Okra Planted Out

[duckcreekfarms]

This year I am trialing several varieties of Okra,  I have planted 15 varieties so far, but my Dwarf Lee and Longhorn have failed to germinate.  I only have one seedling of Choppee.  the others germinated very well and include Granny Franklin, Stewarts Zeebest, Star of David, Gold Coast, Evertender, Beck's Big Buck, Jimmy T's, Emerald, Alice Eliot, Pentagreen, Stubby and Cherokee Long Pod.  

[macmex]

Wow! That's quite the line up. I had determined not to grow anything but Stewarts Zeebest, as I didn't want to mess with protection against crossing, and I would like to do more selection on it. But Jay Payne, a member on the Oklahoma Gardening Forum, is sending me an heirloom from Western Oklahoma. So, I guess I'll be growing two types.

[duckcreekfarms]

Here is the list of varites planted out with 3 hills each, except Choppee with only one hill. and the winner is Pentagreen for the first bloom, but to be fair the Stubby, Star of David and Choppee were planted much later and only just now starting to get extablished.


Granny Franklin
Emerald
Pentagreen
Gold coast
Beck’s Big Buck
Alice Elliot
Evertender
Stewart’s Zeebest
Cherokee Long Pod
Jimmy T’s
Stubby
Star Of David
Choppee (1)

[fourteenmilecreek]

Duckcreekfarms,

Do you soak your okra seed in warm water the night before you plant?

My Grandma always did, and had good results.

George got me to placing my okra seeds on a folded, warm, wet, paper towel, inside a ziplock bag a day or two before I plant. Then I can pick out the seeds that germinated, and plant them first. Give the other seeds a couple more days, if any more germinate, plant them too... But if they haven't germinated in the baggie within a week, throw them out.

[duckcreekfarms]

14
I have soaked my okra seed overnight many of times, however for smaller plantings, I usualy just plant 2 or 3 seeds in a cell pack and grow in the greenhouse to transplant out later, If kept warm and moist, I have no problems getting good germination if the seeds are viable. I will probably plant my HH seed in cell packs about April 1 and have nice transplants by May when I get time to plant. I can't really do anything in the garden/field until after the selling season. (mid to later May) I have several Herb and Plant festivals that take all my time to get ready for. Then I jusmp into shipping sweetpotato slips which is very time consuming and stressful for me. No matter how many times I tell customers on my website that I don't start shipping until mid May, I will start getting angry emails about Mid April wondering where their slips are...Agh!.....And to top that off, they are customers from up North, still having cold temperatures. ..... Then I get time to plant out my seed crop of sweetpotato slips which is usaly Mid June.

[fourteenmilecreek]

I've always been told okra doesn't transplant well, so I've never tried it, but sounds like you do okay with it. I think I'll try it too? It kind of depends of whether I have any room left in the window of my Summer Kitchen. Last year, I had almost 500 tomatoes in there.

[duckcreekfarms]

I will probably plant out the smae varites that I planted out last year, (see post 3) but closer to home so I can keep an eye out on them. I will also include Heavy Hitter and I found my Lousiana Short Seed....It's very old now so I hope I can get some germination on it. Right now I would say that the Lousiana Short is one of my favorite varieties for frying. It has a nice meaty texture thats hard to beat.

[snickeringbear]

Duck, any chance you can post thoughts about the varieties you have grown? I would be interested in production, plant height, cooking characteristics, etc.

[duckcreekfarms]

Darrel
I wish I could give you a detailed production of the varieties I grew last year. I planted late and by then, I was too involved with harvesting my tomato seed crop and trying to maintain the sweetpotatoes. I grew over 150 varieties of sweets last year and It was just too much for me to handle. I'm just getting too old... I planted my Okra at the sweetpotato field which about 15 miles away from home and I figured out too late that I just wouldn't be able to watch it like I had intended. I just let all the plants grow and go.... I thought I could go and do a survey, but the person that lets me use his field was ready to get the fields tilled for the winter and I was just too tired to care. But I noticed that some of varieties were so loaded with pods and very impressive yields for just letting them go without any harvesting. This is the main reason that I said I would plant at home this year. so I can keep an eye on them and hand pollinate so I can get a seed crop.

. What I have grown in the past is the Louisiana Short, It's a fat pod type and is very productive nad easy to harvest. I searched high and low for my seed, as I haven't planted any in several years and finally found it in the last place I looked. It's old, so I have some soaking in water to see what kind of germination it has. If planted about 4 feet apart, it will produce huge basal branching plants and 6 -10 plants will keep a family supplied with all the Okra they can eat fresh. But being a fat pod type makes it a tough selling item at the farmer's market as customers are just too conditioned to the looks of Clemson Spinless.

I intend to give all of the varietes mentioned a try again, and maybe a few more, but will need to find seed for Dwarf Lee and Choppee as the seed I had didn't germinate.

You may have already seen this, but here is a link to an Oklahoma Okra Trial.

