Growing okra questions

11 years ago

I think I've already committed the first cardinal sin with growing okra -- I went by the seed packet spacing guideline of only 6" between plants (so 4 plants per square). I was reading elsewhere that they should really be spaced at least a foot, if not 18" apart to get a good yield. My 12 plants are, at least, flowering and so hopefully will produce something.

We want to make pickled okra from our 'crop' if possible. The National Center for Food preservation says that you need about 7 pounds of okra to make 9 pint jars of pickled okra --just up our alley. But, I've no idea how many okra plants it would take to get that sort of yield. I'm looking at the 12 squares now vacated by lettuce and that I had originally thought to plant more string beans in and wondering should I put them in okra instead? How many plants does it take to get a 7-lbs-for-pickling harvest?

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Comments (3)

GivingGarden (6a, CO)
11 years ago
I found a home gardening sheet on okra. This is my first year growing it as well and I hope to pickle too. Anyhow, the guide suggests a 35lb harvest on average per 50 foot row. So I did the math, I think :-) What I have read is that depending on the variety of okra planted spacing should be 12-18 inches, to make calculations easier I used 12 inch spacing. So, that is 50 plants for 35lbs or 11.2oz per plant. Anyway, that means you will need 10 plants to get 7lbs of okra.
What variety are you planting? I have Jambalaya which is supposed to be a compact plant. If I am a little short on a recipe I usually just purchase the difference in the weight. On a side note, pickled green beans (dillies as we call them in my house) are amazing also.

I am sure someone with more okra experience will be able to offer more insight.

Here is a link: Okra Guide
debmctx
11 years ago
I've done okra in my SF beds...one year I did one plant per square in my 4x8 beds. The key is lots of sun, heat, and a bunch of water. That produced quite a lot of okra, but harvesting the middle rows was not fun. Okra makes me itch.

Last year I did only half the bed and had plenty. For us, okra is best fried--not healthy, but very tasty. If I have enough I pickle a few jars as well.

Keep them picked off to keep them producing.
israelithyme thanked debmctx
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israelithyme
Original Author
11 years ago
An update on the okra (and bush lima beans):

The 12 plants definitely do not produce enough to even think of pickling but they are among the most productive things in our garden. Every other day we are harvesting between 3-5 okra pods (between 1.5 and 2 inches long). They are proving to be a great flavour additive to our cooked (Blue Lake 274 --very productive) green beans and in soups.

The bush lima beans have proven to be a disappointment: The beans are very small and the surrounding pods very thick so you don't really get that much bang for the harvest (we aren't picking them too soon as we have resorted to harvesting just before they turn yellow and go into 'drying bean state'). I am going to take out all the lima beans and replace with one okra plus 3 of the Blue Lake 274 string beans per square.