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Post by macmex on Sept 10, 2021 11:45:51 GMT -6
Well, AfricanX continues to gain favor with me. I planted both AfricanX and Stewarts Zeebest on June 21 this year. As usual, Stewarts produced pods quite a bit sooner (67 days) but AfricanX started just a couple days ago. I'm going to estimate that it took 78 days to harvest. Just keep in mind, this okra is almost certainly affected by day length, which is to say, if I had planted earlier, the days to maturity would probably have been more. Still, I am impressed.
This year AfricanX has been very short and squat. Perhaps it's the cooler conditions and wacky weather we've had that is to blame. What's impressive, though, is that the plants look really great anyway. They are branching like crazy and they've started producing pods at slightly over 14" of height.
I didn't manage to get a shot which captured the extreme "branchiness" of this variety, yet it is so good that as I tried to get a shot I found myself muttering, "It's like Heavyhitter!"
Because it's a bit late I wouldn't want to plant only this variety, yet I wouldn't want to be without it either. It consistently churns out a good crop for weeks after regular varieties have given up. The pods are of good quality too. The plants are gorgeous and would work well as an ornamental in a flower bed.
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Post by glen on Sept 11, 2021 19:43:03 GMT -6
Hi George!!! Great job with the okra!!! Your plants are very purple. Beautiful. I have a couple of volunteer AfricanX plants in the yard. Mine are not purple in color though. The purple shading varies and I believe it has something to do with the climate. Not sure. We have had a very rainy season here in Panama. Not much sun on most days. My plants have been fertilized several times but the plants are still not too tall. About 3 feet tall-maybe a little taller and they are full of pods. Not too much branching.
I do plan to grow at least a dozen plants next year. The last couple of years I just kind of lost interest in okra. I still have seed.
I appreciate your continued interest in AfricanX okra. Without your interest the variety could disappear. That would be a shame. I believe that AfricanX okra is a perfect companion okra for the ZBEST okra. It is doubtful they will cross because the ZBEST blooms early in the morning and they AfricanX okra blooms late in the morning. Also, you extend your harvest by growing both variety's.
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Post by macmex on Sept 12, 2021 12:27:05 GMT -6
Glen, you did a great job, coming up with the idea of breeding this variety. I still remember the first seed you sent me, and the variations we agreed we needed to work out of the seed stock. It's been at least three years now that it's been producing the very best, uniform branching. I suspect you are correct about the coloring and climate. I have to say that AfricanX seems to really really like my climate and is perfectly suited for it and for the way I use it. I can hardly imagine being without it.
This year was almost a train wreck for me, in gardening. I'm pretty sure I'll get some seed of both okras. But next year I want to produce much more of both as well as more seed. Okra and Oklahoma are made for one another!
Would you refresh my memory as to what you put into the breeding of AfricanX?
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Post by Deleted on Sept 18, 2021 8:51:07 GMT -6
Hi George!!! Great job with the okra!!! Your plants are very purple. Beautiful. I have a couple of volunteer AfricanX plants in the yard. Mine are not purple in color though. The purple shading varies and I believe it has something to do with the climate. Not sure. We have had a very rainy season here in Panama. Not much sun on most days. My plants have been fertilized several times but the plants are still not too tall. About 3 feet tall-maybe a little taller and they are full of pods. Not too much branching. I do plan to grow at least a dozen plants next year. The last couple of years I just kind of lost interest in okra. I still have seed. I appreciate your continued interest in AfricanX okra. Without your interest the variety could disappear. That would be a shame. I believe that AfricanX okra is a perfect companion okra for the ZBEST okra. It is doubtful they will cross because the ZBEST blooms early in the morning and they AfricanX okra blooms late in the morning. Also, you extend your harvest by growing both variety's. Good to see you, Glen!
