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Post by heavyhitterokra on Jul 27, 2022 22:45:33 GMT -6
My rows are about 150' feet long and 10' feet on centers, so I can drive a truck or a tractor between the rows. I have 12 rows, plus the alleyway all around the border, wide enough to drive the tractor and make the necessary turns to get the three-point tiller between each row when I'm plowing weeds. I just tilled the whole thing a couple of days ago, planning on sowing a cover crop ahead of the rains, except the feed store didn't have any seeds for sale this early, so I sowed Zinnias and Black-Eyed Susan instead.
I'll still do a cover crop later in the year once I can buy more seeds. The flowers only took up one row center. I still have several more left to go. I usually have lots of flowers in my garden, but this year, the grasshoppers ate all of them, so hopefully the Fall planting will fare better than the Spring planting did. I have volunteer Back-eyed Susan and Shasta Daisies every year. I love those things! Plant once and grow them forever!
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Post by chrysanthemum on Aug 8, 2022 18:05:39 GMT -6
I took my camera out to the garden today, so I thought I’d get some pictures of my okra. This first one isn’t one of my oldest plants, but it’s showing signs of beginning to branch. It’s had aphids and ants on it, so the white is some diatomaceous earth I sprinkled on it last week. I was worried that the ants would chew off the growing tip, as fire ants will do that sometimes. They also eat okra pods. This is the tip of a different plant. And the beginnings of a side branch.
I feel like the okra has been hanging on rather than thriving this summer in our extreme heat. Now that we’ve had a couple of days with a high of 99 instead of over 100, it’s perhaps going to do a little more. I hope so. I’d really like to cook up a mess of okra some time this summer. (And I’d like to freeze a bunch, but I’ll start with one meal.)
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Post by heavyhitterokra on Aug 8, 2022 21:52:38 GMT -6
I see lots of little branches forming along the main axis, good thing you have an extra long growing season there. Maybe, if you stay committed to making compost through the winter months, you'll have enough compost on hand next year to plant some of your okra seeds in the 'good stuff.' Boy, wouldn't that be a good feeling!
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Post by chrysanthemum on Aug 9, 2022 10:54:09 GMT -6
I see lots of little branches forming along the main axis, good thing you have an extra long growing season there. Maybe, if you stay committed to making compost through the winter months, you'll have enough compost on hand next year to plant some of your okra seeds in the 'good stuff.' Boy, wouldn't that be a good feeling! I’ve been committed to making compost for the past seventeen years, ever since my husband and I first rented a townhouse where we had a tiny backyard instead of living in an apartment with only a balcony for potted plants. We do keep going all winter, but it’s a slow process for us, and we don’t produce huge amounts. That’s why we’ve ended up bringing in organic aged manure compost in bulk to fill our garden beds. I hope that’s good stuff. The four garden beds where we have our okra did actually get our homemade compost last fall. I remember that someone had dumped some kitchen scraps accidentally into our finishing compost, and so we ended up with lots and lots of tomato seedlings. Thankfully I had time to let them grow and hoe them down before we planted garlic last fall. We harvested the garlic this spring, but there weren’t many good heads. There were small heads and some rounds. Garlic has not been a good crop for me in Texas, and this winter/spring with the roller coaster weather was just not very good growing conditions. I’m not sure if we’ll try again this fall. I’m pretty sure that after we harvested the garlic that I mixed in some alfalfa pellets and cottonseed meal before transplanting the okra. I try to feed the soil so that the soil can feed the plants. Overall, I think the plants are healthy, but the heat and drought this summer have been hard on them. I’m anxious for cooler fall weather and am hopeful that I will see increased productivity on my crops, not just okra but also tomatoes and perhaps cucumbers as well.
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Post by heavyhitterokra on Aug 11, 2022 20:33:33 GMT -6
I picked 5 pounds of Heavy Hitter Okra this morning. Too much to eat, not enough to make a trip into town to sell. Five pounds of okra in volume is the size of a plastic Walmart grocery bag so brim full you can hardly bring the handles together to carry it. That makes 10 pounds for the year so far. My okra is right at one month behind schedule, due to deer depredation and replanting several times over. (About 4 times over).
