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Post by chrysanthemum on Jul 20, 2022 12:44:56 GMT -6
Heavyhitterokra, I’m so thankful you were able to fight that fire. Your pictures made me shudder.
My okra is hanging in there, but it’s not thriving. I get a pod or two here and there, but it’s not even enough for me to save them up for a mess because it would take too long. Not all my plants were started at the same time, so I have some just getting to maturity now, so things may change. I’ve been watering diligently, but this summer has just not been good for any plants to set fruit.
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Post by heavyhitterokra on Jul 20, 2022 15:46:51 GMT -6
I know what you mean Chrysanthemum. I cut okra this morning in hopes of forcing my plants into better production. With all the things going on lately, I had a few pods that were over mature and hard. If any of those get by me, they cause the plants to stop producing because of a hormone released from the maturing seed pod. At that point, all production will cease and the plant will concentrate on seed production, focusing all its resources on the few maturing pods.
If those pods are removed in time, the plants will form new crowns and resume pod production, but all that takes time, and any crowns or pods lost to the plant's seed-producing hormone signal will not be made up before frost or old age. Old age usually begins to occur around 12 week's after the initial germination date.
We have had temperatures 100 degrees or above for close to three weeks now. I believe last Sunday was the twelfth day of temperatures 100 or above. Yesterday's high was 108 degrees. At those temperatures, coupled with these winds, and such a lack of rain as we've recently experienced, the plants are just not blooming. They are cutting back on production to conserve resources, just trying to survive. Even having more than a thousand plants in service, I only counted about 10 blossoms this morning. A few of those had already been denuded by grasshoppers before the petals had opened.
This has been a tough year. All one can do at this point is continue providing ample amounts of water in hopes of pulling the plants through to better times and milder weather. If the plants don't die of old age before the season changes, they ought to come out of it somewhat, but shorter days are nearly upon us, and by mid-August, those shorter days will cause a noticeable drop in production.
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Post by chrysanthemum on Jul 21, 2022 11:00:09 GMT -6
Uh-oh! I just counted up, and my most mature okra hit 12 week after germination just this past Saturday. It’s not looking bad, but I wonder if it’s just a fool’s errand to try to keep it alive long enough for the weather to cool. I have a very hard time giving up on plants, but I’m trying to learn to be wise about it.
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Post by heavyhitterokra on Jul 21, 2022 11:16:07 GMT -6
I should probably rephrase "Old Age" at 12 weeks to "Mid-life Crisis" at 12 weeks. Some of my plants reach nearly 26 weeks before frost takes them out. I've had plants in production until the first week of November before. They just aren't "Spring Chickens" anymore by that point. I think a lot of it has to do with length of days, though I can't say that for sure because I'm stuck at this Latitude for life and only have gardening experiences on a local level.
I'll attempt to post a few photos of exceptionally old plants grown here at my location. (They don't seem to reach this same level of maturity the farther South one gardens.) They seem to reach "old age" much quicker near the equator. In fact, they don't do well at all at latitudes below 12 degrees. I live at 35.93 north Latitude, which seems to be ideal. Though, some of my best reports came back from places as far North as Oregon, down away from the mountains, near the coast. This photo was taken the first week of October in 2011. I planted this seed April 15th, 2011, so this plant was pretty old by the time it was photographed. It had 65 branches at the time and who knows how many pods? It was killed shortly thereafter by an early freeze. Only 5 mature seed pods survived the night.
This plant was 8' feet tall in this photo. The photo was taken November 9th, 2016. For a size reference here, the pods shown at the base of the plant were frying size, tender pods, about 5" inches in length. The plant itself resembled a small tree at this age. I don't have a germination date on this one; it was grown from my seeds, by Brother Stephen Marie, at Clear Creek Abby. It was killed by freezing the very next morning. As they were only growing their plants to feed their 50 man staff, no seeds were saved.
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Post by heavyhitterokra on Jul 22, 2022 18:46:13 GMT -6
Here are a few photos of my garden this evening.
Three days ago, this was an apple tree, fully leafed out and happily bearing fruit.
Today, it's just a skeleton of a tree that was left stripped bare by a ravenous swarm of grasshoppers.
These are the tracks I left in the 6" inch deep mud as I slogged across the garden in an attempt to shoo away a few hundred thousand of the grasshoppers that were still eating my plants after the heavy rains had passed. (It was a failed attempt).
