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Post by heavyhitterokra on Dec 16, 2021 17:50:43 GMT -6
I saw that the forecast is calling for a 100% chance of rain tomorrow and they have already issued a flood watch for the next two days, so even though I kind of over did things yesterday, I still got out to the garden this evening and finished chopping another row of dead okra stalks.
Slowly, but surely, I'm getting there. Just 7 or 8 more rows to go!
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Post by chrysanthemum on Dec 16, 2021 18:40:06 GMT -6
We actually haven’t had a killing frost yet, and my okra plants are blooming! They’re not really producing with the lack of sun (it’s very gray but warm right now), but I can hardly believe that I have blooming okra in mid December. I told my husband that he could cut out the stalks last weekend when he was chopping down the asparagus ferns. He didn’t do it, though, because he was just using pruning shears for the asparagus, and the okra would be too much for them. He was even considering whether it might endanger the loppers we use for tree branches, but he never pulled them out to try.
I wonder if we should lop the okra and use it for kindling for our woodstove. (It’s been so warm this week that we haven’t even thought about a fire. We even had to use ceiling fans to cool off upstairs.) The plan had been just to throw it in the pile of branches that we chip for mulch, but I might suggest putting it in our kindling crib (a literal crib that was no longer safe enough to pass along for a baby, so we use it to hold scraps of wood in the back room of our barn.). I’ve burned some unusual wood down here in Texas (pomegranate, loquat, and even rosemary), but I haven’t tried okra stems yet.
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Post by heavyhitterokra on Dec 16, 2021 22:51:25 GMT -6
(Quote from chrysanthemum, page 95)
"I wonder if we should lop the okra and use it for kindling for our woodstove. (It’s been so warm this week that we haven’t even thought about a fire. We even had to use ceiling fans to cool off upstairs.) The plan had been just to throw it in the pile of branches that we chip for mulch, but I might suggest putting it in our kindling crib (a literal crib that was no longer safe enough to pass along for a baby, so we use it to hold scraps of wood in the back room of our barn.). I’ve burned some unusual wood down here in Texas (pomegranate, loquat, and even rosemary), but I haven’t tried okra stems yet."
(Reply).
Okra stalks burn very clean and hot producing very little smoke. I think they'd make really good kindling. They don't leave coals though, so they wouldn't be very good as the main fuel source for heating a home.
Since they are very fibrous, the stalks are easy to light, just break them in half to expose the fibers. The seed pods burn good too. The seeds contain oil and make a hot fire. They are a little harder to get going than the stalks though, but can be added to the fire once it gets going.
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Post by heavyhitterokra on Dec 21, 2021 10:09:09 GMT -6
I've been getting a lot of questions lately, about growing okra, people asking if I have any growing tips or any tricks they need to know about, so I decided I'd post a few of them here. Have you ever noticed that trees growing too close together in the woods are tall and slender, but a single tree growing alone in a field has branches reaching wide, though it is not as tall as the more crowded trees?
That is because the single tree in the open field spent its energy in branching, not in growing tall. Trees grow tall, searching for light, but if they have all the light they need, they branch out laterally, so they can drop their seeds farther away from the base. Okra does the same. Plus, it needs some good soil and plenty of water. I watched a video yesterday, of a man growing Heavy Hitter okra in Florida. It about made me crazy watching it without being able to intercede because he said he was growing it for seed production, so he never picked any of the first pods. Because of this, his okra reached a terminus early on and stopped producing flowers. Once a single pod has reached maturity, it sends a hormone message to the plant, telling the plant that it has done its job. From that point on, the plant will focus all of its energy on feeding those few seeds and nurturing them to seed saving maturity. (Yes, seed production is taxing to a plant, much the same way as growing a baby is taxing to a mother).
Okra, like us, doesn't want to work its whole life long. It's inherently lazy. If it thinks it can retire early, it will jump at the chance. You have to 'coax' the plants along to keep them in heavy production by taking away all of their efforts to reproduce. Take away all of their tender pods, causing them to spend all of their energy trying to produce more tender pods. When you do this, they'll form more branches and more blossoms. If you persistently harvest all of the tender pods from all of the branches, the branches will produce secondary, and even tertiary branches, each branch being capable of producing about a dozen more pods. (It's much the same principle as taking milk from a cow to cause it to produce more milk.) The more milk you take from the cow, the more the cow will produce milk, (given that she has plenty of nutrition and adequate growing conditions). It's the same with okra; it has to have plenty of nutrition in the form of excellent soil and plenty of water and direct sunlight.
Each branch of the okra plant has the potential of growing 10 to 15 more pods before reaching its terminus. So more branching equals more production, but it takes effort to force your okra to do this. (Lots of effort). You have to pick the tender pods before any of them reach maturity. (Before any of them have a chance to become tough, this toughness can begin to occur in as few as 4 days after blossom drop). A single mature (tough) pod can start a chain reaction, sending enough hormone to halt production of the entire plant.