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Post by heavyhitterokra on Aug 13, 2022 11:57:30 GMT -6
The pace is picking up. I picked 15 pounds of okra today. That makes 25 pounds to date. My plants are branching like crazy and beginning to bolt now. I'll sure be glad when the pods rise up above the canopy. Right now, It's like search and rescue to find a pod down amongst the heavy leaf cover.
That won't be for long though. In a couple more weeks the pods on the bolting plants will be well above the canopy.
Hopefully, I'll go get some pictures up soon. I've been too busy mowing and picking elderberries today to take time to grab a camera.
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Post by woodeye on Aug 13, 2022 17:17:46 GMT -6
Awesome! So happy to hear that your okra plants are shifting into a higher gear!...
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Post by hmoosek on Aug 13, 2022 18:08:46 GMT -6
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Post by heavyhitterokra on Aug 13, 2022 19:19:19 GMT -6
Everything is not doom and gloom, though I've lost 7 1/2 rows of okra out of the 12 that I planted, I've still got 4 1/2 rows that are doing very, very, well. These rows are on 10' foot centers, so I can drive a truck or tractor between them when needed.My okra plants are about 4' feet tall, 4' feet wide, and still growing.
My rows are from 150' to 200' feet long.
They are branching vigorously.
I need a little red wagon to haul my pods up and down the rows on harvest days.
This is what the other 7 1/2 rows look like. Not very encouraging. This is deer depredation.
This is herbicide contamination from all the hard work I did last winter of spreading cow manure and making 1,500 pounds of biochar. Sometimes, you just can't win for loosing, but not all is lost, I still have 4 1/2 good rows and that is a real blessing.
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Post by woodeye on Aug 13, 2022 19:45:40 GMT -6
It's the best attitude to have, all is not lost, that's for sure. It's always tough when a person has to play a bad hand, but you've done better with the cards you were dealt than any of the rest of us could have possibly done.
Your remaining rows look outstanding!
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Post by hmoosek on Aug 13, 2022 19:55:59 GMT -6
Yes Sir, I second what woodeye said. You made lemonade out of lemons. It’s heartbreaking to do all that hard work and have things go South.
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Post by chrysanthemum on Aug 13, 2022 20:39:35 GMT -6
( hmoosek , I had to laugh that a Texan would use the phrase “go South.” I know it’s just the expression, and I use it myself even though I’m a native Virginian (a southerner). Oughtn’t we think that goin’ South would be a good thing?) heavyhitterokra , I’m very glad to hear about the good healthy rows of okra. I hadn’t realized until reading your earlier post that you had received herbicide-contaminated manure when you were amending your rows this winter. I know you worked so hard to produce all those healthy amendments, especially after your cover crop froze last fall. It actually made me cry to realize what had happened, but I was touched by the way you ended your post: “and that is a real blessing.” That attitude that the Lord has given you is a blessing, and I’m glad that you’re able to focus on the good in the midst of hard providences.
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Post by hmoosek on Aug 13, 2022 20:47:12 GMT -6
chrysanthemumYou know, now that I think about it, we should say going North. Hahahaaaa I had never given it a second thought.
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Post by woodeye on Aug 13, 2022 21:19:58 GMT -6
chrysanthemum You know, now that I think about it, we should say going North. Hahahaaaa I had never given it a second thought. Well, let's break this down...
-If something goes bad for a Texan, that means that things are going north.
-If something goes bad for an Oklahoman, that means things are going south.
So in an effort to forge a compromise betwixt our 2 great states nations, I propose that all Texans and all Oklahomans should herewith send their bad stuff directly to the middle of the Red River...
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Post by heavyhitterokra on Aug 14, 2022 2:33:38 GMT -6
That 'Going south' comment reminded me of my time working up North of the Adirondacks, in Northern New York State. It was so cold up there, just 3 miles South of the Canadian Border that it was tough to man the work. In winter, they would regularly reach temperatures of 30 below zero. That first breath of frigid cold air in the morning would hurt like a punch in the nose. So, naturally, there were a lot of Okies and Texans up there doing the work for them. The Yankees up there would often tell us, "a blessed sight would be a Texan walking South with an Okie under each arm.
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