lot of bugs that are sucking on the end of the okra pods. I’ve been squishing and flicking them in the mornings, and there seem to be fewer. The pods are really sturdy looking, and I bet they’re full of seed.
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Post by heavyhitterokra on Oct 12, 2021 11:42:20 GMT -6
Thanks, chrysanthemum, for sharing the photos above.
In answer to your earlier question about wearing gloves while shelling okra pods, "Yes, I do wear gloves while shelling okra pods." Otherwise, the spines would make my hands itch like crazy! They almost start itching just thinking about it. I've not been shelling pods for a few days, because this weekend was our 29th wedding anniversary and we took off from our chores to go camping for a few days. I had 30 pounds of seeds shelled out when I took a break from it Saturday- Monday. I'll get back to work on it today though.
I used to wear Latex gloves, but I found out the hard way that I am allergic to Latex. Latex makes my hands burn like hot peppers do when you get their juice on your skin. Unfortunately, I had been chopping lots and lots of peppers to make sriracha at the time that I discovered that and just thought the pepper oil had somehow been seeping through the gloves, so I continued to wear them, day after day.
After wearing the Latex gloves while chopping several pounds of peppers, my hands would continue to burn for two or three hours following each exposure. Then, one day my wife said, "I'll bet you're allergic to Latex." She bought me some vinyl gloves to try out the next time I chopped peppers just to see if my hands still burned afterward. After changing to vinyl gloves, I no longer experienced any burning sensation, so now, I no longer wear Latex, but I do wear Nitrile, or Vinyl while shelling okra pods.
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Post by chrysanthemum on Oct 13, 2021 15:18:45 GMT -6
I’m so glad that your wife considered latex allergy. I would probably have been blaming the peppers, too. I use the nitrile gloves just because that’s what has been available to buy at Costco when we go there. I chopped up a bunch of banana peppers yesterday for fermenting and a bunch of shishitos today for freezing. For some reason my banana peppers are incredibly hot even though they’re only supposed to be mildly so. I sautéed some last night for a pizza topping, and the fumes had us coughing in the kitchen. Crazy!
Okra is definitely an itchy plant. Even if it weren’t, that much rubbing on your skin would hurt.
Happy Anniversary!
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Post by Sheila on Oct 15, 2021 13:11:47 GMT -6
I've finally started shelling the okra pods that I've been harvesting for the past several weeks. I have 23 pounds of seeds shelled out so far, and many, many, more days of shelling left ahead of me. When will we be able to order from you or the Rare Seeds Website?
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Post by heavyhitterokra on Oct 17, 2021 14:06:13 GMT -6
Sheila,
I've started selling seeds through my email account but still don't have enough shelled out to reopen my website just yet. I'll ship seeds to Baker Creek sometime this winter. They should have them in their 2022 spring catalog, though they sold out last year by mid-January, so it's really hard to know that for certain?
Send me an email message: heavyhitterokra@gmail.com
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Post by Sheila on Oct 21, 2021 14:16:38 GMT -6
Sheila,
I've started selling seeds through my email account but still don't have enough shelled out to reopen my website just yet. I'll ship seeds to Baker Creek sometime this winter. They should have them in their 2022 spring catalog, though they sold out last year by mid-January, so it's really hard to know that for certain?
Send me an email message: heavyhitterokra@gmail.com Will do. Thanks.
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Post by heavyhitterokra on Oct 22, 2021 16:36:30 GMT -6
I'm supposed to be outside shelling okra pods right now, but I blundered onto a package in our freezer marked, "Pork Neck Bones" so I've been busy all afternoon cooking up a gigantic batch of pork, sauerkraut, and potatoes instead. Since it was such a large set of bones, it took three cans of kraut, a whole stick of butter, and seven potatoes to do it justice. We won't have to cook tomorrow, that's for sure! Our little doggies will be in hog heaven with all those cooked bones tomorrow when everything is tender and the bones go out the backdoor.
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Post by chrysanthemum on Oct 28, 2021 15:03:43 GMT -6
Getting closer.
