I’m gonna be honest here, okra is not my favourite veggie in the world. I have tried it a couple of times, and each time I was quite underwhelmed (of course this may have  something to do with my cooking skills!)

However, as we know by now, it doesn’t matter what my own personal tastes are. It matters what our customers want.

And if they want okra, by golly, I will do my best to give them the best okra they have ever tasted!

We will be learning from Pam Dawling, author of Sustainable Market Farming for her expertise in growing, and harvesting okra.

All About Okra

Okra is a tropical annual in the mallow family.  It is widely adapted where the frost-free season is long enough.

Those in cold climates should choose fast-maturing varieties and transplant them into black plastic. In areas with cold nights, okra can only be grown in a hoophouse.

Those in hot climates will need to deal with its fast growth in mid-summer.

Okra is heat and drought tolerant and has few serious pests or diseases.

Varieties

Pam grows Cow Horn okra from Southern Exposure seed Exchange.

It is one of the few varieties that can grow relatively large pods without becoming tough. 

High-yielding varieties include Cow Horn (DTM 55 days) with 8 to 14” pods on 7 to 8 ft. tall plants. 

The large pods remain spineless and tender up to 10”, but are the best quality at 5 to 6” long.

Jade (DTM 55 days) is a high-yielding, early maturing heirloom with few side branches and a good ability to mature in late plantings.

Plants average four and a half feet tall and the straight, dark green pods remain tender to 6”. 

Cajun Jewel (DTM 50 days) is another high-yielding, early maturing, good flowering heirloom. 

Short plants, 3 to 4 ft. tall, produce an early crop of spineless, tender 1” diameter pods up to 7” long. 

Spineless (easy to harvest) varieties include Clemson Spineless (DTM 56 days) with dark green pods. 

Plants with few side branches reach 4 to 5 feet. Medium-sized ribbed pods grow to 8” long, but are best harvested when 3” or smaller. 

Evertender (DTM 50 days) is an unbranched, spineless variety growing 5 and 1/2 ft. tall and producing 7” pods of good eating quality, similar to Clemson Spineless. 

Red potted varieties include Burmese (DTM 58 days), a high-yielding dwarf heirloom that starts to bear when plants are 18” tall. 

It has huge leaves and slightly curved, almost spineless pods 9 to 12” long that are tender and sweet enough to be eaten raw in salads. Pods are less glutinous than other okra. 

Red Burgundy (DTM 49 days) has magenta stems, emerald green leaves, and 5 to 8” slim spineless maroon pods. The short bushy plants are 3 to 4 ft. tall.

Red Burgundy okra is reported to do well in cooler areas although it will not do much until daytime temperatures reach 80°F.

An unusual heirloom okra is Star of David (DTM 61 days), which has a distinctive flavour that might be appreciated by okra lovers seeking something different.

It can grow 8 to 10 feet tall, with few side branches. It bears a moderate yield of fat pods that can mature to 6” long but are best harvested small. Star of David is tolerant of root-knot nematode.

Crop Requirements

Okra does best in well-drained, fertile, loamy soil with high organic matter. Wet clay soils can drown the plants. 

It grows best with a pH between 6.5 and 7. 

Optimum soil temperatures for okra are 70 to 95°F (21 to 35°C). At this temperature range germination takes approximately 7 days. 

Sowing Okra

Seeds should be soaked at room temperature for 24 hours before sowing. 

Pam plants her seeds by putting three seeds ½ to 1” deep at each spot where they want a plant to grow. 

She does this on May 1st, with row cover, as this is around their last frost date.  When seedlings have three to four leaves, they thin to the strongest seedling.

For transplants, she sows on April 15th, using soil blocks or Winstrip 50 cell flats.

Transplanting

Okra has fragile taproots, so care is needed when transplanting. 

Pam transplants 3 to 4-week old starts, a plant with three or four leaves is ideal, at 18” spacing in a single row down the middle of a bed.

She transplants on May 11th, 10 days later than the direct sowing date.

Caring for Okra

Okra is a long-season crop, so cultivation or black plastic mulch will be needed to keep down the weeds.

Pam hoes until hot weather arrives and then mulches with spoiled hay. Using organic mulches earlier cools the soil and delays the plants.

During the rest of the growing season, the okra bed becomes a useful dumping ground for any mulch-like materials from other beds. 

Okra has a great ability to withstand drought compared to other vegetables, but for good growth and production, you’ll need to water at least one inch a week. 

Pests and Diseases

Cool weather will stress okra, and the plants may then suffer from Verticillium and Fusarium wilt, soil-borne diseases that cause plants to wilt and die.

Avoid or treat soil-borne diseases by avoiding the soil splashing onto the plant by using drip irrigation and mulching. 

Insect pests that you may run into include Japanese beetles, stink bugs, aphids, corn earworms, flea beetles, blister beetles, and cucumber beetles. 

Harvesting Okra

Once the pods appear, Pam harvests 6 days a week, using pruners or a small, serrated knife.

The stems are quite tough.

Cow Horn variety is cut at 5” or bigger, and for consistency’s sake, it is good to have the same people do the picking on a regular basis. 

For maximum yield, it is important to harvest at least every second day. If pods are missed they will mature and limit the future flowering and therefore the yield. 

It only takes a few days for a bloom to open, close, and produce a pod ready for harvesting. 

Pam’s harvest starts in mid-July and runs until frost, a period of 12 weeks or so. 

At the end of the season, they dig out the massive trunks and put them in a waste pile.

The okra trunks do not go in the typical compost pile as they are not trusted to break down fully so instead, they go into a weed waste pile.

Post-Harvest

Okra does not like to be chilled. Chilling injury of okra causes dark damp spots on the pods, which leads to pitting and slimy breakdown. 

Okra can be stored at 45 to 50°F (14 to 15°C) in perforated plastic bags for up to 15 days. 

Bottom Line

Okra is a pretty interesting crop that might be worth growing if you have a market for it.

It’s relatively easy to grow if you have the climate for it as well. Its heat and drought tolerance and long harvest season are a bonus!

We do not have any plans to start growing okra in the near future. I am not sure there is a demand for it in our area. However, if things change, it is a crop I would consider growing.

Do you grow okra? If so, did you need to educate your customers or was there already a demand in your area? Please let us know in the comments below.

Stay Local,

Kathy & Jon

your friendly neighbourhood growers