Lisa,

If you don't find any Longhorn Okra via someone here on this forum, I checked my Seed Savers 2008 Yearbook and two people there have it listed this year. You do have to be a member of the Seed Savers Exchange to obtain seed through the listed members in the yearbook. (www.seedsavers.org).

For anyone unfamiliar with Seed Savers Exchange, it is a non-profit membership group of persons dedicating to saving and sharing heirloom seeds. You buy a membership and receive several publications annually, the largest of which is the yearbook which lists thousands and thousands of heirloom seeds available from listed members for a small fee.

Whereas most seed companies might offer, say, 5 or 6 types of okra at the most, SSE members list several dozen different ones including Cowhorn, Cowhorn Smooth, Longhorn and Texas Longhorn.

SSE also has a website/catalog through which they sell some varieties, but the varieties offered are only a tiny percentage of what is available via their listed members.

Dawn

Texas Longhorn Okra seed is available commercially through Sandhill Preservation Center, linked below.

This is a very small company, and you have to comply carefully with their ordering instructions or they'll reject your order.

Dawn

Here is a link that might be useful: Sandhill Preservation Center

Thank you for the information. I will go there and get seed now....LIsa

Ilene,

There are several varieties of cowhorn-type okras, including the standard Cowhorn (very tall plants with spines, pods can get 10-12 "long and still remain tender), Smooth Cowhorn (similar to regular Cowhorn, but spineless, and also doesn't get quite as tall and is not as productive), Longhorn (has very long thin pods, but not always as long as those from Cowhorn), and Texas Longhorn (a dwarf plant with pods only 5" to 6" long). There's also Fife Creek Cowhorn, which has plants that only get 5' tall or so but does have the very long pods.

People who grow the cowhorn-type okras all say that the pods stay tender even when they reach 8"- 12" in length. Some of the cowhorn types have been handed down within a family for decades.

The cowhorn okra I have grown did give me tall plants and very long pods. A neighbor of ours in Texas had cowhorn okra plants that got 10'-12' tall with pods 10"-12" long.

Dawn

Yes, my plants got a lot taller than I was expecting. I had to stand on tiptoe to pick. I had no idea there were so many varieties of "horns".

It is fascinating. Sometimes you can't tell if you have seeds of the "same" plant under various names or if they are different varieties until you grow them side by side.

With open-pollinated heirlooms that have been passed down for generations, it is not uncommon to have the same variety found under many names depending on how many different families were saving seed and passing it down.

All the cowhorns I listed seem slightly different from one another. Before I 'discovered' open-pollinated varieties, I thought okra was just okra and eggplant was just eggplant.....and I was wrong. One of the most startling discoveries? Orange okra and orange eggplant....and NOT orange because of genetic engineering. Naturally orange.

Dawn

We have longhorn okra seed

i was given some okra seed,at leasr 10years ago,by a neighbor who is now passed. its been in a sealed masonjar in a sack in my closet. i cant remember ig he said ot ead cowhorn,or longhorn. is thete a way to tell from the seed itself? ifnot,how should i plant it? isnt one a dwarf variety?

Okra seed that is 10 years old may not germinate well if at all. The average life expectancy of properly-stored okra seed is only 2-3 years. If it has been kept in airtight containers in a freezer, and defrosted thoroughly before you open the container, it can last considerably longer.

You cannot tell the variety from looking at the seed.

Plant it the way you'd plant any other okra seed, but keep it mind it might not germinate and have a backup plan.

Both cowhorn and longhorn okra tend to be very large plants that produce very large pods. Within the cowhorn okra family, there are a couple of varieties that are dwarf, including Vidrine's Midget Cornhorn Okra, which gives you plants only about 3' tall. In general, though, okra plants get really big, especially in hot summer weather. Another cowhorn okra plant that stays relatively small (compared to most cowhorn types) is Fife Creek. It still produces plants that get at least 5-6' tall, but compared to the 6-10' height of most cowhorn and longhorn types, those Fife Creek plants are more manageable.

I have been given the task of these seeds you are looking for when my uncle passed away 3 years ago and I have been giving out starts of seeds since fuuny thing is I live north of Durant so if you like get back with me the seeds I have are 3 years old I couldn't plant last year due to all the record rain so I need to plant all the seeds I have to have a fresh batch I would say 50% will probly come up in what I plant due to their age

These are true longhorn okra my uncle grew these for well over 40 years