Botanical Name
Abelmoschus esculentus
Grown as
Toxicity
Sun Exposure
Water Needs
Height
Spread
Bloom Time
Special Features
Resilience
Plant Type
Okra isn’t just for gumbo anymore! This Southern staple is showing up in gardens everywhere, and for good reason. It’s easy to grow, fun to harvest, and comes with tropical-looking flowers that would make a hibiscus blush.
Whether you’re a seasoned grower or okra-curious, we’ve got all the tips to help you grow it like a garden rockstar. Let’s get planting!
Many gardeners are discovering okra, and the range of this warm-weather crop has been creeping northward and gaining in popularity. This plant not only grows edible vegetables and beautiful flowers, but it is also rich in vitamin A and low in calories, which makes it a great addition to your diet.
Growing
- Eliminate weeds when the plants are young, then mulch heavily—4 to 8 inches—to prevent more weeds.
- During the growing season, Joseph Masabni of Texas A&M recommends that you “cultivate around the okra plants to remove weeds and grass. To avoid damaging the okra roots, pull weeds close to the plants by hand.”
- Side-dress the plants with 10-10-10, aged manure, or rich compost (1/2 pound per 25 feet of row). You could also apply a balanced liquid fertilizer monthly. Avoid too much nitrogen, which deters flowering and encourages leafy growth. Learn more about soil amendments and preparing soil for planting.
- When the seedlings are about 3 inches tall, thin the plants so that they are 18 to 24 inches apart.
- Keep the plants well watered throughout the summer months. One inch of water per week is ideal, but use more if you are in a hot, arid region.
- High heat can slow the growth of okra.
- Prune the tops of okra plants when they reach 5 to 6 feet tall. This will result in more side branches. Prune those as needed.
- In warm regions, some growers cut plants to about 2 feet when productivity slows in summer. The plants grow back and produce another crop of okra.
Note: Okra has large, hairy leaves, as well as tiny spines on its pods, both of which may cause skin irritation; consider wearing gloves and/or long sleeves when handling. “Spineless” types have pods that don’t present this problem. Regardless of type, irritation does not occur when you eat okra.
Harvesting
When you harvest okra, get out the gloves and wear a long-sleeved shirt to protect yourself from the tiny spines that can make your hands and arms itch for days.
- Once okra is ripe, harvest every day! The pods grow so fast and ripen within a day, so you need to pick continually. Overripe okra is too tough to eat.
- The best pods are only 2 to 4 inches long. This is when okra is at its softest and most digestible.
- Cut the stem just above the cap with a knife. If the stem is too hard to cut, the pod is probably too old and should be tossed.
- Only one pod grows beneath each leaf, so break off the leaf after harvesting the pod.
- Harvest often: The more you pick, the more flowers will appear, and okra goes from flowering to fruit in a few days.
- A severe freeze can damage pods. If one is predicted and pods are drying on the plant for seeds, cut the plant and hang it indoors to dry. Put a paper bag over it so if the pods shatter, the seeds will not be lost.
In the South, regular okra plants can get too tall to harvest; if this happens, cut them back to 12 to 18 inches above the ground. This is usually done in July or August. The plants will sprout again to make a second crop. Otherwise, consider a dwarf variety!
How to Store Okra
- To store okra, put the uncut and uncooked pods into freezer bags and keep them in the freezer. Or wash and blanch okra before freezing.
- Or, can okra to have it throughout the winter.
Types
Standard varieties can top 8 feet or more! Dwarf types, which seldom exceed 5 feet in height, are best for containers.
- ‘Blondy’: spineless; dwarf at 3 feet tall; 3-inch pale green pods; ideal for northern growers
- ‘Burgundy’: abundant 6- to 8-inch pods (harvest at 3 inches) on 3- to 5-foot-tall plants; edible ornamental, with deep red stem, branches, leaf ribs, and fruit
- ‘Cajun Jewel’: dwarf at 2 1/2 to 4 feet tall; tasty 8-inch pods up to 1 inch in diameter
- ‘Clemson Spineless’: tasty 6 1/2-inch to 9-inch pods on 4-foot tall plants
- ‘Louisiana Green Velvet’: spineless; vigorous to 6 feet tall; good for large areas
More Like This
Baker Creek sells a plant called "pink okra" which is really more oh a hibiscus, but the pod is still edible (okra is closely related to hibiscus according to the Baker Creek blurb on pink okra). The pods are small but stubby, so may or may not be what you're looking for. I'll be trying them for the first in time this year.