In other words, a lazy gardener will in turn produce lazy plants. Lazy plants will not be at their best. Much like us, if left to vegetate, they will appear weaker, and of lesser stature than the harder working plants. A fit plant will appear strong and robust, with many branches and loads of fresh blossoms. Once full branching has occurred, the gardener can take rest and allow the numerous branches to set fruit, allowing all of the remaining pods to mature and grow their seeds. The plant will die at a happy old age and the gardener will have a very productive year with many seeds in store for the next season. However, if you are lax with your gardening, the plants will be lax in their production.
This was our record plant to date, grown during the drought of 2011, with about 65 branches and loads of pods. This photo was taken in early October of that year. The plant was killed later in the week by a freak windstorm and sustained temperatures of 23° for about a 6 hour period, which ripped the plastic off our hoop house and destroyed the plant. Because of harvesting pods into mid-September that season, coupled with the earliness and severity of that storm, we only got 5 mature seed pods that year. It takes about 8 weeks for pod to mature, once a blossom emerges. So, if you are wanting to save seeds, keep that in mind and plan your last harvest accordingly.
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Post by triffid on Dec 21, 2021 12:00:36 GMT -6
From what I've read over the past few days this looks to be the best okra in the world, which is truly amazing, congratulations. My mother is from Trinidad and 'ochro' is a key ingredient in the island's version of callaloo. The correct viscosity is reliant on the mucilage from the okra. I've tried desperately to replicate it with Chinese mallow but to no avail; it has many tiny fine hairs which stick to the throat. As fanciful as it seems, I know decent okra can be grown in this country, under cover. Do you know of anyone in Europe who has attempted to grow Heavy Hitter?
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Post by Tucson Grower on Dec 21, 2021 14:34:19 GMT -6
From what I've read over the past few days this looks to be the best okra in the world, which is truly amazing, congratulations. . . I think so too. Of course that doesn't necessarily apply to those growing it without even trying to meet its needs, or who are growing it for a purpose other than what it was bred for. Though further selecting it for the desired traits, and then continuing the selection process, until you achieve your desired strain, or not. Such as selecting for plants that can continue blooming and setting new pods, no matter how many ripening pods are already present. If that were possible, it might not be as desirable for human consumption, unless your goal were to eat the ripe seeds - which it might be.
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Post by heavyhitterokra on Dec 21, 2021 18:22:15 GMT -6
The video that I posted earlier, from the grower in Florida was from a guy attempting to produce okra seeds for a chicken feed supplement. So, yeah, some people are growing pods for seed consumption, but you still have to harvest the crud out of the first pods or you won't get very many seeds in the end. It's kind of a catch 22, in that any pod that you harvest early on will not be a pod that produces seeds, but if you let the early pods go to seed, then the plant will shut down and you won't get as many seeds as if you had harvested heavily in the beginning.
That can way, way, way, backfire on you though, if you miscalculate the Autumn frost date, (as I have on more than one occassion). I've come very close to losing my entire life's work by harvesting tender pods for the Farmer's Market into Early September, then having an early October frost that killed all of my plants (including the ones under protection of a heated hoophouse).
That first Autumn frost date is very unpredictable. A hurricane in Texas or Lousiana can usher in crazy, low temperatures as the counter clockwise rotaion moves Northeastward across the States. It's that tail wind that hooks down the really bad weather. Since it takes about 8 weeks for an okra pod to reach full seed saving maturity, there is not much you can do if you miscalculate the arrival of the killing frost.
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Post by heavyhitterokra on Dec 21, 2021 19:29:08 GMT -6
From what I've read over the past few days this looks to be the best okra in the world, which is truly amazing, congratulations. My mother is from Trinidad and 'ochro' is a key ingredient in the island's version of callaloo. The correct viscosity is reliant on the mucilage from the okra. I've tried desperately to replicate it with Chinese mallow but to no avail; it has many tiny fine hairs which stick to the throat. As fanciful as it seems, I know decent okra can be grown in this country, under cover. Do you know of anyone in Europe who has attempted to grow Heavy Hitter? triffid,
I've had people from all over the world purchase seeds from me. Unfortunately, I very seldom get any feedback. I've had folks from Germany, England, and France, purchase my seeds. I've even had some who purchased them as gifts for a person in another European Country. I used to accept orders from anywhere on the planet, but due to covid and the unpredictability of overseas postal service, I've stopped accepting International seed orders, as I have no way of tracking the packages once they have left US soil and I have had several customers complain because of shipping delays.
I've never had a package get totally lost in the mail (which is amazing to me) but I have had some International orders that have taken as many as 3 months to arrive at their final destination. I had one guy pay 8,000 Rupies for shipping to India, very close to his needed planting date, only to have the seeds get hung up by the Customs Department in Bangledesh, for nearly a month. I had one order from Israel that got turned around multiple times. To pay shipping for an item more than once can become cost prohibitive very quickly. I shipped a package to Canada on November 23rd this year, it just arrived at its destination today, December 21st. (Who knows why?) Canada does not even require that one cross any large body of water and I could drive there from my house in two day's time ... For those reasons I've stopped shipping Internationally.
