Okra 2022

[karstopography]

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The okra patches.

[GoDawgs]

This is the okra bed with four Jing Orange in the center and three Cajun Jewel on each end.



The fall planted Warrior scallions on the left are making seed for collection and the King Sieg leeks on the right are just starting to flower, also for seed collection. Once those two are done and removed I'll probably plant some flowers down the edges, maybe dwarf marigolds to screw around with any nematodes that may be there.

[JRinPA]

Okay I started seed soaking today.
I'll try one or two each of
Fife Creek
Texas Cowhorn
Choppee
from Rajun a few years ago.

And the stuff Bill sent me (b54red) which I think was the Texas Cowhorn as well.
I grew cowhorn and choppee a few years back with some small success, but they needed more water and honestly I could feel the spines at times. The fife I didn't come up that year, but it was a halfhearted attempt.

I also opened two pods of clemson spineless from last year and started soaking them for row planting.

[karstopography]

Is there anything wrong with spines on okra other than feeling them when picking?

[pepperhead212]

No, but that's why I like the spineless varieties! I've only grown a few that had spines. All 4 I have this year are spineless.

[JRinPA]

Well..I have clashed my teeth really hard a few different times when eating raw okra. A reflex when the base of the pod touched the side of my mouth. End of season 2020 I chipped a tooth from it, and that was clemson spineless. The dentist didn't want to/wasn't allowed to do anything for it because of covid hysteria. The choppee I grew a few years ago was noticeably more spiny than clemson. I think they all were.

But I'd still like to try them again. I just need to remember to eat it left handed. Most of the trauma done to my mouth over the years is from right handed eating or right side road rash.

[karstopography]

I haven’t noticed any spines when eating okra, just picking it. I haven’t been eating okra raw either. Pickled, roasted, stewed, fried, in a soup, never have I noticed okra spines while eating okra.

[karstopography]

https://aggie-horticulture.tamu.edu/new ... t6oct.html
An article on okra with some historical information.

[JRinPA]

Pepperhead, I soaked my okra seeds for nearly 48 hours starting with water probably about 130 and just let it cool to room temp of 75f. They looked about like yours when I planted today, big white stickout. For some reason I didn't expect the color change from olive to dark umber. I don't believe I ever soaked okra seeds before. In soil blocks at 95F they sprout in about two days from dry seed, but if they are not deep enough they will often retain their seed coat and that causes problems.
I put in a double row of clemson spineless, covered and patted firm, and put a vented plastic tunnel over them. I was going to put a board down over them, that is how my grandfather started okra, but of course I forgot until after I had the tunnel buried. I will probably start the others in blocks or pots. If I do soil blocks I think I will double stack them for the taproots. Thought of that the other day, I think it would work.

[JRinPA]

My double row of clemson spineless germinated very quickly with the plastic tunnel. After they were up and it was getting hot, I stripped the plastic tunnel, added pepper plants in the next section of row, put in red beet seed through both the okra and peppers, laid two drip tapes, and recovered with AG19 instead of plastic.
Pic is from about the time the plastic came off, (May 25th) when I putting in pole beans and potatoes in the nearer double row. I should have put the beans in two weeks earlier, but that is another story.

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I also have two choppee plants elsewhere with pods forming and a single cowhorn with its own corner. But the cowhorn is not growing much, with full sun, and I'm thinking there is some old weed cloth a few inches under it (comm gardens...)

EDIT there is no way the plastic came off May 25th. If the seed had just gone in May 22nd, then they weren't even up yet. I lost a phone in late June so the pics would be gone but I'd say they were under the plastic two weeks or so and were 6" or so when the plastic came off and the AG19 went on.

[pepperhead212]

I am still not getting a lot of pods every day - just 5 or 6 on 18 plants, the Clemson Spineless being the slowest, the Little Lucy the most productive. I have a feeling this heat that is forecast will speed these up some!

[karstopography]

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Star of David are the tallest of the plants. Louisiana 16” long are second highest. Okinawan pink is tiny in comparison. My okra gets more filtered light than direct sun, but it still manages to produce. Cannot tell any difference between Alabama red and Hill Country red. Might be a Jing Orange plant or two in there. It doesn’t seem to tolerate the relative shade as well as the others.

Pod identification picture works from top left clockwise.

