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Post by glen on Jan 31, 2015 9:15:42 GMT -6
As many of you might already know I live in Panama. I garden year around here. I thought I would share with you my latest Project. This thread started out as a general gardening Project but got very Little interest. It has morphed into an okra blog. I changed the title of the thread to more correctly describe it. I just cleared out another área in the garden. I was able to dig about 10 lbs of spuds. There were small. Maty took most of them to the farmers market today to sell. I don't make anything myself. The farmers market is her thing. We dug them early because we are having so many problems with chickens digging up the spuds and eating them. We figured that something was better than nothing. The plants were only 2 months old. I immediately loosened the soil, added some rice husks and stirred that in and replanted. I mixed the planting with okra. The okra is 3 to 4 feet apart with spud slips planted in between the okra sedes. I had planted previously about a week before using the same strategy. I now have 14 okra planted and 25 new slips. The chicken problema seems to be getting bigger. They are digging in the newly planted área and are pretty agressive. The nieghbor's are aware of the problema but do nothing about it. So, I need to fence in my garden using chicken wire. Its not going to be cheap and there is no way I can grow enough veggy's to sell in the market to pay for it. But, its what I do for fun so I have to do it. A roll of chicken wire costs about 75 bucks plus I need fence stakes etc. I might have to hire someone to help me with this as well. I plan to try and do the job right so it looks ok and lasts at least a few years. I am hoping that 3 feet tall chicken wire will discourage the damn things. At least it will stop the fat chickens that can't fly. Oh, the first okra plantings are germinated. At least most of them are. I planted some older sedes that are giving me fits and not germinating well, but the heavy hitter sedes have an almost 100 percent germination rate and are about an inch tall and looking ok. My garden is not big enough to really rotate crops. But, I am planting less sweet potato's now and mixing them in with the okra. This should be less stress on the garden space I hope. The okra should grow very big. I will start fertilizing once the plants get about 6 inches tall. Just a tea spoon or so to start with. Then a couple of weeks later I will fertilize again with a larger amount. Then about once per month. My soil is very poor and mixed with lots of rocks and debris. I have never tried growing okra and sweet potato's together so I do not know how much of a problema that will be. The large okra plants will shade out the spuds. I plan to trim out the lower leaves to allow sun to get in though. Oh, I don't have enough compost or organic material to grow anything without a Little fertilizer. Hopefully there will be no need for pesticides. I have read a Little about other folks who have experimented with intercropping like this in Panama. I got a decent chance of this working. In the past I had sweet potato's growing right up and around my fruit tres and it didn't bother them a bit. The okra I planted is a variety that is supposed to get bushy with many branches. Hence, a lot of shade. This might not be so good for the spuds. There are other variety's, actually most of them, that do not branch much. They just get tall. Those types of variety's might be better choices since I am intercropping sweet potato's in between the plants. I just don't know. I will make sure and let you know how this Project progresses. I am pretty sure it will be at least a partial success though. If I can get that damn fence installed that will be a big help? Oh, I still got several other sections in the garden that are planted in sweet potato's that will be ready in another month or so. High NE winds that won't let up and zero rain make gardening here this time of year miserable. Got to go.
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Post by glen on Feb 27, 2015 12:58:45 GMT -6
I planted okra in 3 staged plantings. The first planting was done on Jan 24. I intercropped sweet potato's with Heavy Hitter and Zeebest okra. Heavy hitter plants on Feb 27 are over a foot tall, thick stalked, showing the beginnings of branching, and also blossom development. Zeebest plants are just a Little behind. Sweet potato's that were intercropped between the okra, are growing very fast. Its hot and windy outside, temps in the 90's and no rain expected for months.
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Post by macmex on Feb 27, 2015 16:20:11 GMT -6
Glen, I suspect that the fact that the okra branches will be no problem at all for your sweet potatoes. The sun is so powerful at your latitude that a little shade might even be beneficial for the sweet potatoes.