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Post by glen on Oct 7, 2021 0:22:04 GMT -6
George, forgive me for not getting back to you on your request for a review of the AfricanX okra variety and its Breeding. I haven't been in the blogging mood for a good while. My interest in gardening is still the same. But, my health took a turn for the worst about a year ago so I haven't been as active with this hobby. Remember, there is a thread that covers the entire journey involved in breeding AfricanX okra. Like I said, lots of credit goes to you for keeping AfricanX alive as a new variety. AfricanX okra is a cross between Echo African okra and Panamanian coffee okra. Panamanian coffee okra was crossed with Echo African okra. Then the seed that was produced was planted. The progeny was then back crossed with Panamanian coffee okra. This is an inter-species cross which is quite rare in this part of the world. What we have now is a new variety of okra. It is fully stabilized and named variety. Which is AfricanX okra. The actual project started in 2015 so the variety is only a few years old. Like I said, I do plan to grow some this coming May in 2022. Hopefully my frozen seed is still alive.
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Post by glen on Oct 7, 2021 0:35:31 GMT -6
George, so you know, I am still container gardening. My gardening space has been reduced so much by the growing fruit tree's in the yard that there is practically no space to grow anything in the ground. The good news is that my fruit tree's are bearing fruit. I am very proud of the avocado tree that now produces nice big avocado's. Anyways, I started some Heidi tomato's. There are 6 pots. Tomato's prefer the dry season. I also have bitter melon started. Plus I have the chili peppers. I have learned quite a bit about chili peppers over the last several years. I still have the super-hot chili's also. I had to do a lot of trial and error to find out that my favorite chili peppers are the Thai hot peppers and the wild pequins and the Tabasco peppers. They make the best hot sauce in my opinion. The super-hots are good. Just way to hot and spicy. Super hot chili's grow great in my climate. I have a lot of chili peppers started outside. I mean a lot. All growing in pots. So, I am still growing a few things. I am feeling better. Starting to get out and exercise more. Starting to live again a little. I got complacent during the pandemic, got careless about my health and began to not eat right. I got sick. Now I am back on track. I will get some photo's later when I have results on those Heidi tomato's and maybe with the bittermelon if I have some luck.
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Post by macmex on Oct 7, 2021 8:02:34 GMT -6
Glen, I'm glad to hear your health is leveling out. This year has been a roller coaster ride for me, in regard to health. I had forgotten about the thread with AfricanX's origins.
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Post by macmex on Nov 7, 2021 7:10:12 GMT -6
Next year I think we should start another AfricanX thread. We can link all the other threads to it. It's just that we don't had a thread that's specifically dealing with it as an established variety, and that, not just for a specific year. Looking over the okra forum I feel I've neglected this variety in 2021, at least in regard to reporting on it. Of course 2021 has also been one of the hardest/worst years of gardening for me, and that primarily due to health issues. I just haven't been able to keep up on things very well.
For the last two years I have gotten my okra in late, which isn't good. Our family adores okra and then, because of this we have to wait for quite a while to get a harvest. Last year something happened which simply wiped out Stewarts Zeebest. AfricanX didn't thrive so great, but it did survive and produce. This year we didn't have the disease/pest problem of 2020. Instead we had much cooler temps, early on. Maybe Ron can better define the problem with okra, but none of my okra really took off with a bang this year. I was glad that it didn't get sick and die and that it did produce.
AfricanX wasn't as tall as in past years but my plants were still beautiful. They branched very very well, had a wonderful reddish tint to the leaves and stems. They looked healthy and best of all... they produced. I can't find any notes on it, right now, but it struck me that there was only a week or two gap between the beginning of production between Stewarts Zeebest and AfricanX. It's too early to tell but my suspicion is that AfricanX may be slowly adapting to produce earlier.
In September I was picking both varieties at about equal amounts. In October AfricanX pulled ahead and outproduced Stewarts (cool nights began). As of last week I was no longer able to harvest enough okra for a meal but I have still been able to snack on AfricanX pods whenever I went out to the garden. Stewarts looked shot but AfricanX looked pretty good. Cool weather doesn't seem to bother this variety. A couple light frosts began making an impact on AfricanX. Yesterday after a hard frost, most of my AfricanX plants looked pretty sad. All except one plant, at the end of the row.
