[JRinPA]

I wrote reply about "okra, where" a long while back but I don't see the post.


Seeing that giant marconi on your pics makes me wonder if that is what I've been growing. Twice I kept seeds from roadside stand peppers, basically sweet, but shaped like that. I didn't buy them, and knowing as little as I do about peppers, I figured pablano from the shape and lack of heat.

Okra is great eating but some people don't like the spines, so that could be an issue for locating them. I grow clemson spineless and never really have any problems. They do form a deep taproot and basically turn woody like a tree by late summer, so a deep bed. I have some that are starting to put pods on now even though they are still short. Last year mine ended up about 8-9 ft and it almost seemed a waste not having a crop under them for fall.

The earliest okra in this year I interspersed as 3-4 week seedlings where ever there was space, so I have some next to cauliflower where two of the original seven survived and are now forming heads. More are interspersed with broccoli, and a few days ago I trimmed the broccoli back a little extra to let the okra up through. Over at my aunt's I put some in the corners of a new raised bed that is squash on one side and lettuce/spinach rows on the other. I would have liked to get it in earlier but it just hadn't been that hot anyway. Also I just threw my last transplants into the 5x9 garlic bed I cleaned out last week, and they look okay.

My main row for okra this year went in the 33' snow pea row. First I put seed in and watered in late May but none ever germinated, so I started another round of transplants in June. They were a couple weeks old when the peas were done. So, I cut the peas, pulled out the trellis, topped off with a little more compost, wet down, tamped down, and laid bio mulch. The next day I transplanted a double row of okra about 18" spacing, hooped and recovered. That is more space than I have given them before. I had to hose through the cover a few times but still have not uncovered them. I hope they're doing well. They should have loved this heat and we finally got rain.