I suspect that a 3' fence will deter chickens which are exploring, looking for food. It won't stop a chicken who already knows what's on the other side and wants it. Still, it's a good thing to do. I hope you have much success.
George
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Post by glen on Feb 27, 2015 21:14:04 GMT -6
Thanx George. I had some luck last week and stumbled on to 100 feet of 6 foot chain link fence and was able to fence in one side of the yard. That has already helped quite a bit. I have read that it is not advisable to plant okra and sweet potato's together or even to plant okra in a spot where sweet potato's have been planted. Well, I am breaking the rules. The okra is spaced about 4 feet apart. So far, they are happy together and growing like there is no tomorrow. I have okra planted in a different área of the yard also. I spaced them 5 feet apart from other plants and palms in all directions. The soil is extremely poor there and the okra is growing much slower. They are showing 8 leaves but are only 6 inches tall. They aren't spindly. They just are not thriving. I have tried side dressing with granular fertilizer. A week later I tried some miracle grow also. They have started to grow more but still slow. I think they will survive but will not be as big or produce as much as my initial planting. Before planting I only used a shovel full of compost in each mound to amend the soil. Those plants will be my challenge I am afraid. Maybe I will be pleasantly surprised at how well they do? Who knows. Also, in a day or so I will be planting moringa. I am pretty excited about that as well.
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Post by glen on Mar 29, 2015 13:45:37 GMT -6
Its March 29. I just pulled in several sections of sweet potato's in the last 2 weeks. Its not a large garden but I did harvest about 50 lbs of sweet potato's. The sweet potato's love this hot, dry weather. The potato's were of good quality. I replanted sweet potato's right in the same spot, contrary to Georges advice. I have no space to rotate crops. So, there are now 45 new slips planted. I intermixed more okra into part of the garden. I already have okra coming in. Not a lot, but enough for the kitchen. The heavy hitter okra is producing well but the Zeebest okra is beginning to out produce the Heavy hitter. Zeebest is fatter, bushier, branchier and looks much better than the Heavy hitter okra. Lets see if this turns around? I don't think so but stranger things have happened. I have tried sidedressing the Heavy hitter okra. Its just not responding to it.
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Post by glen on Apr 5, 2015 10:51:10 GMT -6
April 5. I replanted sweet potato's and okra in the áreas where I harvested sweet potato's. I added horse manure and I believe I introduced something into the soil that I did not want. Maybe salts? Plants struggling. Zeebest okra is now outproducing the HH okra. Zeebest okra looks much more robust, larger plants, larger branches, bigger blossom heads. Everywhere I have planted the zeebest they are thriving. HH okra is having mixed results. Some are looking great. Some are just not thriving. Blossom heads fried. Not growing. Very small leaves. They look like you would imagine an okra plant would look at the end of the season. But, my season should be just beginning since these plants are only 60 days old. I have pruned several of these hh plants to see if I can induce more branching. We'll see what happens.
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Post by glen on Apr 8, 2015 13:47:00 GMT -6
Today I noticed that all the hh plants that I pruned are putting out signs of new branching. Almost immediately putting out new blossom heads. This variety has one misión, that is to produce pods. The hh is out of its confort zone, that is obvious but it is giving me one hell of a college try. Branching on the branches. That is an interesting thing to see. I am accustomed to seeing okra grow on one main stalk with only occasional branching. It appears that what I am going to end up getting is small branches, lots of those, with smaller leaves and smaller blossom heads. Later.
