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Post by hedgeapple on Jun 16, 2021 6:46:48 GMT -6
Well, it appears that my little hobby variety is absolutely loving its new home in Virginia this year. It is way ahead of the other three varieties I planted this year by all measures, and I'm excited to see how it adapts here over the next few years. This okra began as Burmese, which I pollinated with Hill Country Red and Silver Queen in separate years - single crosses. I had no particular goal in mind when I first started fooling with it, but the objective now is just a good all around green okra (blush tolerated) that doesn't take up too much space and which produces early. For the past three years I've selected only for overall plant health, as there was wide variation in results after the F1 generations, but will spend the next 4-5 years just selecting for early productivity and productivity in general. Part of my process for selecting plants for health has been stressing the plants out by not watering them at all for long stretches, and I never fertilize other than leaf mold and other light soil amendments - only the strong have survived. My son in Texas and a few of my friends in Arkansas asked for seed after tasting it. Good clean fun.
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Post by macmex on Jun 16, 2021 7:26:20 GMT -6
That is really good clean fun. I wish we had many more people who would save seed and "play around" with selections, etc. Can't wait till Ron finds your post!
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Post by hedgeapple on Jun 16, 2021 7:31:49 GMT -6
That is really good clean fun. I wish we had many more people who would save seed and "play around" with selections, etc. Can't wait till Ron finds your post! It has been fun, and now that I think about it, I would amend my previous post in one respect: My kids did the cross-pollinating. I showed them the parts of the flowers and they would go out early in the morning with me and a few Q-tips when multiple varieties were in flower. Great memories.
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Post by macmex on Jun 16, 2021 8:50:45 GMT -6
That's even better!
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Post by heavyhitterokra on Jun 16, 2021 10:01:31 GMT -6
Awesome report!
That sounds like a lot of fun, especially where the kids are concerned. My poor kids hated okra. We put my wife through 4 years of Law School with Farmers Market sales. We had customers at nine restaurants, two grocery stores, a health food store, the Tahlequah City Hospital, the Tahlequah Farmers Market, a river route along with RV campers and summer cabins on the Illinois River, NSU, TTCU, OPC, the Cherokee County Court House, and anyone who happened along while we were unloading the truck who requested tailgate sales.
For the kids, gardening was work. They never enjoyed it. I've got to admit, it was kind of like work. Crossing plants was what I did for fun, only now that I have them where I want them, a cross is always what I'm afraid might happen again. Crazy how things like that change. I still hand pollinate between select plants within the strain though, just no more experimenting with Zeebest, AfricanX, and Cowhorn crosses. (That kind of takes the fun out of it). I envy your days of crossing to see what becomes of it. That sounds very enjoyable.
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Post by chrysanthemum on Jun 18, 2021 20:26:59 GMT -6
Thanks for posting. Please keep us updated with pictures if you can. I’m so impressed by you folks who experiment with selection and crossing.
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Post by hedgeapple on Jun 20, 2021 10:48:12 GMT -6
Served a few eviction notices this morning.
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Post by heavyhitterokra on Jun 20, 2021 13:20:53 GMT -6
That looks like a fig beetle. I've had those wipe out an entire crop of peaches within a few days after the hatch.
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Post by hedgeapple on Jun 30, 2021 10:08:38 GMT -6
Three of my plants had flowers this morning. They were planted May 4th, so are currently on track for 55-day maturity. I marked the plants open today, and will also mark the plants with flowers tomorrow, but that is it. From these few earliest plants I will apply the second criteria at the end of the season: productivity. I'm amazed by how far ahead my plants are vs. the other heirloom varieties I planted this year- same planting date, soil conditions, sun, and watering schedule, and my plants look weeks ahead of the others in every way. Can only assume that the recent genetics and strict selection of seed from only the best plants is making the difference.
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Post by heavyhitterokra on Jun 30, 2021 16:00:39 GMT -6
Great looking plants! Keep making those selections, that's how things get improved over the decades. Nice work! I enjoy reading these posts, thank you, for keeping us updated on this new strain that you've been working on so diligently. We appreciate the effort you're putting into that and are looking forward to reading about the end result someday.
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Post by chrysanthemum on Jul 1, 2021 15:21:51 GMT -6
Thanks for the update with photo! Congratulations on your strong and healthy plants!
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Post by hedgeapple on Jul 1, 2021 21:49:20 GMT -6
So, something unexpected is happening this year: About 50% of my plants already have one or two side branches developing naturally. I know it isn't unusual to have a few here and there but only ~15% of my plants had a side branch last year and none had more than one. I didn't choose one of the branched okras for seed last year because two of the other plants did so much better by other measures, but this okra is still doing something a little different each year, which is part of the fun. I'm ready to start eating some fresh okra!
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Post by hedgeapple on Jul 2, 2021 10:36:43 GMT -6
Well, I looked around in daylight and there are actually a few plants with 3 or more branches. This one has three visible in the picture and a 4th you can't see on the other side. One thing I have noticed is that the stems on these plants are thicker than the others. Will be interesting to see if all the branches set pods, and if so, how many.
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Post by macmex on Jul 2, 2021 10:48:03 GMT -6
You'll have to decide if you want to go toward multibranching or if the original wasn't branching, stick with that. I can't imagine anyone not preferring the multibranching characteristic.
Looks beautiful!
I finally got my okra planted last week. The plants are all up now.
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Post by hedgeapple on Jul 2, 2021 11:16:49 GMT -6
You'll have to decide if you want to go toward multibranching or if the original wasn't branching, stick with that. I can't imagine anyone not preferring the multibranching characteristic.
Looks beautiful!
I finally got my okra planted last week. The plants are all up now. Well in this case, surprisingly, it appears that my okra wants to express the recessive(?) branching characteristic, so I'm probably going to go with it rather than against it! I know that with Heavy Hitter and Stewart's Zeebest it was successfully encouraged with highly desirable results. Glad to hear that you've got your okra in! 😊
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