GoDawgs wrote: ↑Wed May 11, 2022 10:47 am @brownrexx , I do that with okra too. Coat it, freeze it on a sheet pan and bag it. I also freeze some uncoated too.

Anybody grill okra? Line up whole pods next to each other and run a skewer through tops and bottoms. Rub a little olive oil on them and apply a bbq rub to both sides. Then grill. Good stuff!

This Grilled okra I have to try. I like it roasted in the oven so why not grilled? Hot, medium or low type of fire? Directly over the fire or more indirect? Any other tips?

@karstopography, probably a medium to medium-low fire. My gas grill has been kaput for a while so I'm grilling over charcoal. The okra would be to the side of what meat I'm grilling because I'm usually not grilling just okra. You want it to be cooked through but not burned so I also turn it more frequently. I don't think indirect would get the job done. So that means there are some coals under it to get that caramelization.

@karstopography I grill lots of veggies over direct medium heat on my Weber gas grill. I didn't have any okra in this picture but you get the idea. I coat the veggies with olive oil first. Lately I have been grilling asparagus.


20180916_162833 by Brownrexx, on Flickr

My only choice is to start things inside and move outside. This year I am about a month late for tomatoes, skipped peppers and just got the okra started to plant in the front yard as a oh pretty plant. We tend to be on the cold side for Okra but hey I have room for pretty plants so will put in a few... Redbuds in the area are just starting to bloom... dandelions are up now but the spring bulbs are just putting up flower stalks. It has been an odd year as this week we are in the mid 70s! but my friend is getting snow...

@GoDawgs My only choice is to start things inside and move outside. This year I am about a month late for tomatoes, skipped peppers and just got the okra started to plant in the front yard as a oh pretty plant. We tend to be on the cold side for Okra but hey I have room for pretty plants so will put in a few... Redbuds in the area are just starting to bloom... dandelions are up now but the spring bulbs are just putting up flower stalks. It has been an odd year as this week we are in the mid 70s! but my friend is getting snow...

@wykvlvr the first 2 years I grew okra I started it indoors in pots like my tomatoes but 2 weeks later than the tomatoes because it grows pretty fast. They transplanted OK.

I've transplanted okra under the most adverse conditions.
They did fine.
Just pulled them up by the roots and moved them.

One of our favorite ways to cook okra is to slice it about 1/2 inch thick. We then saute it in olive oil with thinly sliced Vidalia onions and then lightly salt with finishing salt. It is delicious that way. We also like it grilled as GoDawgs suggested. Of course the batter fried is delicious also.

We are huge okra fans. I am trying 5 different kinds this year. I grew Pot Belly and Burgundy last year and really liked both. In addition to Pot Belly and Burgundy I have added to the line-up this year White Velvet, Jambalaya, and Emerald. White Velvet (a spineless variety) was popular in the late 1890's in Alabama, Louisiana, Georgia and Mississippi. It became less popular by the 1930's as it was edged out by Clemson Spineless. The variety was kept alive by being passed down in families. I bought the seed from TrueLove Seed. I will be growing about 30 plants, 6 of each. We eat it multiple times per week when the harvest comes in. Okra readily cross pollinates if an insect enters the bloom of more than one variety of okra. Okra can self pollinate so I bag the blooms to keep the okra from cross pollinating. Other than bagging the blooms, the only other option is to self isolate by at least 800 feet. Here is SeedSavers Exchange recommended minimum distances to avoid cross pollination: https://www.seedsavers.org/site/pdf/crop_chart.pdf If growing more than 1 variety in close proximity, you may wind up with a mix of the varieties if you are saving the seed.

I direct seed and fill in with some starts if the germination is not good. If have found that if you can get the starts out in full sun as soon as they germinate this helps with the stretching. Also, I generally plant the starts within 10 day or re-pot to a larger pot if the soil still isn't warm enough to plant.

I ordered more seed, Nkruma Tenten Okra, Star of David, and Louisiana 16” pod. Some space will open up soon where the bush beans, zucchini and yellow squash is currently.

In my experience, okra readily germinates well and quickly by direct seeding. Maybe because by the time I put okra in the garden it is already into May or June and the soil is thoroughly warm. We can put direct seed beginning in early April here according to the planting calendars, but I wait until something else comes out like the bulbing onions before I put in okra. Maybe I lose a month of production on okra on the front end by not putting it in as soon as possible, but we have a long and very warm summer and we’ll get our fill of okra by the end of it. I’d like to sock more away for winter, though, so I’m expanding my okra plantings this year.

I don’t see a lot of pollinators on my okra in the past. I have a ton of carpenter bees currently working really everything, those bees really love the cucumber blossoms, but they are frequently on the tomato blooms, peppers, squash, beans. Honey bees in my garden seem to be finicky and unreliable. Right now, the Chinese tallow are blooming and the honey bees are exclusively on that. Honey bees will focus on one thing to the exclusion of all others, carpenter bees are equally opportunity pollinators and never abandon the garden when I need them.

Honey bees will visit okra late in the summer here, but for the pearl bodies or nectar that oozes out or potentially aphid honeydew. There’s evidently some interesting ability of okra to enlist ants to defend the plant against aphid attack by the okra’s ability to secrete pearl bodies that the ants prefer over aphid honeydew. So the ants will run off or kill the aphids to keep the pearl bodies flowing. Usually, ants farm aphids for honeydew, but okra turned the tables by making something the ants like even better and only if the ants keep the aphids at bay.

