Joseph,

Bamya is one word and means Okra in Turkish. Tohum means seed and Sultani is the most common Turkish okra variety. This variety produces long pods with excellent flavor. Sultani is quite early (around 45-50 days) as well.

ChanceTheGardener: Thanks! I am still laughing about that.

Sultani sounds interesting, where did y'all get seeds for?

[QUOTE=Ken B;499427]Sultani sounds interesting, where did y'all get seeds for?[/QUOTE]

I don't keep those kinds of records...

I've been harvesting okra for about a month and taking it to the farmer's market. I sell out every week.

A couple weeks ago I evaluated the plants that were producing fruit. My notes are as follows:

Gold Coast: Pods were fibrous.
Lee: OK.
CowHorn: Really suffering. Most flowers aborted without setting fruit.
Burmese: OK
Gregg's: OK
Jade: Culled
Clemson: OK
Julie's: OK
Sultani: Great. Tallest plant in the patch. Still quite diverse phenotypes.
Jimmy T: Culled
EverTender: OK

No fruits yet on:
Cajun Jewel
Fife Creek
Missy's
Heavy Hitter

I've learned how to harvest okra so that it's tender. Helps to pick it about 3 times per week.

My landrace okra is fruiting well. Most every plant from my landrace is taller than anything in the foreign patch except for the one very robust Sultani plant.

[IMG]http://garden.lofthouse.com/images/okra/okra-2015-08-29.jpg[/IMG]

[IMG]http://garden.lofthouse.com/images/okra/okra-2015-09-12.jpg[/IMG]

Those tomatoes are: dehybridizing SunGold, Jagodka, and yellow pear. The muskmelons and tomatillos are my own varieties.

I'm not an okra-picker, thank goodness. My aunt usually does that. But we have to pick every day in hot weather and then every other day after it cools off in late summer.

Last year I bragged that my okra was (a couple inches) taller than the farmer. This year one of the Sultani plants out-did even that. And it's likely to keep going for a week or so.

[IMG]http://garden.lofthouse.com/images/okra/okra-foot-taller-than-farmer.jpg[/IMG]

I've been culling okra plants/varieties as the weather turns colder. Some for slow growth all season. Some because the leaves are dying even though it isn't freezing yet. I noticed that most of the plants that are remaining, and that have thrived in my garden have frilly leaves like this:

Frilly-Leaved Okra.
[IMG]http://garden.lofthouse.com/images/okra/okra-good-leaf.jpg[/IMG]

Plants with fat, non-frilly leaves have tended to do poorly for me.

Fat-leaved okra.
[IMG]http://garden.lofthouse.com/images/okra/okra-bad-leaf.jpg[/IMG]

I've been harvesting okra seed as it matures. Some of the varieties grew poorly for me and were culled a long time ago. We still haven't had our fall frosts, which are 6 weeks late, but it has been getting colder. Many of the okra plants have lost their leaves, but are still flowering and setting fruits. I am calling those seconds. The plants that still have a lot of green vibrant foliage on them I am calling "Best". They included Joseph's and Sultani so far. There are other varieties that are still green, but haven't produced mature seeds yet.

One variety which is currently NOID, produced branches off of branches. It is currently the most productive plant, and still vibrantly growing. It was way late to produce pods though, so here's hoping for mature seed.

Here's what the harvested seeds look like. The seconds that are being saved for seed for next year include:

Cajun Jewel,
Burmese,
Joseph's
Cowhorn,
Heavy Hitter

[IMG]http://garden.lofthouse.com/images/okra/okra-seeds-2015a.jpg[/IMG]

Here's a list of varieties that ended up producing seed for next year's crop.

What I am calling 'best' included:
Joseph's
Sultani

What I am calling seconds, but were still really good plants, so I'm intending to plant next year are:

Joseph's
Sultani
Cajun Jewel
Burmese
Cowhorn
Heavy Hitter (1 mature fruit on 6 plants)
Lee
Face of Earth
Fife Creek.

I also saved a variety that did poorly, because it had fat fat pods:

Alabama

I am still marveling about how much diversity there was within each okra variety that I planted even though they were named cultivars.

A big thanks to Ken B and the Southern Exposure Seed Exchange for a generous donation to move this project forward, and to Starlight and the Hoggy swap, and to Alan Bishop, and to the participants in the Ogden Seed Exchange, and to whomever shared Sultani with me.

Joseph, has anyone ever told you that you look like Richard Dreyfuss?

Planted Clemson and Emerald in '15 Zone 6 located in the NC High Country near the Va/Tn border. Many there said the season was too short and would be fortunate to obtain a crop. I planted seeds on May 15 and picked the first pods 1st week of August. From August until October 20th I was harvesting at least four times week. Cut and froze quite a lot that we are enjoying now.
For '16 plan to add Ron Cook's Heavy Hitter to the mix. Enjoyed reading Jos. and others report on their okra experience...

I plant my okra (Clemson spineless) around 1st of May in outside containers. I experimented with both side by side containers and in ground. Containers did better. Taller plants, better production. Seeds are big enough to grow fast. I trust seeds to know when to sprout. Soil gets warm soon enough in my area in May. If we get hit with the frost I have extra seeds to go. So far we were lucky. We have more okra than we can eat.
I recommend containers for okra. I plant 4-5 seeds in a 10 gal. container.

My okra wont go in till I pull some of the onions and I will still have plenty of time.:)
I think my record height is close to 12 feet.

Worth