Drizzle with olive oil and sprinkle with salt and pepper. This week in the garden UT Assistant Professor of Residential and Consumer Horticulture Natalie Bumgarner shows when is the best time to pick okra. Roast them whole or slice.Īrrange the okra slices in one layer on a foil lined cookie sheet. Roasted Okra is probably one of the easiest recipes. Label your storage containers with the variety of seeds and date harvested. Store harvested seeds in envelopes or jars. Very important: harvest seeds from your healthiest plant and make sure the pod is overripe.
Harvest daily or every other day to avoid woody/tough pods. At that point the seed pods should be soft and two to three inches long. Start harvesting a few days after the okra blooms fade. Use scissors to harvest Okra pods from the stem. This heat loving crop is ready to harvest in as few as 60 days. The okra pods will be ready to pick three-to-four days later.
#When to pick okra full#
Plant okra in full sun and water regularly, especially during flowering and pod development. The okra will produce large flowers about two months after planting. Soil should be warm and moist but not soggy. Okra seeds can germinate in as few as 2 days and as many as 12 days. If planting directly in the garden, space seeds 6-12 inches apart. The best time to harvest okra pods is when they reach around 3 to 5 inches. Sow Okra seeds in warm soil approx 1/2 to 1 inch deep in coconut coir, seed starting medium or directly in the garden. When picked regularly you are able to get multiple harvests off one okra plant. Once you’re done picking okra, store them in plastic bags in your refrigerator where they will last about a week or freeze the pods if you have too much to use. If you leave them too long, the pods get hard and woody.
Soaking aids moisture absorption and germination. Picking okra should be done when the pods are 2 to 3 inches (5-8 cm.) long. Prior to planting, soak the okra seeds in water for 12 to 18 hours to soften its hard seed coat. Okra can be cooked whole or sliced and can be prepared in a number of unique ways including frying, grilling, sautéeing, pan-roasting and even pickled. Okra is a fruit, though it is eaten as a vegetable. It's filled with tiny white seeds and is sometimes called lady's fingers due to its long, slender, tubelike shape. Okra is the seed pod of the Abelmoschus esculentus plant. Check out the beautiful bloom on this Burgundy Okra below! Fun fact, Okra belongs to the same plant family as hibiscus. Refertilize with 15-0-14, 8-0-24, or 13-0-44 to encourage regrowth and development of side branches.īy following these guidelines, your fall yield of okra often will exceed that of your spring crops.Okra is a beautiful, heat loving plant that is oh-so-easy to grow from seed. Cut back plants using a mower or pruning shears, leaving 6 to 12 inches of each plant above the ground. At this point in production, cutting back or topping your okra will allow plantings to reestablish themselves.Ĭutting back okra allows the plants to rejuvenate to produce a late summer/fall crop. Market price for okra typically declines sharply as well.
Yields are considerably greater when okra is grown on polyethylene mulch or mulched with compost or other organic materials.Īs okra plants age through the summer, they tend to top out and produce a declining number of pods. On average, an acre of okra should produce 200 to 250 30-pound bushels on bare ground when irrigated. Cutting takes longer but produces a cleaner, nicer product. Pods should be harvested when they are 2 1⁄2 to 3 1⁄2 inches long. Okra pods reach their best flavor when they are about three inches long and tender. Once the okra flowers start to show up, check on your plants every day. These crops do mature quickly, usually a few days after flowering. Most okra cultivars are ready to pick 55 to 60 days after planting, or about 4 to 6 days after flowering. When to Pick Okra Pod formation differs based on the variety you choose.
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