![]() ![]() Once okra leaves aren’t able to produce food for the plant, the plant starts to get rid of them. Trimming back overgrown okra plants will not only make them more accessible come harvest time, it will also allow the plants to focus their energy on producing new pods for harvesting. In these cases, it is best to cut the tops back, removing one-third of the plant. Okra is sometimes used as a landscape plant for its attractive flowers. In warm weather climates, okra plants can grow up to six to eight feet tall. Okra ( Abelmoschus esculentus) is a flowering plant that is grown as an annual in most regions, though the species is a perennial plant in the dry tropical regions where it is native. Okra plants are tall, so space out the rows 3 to 4 feet apart. If you are planting okra transplants, be sure to space them 1 to 2 feet apart to give them ample room to grow. You can soak the seeds overnight in tepid water to help speed up germination. However, if pods are allowed to grow even larger, it is imperative that they be removed, as the plant will keep sending energy to these overgrown pods, making them grow larger and larger, instead of focusing on growing new pods that you will hopefully be able to harvest before they grow too large. Plant okra seeds about 1/2 to 1 inch deep and 12 to 18 inches apart in a row. Always remove pods in a timely fashion, harvesting them when they are three to five inches long. Should you top okra plants, or should I trim the leaves? -Kelly WĪNSWER: There are several occasions in which pruning back your okra plants will work in your favor. Okra produces until frost, but older plants need reinvigorating in late summer. As the plants begin to flower, apply a blossom-boosting fertilizer according to label directions. When seedlings are 2 inches tall, thin them to 18 inches apart. A photo of that record Heavy Hitter plant can be found on page one of the Heavy Hitter Okra thread on the green country seed savers website.QUESTION: My okra plants are really tall. Cover and water thoroughly, giving them a deep soaking every four or five days. (Thank you though, for the glowing recommendation). This means that his seeds have the ‘potential’ of producing another world record of that magnitude, but probably shouldn’t be expected to happen on a daily basis. Kind of like the World’s Record Tomato of the Domingo variety, which was grown by Dan Sutherland in 2018. It was well on its way to 650 when it was killed. That one plant had 65 branches, each branch bearing pods, each branch is capable of bearing ten pods on average, so there was a potential for pod production in the 650 range, except for an early frost that year clipped that plant in its prime, so we will never know what it was truly capable of. ![]() Kight is referring to was my personal best record, back in 2011. Always look for the stronger plants when thinning. Once the seeds sprout, thin the seedlings to 18-24 inches apart. Make sure to space each seed at least 3 inches apart, and the rows should be 3 feet apart. Actually, that harvest of 44 pods in one day only happened once, but Heavy Hitter does average over 100 pods per season, per plant, and often hits in the 250 pod range. Sow the okra seeds inch deep in light soil and 1 inch deep in heavy soil. I’ve got to add a slight retraction of sorts to the post above. ![]()
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