Honey bees are coming for either the pearl bodies or aphid honeydew, but they seldom seem to enter the blooms. Usually by late summer, the bees are struggling to find sources of nectar, but honey bees readily turn to honeydew from aphids if nectar is in short supply.

Try some honeydew honey someday, it’s complex and less sweet than honey made from nectar. In Europe they call it forest honey. I have sorghum honeydew honey where the bees fed exclusively on the sugarcane aphid’s honeydew. The sugarcane aphid infest sorghum also. The honey is almost like sorghum molasses.

This morning's e-mail had the monthly newsletter from Sustainable Market Farming and the topic was growing okra. I'm not a market gardener but usually find some good information or perspectives in the articles. Here's the okra link:

https://www.sustainablemarketfarming.co ... ting-time/

I was amazed at how fast and how long the tap root gets in seedlings.

@GoDawgs that’s a great link! Tons of great information about okra. I ordered a Piteba oil press to extract the oil.

I grow winter squash, various c. Moschata types, in the beds with my okra. The squash vines under and around the okra, they don’t seem to bother each other. I see that my spacing of the okra isn’t far fetched or anything.

I haven’t tried the leaves or flowers yet. But the cook book with all the ways to handle okra and the ways to preserve it, that’s perfect stuff.

Mallows do well here. Cotton is grown commercially nearby, Turk’s cap grows wild all over. Everything on that plant is edible and I have eaten the fruit, seeds, flowers and leaves. I plan on extracting Turk’s cap oil from the seeds.

Thanks a million for the link!

Just seems really early for okra up here. I guess I'll get some started though. Everything is super busy right now. I think I have 4 varieties, maybe 5 total but the only one that has worked well is clemson spineless. I grow double rows about 12-15" in the row and 18" in between. Last year however, not a good okra year here. I sort of slacked on the prep and it never got real hot, and it was too dry. Hose water in the evening, I think that chilled them down a lot overnight and retarded their growth. I didn't really give the others a good shot, choppee, fife, that longhorn....maybe another. I only have one spot that gets consistently wet enough.

I've been thinking of doing some bushes in addition to my pruned rows. I should do one of each of the trade varieties in their own spots. I still have the idea, never tried, of starting in a pot and then opening the bottom and half burying it for more water while keeping it extra warm. The hottest years can be decent around here, but a cold spike in August shuts the production down for a week or more.

Even with last year a bust, we just had okra a few nights back. Whole pods frozen from 2020, which was a great okra year. I think I finished the pressure canned last month but there may be more of that too.

Mine will be going in soon, but then these are going into 3 Earthboxes, which are over 70° in the middle now, and the cooler water won't affect it that much. I always put them in after my peppers, which just went in, as the nighttime temps here have only a couple forecast in the high 50s, the rest in the 60s.

@friedgreen51 when okra crosses, is the outcome necessarily bad? I saved seed from last year when I grew hill country red and jing orange so I could have a cross of those two. I’m not sure how I would know they crossed unless something is off about the pods.

The okra is up about 3" now and probably isn't happy with the last three days of unusually cool days. But hey, starting Monday we're to have highs into the low-mid 90's all week so. The okra will be happy with that!

karstopography wrote: ↑Fri May 13, 2022 3:49 am @friedgreen51 when okra crosses, is the outcome necessarily bad? I saved seed from last year when I grew hill country red and jing orange so I could have a cross of those two. I’m not sure how I would know they crossed unless something is off about the pods.

No the cross is not necessarily a bad thing. If you plan to sell the seed or share seed with other people then not being careful about a cross might not be good. Otherwise you might get something you really like. Unexpected crosses can be very interesting. If seed saved from un-bagged okra or okra grown within 800 ft. of multiple varieties looks a little different from what your are accustomed to, then a cross is the possible explanation. I guess it just depends on how much you like the specific characteristics of the varieties that you are growing and your desire to have plants true to seed. If you don't like what you get this year, your can just start over next year with fresh seed. You will get okra this year, so I wouldn't worry too much. My pot belly okra and my white velvet okra are not available from many sources, so that is why I will spend the extra time to bag the okra blossom.

Something that I do to save seeds for Little Lucy, is watch closely for the first couple of flowers in the best looking plants (it is always the first variety to flower, so far), and tag them, then just let them grow to maximum size, and dry out, then save those for seeds. I don't have to worry about anyone nearby growing okra, and crossing with it! Any other varieties, I would have to bag the blossoms, if I save the seeds.

In just over 2 weeks after soaking those seeds, the okra got planted today. The Little Lucy got a little leggy, compared to the others; though it was the first one up, there were no more leaves, and the roots coming out of the pellets were about the same on all of them. The rain stopped briefly, and I went out to plant them, and it just started up again, when I got to the last 6.
Getting ready to plant these okra. 5-14 by pepperhead212, on Flickr

Emerald okra, planted 5-14 by pepperhead212, on Flickr

Little Lucy okra, planted 5-14 by pepperhead212, on Flickr

Okras planted on 5-14, Nirmal in front, Clemson Spineless 58 in back. by pepperhead212, on Flickr

Jiffy Pop pop okra.

Here is an interesting YouTube on how to bag the okra blossoms. It shows everything about bagging okra blossoms if you have any interest in this. It is filmed at Leicester, NC where a lot of the work of the Utopian Seed Project is carried out.



Also here is a link to their work in reviving a white okra
https://theutopianseedproject.org/the-t ... n-project/

Planted Nkruma Tenten, Louisiana 16”, and Star of David Okra Seeds today. So much fun. All new varieties. Who knew okra came in so many forms?

May not be done planting okra just yet, planting calendars around here have okra going in as late as July.