Okra Thrives When Other Plants Die
When you need tough summer plants that will keep your garden producing when the heat arrives, it’s time for fresh homegrown okra.
Okra is one of those no-brainer plants that keeps producing right through the summer heat. And it’s an easy crop to grow, which means you won’t be out there in the heat trying to baby your plants along.
You might have to deal with some beetles or some aphids, but other than that, the trickiest thing about okra is learning to harvest it correctly.
Who’s the Okra Expert?
Last year we grew only Clemson Spineless, and this year we were looking for some different varieties to try—maybe something burgundy and maybe something heirloom.
So, who do you ask when you’re looking for okra advice? Somebody from Georgia, that’s who.
I started digging, and sure enough, I found 2 useful resources from the good folks at the University of Georgia Cooperative Extension.
You May Also Enjoy: “Vegetable Gardening in Drought Conditions”
Everything You Need to Know to Grow Okra
The first resource I found is a guide for commercial growers. So, as you would expect, it’s a little heavy on the pesticides/herbicides (and it’s a lot heavy on the fertilizer). But those recommendations don’t really apply for small home growers.
What’s here that’s really useful is a lengthy guide about harvesting—how long you should let the pods get for different uses, etc. And, there’s a chart of different varieties and how they’re best used.
View or Download the Original PDF Here: “Okra—Commercial Vegetable Production”
The second resource I found is a guide for the home grower. This one has good recommendations about pests and disease. Basically, you shouldn’t have to worry about any diseases, and you should only control insects if you really need to. And they recommend organic mulch as the best weed control.
I feel like the fertilizer recommendation is still a bit heavy-handed. Both documents warn against supplying too much nitrogen, but they both call for a lot of fertilizer—go figure. In my experience, a light application of a balanced organic fertilizer works just fine.
View or Download the Original PDF Here: “Growing Okra in the Home Garden”
How to Harvest Fresh Homegrown Okra
One tip I’ve learned is that it’s easier to manage your harvest if you have more plants—at least a small bed of them. It’s not the best choice if you only have room for 1 or 2 plants. If you only keep a few plants, then you’ll probably only get a couple of pods every day or 2.
When you only get a couple of okra pods at a time, it can be tricky to find a way to use those few little pods. But if you have a whole bed of them, you can pick enough for a good serving—to eat fresh, cook, or pickle—and then come back in 2 or 3 days for another good serving.
Some years, we’ve kept a bag in the freezer just for okra, and if some pods are getting long but we don’t have enough for a serving, we add those odds and ends to the bag in the freezer until there’s enough to make gumbo or gazpacho or something else delicious.
You May Also Enjoy: “6 Heat-Tolerant Survival Crops You Should Be Growing” (Video)
When to Harvest Fresh Homegrown Okra
A good rule of thumb is to harvest them when they’re about as long as your middle finger—especially if you intend to eat them fresh. Wait much longer and they’ll start to get hard and stringy. If you can easily snap the pod in half and get a clean break—that’s perfect!
What Do You Think?
Do you have any good tips or tricks for harvesting okra? Use the comments section below to share with the group.
Thanks to the University of Georgia Cooperative Extension for publishing and sharing both of these handy guides.
(This is an updated version of an article that was originally published on May 25, 2016.)
The Grow Network is a global network of people who produce their own food and medicine. We’re the coolest bunch of backyard researchers on Earth! We’re constantly sharing, discovering, and working together to test new paths for sustainable living—while reconnecting with the “old ways” that are slipping away in our modern world. We value soil, water, sunlight, simplicity, sustainability, usefulness, and freedom. We strive to produce, prepare, and preserve our own food and medicine, and we hope you do, too!
COMMENTS(5)
Fried is still my favorite but also my wife cuts them up in 1/4 pieces and sautes them with tomatoes and some onion. Love it.
I have to wear a long sleeve shirt when I pick okra because if the leafs rub on my arms and hands, they itch like crazy.
I use emerald variety. They can get bigger than most and still be tender.
I’ve learned to use the soak water from okra for helping with blood sugar. Sometimes the pods get too large and tough for “eating’ even if chopped up. So I use the tough ones for the soak water: slice the cap off, cut into slices, cover with water, including the caps –drink this water in the morning on an empty stomach. I have used the soaked okra a second time (don’t refrigerate it when soaking) and then it gets passed on to our parrot, who loves the seeds.
On one occasion I wanted to cook an okra omelette and only had frozen okra, didn’t want to wait for them to thaw. So, I poached them in a little water till just thawed, let them cool on the chopping board til cool enough to handle, sliced them up for the omelette. By the way, we also eat them raw, cap and all., whole–out of hand, or sliced and added to salads (don’t put any kind of dressing on the salad until ready to eat it, or the okra will start producing it’s mucilaginous fluid . I never throw the caps away. The poaching water I also drained off and drank. It could also be used as a soup broth base. The hardest part is to try not eating all that I pick before getting back to the house!
My husband went crazy this year and planted okra seeds throughout the garden. And they all came up! So, we now have 10 plants producing about 10 pods a day. We eat all we can and then share the excess with family and friends. our favorite way to eat them is to cut them up, toss with olive oil, salt and pepper and put on a baking sheet in a 425 degree oven. Cook for about 15 mins and then stir them around and cook another 15 mins or until roasted. Delicious!
We have grown okra for years and the saved seeds do better and better each year. This year I really got in to fermenting. The recipe of okra is fill the quart with whole okra. We leave the stems on because the pickles are less stringy with goo. Add 1 T. sea salt, two small heads of dill and fill with filtered water. Leave at room temp for 3 days and then into cold storage. Yum. Some I do make hot by adding a Serrano that was pickled last year and a clove of garlic. If I had a way to post photos I would love for all to see?
Oh, this is for a pint not a quart.