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Post by glen on Aug 9, 2015 10:00:05 GMT -6
George, yes, the leaves are very good. Kind of a neutral flavor. The leaves are supposed to have protein in them also. I like to cut some up and use it in a stir fry with other veggy's and some sliced beef. They are good in soups also. Malabar spinach can be used in the same way. Also, try using some chopped sweet potato leaves in scrambled eggs. Very good and gives them good color. Using greens this way is more of an Asian cultural practise. Its hard for us Westerners to get used to eating this way. We have some many veggy options to choose from that greens kind of get ignored. However, in a crisis where food was scarce I wouldn't be wasting my greens the way I normally do now. Its very good information to know that the leaves can be used though. In a pinch you could just lightly steam the leaves with a Little salt. Very healthy.
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Post by glen on Aug 9, 2015 10:28:14 GMT -6
Ron, I am certainly no expert on okra management. I am only a student at this point. Growing okra in Panama is not the panacea that I thought it would be. Or, maybe it is if I learn how to grow it. I have learned that HH and ZB okra isn't a practical crop during the dry season. Requires too much attention and wáter. Plants race thru its cycles, staying small and only produce well for about 30 days. ZB and HH is better planted in May, at the beginning of the rainy season. I noticed this morning that the okra is just now beginning to Bloom much more prolifically. My visión is to have okra growing year round, hence my interest in the African okra. I know nothing about it yet. That comes later. If I had the seed, I would be getting that planted now. African okra needs to grow big before producing. Takes longer. But, once it gets a good deep root system, it should need very Little care during the dry season. Maybe once or twice per week of deep irrigation. I will write about its progress when the time comes. Sweet potato's on the other hand are a good dry season crop if you don't mind watering frequently. I think the reason that people don't bother with it much here is because of the wátering issue. Water is very scarce.
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Post by glen on Aug 13, 2015 11:08:24 GMT -6
Today I stumbled into an Ad online from Baker Creek Seed for Abagail's Coffee Okra. They don't mention exactly where this seed comes from except they say it comes from Las Santos Province near the city of Tablas. Well, I live in the Las Santos province near the city of Las Tablas. So, I am fairly sure this is the same okra that I have grown here. Evidently someone who was on vacation here saw this plant growing in someones yard and asked for some seed. They are asking 3.50 for 20 seeds plus an equal amount for shipping. Isn't that a little pricey for wild okra? They don't give much information on this variety except to say that they mostly use the seed of this pod to make coffee. That sounds familiar to me. Anyway, I tried growing this plant and was not happy with it. Tall, erect, stout trunks, dinner plant style leaves. Super hardy plant that needs almost no watering during the brutal hot, long dry season here. Problem is that its a poor producer. They didn't mention that part. I think its funny that Baker Creek finds an okra growing in the bushes of Central Ameria and thinks its a good product to market. Rediculous. At any rate, I still have some seed for this so called Coffee Okra. Should I try growing it again? Probably not. Why? I got African okra coming that will be a lot more fun. That'll be a coming story in the near future for this little blog. In fact, I am thinking of starting a seperate thread on African okra since there is so little information on growing this plant online for the backyard gardener. Cheers.
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Post by macmex on Aug 14, 2015 8:25:53 GMT -6
Glen, I understand that the Gettle's travel a bit and that they pick up seeds wherever they go. This is a good thing. I was somewhat amused, when I LIVED in Mexico, how they seemed, sort of, to "skim the surface," when collecting seeds in Mexico. But what they do is actually valuable. Wish more people did this!
Someone will have to adopt Abagail's Coffee Okra and try it. At our latitude it might not produce at all. But you never know, when you might stumble on something really useful. At the very least it could make for good breeding material.
George
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Post by glen on Aug 14, 2015 10:12:15 GMT -6
George, I sent you photo's of this okra remember? I found it growing on the side of the road basically in the bushes. The folks just thru the seeds on the ground and it grew. That was before I knew that Baker Creek Seed is calling it coffee okra. I believe that this okra is a short day photoperiod sensitive esculentus variety. It is not useful for my garden cause it just doesn't put on the pods like I need. Zeebest and Heavyhitter got it beat hands down times 10. The only use for this okra is to plant it in the rainy season so you can have dry season okra later. Thats my plan for the African okra as well. Esculentus like heavyhitter just doesn't like the dry season, I learned that last year when I planted it at the end of January. My visión for the African okra, which is abelmoschus Caillei, is to plant it at the beginning of Sept. This variety will get nice and big but not Bloom until sometime in the dry season. It should be drought resistant as the devil and only need to be watered occasionally, even during the dry season. The seed is coming from Echo so I am sure the variety they use is a good producer as well. It'll be an exciting home garden experiment as there is almost no info online on this species of okra.