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Post by kenneth on Oct 31, 2021 18:11:08 GMT -6
I wanted to post how my year went. I did not get my other raised bed ready so I planted in the same one as last year ( I did get the other raised bed built in July and it will be used next year ). The first problem I had was the germination. I put the seed is a wet paper towel inside a zip lock and it was four days before the first radical appeared. I realized that I had put all my vegetable seed in the freezer. I planted some of them and a couple germinated. I found some that had not been in the freezer and they germinated a lot faster. I planted them and got about four to germinate. I tried some more for the third time and finally got eight plants. When they germinated and broke the ground I had about 5 that had the seed hull still attached. I am still trying to figure out what caused this. Then we got 12 inches of rain the first twelve days of June. In spite of all the rain and then the heat this okra performed exceptional well. I had 7 plants that produced like normal and one that produced about 120 pods. I had 2 plants that produced over 250 pods each. I picked about 90 pounds and 1500 pods. This is about 11.25 pounds per plant and 185 pods per plant with a pod weight average of 1 oz. Last year I had 8 plants and picked more pods but the weight per pod was less and only about 1 pound per plant more in weight. I prepared the seed bed the same as last year with lime, slag and 8-8-8 fertilizer. I did fertilize some with a water soluble fertilizer in July and August.
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Post by heavyhitterokra on Oct 31, 2021 21:18:37 GMT -6
Kenneth,
Thanks, for the post. Once again, your treatment with slag intrigues me. I had never heard of using slag before you mentioned it in an earlier posting. Maybe, someday I will remember to drive out by Case Foundry in the Pryor Industrial Park to see if they have any for sale.
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Post by Tucson Grower on Nov 1, 2021 23:04:45 GMT -6
Perhaps a small quantity of Azomite might be beneficial.
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Post by heavyhitterokra on Nov 2, 2021 10:43:31 GMT -6
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Post by Tucson Grower on Nov 4, 2021 18:46:56 GMT -6
Concerning pests that may bother okra in my area: There are few, if any racoons in our vicinity. Of course there are deer (thank goodness, our local deer have never bothered any of my plantings, yet), harvester ants, various species of rabbit, Javelina, assorted native reptiles (there are many), and ground squirrel's that resemble small prairie dogs, they're frequently raiding my brother's garden - except the deer, he is located 18 miles NW of me, but, so far, though they are in my neighborhood, these haven't done any major or even moderate damage to my plantings. There are, however, mostly unseen pests that do an incredible disservice to most of our local plantings. Before I tell you, what they are, I'm gonna drop a few clues. First, they are subterranean, rarely do they let themselves be exposed to light; second, they need moisture and cellulose to survive. Fortunately, they rarely attack living plants, though I've seen them girdle a small sapling occasionally - where the mulch was near the trunk. Their biggest problem for gardeners is their voracious appetite for anything dead, that was once a plant. If it's in or directly touches the ground, they can turn it into, nutrition for themselves and methane to promote global warming, very quickly. My concern being how rapidly they remove my compost, peat moss, or other natural amendments, from my garden soil. So I endeavor to remember to continuously replace compost and other cellulose-based amendments. What a contest it is to keep ahead of the termites.
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Post by heavyhitterokra on Nov 4, 2021 20:50:08 GMT -6
No okra seeds were shelled today ... I had to replace or well's faulty pressure tank. To do that, I first had to drive into town to get a new pressure tank. Wow! Have they ever gone up in price since the last time I had to do that!
Then, I had to kill the power to our pump, drain the system, rig up some 1/8" inch plastic tubing, and line up several empty 5-gallon buckets. then I had to drill a hole in the old pressure tank, jam the tubing into the hole as fast as possible, and fill three and a half, 5-gallon buckets with muddy water that was spewing out of the hole that I had drilled under 50 pounds of air pressure. I let it bleed off until the tank was finally drained down and light enough for one person to lift over our washer and dryer in order to be removed from our well closet.
Man, did I ever get a nice, cold, shower! 50 psi shoots out a pretty good stream of cold water!
I've got it all back on line now though, so maybe tomorrow I can get back to shelling okra seeds. I have 45 pounds shelled out so far, and many more boxes left to go.
On the bright side, once I split the old pressusure tank into two halves with a side grinder and cutting blade, I'll have two really expensive feed troughs made.
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Post by heavyhitterokra on Nov 12, 2021 20:53:43 GMT -6
My fingers are about frozen off! I've been outside again, shelling and picking out more okra seeds under our North-facing porch roof. It's already down to 37 degrees. If the forecast is accurate, the thermometer is headed for a low in the mid-20s by morning. I've got 56 pounds of seed shelled out so far and I'm nowhere close to being done for the season. Looks like I'll be out there for many more cold November, and probably December days and nights, trying to get to the bottom of my pile of okra pods.
If you look real close, you can just barely see the handles of my wheelbarrow buried under the pile of okra pods. I've got more pickin' left to do here than Earl Scroggins after his first banjo lesson!
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