Comments on: Okra Status Report

By: tom rafanan

tom rafanan — Thu, 19 Aug 2010 00:29:01 +0000

i planted okra in early june. i’m in the napa valley in california. my plants are 12″ apart, a single row. they about 2 ft tall and very healthy looking. lots of buds on the plants – BUT as they start to flower, the buds dry up and fall off. is there a remedy?

please help if you can. thank you.

tom rafanan

By: Almon Eaves

Almon Eaves — Sat, 17 Jul 2010 12:22:07 +0000

I have big okra plants that are 18″ apart and 3′ rows but they are so big and bushy you can’t get down the row. The problem is no okra pods, I get very few from outside row and the ends but none on the center. I live in SE OK and have grown okra very successfully in the past and have never had this problem before can you tell me what the problem is. Thank you.

A. Eaves

By: Rebecca

Rebecca — Thu, 15 Jul 2010 21:52:50 +0000

Hi. We live in northern Minnesota and I planted 6 okra plants that I got from a nursery as well as 2 rows, about 20 feet each, from seed. I already have some okra on the ones from the nursery. The plants are small but producing. The seeded plants are already about the size of the nursery plants and are just budding. They are not the same variety as the leaves are slightly different. I just love okra and thought I’d try growing it; I have never heard of anyone growing it up here before. We live on wet, what we call “gumbo” soil. How ironic! As for the leaves, we ate the leaves of a related plant in the islands, and are going to try the leaves of our okra plants when they get bigger. Darius, I don’t believe robbing plants of some leaves will hurt them, just be sure to leave some. We have to do this with tomatoes up here, especially later in the season.

By: Kenny Point

Kenny Point — Thu, 15 Jul 2010 00:30:15 +0000

Hi Chok, the okra can be slow to get going but once they start producing they will grow fast and you will have to watch closely in order to harvest them at the ideal time. The germination problems could have been related to poor quality seed or planting before the soil had a chance to warm up sufficiently.

By: Chok

Chok — Wed, 14 Jul 2010 11:44:07 +0000

I had planted 20 seeds of okra, only 7 germinated, from that seven only 2 are alive! I planted in May 3 today the 2 survivors are only around 10cm tall, 4 leaves and what I wonder is they start to make a mini pods max 5mm, today is July 14 please help from Germany ! thanks

By: Kenny Point

Kenny Point — Fri, 09 Jul 2010 21:47:16 +0000

Hi, I agree with your husband, the okra leaves are there to help collect sunshine, nutrients, and perform other functions to support the plant and pod production so they shouldn’t be cut off at random. The lower leaves will fall off on their own as the plant grows taller and they become useless.

By: darius

darius — Fri, 09 Jul 2010 19:41:44 +0000

Have a question for whomever can answer it. I was told I needed to cut away a lot of the leaves from the okra stalks, suppossedly to give the pods sunshine to grow. My husband says the leaves are there to “feed the pod through photosynthesis and that cutting away the leaves leave the okra pods without needed nutriment . What is correct? I do have a beautiful row of okra and if the leves need to go I need to cut the leaves off in the morning as the weather report gives rain for tomorrow p.m. Thanks for a speedy reply.

By: Kenny Point

Kenny Point — Fri, 02 Jul 2010 18:10:15 +0000

Hi Bonny, I don’t know why you shouldn’t be able to grow okra in Montana. I would give them a little more time to see how they do and possibly adjust the planting times in the future until you can determine the ideal planting schedule for your growing region.