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Post by glen on Aug 14, 2015 10:19:14 GMT -6
As far as bringing seeds back from vacation. Its really not worth it in my view. Seeds in the US are just too hard to beat. I just came back from the garden and picked a big bag of zb and hh okra. It has been 3 months since I planted the seed and the plants are just now putting on an aceptable quantity of pods. I am picking lots now. It takes longer during the rainy season, but the plants look better, bigger, more branches and much more production going on now. You really can't beat Heavyhitter or Zeebest okra for the home garden. Period. I have a strange plant in the back also. It looks like a ZB HH cross. Plant is classic heavyhitter appearance but puts on smooth straight thick pods. I got this plant marked. It is a heavy brancher, thick stout stalk and is really putting on the pods. If it turns out to be what I think it is I am going to call it ZeeHitter. Pretty catchy?
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Post by macmex on Aug 15, 2015 5:01:58 GMT -6
Lol! You might be onto something! From that seed, the next generation is likely to differentiate like crazy, producing all sorts of combinations of characteristics from the two varieties. But, if the F1 cross is really really good, I could envision Ron doing a hand pollination routine, at home, and then selling hybrid seed! Well, maybe. I think he's pretty committed to developing Heavy Hitter and a man can only do so much!
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Post by glen on Aug 15, 2015 10:06:47 GMT -6
I think Ron would need to be careful. He has a good variety and he could end up with a rash of inbred plants if he is not careful to isolate the weird plants. I don't mind if the plants inbreed. What have I got to lose? Both variety's are first class bushy branchers. I would be a Little worried if they were inbreeding with the so called coffee okra that is an erect, tall variety and a poor producer. I could end up with nothin if that happened. All the plants in that particular planting área came from the same pod. All look different. I am going to save seed from the strongest plant with the smoothest straight pods. The pods don't get as fat as hh because there are only 5 seed channels which is a Zb trait. Not all the plants have totally smooth pods nor are the plants as robust as one particular plant. I will save seed from that one alone. I can't sell seed so if the experiment fails its no big deal. And, I got at least a half lb of pure seed in the freezer that I can fall back on. I also don't have to worry about plants inbreeding with the African okra. I will be picking African pods during the dry season when its not practical to grow normal okra anyway.
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Post by glen on Aug 15, 2015 10:19:12 GMT -6
I have been picking okra everyday. I am now, finally covered over with okra. Zb has finally decided to put on pods but the hh is going banana's. Not only did I need a bag to pick the okra and get it into the house, but the hh plants are just covered in blooms. HH is proving to me that it is a huge producer. Zb plants are getting taller and fuller than hh, but hh uses all its energy to make pods. HH is definitely a good variety and it loves this rainy season. Zb is coming on though and may prove itself very soon. ZB has much more branching than hh but hh has much better developed branches that are putting on pods. ZB still has many many undeveloped branches that still aren't putting on the pods. They will later and this will extend my harvest. Maty was out there today also and came in with a big arm load of bittermelon. I got bittermelon coming out of my ears. Some are monsters. More than a lb. I have been saving bittermelon seed and now have a big bag to use for next season. One bittermelon had 40 beautiful sedes and came from a fruit that weighed at least a lb and a half. Bittermelon just loves this overcast weather.
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Post by glen on Aug 19, 2015 19:49:40 GMT -6
Today I was outback with the pick mattock and cleared and chopped up some ground in preparation of planting peanuts. Tomorrow morning the seeds will go in the ground. Probably 100 seeds. I know, its a small planting. But, it'll be a super treat in 4 months when I get to pull em in. You know, boiled. Peanuts love my stinking hot, humid rain free climate. Gotta water though. It was a huge pain in the butte trying to chop thru the ground to break it up. The soil was hard packed and its full of rocks and clay and everything you can think of except organic material. I had to mix that in. I am sore. Felt like I was working on the railroad today with that pick mattock. Tomorrow will be more of the same. I am getting ready for my African okra seed stash to arrive. Gotta get those beds ready manana.
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Post by glen on Aug 21, 2015 10:10:15 GMT -6
The area I have reserved for the African Okra has been Rototilled(Pick mattock) and the beds have been raked up and smoothed out. I will have 2 rows, 16 feet long and about 4 feet apart. Today I will buy some bagged compost. The plan is to mix compost in each planting spot in the beds, maybe 3 lbs of compost for each plant. There will be 12 okra plants. I will get the seeds in my hand in about 1 week. I am thinking about starting a thread called African okra trial-Abelmoschus Caillei-Panama. This is going to be a good experiment since there is almost no information on this species of okra online. Since it is very hardy and has a long growing season it could be very useful to me and maybe others who live in harsh growing conditions like I do. Well, hopefully. This particular variety is also very ornamental, having lime green leaves, purple stems etc. I have only seen a couple of photo's of this plant but I think this is what I have.