Okra originates from Egypt and there are Egyptian manufacturers of frozen okra, but we do not know what seed they use. Here is the Montana site if you wish to contact them: http://www.montanaeg.com/ Hope this helps.
Those of you in the DFW, Texas area, plant that okra! I've had tremendous success with multiple varieties. I've even experimented with three and four varieties intermixed, and they do great. They need the heat. I live in a neighborhood with a day care center behind my house. That property is inclosed with a concrete fence (the type that's cast and painted to look like brick). That wall is on the west side of my house at the back of my yard. That thing gets HOT! I plant okra along that wall across the back of my gardening space. The okra thrives with that incredible heat, and the beautiful, tall okra plants protect the rest of the garden from the searing heat that radiates off that fence. When the okra starts producing, we eat okra every single day and still have enough to freeze. Please try frying/sautéing your okra whole. Whether you dredge them or leave them naked, cooking okra whole preserves their flavor and greatly reduces the slime factor. The more you cut okra, the more slime you get. Frankly, I can never get back inside the house before I've eaten several pods right off the plant.
Thanks! We live in DFW and are going to try planting okra for the first time this year. Going to pick up some okra plants next week at the farmers market. We are a family of 4, how many okra plants do you suggest to feed 4? Thanks!
Glad you're interested in okra! I typically have between 12 and 20 plants. It's just the two of us, and that keeps us in okra all season plus some to give (if we're "okra'd out") and some to store. When the plants start producing, I can collect a few pods a couple of days, then cook them. At the height of their production, there is enough for us to eat daily without that wait. If. I have more plants, I usually end up giving away a bit and storing it. I've made pickled okra refrigerator style, and I freeze a lot. If your little ones are small or particularly sensitive, you might want to harvest the okra yourself. The plants do make you itchy. I hope you'll have as much success as I've had. Sometimes by the end of the season I have to send my 6'4" husband out to harvest the okra; I've had plants grow well over seven feet tall. Good luck!
Thanks for the heads up on the itchiness! My daughter helped me cut okra one day and she got an itchy rash from the slime so they don't touch it anymore. I have sensitive skin too so I will make sure to use gloves when harvesting. I picked up four okra plants this weekend and we are growing them in pots on our patio so I doubt they will get above 6 feet, but we are looking forward to hopefully getting some good meals out of them! thanks for all the helpful info!!
If you can get the plastic bags they throw newspaper in
then you can wear them as gloves when you pick the okra. I usually use the plastic grocery bags as gloves since we usually have so many. Keeps from itching.
Great tip! Thanks!
There's a dwarf strain of okra. The plants only get about 3-4' tall. That would be perfect for container gardening. Also, if you're crazy about okra, there's a long pod variety. Pods get 6-7" long and are just as tender and delicious as young, small pods on a standard okra plant. Okra is very easy to grow from seed. At the end of the season, I leave a few pods on the plants to grow and then dry with the stalk. Happy OKRA!
I grew a standard okra last year in a patio picker self watering planter (don't know the type, the starter plants I bought were just lab led okra and it had spines). Grew about ten plants in one container. They did fine. Grew about 4 feet tall. Was picking a good meal every day.
The leaves were good, too, though they were fuzzy and did have a little slime. We're great in stews or rolled up and dipped in humus. I tried a red okra too. It grew fine, but I planted it late in the season and only got one pod before things turned cold. The red had a thicker woody stem and thick roots that grew into the self watering screen. I was able to separate the roots without damaging the screen (yea!).
Going to try clemens spineless from seed this year. I'm hoping the leaves will be fuzz free, because for me, that was the only downside of eating the leaf
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