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Post by macmex on Oct 5, 2018 6:57:46 GMT -6
Mine is too. We've been having stir fry with okra almost every other day! I have really enjoyed being able to pick okra without using a knife or nippers: just grab and twist!
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Post by heavyhitterokra on Oct 14, 2018 16:00:37 GMT -6
Glen,
George and I stirred some interest in your African-X okra strain, at our monthly Green Country Seed Savers Meeting, in Tahlequah, today.
I also posted directions to page one of your African okra trials-plus okra breeding project, on my Heavy Hitter Okra thread.
There were a few folks at our meeting today who had not been able to find your okra thread before, so maybe, that will help them find you in the future.
George took a sample okra pod from one of the plants he's grown from your seeds. He showed it around and pointed out (for those who have been having a lot of problems with nematodes in our area) that your new okra cross is also nematode resistant.
It was a very lively, engaging, and informative meeting. You would have enjoyed it. We had eleven people in attendance this afternoon. There was a lot of good conversation over a wide variety of gardening topics. It sure was nice to see so many gardeners so enthusiastic about sharing what they have experienced over the years. Wish you could have been there... I guess you were in a way, beings how your okra was there.
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Post by glen on Oct 15, 2018 15:37:06 GMT -6
That is just great news. I hope the folks took some seed home with them. You guys should be producing a nice quantity of premium seed to share with folks. I didn't know that people had nematodes in your area? That is awful. Yes, I have to live with nematodes and I promise I got a worse problem than you guys have. You at least have a nice winter freeze each year to help keep them in check. The good news is that AfricanX is truly resistant to nematodes. I have specimans outside that have so many nematodes you can see them from the surface! Not all my plants are infested. Only some this year. But, the plants that have them are doing just as well as the other plants. My hope is that people will try the new AfricanX okra. All they have to do is look at foto's of Georges row of this okra. They grow good in Oklahoma. And, they really taste good too.
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Post by glen on Oct 15, 2018 15:40:22 GMT -6
I consider AfricanX okra to be a companion okra to the regular okra that folks grow. In the spring, plant a row of your regular okra plus a row of AfricanX. When the regular okra gets tired and ready to give up the ship, your AfricanX okra will just then be fully kicked into gear. Full production will continue until frost visits and kills the plants.
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Post by glen on Oct 24, 2018 17:15:59 GMT -6
Hello everyone. George moved my AfricanX okra thread to the okra board. Those of you that are interested in okra please feel free to post comments or questions or foto's. If you are interested in trialing this new okra there will be seed available. This okra is new. Brand new. Please consider being one of the first gardeners to try AfricanX okra. You can only find it here at Green Country Seed Savers. No where else.
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Post by heavyhitterokra on Oct 28, 2018 0:00:27 GMT -6
Glen, I have an interesting phenomenon to share with the seed saving community. The frost we experienced on October 15th, killed all my okra except the African-X and the El Hato Colony Coffee Okra. Those two varieties are still blooming. Here are a few photos. Some of Glen's okra among the dead Roselle plants. This frost killed Roselle patch is about 6' 6" tall. The El Hato Colony Coffee okra is even taller than the Roselle. Tender El Hato Colony Coffee Okra pods twelve days after the frost that killed all the Roselle plants. African-X Okra still making new calyces, twelve days after the frost that killed the Roselle. African-X Okra still blooming, twelve days after the frost that killed the Roselle. All of my Clemson Spineless Okra is long dead from the October 15th frost. Glen's okra is still alive and doing well only a few yards away in the same garden. I harvested a total of 820 pounds of this Clemson Spineless okra over the length of the season, so it deserves an early retirement. (Notice all the tracks that deer have left in the mud). They are a real and persistent problem for gardeners throughout Cherokee County, where I live. My okra crop gets murdered by deer so many times in early Spring, that I plant an average of 5 times before I get a stand of okra to survive here. Gardening in Northeastern Oklahoma is a tough business to be in.
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Post by macmex on Oct 28, 2018 4:40:07 GMT -6
My AfricanX okra is also going strong. Most of the plants are now over 8' tall and bushy. They got burned by frost on October 21, but the frost only damaged some things. I've picked okra a couple of times over the last week, which is wonderful. Perhaps I can get a better picture today. Here's a photo from yesterday. The problem is that, without a person in the photo, to give it perspective, it's all too difficult to see just how large these plants have gotten.
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Post by glen on Oct 29, 2018 14:13:54 GMT -6
Great posts and foto's. My okra is now very tall as well and I am trying to produce a seed crop. It seems to be going kind of slowly. You also cannot leave the pods for long on the plant after they dry. Soon as they rattle I cut them. If not, you run the risk of the seed getting some fungal growth growing on the pods and the seeds. I will have a huge seed crop this year. Looks like about 2 hundred pods will be cut for seed saving. Or, about 10 thousand seeds. I didn't mean to save this much. The plants just continue to grow and continue to make new pods. I originally thought I wanted about 100 pods in total for seed saving. This variety just goes and goes. My plants are over 6 months old now.
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Post by glen on Oct 29, 2018 14:16:33 GMT -6
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Post by heavyhitterokra on Nov 9, 2018 15:15:01 GMT -6
Today is November 9th, 2018. (Tonight will be our official Killing Frost).
I have one, runt, AfricanX okra plant, in a 25-gallon pot, that was nearly killed by caterpillars at least twice, back in May. Each time, the caterpillars stripped it clean of all its leaves, leaving only the stalk. Each time, I left it for dead. Each time, it greened up (one tiny leaf at a time). It was only a seedling in a huge pot when this happened. It took forever for it to even get 6" inches tall.