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Post by glen on Aug 22, 2015 13:11:50 GMT -6
Heavyhitter and Zeebest okra are doing splendid. Except for a zeebest plant that has just up and wilted and appears that it will die. Two others next to it have done the same thing. Only thing I can think of is that they may be too close to the avocado tree. That tree is just growing in leaps and bounds and is possibly stealing nutrients from those dying zeebest plants. Or, maybe I have nematodes? I have never noticed nematodes in the garden before so who knows? And, the other dead zeebest plants showed no signs of root knot. At any rate, the plants that are not dead or dying are putting on plenty of pods. Good quality. I have to start giving it away now. Plants are tall, over 5 feet, some over my head. Thats tall for a bush variety of okra. And, they appear to be just putting on. There should be at least 2 more weeks of good production. Once these plants give up the ghost I won't plant HH and ZB until next May. I won't need them until then. The African okra is going to be the dry season replacement.
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Post by glen on Aug 22, 2015 13:20:37 GMT -6
African okra, or dry season okra as the natives call it, needs to get pretty good size in order to start producing. And, it will wait to put on pods until conditions are right, since it is photoperiod sensitive. So, depending on what part of the year you plant it will determine how fast it will start producing. Could be 2 months, could be 3 or 4 months. I won't know until I get the seeds growing. At any rate, African okra has a longer lifespan than US okra and puts on pods slower but on a longer growing season. Some people keep them alive for several years. I do not know much about the particular variety I will be growing but it appears to be a bush variety, purple stems, bright yellowish dinnerplate style leaves. Plants will probably get big unless I do something wrong(which is entirely possible). They say that anyone can grow okra. Well, okra can also be finnicky and things can go wrong. And, there is alway Murphy's law that can go against ya as well. We will see. I also have another variety of okra that I might plant just to use as something to compare it with. A Panamanian okra they call coffee okra. I haven't prepared any space yet. It is another photoperiod sensitive variety that can take 3 or 4 months to begin producing. It doesn't produce much either. But, they get real big and tall like tree's. Hope to get around to planting a few of those as well.
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Post by glen on Aug 23, 2015 15:36:42 GMT -6
I just got done preparing 2 planting holes in the back garden not far from the space I will plant African okra. I will plant 2 Abigail's coffee okra in these mounds. I am planting them just to have a little competition for the African okra. Coffee okra is a boring plain, light green, erect habit, dinner plate style, big tall hardy variety that is indigenous to Panama. Before I found out the name I called them the hardy bastards. Well, if they don't catch that lethal yellowing desease, they are hardy. They grow deep roots, and need to be big before they will produce any okra. Last year, I had some that were over 5 months old and never produced the first okra. I got so bored that I pulled them up. Out of about 25 I planted many caught that yellowing desease which I assume is some kind of virus. The ones that survived were tough as nails and rarely needed any watering even during the dry season in 100 plus degree's and clear brutal sunny skies. They didn't produce much. They might have if I didn't pull them up. This time, I will let em grow. There will only be 2. I gave them a generous helping of store bought compost and mixed a little granulated ferilizer in the soil and will also give them a dose of liquid calcium just for good luck since I have very acidic soil. These plants will have the potential of getting 10 feet tall as long as I don't do something wrong. You can buy some of this worthless variety from Baker Creek Seed if you would like. Good luck with em. I will need some of that myself with this planting.
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Post by glen on Aug 25, 2015 11:56:12 GMT -6
I am keeping an eye on my Zeehitter plant. I have marked it and will not cut any more pods. Pods are big now, about 10 inches long and smooth bore. Looks like an hh plant. There are plants right near it that came from the same seed pod and they are semiridged. The Zeehitter plant is not producing more than my other hh plants. I will only say it has potential. The plan is to save seed from the biggest pod. I will plant a bunch of them next May. This is the first time I have ever tried something like this so it should be interesting. I expect the next generation to be a collection of unstable traits. However, if I get lucky and a few plants are good sized and show more potential I will continued to plant it. This Zeehitter plant is sturdy and branches just as much as my pure HH plants do. Much less than Ron's plants though but I attribute that to my soil and climate etc, not to the seed. My vision is for a thick straight, smooth pod. On bushy plants. Its something to do right?
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