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Post by woodeye on Jul 22, 2022 19:31:49 GMT -6
So sorry to see this. It's just not fair...
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Post by heavyhitterokra on Jul 22, 2022 20:05:42 GMT -6
Everything is fair in love and war. I love my garden, unfortunately, that puts me at war with most everything in nature.
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Post by hmoosek on Jul 23, 2022 2:03:23 GMT -6
Some years the harder we try, the harder we get stomped and then there’s years everything goes right. One just never knows.
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Post by chrysanthemum on Jul 23, 2022 10:32:13 GMT -6
heavyhitterokra, I’m so sorry to see what’s happening to all your crops. I hope the apple tree can survive. I appreciate your attitude in the midst of this very hard providence. I know it’s got to be frustrating and exhausting for you. I have no idea how, but I know that “All things work together for good to those who love God” Romans 8:28a. I think it’s not insignificant that this passage comes after Paul’s discussion of creation’s being subjected to fultility in verses 20 and following. “For the creation was subjected to futility, not willingly, but because of Him who subjected it in hope; because the creation itself also will be delivered from the bondage of corruption into the glorious liberty of the children of God. For we know that the whole creation groans and labors with birth pangs together until now. Not only that, but we also have the first fruits of the Spirit, even we ourselves groan within ourselves, eagerly waiting for the adoption, the redemption of our body. For we were saved in this hope, but hope that is seen is not hope; for why does one still hope for what he sees? But if we hope for what we do not see, we eagerly wait for it with perseverence.”
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Post by hmoosek on Jul 23, 2022 13:48:24 GMT -6
heavyhitterokraI’m curious and have a couple questions. With you concentrating on a large seed crop, at what point in the year, do you let your okra go to seed? I assume you do harvest for food up to a point? Would that be right? I sometimes let things go straight to seed if I’m just trying to enlarge my collection, but Okra is a bit different in that it produces better the more it’s picked or seems that way sometimes. Anyway I just started thinking and wondered how you did things.
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Post by heavyhitterokra on Jul 23, 2022 14:22:43 GMT -6
Very good question Hmoosek.
It takes around 8 weeks for an okra pod to go from blossom to seed saving maturity. If the pods are harvested slightly green, they will not continue to mature. They have to be in the process of drying down to the point of turning a wheat straw color before they can be successfully worked, so I have to try to figure a frost date and work from there.
Where I live, it's possible to get a killing frost as early as the first week in October (though not likely, it does occur). In 2011, I lost almost my entire seed crop to an early freeze. I only got 5 pods that year that had good seeds in them. I had harvested tender pods for the Farmers Market through the entire month of August that year. sales were good, as that was an unruly hot season that year and gardens were failing without irrigation. (Mine was irrigated).
My late harvesting had only given the pods about 5 or 6 weeks to mature before the killing frost hit (all the month of September and about 7 or 8 days in October).
For that reason, I'd say around here, the latest 'safe date' to harvest tender pods would be sometime around the second week of August. Though in some years our killing frost holds off until mid-November. It's better to be safe than sorry.
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Post by heavyhitterokra on Jul 23, 2022 14:29:06 GMT -6
Chrysanthemum,
Thanks, for the encouraging words from the Book of Romans, that was much appreciated. You're right, these are trying times, but things always work out in the long run. 2019 was a record year, and so was 2010. Every once in a while things come up roses, so we just gotta roll with the punches and keep on trying our best.
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Post by hmoosek on Jul 23, 2022 14:40:51 GMT -6
heavyhitterokra2010 was a stellar year for me as well. I had peas, squash and melons galore! My ol Farmall was my workhorse and me and Mom had a ball that year!
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Post by heavyhitterokra on Jul 27, 2022 11:53:05 GMT -6
since the weather man is calling for rain the next 4 or 5 days running, I was toying with the idea of sowing some red clover and winter wheat ahead of the rain tonight, but when I called the Co-op just now, I found out they have no wheat to sell and the only red clover seed they have in stock is some left over from last year, so there goes that thought.
I sowed a half-gallon jar of Zinnia and Black-Eyed Susan seeds instead. Maybe, after the rains, I'll have a few Fall flowers in my garden.
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Post by chrysanthemum on Jul 27, 2022 13:13:52 GMT -6
That sounds beautiful. Where exactly are you putting these?
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