For some reason, I kept watering it all Summer instead of letting it bite the dust. I guess I had respect for it from all the hardships it had endured. Somehow, it survived and now, it is branching and has okra on it.
It is only 26" inches tall, after nearly 6 months of hard living. All the other AfricanX okra plants in pots are too tall to come inside, unless I ratooned them (which is very possible to do with this variety) they are known to grow back from a good, hard pruning. It probably only makes them better producers.
The runt plant has 5 branches on it today, and several more are forming along the base. It bloomed again yesterday and has a tiny peduncle where I pulled the spent blossom off this morning. it has 5 green pods on it. One is just right for eating now. For some reason, I didn't eat it though.
It has survived two freezes so far (which is very weird) but tonight is forecast to be 18 degrees. Nothing will survive that. The previous two freezes were severe enough that the leaves were knocked off all the trees, but were not harsh enough to kill the grass on the warmer ground. Tonight's freeze will kill the grass everywhere. By next week, it will look like Winter.
A few minutes ago, I went outside and put that big pot with the runt okra plant on a 4 wheel furniture dolly with an oak platform that I built to hold a 25-gallon pot. Then, I rolled the runt plant inside my Summer Kitchen, in front of the South window. It's kind of like a Bonzi Okra tree. 26" inches by 25" inches wide. It's just the right size to be a pet okra plant this Winter. It doesn't take up the whole room and I can fit it in and out the door without tipping it over. All the other okra plants in pots are too tall to come inside, unless I whack them off shorter for Winter.
While I was moving the runt, I thought to myself, "What am I gonna do with only one okra pod per week?" Then, it hit me, "I wonder if those big pods would be good for stuffing?"
I'll bet you could open one up, take out the seeds and stir them together with hamburger meat, onions, peppers, mushrooms, or whatever, and stuff the hollowed out pods for baking. They'd look pretty cool too. You could top them with grated cheese and make a pretty fancy looking platter of about 3 pods per setting.
That might just be a good idea "Stuffing okra" that can be grown on a patio in a pot, right up until Winter. If they can survive indoors, then all the more reason to want one. Of course, I don't even know if it would work? But it would be worth looking in to. After tonight, All my other plants will be dead. Whatever I pick today will be the last of the okra for me, besides whatever the runt puts on by some sort of miracle.
This will be a good Winter experiment. I kind of expect the leaves to fall off soon, as the shock from being moved inside takes over. But It survived all the other terrible things, maybe it will survive Winter indoors too?
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Post by macmex on Nov 18, 2018 6:50:28 GMT -6
Yesterday I got out to the garden and did some work (well, actually A LOT of work!). I stopped at the AfricanX okra, which was completely wiped out with our low temps, in early November. I took these pictures, showing the sturdy nature of the stalks. Also, here's a photo showing how some mature pods hide, blending in with the dead foliage. I managed to glean about 18 more mature, dry pods from the row. My seed harvest is pretty good!
The dry pods of this variety are notably flimsier than other okras I have grown. They seem ready to burst open, on their own, when they are dry. They also dry down much more rapidly than regular okra, which is a good thing when one wants seed.
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Post by glen on Nov 18, 2018 21:43:03 GMT -6
George, those plants are as stout as I have seen. I have heard you mention that the central stalks on some of the plants are as thick as the average man's arm. That isn't an exaggeration. Thick, stout branch's and stalks make for some tough plants. If Winter hadn't hit you could prune 2-3's of the stalks and the plants would grow back also. AfricanX is a perennial okra. Something has to kill this plant as it does not have a typical short cycle like A esculentus has. I have stopped cutting pods myself and am producing pods for seed. I expect a very good harvest of seed. Several lbs at a minimum. Great job by the way George!!! You have the best looking AfricanX plants for 2018.
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Post by macmex on Nov 19, 2018 7:39:53 GMT -6
Thanks Glen. I went through my records just now. This is the third grow out since I first received seed from your cross, sent to Ron in 2016. This first year I grew it I had a whole lot of variation in plants, including a single stalked plant which was bright green and went up about 10' before it finally started making a few pods. In 2017 I had pretty regular plants, all slightly red tinted and similar to what I got this year. This year's plants, however, were super vigorous, perhaps because I got them started earlier. I'd say that they stabilized pretty quickly. I'm very happy with AfricanX and look forward to sharing seed.
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Post by glen on Nov 19, 2018 13:53:31 GMT -6
It took you awhile to get good seed George. That weird plant you spoke of sounds like you somehow got a coffee okra seed mixed in with the AfricanX seed. Now you got good seed. The real deal. From now on you will have a dependable looking new variety of okra. Its stabilized finally. What I suggest you do in the future is find one good plant to save seed from. Discard the rest. This will help concentrate the strong genes we are looking for and will not harm the genetics in any way. I have been doing this every year until this year. This year I have hopes for sharing a few lbs of seed with the Peace Corps. So I have just let all 17 plants go to seed this year. If they are successful with seed distribution I will continue to do this. If not, I will just return to saving seed from one plant only. I have saved seed this year from one plant, for my own personal use. It is going to be hit or miss here in Panama as far as getting people to accept this new vegetable on the dinner table. Mostly miss. Its just not part of the culture.
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Post by macmex on Nov 20, 2018 7:44:21 GMT -6
I have experience with offering something new and unknown to a resistant culture. You're in the best position possible to do so. Essentially the elements of success are:
1) You must be there, with the people you want to introduce to the plant/food. 2) You must build relationships with those people and come to be accepted by them. 3) You must grow and enjoy the crop yourself. 4) Time... time... time.... It may take years, but eventually, as they see you enjoying the crop, and as you occasionally offer some to them, someone will decide they like it. It may be that a little child will accept it and then grow up to teach their own children, but that's how it works. From there, it spreads naturally.
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