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Post by glen on Apr 13, 2015 11:39:35 GMT -6
Today I was in the main garden where I mixed okra and sweet potato's on Jan 24. I noticed sweet potato's forming. In another month I should have useable sweet potato's. In 2 months I should have big sweet potato's. This is an área where I have been continuously growing sweet potato's for the last year. Soon as the spuds are harvested I cut slips from a different área of the garden and replant. I don't know how long I will be able to get away with doing this. I have pruned all Heavy hitter okra plants in this área of the garden. They got about 30 inches tall before this pruning was done. Some are still producing pods on side branches. I pruned some of the side branches as well. I am noticing that the pods I am picking are smaller now. But, I am still cutting okra. I have not pruned any of the Zeebest plants. They are not ready for this yet since they still have good sized blossom heads on the branches and stalks. Probably in a couple of weeks I will prune them as well. Plants are now growing much slower but still putting out pods. I picked 17 pods this morning. Plenty for my kitchen. Hard to keep up with them. I have one Zeebest plant and several Heavyhitter plants that are designated for seed saving already. The Zeebest plant I selected has about 5 branches, is about 30 inches tall, and has about 20 pods on it that I am letting go to seed. The hh plants I am using for this purpose have much less than that. I am expecting 75 or 80 sedes from each pod. I will have way more than I can use. I harvested a big bunch of banana's yesterday. Still no rain here. Rain should come in May. I don't yet know this for a fact but I have read that the okra should do much better for me during the rainy season. I will find out later and pass this info along.
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Post by glen on Apr 13, 2015 12:21:56 GMT -6
Next Project on the agenda is long beans and bittermelon. Very soon, I will be cutting out the old vines on my trellis system and repairing it and getting it ready to replant. I haven't made my mind up yet whether I am going to replant luffa or not. Luffa is a super aggressive vine that just takes over the place. I have angled luffa, also called Chinese okra. Fruits start forming on this ninja mutant in only 45 days and the vines grow and grow. Use the fruits when they are very Young kind of like okra. Or, let them mature to make dishcloth sponges. This variety is hard to work with. Very hard to get the skin of the mature fruits to make the sponges. The Young fruits are pretty tasty but they are so prolific that you just can't use them all, and the neighbors have no idea how to eat them. They look at ya funny when you offer them to em. Same as the okra I guess. I thought what I had at first was chinese yard long beans. As it turns out I have a different bean. I call em long beans. They grow like there is no tomorrow on 7 or 8 foot long vines, providing tons of these long, Green beans. They taste the best if you pick before the beans start developing much. Probably about 12 inches long. Long bean is the only name I could think of that made any sense for these beans, or habituala as they call em here. Everyone in the Hood likes em and will take em in a minute if I am giving em away. No way I could ever grow enough of those. I started a thread on bittermelon. Maty and I are the only ones that will eat it. Us and the Chino's. You can read more on them on the other thread. I always feel better and have much more energy when I am drinking fresh bittermelon juice or bittermelon tea everyday. Looking forward to it.
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Post by glen on Apr 22, 2015 13:56:15 GMT -6
Beans and bittermelon seeds are germinating. I also planted 12 purple colored sweet potato slips that I bartered for the other day. Supposed to be asian. I have been giving away okra as I can't keep up with it. I don't know if the neighbors are eating it or just being nice about accepting it and then throwing it in the trash. I have a virus in parts of the garden that is attacking my young okra and sweet potato's in those areas. I have iguana's coming into the garden and eating plenty as well. Soon I will be planting about 6 more okra plants since I am getting very close to the rainy season. The plan is to use a lot more compost in the plantings to see if that helps. Okra is supposed to bear better during the rainy season. We'll see. The okra variety's I am using put on the first pod so fast here and its not normal for them. The climate here, with the short daylengths affect them in this way. I get blooms on 15 inch tall plants. The plants then put all their energy into pod production before there is much foliage. My okra plants are much smaller than I expected, maybe 30 inches tall and they are tired and not growing much or putting on new leaf growth. Still putting on pods but you can tell that my plants are at the end of their cycle. I did prune quite a few plants but it has not induced much new growth. Maybe the rainy season, when it comes will change things. Instead of the monster plants I expected, I got little dwarf plants. Enough for my kitchen though. I am also saving seed from both variety's of okra. If I can find takers I will have plenty to share with the neighbors.
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Post by macmex on Apr 24, 2015 5:55:49 GMT -6
Glen, I understand that they call the iguana "El pollo del los árboles" (Chicken of the trees). Maybe you can harvest meat from your garden too!