Maybe there's a micro climate there. I notice that my Woods Mountain Crazy Beans, just to the South of this plant, are still going gang busters, showing no sign of frost damage. On the other hand, right next to this plant, touching it even, but to the East, my roselle plants lost all their leaves, night before last.
I have a limited harvest of seed this year but I am becoming acutely aware that in North America I am the sole person maintaining this variety, at least that's what I believe. I need to get some samples into the hands of people who will reproduce and share. I'm pretty sure AfricanX is destined to find a special niche in folks' gardens.
One more observation: this okra is really fun to pick. Not only doesn't it have spines (no itch) but also the pods come off with a simply twist and pull. I don't even have to cut them off the plant!
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Post by glen on Nov 9, 2021 23:36:38 GMT -6
That's a great report George. I am thankful that you are maintaining this new okra variety. I did share the seed as much as I could while the mail was running. I never got any reports on the performance of the seed. You know, okra isn't really as popular as for instance, tomato's or chili peppers. I am very interested in your reports concerning growing AfricanX okra as a companion okra to the Zbest okra. If you do indeed see any crossed okra please note it. I am of the opinion that those 2 okra variety's would not cross easily. If I am wrong I want to know about it. I will be planting okra this coming May as AfricanX okra is a rainy season crop for me. Right now it is time for tomato's and chili peppers and bitter melon and New Zealand spinach. I am going to have a huge Thai hotpepper harvest. Plants are covered over now. As far as health issues go. I hope that levels off for you and your family. Ron did fill me in very briefly on what is going on. My health issues have leveled off. Its imperative that we stay on top of our health. That was the biggest lesson I learned in 2021. The quarantine knocked me for a loop. I got complacent. Health is something I took for granted and I did indeed pay a price for that mistake.
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Post by heavyhitterokra on Nov 10, 2021 9:08:16 GMT -6
Glen,
It's great to hear you speaking of returning to work on your AfricanX variety. I always thought that type of okra had huge potential, all it needed was some word of mouth. I've never seen or even heard of any other completly spineless varirty of okra. More, and more, people ask me about how to get seeds from that variety each year. I always try to refer them to you on that. It does my heart good to hear that you will be planting it again in 2022.
You live in a unique climate there. Wild okra does not exist where we are, if your AfricanX strain disappeared for lack of cultivation, we could never replicate it here, it would just be lost. Please keep up the work you are doing there, we appreciate your efforts up here where there are such limited genetic resources in the field of okra study. You've made a great contribution to the world of gardening with your efforts in that area. Glad to hear you are feeling better!
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Post by macmex on Nov 10, 2021 11:27:58 GMT -6
Glen, I too hope the health issues level out. Glad you are doing better.
So far I have not had a single case of crossing between these two varieties.
After three years of rock solid stability in this selection I believe it's time to spread it around. Hedgeapple has agreed to grow it. I have a friend in Florida who will also grow it. I'm going to offer samples, as able, to some who will preserve and spread the seed. Lord willing, I will plant much more, and earlier, in 2022.
By the way, the spineless character extends to the dry pods. I shelled all my seed for AfricanX in about 40 minutes, the other day. I used bare hands and my pocket knife; easy peasy! Then I started in on Stewarts Zeebest pods. After shelling out a single pod I remembered the necessity of using gloves. It felt like like I had torn open a fiberglass fiber pod with my bare hands!
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Post by hmoosek on Nov 10, 2021 17:42:36 GMT -6
I’m growing heavy hitter next year, but if you don’t think crossing would be a concern, I’d be happy to grow it. I have the ability to isolate by about 150 yards. It could be more, I’m just guessing .
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Post by macmex on Nov 10, 2021 19:22:18 GMT -6
Moose, I'll put you down for some seed. I really don't think you have to worry about crossing with Heavyhitter.
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Post by heavyhitterokra on Nov 10, 2021 21:48:14 GMT -6
Moose, Heavy Hitter is usually just about played out before AfricanX puts on pods. AfricanX is a good second crop of okra, after the others are done for the year.
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Post by hmoosek on Nov 11, 2021 7:48:43 GMT -6
Sounds good.
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