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Post by Tucson Grower on Dec 21, 2021 19:51:15 GMT -6
So, heavyhitterokra, what you're saying is that Heavy Hitter Okra, can possibly be used to produce ripe seed for chicken/livestock and/or human consumption, but you need to use a strategy where you should, at first, continuously harvest all of its earlier immature pods. Then, once you have its reproductive gears completely engaged, like a freight train going downhill - let it begin to ripen seed for seed harvest (you will likely get a much more satisfactory harvest of ripe seed) and you might even be able to get a second harvest, after the first. But mostly if you're good at selecting the best timing. Or perhaps your earliest and latest harvests will only be suitable as immature pods. It would likely depend on your growing conditions and timing. So, even if the genetics aren't there to select for a variety that basically ignores the hormone signals to shut down reproduction and grow seed to maturity, instead of continuing to set more seed until the plants reproduce themselves to death. With proper care and timing it may well be possible to get immature pods for alternate purposes, and thereby get an optimal crop of seed for feed, but not if you let the very first batch of pods ripen into mature seed.
I'm sure we have most varieties of okra, that primarily grow and produce with just a single stalk, with almost no productive branches, because earlier breeders, somehow were locked into a mindset that considered that single stalk optimal in their okra varieties. Perhaps they considered multi-branching plant to be too much of a harvest/management burden on farmers or themselves. You, heavyhitterokra, had an entirely different view, followed it through, and Heavy Hitter Okra was "born".
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Post by macmex on Dec 22, 2021 7:10:49 GMT -6
Ron has a unique ability to "see" what he's looking at while in the field. Lots of other folk probably have some of the same things crop up in their gardens but then never notice, let alone dream about what they might lead to, and even fewer ... try.
I believe covid has been a wonderful excuse for government agencies to collect their pay and do less and less in exchange. It's hard to believe that government offices are still, very often, practically unmanned. Additionally, special protocols put in place on account of covid slow many processes to a crawl. I saw this when my wife was hospitalized locally, back in February. She was in the hospital five days. No one was allowed to visit or assist her. Hospital staff appeared to be set on the "skeleton crew setting." It took HOURs to get assistance from her bed, once her call button was pushed. Her roommate didn't have a working call button, which didn't get remedied for that week. They didn't have a working bathroom (toilet or shower). My wife never got to bathe while in the hospital, not even to wash her hair. She had to use a bed pan the whole time she was in and... they never emptied it, for five days, stashing it near the head of her bed. The floors weren't swept or mopped those five days. It was unbelievable and all on the pretext of protecting people from covid.
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Post by heavyhitterokra on Dec 22, 2021 22:37:21 GMT -6
I kind of think commercial pickers of okra prefer a single stalk? I'm just guessing at that. I know that having multiple branches makes it very easy to overlook pods down low. When harvesting a single stalk plant, all the pods are at the same elevation. When harvesting a multi-branched plant, there are pods at several levels. They definitely take longer to harvest, but there are more pods per square foot and per cubic foot.
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Post by Deleted on Dec 23, 2021 10:40:40 GMT -6
I've seen a vid of a good ok boy that did that. Stripped off the branches from the bottom up. Guess it made sense, but he had about 50 plants going. I'd be growing about a third in half the space and probably getting more okra over the season.
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Post by heavyhitterokra on Dec 25, 2021 5:31:34 GMT -6
Merry Christmas everyone! And good morning to you all. This morning, I slept in until 5:17 am. Around here, that's like sleeping in 'til noon, let me tell you, and much appreciated too!
Oh well, the time will be well spent, warming up the smoked ham, so I can get it glazed with hard sauce and decorated with whole cloves, pineapple slices, star fruit slices, and candied cherries. I'll be getting the pumpkin pies topped with fresh whipped cream, arranging the cookies, and setting out the traditional dishes of Sneaky Dog, and sweet, candied potatoes ... Christmas is here at last!
Our thermometer read 77 degrees yesterday at 4:00 pm. It sure was strange having the doors and windows opened on Christmas Eve. From the looks of the forecast, it will be at least 70 again today. I'll sure be happy when the winds finally lay.
And once more, Merry Christmas everyone!
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Post by macmex on Dec 25, 2021 7:59:50 GMT -6
I feel so guilty... slept in until 7 am today. We stayed up until almost 10 last night, watching some of "The Chosen" episodes. The doctors tell me I'm supposed to shoot for 8 to 9 hours of sleep. Went decades on something like 5 or less.
Merry Christmas everyone!
“But when the fullness of the time had come, God sent forth His Son, born of a woman, born under the law, to redeem those who were under the law, that we might receive the adoption as sons. And because you are sons, God has sent forth the Spirit of His Son into your hearts, crying out, 'Abba, Father!'” Galatians 4:4-6
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Post by hmoosek on Dec 25, 2021 13:14:44 GMT -6
Merry Christmas!!! I finally dozed off around 3:30ish. I spent the evening watching some 70’s Dallas Cowboy games. I grew up with Staubach, so he’s still my favorite. I don’t watch football anymore. Same with Basketball. When Magic retired, I quit watching. I’m a little funny that way. I hate change with a purple passion. Anyone with sense knows your favorite players can’t play forever, but I sure don’t adjust well. I watched the 90’s Cowboys and oddly enough, I continued watching right up till Romo retired then I turned it off and haven’t watched a game since.
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