The dry angled luffa gourds peal better if first soaked in water.
George
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Post by glen on Apr 25, 2015 12:46:30 GMT -6
George, Maty is just enamored by those darn luffa dish cloth sponges. She has been fighting with them for months. She experiments with them. Lately she has been soaking the things in a big pail and letting em soak for sometimes a week. Then she fights with them to get the skin off them. Once that is accomplished she soaks them in a weak chlorine and wáter mixture to whiten them. She has been trying to sell them for a buck each or 50 cents for half with very Little luck. The product is excellent and they last for a long time. Far superior than the junk you buy here in the grocery store. People will not buy them. Nor do they grow them. They will however accept them for free. Hard to fight city hall I guess. They do sell them in Panama City on the Street and they cost more than she is asking. Oh, the iguana's I am seeing aren't that big. The neighbors do eat em though. I tried them once and was not really impressed with the new flavor. I prefer chicken.
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Post by glen on Apr 25, 2015 12:59:15 GMT -6
Here's a new development. I emailed a man in Penonomé who supposedly has a big organic farm. Its kind of like a tourist park where they come and stay on the farm and work in the mans organic garden. I think they pay the man for room and board and also work as volunteers in the gardens. He trains them in his organic methods which are interesting indeed. At any rate, I told the man I was growing sweet potato's and okra here in Las Tablas. He asked me for sweet potato slips so I will be sending him 2 dozen slips and also some second generation okra sedes that are just now ready from my garden. I will also be sending him some bittermelon sedes. This should give you some idea of how hard it is to obtain sedes and materials here. You beg borrow and steal. In the future I might be able to get some things from him. I have very Little space to spare right now so I will wait, but he did offer me some things that I have never Heard of that comes from his gardens. He specializes in totally organic methods and uses plants together to benefit from shading etc. He uses the so called majic circle, and other techniques. Pretty interesting dude. Things are happening fast and my new sedes are all just about ready to pick on the bushes from 3 month old plants. Very fast indeed. I asked him to humor me by planting some of the Heavyhitter and zeebest okra. I want to give those 2 variety's a fighting chance of becoming known variety's of okra here in Panama.
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Post by glen on Apr 25, 2015 13:26:12 GMT -6
I reported a week or so that I was going to plant long beans and bittermelon. Well, I did and they are about 3 inches tall. The área that I had malabar spinach growing is showing hundreds of volunteers. I had saved malabar spinach sedes but evidently I didn't need to. Malabar spinach is very useful here as a pot herb and also to mix with scrambled eggs. Good Greens are almost imposible to buy here so malabar spinach is important. The asian sweet potato's are finally beginning to show signs of life. I got my fingers crossed for the poor miserable looking Little fellows. I have been watering them everyday and soon I hope to be able to cut back on the wáter. I got high hopes for them. A new, variety to add to the mix. I like em already because I will be able to tell the difference in variety's because of the dark, chocolate purple color of the leaves in contrast to the bland Green color of my mainstream variety that is already growing in the garden.
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Post by glen on Apr 25, 2015 14:01:37 GMT -6
Ok, I couldn't wait. I had to break open the seed pods of the okra. The Zeebest pod has 65 sedes. They have Little indentations on them on 2 sides. Clearly this is a strange variety. I broke open a HeavyHitter pod and there was 100 beautiful big round sedes. They look like any normal clemson variety of seed. I will let both dry a Little more and they should get a Little smaller. The Zeebest has a lower germination rate in my limited experience so far. I will have thousands of seed so it doesn't matter. Just an observation. Almost all of the Heavyhitter sedes should germinate, probably 90% rate. The Zeebest is about 60%. I will report the germination rate of both in my next trial which will be fairly soon. I plan to use much more compost in my next planting. A lot more. I have proven that this okra can grow in the most difficult, crappy hard packed sand and clay, rocks construction debris etc, dead lifeless soil. Now it is time to give them a good place to live and see if I can improve the yeild and size and robustness of the plants.
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