Kerrcenter.com/wp-content/uploads/2013/12/heirloom-okra-report.pdf



kerrcenter.com/wp-content/uploads/2013/12/heirloom-okra-report.pdf

[fourteenmilecreek]

Isn't that crazy about the farmers' Market crowd? They don't hardly buy Emerald okra either, because it doesn't look like Clemson Spineless.

One year, I grew lots, and lots, of Moon and Stars watermelon. I was so exited to get a chance to grow the heirloom seeds, thinking the folks at the Farmers' Market would just grab them up, because they were different..... WRONG!!!

If it don't look like the ones Granny had, I ain't gonna buy it! I think that is most everyone's consensus, though it's usually a choice made from ignorance.

[csrao]

Jun 19, 2014 20:55:53 GMT -6 duckcreekfarms said:

This year I am trialing several varieties of Okra,  I have planted 15 varieties so far, but my Dwarf Lee and Longhorn have failed to germinate.  I only have one seedling of Choppee.  the others germinated very well and include Granny Franklin, Stewarts Zeebest, Star of David, Gold Coast, Evertender, Beck's Big Buck, Jimmy T's, Emerald, Alice Eliot, Pentagreen, Stubby and Cherokee Long Pod.
 
HI
what are special characters of these  varieties


Regards
chandra shekar 

[macmex]

Chandra, welcome to the forum!
I am not an okra expert. But I can tell you about Stewart's Zeebest. Here are two lengthy quotes from Dawn Coyle, over in the Oklahoma Gardening forum (now under Houz.com). I'll provide some links.

"Stewart's Zeebest was selected and save by the late George and Mary Stewart, who lived in Houston, Texas. In the May 2009 issue of TEXAS GARDENER magazine, the Stewarts and their okra were discussed in a sidebar that accompanied an article about okra. (I love this magazine and recommend it highly.) The author of the okra article and the sidebar article about the Stewarts is Patty Glenn Leander. She attempted to piece together as much as she could about the history of Stewart's Zeebest. The Stewart's daughter, Molly, told the author that her parents selected Stewart's Zeebest out of some 'Louisiana Green Velvet' they'd received from Joe Zeigler, who was a friend of the family.
In the Stewart's vegetable garden, Mr. Stewart noticed the 'Louisiana Green Velvet' had a strong, branching pattern and begin to refer to the plants as 'Stewart's Zeebest Bushy Okra'. Eventually, the name was shortened to Stewart's Zeebest. The Stewarts, when saving seed, relentlessly selected for heavy-bearing, bushy plants that produced tender pods. Many people find the pods are tender enough to eat even when they reach 8" or more in length.
In Mary Stewart's garden notes, she wrote down that the parent plant of the seed they had produced 28 branches and 243 pods on one plant. At the time she wrote those particular garden notes, they'd been selecting for the qualities they wanted and saving seed for 9 years.
It is a fascinating history, isn't it? It is my understanding that the Stewarts shared seed with many, many people over the years. I am assuming it was dispersed via Seed Savers Exchange (because I simply cannot imagine it was not, but I didn't pull the old yearbooks to see how far back it was listed in them) and now it also is available commercially via Baker Creek Heirloom Seeds and Southern Exposure Seed Exchange as well as other places.
Dawn" 


RE: okra pods
 
Tue, Dec 14, 10 at 8:46
"George,
I grew up in Texas where the Stewarts were well-known and highly revered in gardening circles, particularly among vegetable gardeners, and sometimes were featured in local newspaper and regional magazine articles. I knew who they were long before I'd ever heard of Stewart's Zeebest okra.
There's a regional gardening magazine called "Texas Gardener" that I still read regularly because gardening in Texas is not that different from gardening in Oklahoma, and in May 2009, the magazine's featured cover story was about okra.
In a sidebar that accompanied the okra article, Patty Leander, a Texas Master gardener, author and speaker, wrote about the Stewarts and Stewart's Zeebest Okra. During the latter years of their lives, the Stewarts befriended Ms. Leander and she considered them her gardening mentors. With info gleaned from them and their daughter, whose name I believe is Molly, Ms. Leander has pieced together the history of Stewart's Zeebest.
Back in the summer, we had a fairly long thread on okra and I repeated there some of what Patty Leander said about Stewart's Zeebest in the sidebar article. I'll link that thread to this one.
If "Texas Gardener" magazine maintained an online article archive, I'd link the article from the May 2009 issue, but they don't. Usually, their website only features articles from the most recent issue.
Dawn"


forums.gardenweb.com/forums/load/okgard/msg1220530426548.html?20

forums.gardenweb.com/forums/load/okgard/msg0716541412491.html

I am a little wary of making too broad comparisons, due to my lack of experience with Heavy Hitter. But I believe that Stewarts Zeebest might produce a little longer when temperatures start falling, in the fall. The plants are multi branching, much like Heavy Hitter

I believe I grew out some of Becks Big Buck this year. The plants reached 7-8 feet in height and exhibited some slight tendency to branch. Pods were about 6 inches long, when ready to pick and quite thick. They were a very light green in color.

George

[csrao]

DEAR MACMEX

THANKS FOR SHARING USEFUL INFORMATION