Monstrous Okra Sighted in Mississippi Garden
All you Great Pumpkin Admirers will have to look up to the latest giant vegetable on display here at Veggie Gardening Tips… it’s a monster of an okra plant grown by Terry Stout in Kiln, Mississippi.
My curiosity was piqued when Terry recently left the following comment on a previous blog entry related to growing okra in the home garden:
Ever Hear the One about the Nine Foot Okra Plant?
“I live on the gulf coast and have three okra plants growing. One of my plants has decided to take over the garden and is now 8 ½ feet tall and still growing. I measured the base of the stalk and it is 10 ½ inches. I am truly amazed and get okra everyday. Have you heard of any bigger?”
That sounded pretty impressive and my response was NO, I have never grown or even seen an okra plant that reached such monstrous proportions. Well, I have now… Terry was kind enough to share a few photos of this whopper of an okra plant and I found myself just as amazed by the size and appearance of it.
While I was halfway expecting to see a tall, spindly okra plant that could barely hold itself upright, I was pretty surprised to discover the healthy, bushy, and muscular plant that is pictured in the photos.
The okra plant’s stalk is unusually thick, but what struck me most impressively was the way that the plant is branching, its tree-like appearance, and the profusion of buds that are being produced.
Growing Giant Okra Plants in the Home Garden
Various vegetable seed catalogs list a couple of heirloom okra varieties such as Cow Horn and Bowling Red okra that are reported to reach heights of seven to eight feet. But in this case the okra is from the Clemson Spineless variety that normally only grows to a maximum of four to six feet tall.
Terry has three okra plants growing in the garden but only one of them has grown into a giant. More importantly, this remarkable okra plant has been averaging eight to ten harvested okra pods each and every day! No special care was given to the plant and this is the first time that Terry has grown an okra plant like this one.
For those of you interested in growing giant okra plants of your own, I don’t have many clues as to the cultivation secrets for this monster okra plant. I’m sure that fertile soil and the long, warm summers in Mississippi had to help, but this looks like an extraordinary okra plant even for a southern climate.
So whatever you do Terry, be sure that you allow a few of those okra pods to mature on the plant and then dry them for seed. Who knows, you may have stumbled upon a freak genetic prize that is very worthy of preserving and maintaining!
Other Related Vegetable Gardening Posts:
- The Garden’s Tallest Plants; Battle Grande!
- Okra Status Report
- Caution: Slow Moving Okra
- Growing Okra
- Okra Varieties and Uses
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March 19th, 2008 at 8:06 am
Someone just forwarded me the post about the giant okra plant in Mississippi, and I thought you would be interested in hearing ofsome of the okra plants my father grew in Southern Louisiana. He heard from an old farmer that when harvesting fruit from the okra plant, one should cut off the okra pod and the leaf just below it. Thinking his leg was being pulled, he tried it on one plant only. That plant thrived, and continued to bear okra for the entire growing season. The plant grew so tall he had to use a long pole with a nail in the end to bend the plant over so he could get to the pods! The next season, he used this technique on all the okra plants, and had some well over ten feet tall, still bearing fruit.
March 19th, 2008 at 9:13 pm
Duff, that is very interesting and I have never heard of that strategy for growing and harvesting okra. It sounds easy enough and like there could very well be something about the technique that spurs additional growth and production. It reminds me a little of the way that some gardeners harvest their Brussels Sprouts. I’ll have to remember to try it out on my okra plants this summer. Thanks for the tip!
April 21st, 2008 at 10:55 pm
On planting okra, several years ago I planted a hand full of okra seeds in the southwest part of my home. Soon after that many sprouts began to grow. Then they began to fuse together turn into a tree. It is now 15-20 feet tall. It hasn’t produced okra yet but it is a good shade tree.
April 22nd, 2008 at 4:43 am
Hello Pete, are you positive that those were okra seeds that you planted? I would love to see a photo of that okra tree!
June 24th, 2008 at 12:26 pm
[...] my heirloom tomatoes, the mighty cardoon plants, those climbing runner beans, or maybe even from a giant okra plant or [...]
September 15th, 2008 at 9:48 am
We have an okra plant that is 9ft 9in tall and growing. It is still producing okra.We live in Oklahoma. I will take a picture of it soon and send it in.
October 8th, 2008 at 12:26 pm
I do not doubt the man with the tall okra plant. I have one that is 12 feet and still growing. I have to have a ladder to get to the okra on the top. I am not too far away from the man in Mississippi, just over the line in Alabama.
October 14th, 2008 at 9:11 am
Hi, I have a plant that is eleven feet high and has a base of 10 inches. I believe it is a heirloom varity called Cow Horn Okra. How do I send a picture?
Tom Anderson
El Paso,Texas
October 17th, 2008 at 8:55 am
My husband, Bobby, has several tall orka plants. The tallest is about 14 feet, it’s hard to measure exact, and it is still growing and producting orka. We live in Douglas, Ga.
November 11th, 2008 at 9:17 pm
I was looking for “okra tree” and came across this. My husband is 6′ tall and our okra “trees” reached a height of about 12′. The “trunks” are about 5″ in diameter and also branch out. I live just over the TN border in Alabama. My question is if I can leave these things growing and will they bloom out again next year like a perrenial? It would take a long hard freeze to kill these things!
December 8th, 2008 at 10:50 am
HI,
I live in St. Maarten in the Caribbean, 9ft Okra plants are not uncommon down here, In fact every single one of my plants grow to that size and higher, Being summer all the time the plant will grow until you chop it down, god only knows how hight it could go if left too do so but climing 100 10ft plus okra trees a day to pick is not practical so its usually cut down after it becomes too tall for a stepladder…
As Pamela Proctor says, 12ft is VERY easy to grow, just LET IT! naturally those of you with seasons/snow/frost will be very difficult for you to grow something that tall.
Just my 2 cents (no special freak plant in this story)
April 25th, 2009 at 10:49 pm
I find it interesting that each successive poster has even taller okra than the one before. I think this is where I am supposed to come in and say my okra is 17 ft tall. But alas mine were barely 4ft last year.
April 26th, 2009 at 8:42 pm
Well my tallest okra plants last summer reached to about six feet tall. The plants do enjoy the longer seasons and seem to grow much taller in the south. Some of the posters have shared photos that erased any thoughts that I may have held that they were just exaggerated fisherman’s tales!
May 27th, 2009 at 9:26 am
Kenny,
I found this article on the Alabama extension service website. There is a pdf equiv as well. It says to cut the entire plant back to increase fall yield. Not sure this would be relevant for you but might be for those of us in warm weather/long season states.
Okra Advice