Haven’t really had any pests to speak of other than some caterpillars that ate the leaves early as they came up.

I planted everything from seed and didn’t pre soak the seeds. Seems like I get nearly 100% germination. Hill country is saved seed from last season. It has all been true to type so far.

[worth1]

Tell us if you think star of David tastes rather different.

[karstopography]

I haven’t noticed a difference in the taste.

[pepperhead212]

How are the Star of David and the LA 16", as far as production, as well as getting fibrous, when getting larger? I've been considering trying that Star of David, if I heard a good review.

I have one new one this year - Nirmal - which is listed from where I got it as a hybrid, but elsewhere as an heirloom. Whatever, the plants are the largest, and are sending some branches out from below, so it's also very productive. And a couple I lost in the mess, and they got to 8", but it had no fibers at all, when I cut it, and quite a few others got to 6" with no problems. Most varieties as soon as they got past 4", they were fibrous, and I just wouldn't grow them again.

[karstopography]

@pepperhead212 I haven’t had one get tough yet, but then I’m picking them pretty young. I pick every day and sometimes twice a day as they will noticeably grow from morning to the evening. I like to get them to a specific size when I pick.

I’ll try to let some get a little bigger and see at what point they get tough.

Production seems similar across the board with Star of David, Louisiana 16”, and the Hill Country Red. Generally get a bloom a day per plant on the main stem and they all only have one stem at this point. Looks like some secondary stems are about to pop out though. I plant them pretty close to each other something between a foot and two feet apart for the most part. Soil is only lightly amended with compost so maybe it isn’t as rich and fertile as it could be.

These beds only really get two or three hours of direct sun, then bouts of lightly filtered light with brief bouts of direct sun. Sun amounts vary throughout the year, these beds get more direct sun towards the equinox rather than the solstice.

If they start putting out additional branches, I bet I’ll squeeze out more okra per day per plant. We are getting enough though to keep us happy.

Star of david Okra is as meaty as they come, there’s some heft or bulk to them. When we roast them in the hot oven, they don’t shrink up to slivers like the thin pod types. Hill country are in between on how bulky they are.

[JRinPA]

There needs to some scale in the photo, I think. Just how wide are those fat ones? Those pink/red ones look like a pink version of choppee.

I've been eating most of my okra right at the garden. Left handed. Each stalk is getting one to size every 2-3 days, just too dry. I guess I only have about 8' of double row so only about 16 stalks. I like to pick at about 6" (the edible pod without the base) but this year I'm picking too many at 4". Just growing too slow. Better than last year, but still... It was good one week so far, when it rained, and picked three or four rounds of solid 6"+ still soft. I got spoiled in 2020 when it was wet and I couldn't hardly keep up with them.

The one cowhorn//longhorn plant definitely has spinier pods than clemson spineless. Saw that again today. It is also the slowest growing. Neither the choppee nor the cowhorn keep production pace with clemson spineless for me. The larger of the choppee was throwing curled, brown tipped pods for a bit, like four in a row when it was wet (when the clemson was banging away). Those plants get plenty of sun and water but just won't grow.

The cowhorn definitely seems slow, to my eye it just seems like a slower, spinier clemson. I don't notice a difference in taste. I put it in a spot to bush out but it just won't, even with the heat we had.

The choppee, I just don't like as much; not as juicy? The skin of the pod, it feels...more scratchy, like a textile? I eat a lot raw - I just don't like the texture of the pod's skin as much.

I will need to make an exhaustive effort getting fife creek to germinate. Rajun thought that might do well here.

[karstopography]

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Okra with a tape measure and a US quarter dollar for a reference. You can see I don’t let them get very big before picking.

I haven’t eaten any okra raw so I can’t comment on the differences as they relate to that.

I believe there are some spines, but nothing that I’ve found to be a particular problem. I don’t use gloves or anything other than my bare fingers to handle the okra pods.

[worth1]

I eat a lot of okra raw.
That's the reason I asked about the star of David okra.
To me it had a slightly musky or something after tase if memory serves me correctly.
Not unpleasant but different.

[karstopography]

I didn’t realize people ate okra raw, but sounds like it is a thing. We’ve been having it split lengthwise and roasted in a hot oven. Maybe with a little brush of Olive oil and a sprinkle of sea salt. My son goes crazy for okra this way. Like it is his favorite vegetable.