Unknown Okra

[hmoosek]

I continue to grow my Uncles Okra. He had one he called Jumbo, I always called it Fat Pod. Then he had one he called Long Pod. Until this year, I used seeds he had given me way back in 07. This year, I used his seeds that were in the freezer. 

One of these, was found growing here on our land sometime in the early 70’s. My uncle was hauling hay on the far end of our property and My Aunt was bringing water for him to drink. We have a small spring and there’s an area about 60 yards from where my house is now, it stays wet like a marsh. I’ve never been able to keep that area about 1/2 acre in size mowed. My aunt was walking from their house to the far end of the property where my uncle was and she found a few stalks growing close to the marsh. She told my uncle his okra needing picking and my uncle was puzzled because he said he hadn’t planted any okra. She took him and showed him. They picked a few pods and decided they needed to save seeds. As best as I can remember, I think it’s the fat podded variety. Where he got the one he called long pod is a mystery, but if I had to guess, it was probably the feed store or from one of his gardening buddies. I was able to grow both of them out this year and save seeds for both varieties. I did just as he always did, I planted them side by side.

We also have a family melon, but I’m in danger of losing it. I used to grow it all the time, but as years have gone by, my seed stock has diminished. I had plenty of seed at one time, but a couple of crop failures have really hurt my seed stash. I have shared it over the years, but darned if I can remember who I shared them with. I need to dig around in the freezer this winter and see what I have left. I lost every single vine I planted this year due to all the rain and then the weeds took over.

[hedgeapple]

I've heard of cultivated okra growing wild under the right conditions, but only once before. Do you have any photos of it?

[hmoosek]

Here you go. This is some I’m going to let go to seed. It normally grows somewhere between knee high and waist high. We fry it as I’ve found it’s not real suitable for boiling.

[macmex]

That's beautiful, Anthony! Maybe we can get a volunteer from our group to reproduce your melon. It would require isolation or hand pollination. Personally, with melons, I just do isolation, growing only one cantaloupe variety and one watermelon variety in a give year. Be sure to keep that seed in frozen storage.

Also, the Seed Savers Exchange has really ramped up their grow outs and seed production of rare varieties. There was a time I didn't trust them, not to lose stuff. Now my perception is that they are really doing great and looking to receive such seed.  

I might add that they are extremely interested in every historical detail they can get on any seed they receive. I think their historical work is amazing.

[heavyhitterokra]

There used to be an old variety of fat, short, pod okra around here called, "Star of David." I haven't seen any for sale anywhere for several years. People used it for gumbo. It had a lot of meat on it for things like that.

[rdback]

Nice looking okra HMK. There also used to be an okra around called Louisiana Short. That might be a candidate as well.

[hmoosek]

Thanks everyone. I hate picking this one, I’m not a long sleeve or glove wearer. It will sure make you wish you had, plus you got to keep it picked cause it toughens up just by looking in its direction.


Little Lucy is another okra I was given back around 2009. I received about a dozen seeds of F3. I grew it out a couple of times and shared it with several folks on another gardening site who really like it and grow every year. I kept back about 60 seeds the last time I grew it in 2017 and shared it with some of my gardening friends in other States. However, They didn't select for the smallest growth and now Little Lucy has grown pretty tall for some of them. When I grew it I only selected plants that were between 1’ and 2’ tall. They claim to still love it though. It’s a beautiful plant.

I really, really need to do another grow out one of these days. Okra is kind of like everything else I grow, there’s just not enough time or enough of me to grow every thing I would like to. It’s buried in the bottom of my deep freeze waiting for me to retrieve it one of these days.

A lot of what I grow came from people that were generous enough to send me a handful of seeds and over the years, I’ve done my best to pass it forward, like each of you here on this site do.

The beans in my Avatar came from a seller on EBay. They did not do well for me when I tried to grow them, but I gave some to a friend of mine in Lancaster County Pennsylvania and she just raves about them. She still grows and continues to share with others.

That’s what makes gardening fun, at least for me. My health won’t let me do what I used to. Look up, get dizzy, bend over get dizzy, dig a hole and my back let’s me know about it. I keep puttering around though as I did this year. I pretty much just scattered some seeds and let them become what they wanted to become.