It is a little early for Okra at least here in Central OKlahoma. This isn;t one I have heard before. I am interested to hear others thoughts.

Okra is a hot weather crop. So, even though many types of seeds can be planted as you describe, I wouldn't do okra that way. Wait to plant your okra seeds directly in the garden only after the soil temperature has warmed up to 75 degrees.

I have heard of this theory and to me it don't hold water but anything is possible.

I have grown okra 40 years and always direct sow in super late April or super early May. Mostly I planted clemson spinless, a variety which was introduced in the late 30's shortly after I was born. This stuff is a herloom and I consider it still one of the best okra varities now available.

I am an okra freak! I love it and although I now am limited to a patio garden still grow it. I am looking into other rare varities of okra (I have a post on this) as this member of the mallow family is an exceptional plant.

Lousiana Green Velvet is another nice variety, but smaller. I have used Star of David in past years and liked it. Several places have it, among Seeds of Change and at one time they offered some rather exotic okra. I am tracing those down now thru other houses (see my post on it).

Good luck and have a happy (okra) garden expereience :-)

Here is a link that might be useful: Seeds of Change

Ok. I finally figured out where I first heard about Okra and Icecubes.

Paul James "The Gardener Guy" did this on one of his shows, which was re-run this weekend, and he says that he gets 80% germination with this method.

The only thing that I did different was that I didn't use warm water to make the icecubes. I didn't get 80% germination, I got 0% germination.

Why is the world did he use the ice cubes anyway? Okra germinates very well in warm soil.

What he said in the show is that okra usually has about a 50% germination rate. He says that by freezing the seed and planting the ice cube, he gets 80% germination.

Now I know that some bulbs have to be refridgerated, but I have never heard this about seeds.

I don't put mine in ice cubes but I do put the packet in the freezer for 24 hours. I then take them out and let them warm up to room temperature before I plant them and have excellent germination. Supposedly the freezing breaks the hard shell so the seed sprouts easier. Have done this for several years. I saw it on an old garden show on tv.

Well, just to update everybody. I got impatient and just planted the seeds.

I was amazed to find that I had 100% germination without doing anything other than poking a hole and dropping a seed in.

I now have 50 little okra plants coming up nice and neat.

I have never grown okra before this year and I have a nice
full plant but no flowers yet?

Somebody gave me the same advice to improve the germination of swiss chard in warm weather.