Fight soil-borne diseases by avoiding soil splashing onto the plants – use drip irrigation and mulch. In cool weather, stressed okra plants may suffer from verticillium and fusarium wilts, soil-borne diseases that cause plants to wilt and die. Okra has few serious pests or diseases, if the weather is warm. Cotton, hibiscus and the fiber plant kenaf are also in the mallow family, but do not cross-pollinate with okra. Okra is about the easiest vegetable to fit into a rotation as you are unlikely to have any other mallow-family crops to worry about, and you are unlikely to be growing a huge amount. Other growers tell of cutting back plants to a height of 4’ (1.2 m), which causes the plant to branch more. As well as revitalizing the productivity, this process keeps the plants at a manageable height.Īlternatively, to avoid losing all your crop at once, lop progressively along the row, perhaps cutting 5% of the plants each day, starting after they reach shoulder height. Side-dressing at this stage can also boost production. The plants will produce again in the fall, when prices have risen again, and fall yields can be higher than spring crops. In hot climates, okra plants benefit from being rejuvenated in the middle of the summer, by cutting them back (with a machete, or tree loppers) to 6” (15 cm) stubs after the first heavy harvest (perhaps in the fifth week of harvesting) and after market prices start to decline. Or sow only in the summer for a fall crop, and don’t fight cold spring soil temperatures. Generally only one planting of okra is made each year, although it is possible to sow in spring and fall in hot climates, using a fast-maturing variety for the later sowing. Succession Planting and Renovating Okra Plants When we pulled up some of the dead plants for our postmortem, they reminded me of retted flax stems – the fibers were still there, with the soft tissue rotted away. Another mistake we made was over-watering. We made an attempt to hill them up to give more protection to the stems. Then we transplanted replacements with novice helpers, and they didn’t plant them deep enough. The first planting had leggy seedlings due to not enough light soon enough in their lives. In Sweet corn, potatoes and okra, I reported that we started harvesting our okra that year a little later than it might have been because we had to replant. The yield per area is low, so this would be an unusual choice for the prime real estate offered by a hoophouse! Our first Cow Horn okra pod, in late June. If you are in the deep South, go ahead!īlack plastic mulch, rowcovers and transplanting can all help get the crop going earlier, as can growing in a hoophouse or caterpillar tunnel, if you are a real fan of okra. Okra needs 55-60 days of hot weather to produce the crop. However, if you haven’t sown your okra seed yet, time is of the essence. See Okra Planting Time for info on varieties, crop requirements, yield, sowing, transplanting, intercropping, and Chris Smith’s wonderful book The Whole Okra. If there is an extended dry period and you can’t water everything, okra will be the last to suffer. 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 1” (2.5 cm) a week. During the rest of the growing season, the okra bed becomes a useful repository for any undiseased mulch-like materials from other beds, even quite large plants like sunflowers. We hoe until hot weather arrives and then mulch with spoiled hay (avoid using organic mulches earlier in the season, as they keep the soil cool and delay the harvest). Okra is a long season crop, so cultivation or mulch to keep weeds down will be needed.
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