Okra is super well-heeled to develop , and delivers abundant produce from just a few plant .
The vegetable with botanical nameAbelmoschus esculentusis just as generous when it produces seeds domicile gardeners can save for next year ’s planting .
Just a few pods will yield dozens , and they can be feasible for two or three years in right store .
Photo by Rose Kennedy.
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Want to taste your hand at saving your own okra seeded player ? In this scout , I ’ll share tips that will take you from pre - planning through collecting and on to storage .
Here ’s what to expect :
What You’ll Learn
Benefits of Saving Okra Seeds
Along with maintaining a quick supply and not hold to devote for wise seeds next season , there are a few spare welfare to this sustainable gardening project .
For one affair , you ’ll know precisely how old these seeds are and for how many more seasons you might be able to plant them , which is n’t always dead on target when you grease one’s palms from independent online sellers or local retailers .
You might also be able to give deprived gardeners a boost . Even if a twain bucks for a packet boat does n’t seem like a big deal , those on a fixed income may not have the money or alternative ways to receive such mellow - quality cloth for growing their own intellectual nourishment .
If you successfully pull in and litigate even a handful of dried pods , you ’ll have raft to deal with community groups or person .
Dry a few more for extra to give mob and neighbors . Just check that to need them first if they ’d like a part , since not everyone mean to grow these tasty , tender pods ! ( Their loss , I say . )
Probably the biggest add up - on benefit hail from being able to choose mixture of Hibiscus esculentus to grow again found on firsthand knowledge .
Saving seed from seedcase grown in your garden allows you to regrow the case that tasted best , was a sizing that work with your place or harvest pauperism , or had a color or shape you rise and liked .
More step - by - footfall instruction for this beneficial mental process start up now .
Pre-Planning
Like most , this vegetable gardening project goes more smoothly when you be after ahead .
One rank must is farm an open - pollinated variety of okra . It need not be an heirloom , but hybrid wo n’t mould since the second generation will not usually produce seedlings that are unfeigned to the parent plant .
mickle of fun loanblend , like ‘ Okra Dokra ’ and ‘ Jambalaya , ’ offer great gustatory perception and disease resistance , but they ’re not suitable for next year ’s supply .
You should also select a type that mature fast enough that you ’ll have clip to let some pods mature beyond the comestible stage .
Okra need affectionate atmospheric condition , and typically 50 to 60 days before it grow a crop . have the fruits get redundant bountiful can take just a few Day , or maybe another calendar week or more .
When you live where the summertime are inadequate , some varieties wo n’t have enough time to form seeds to glean .
So be trusted toread packetsand onlinecatalog descriptionsahead of ordering and pick out one you could set out picking in 50 to 55 days . Also view starting transplanting indoors if you ’re go to be press for time .
Plan to uprise just one variety , or give flora of different cultivars plenty of distance so they do n’t cross - pollinate .
Serious seed recoverer who are trying to continue rare metal money will produce different types of okra no less than 500 to 1,600 feet asunder .
But you should be okay planting each 20 or 30 yards asunder , or grow one case in the front yard and a 2nd one in the back .
If you do n’t have that sort of room , consider isolating one variety by embed a pair in container you’re able to move a safe distance by once they start to blossom .
Collecting and Drying
Before you set out pile up , determine which plants had fruit that tasted best at their edible stage .
Do n’t opt for a works just because you ’ve already accidentally allowed all of its pods to get too heavy , because you wo n’t eff for certain how the edible pod it produced tasted or if they guarantee growing again .
Just one plant life from each diversity of okra that you ’re produce can commonly surrender an ample supplying .
Let several fruits on it mature beyond the tender edible stage . The outside will get so tough you ca n’t even bend the pod or burn into it when the pods are big enough to lead off harvesting for next year ’s cum .
Look for the bigger pods lower down on the plant .
Here , you have two options .
If you ’re done with that flora for the season , you may provide the pod to remain on the stem and snip it off with scissors hold only after it catch brittle and brown .
But if you still need to harvest the little , more fond fruits from the top of the flora , you’re able to clip each overly - big pod while it ’s still gullible ( or orange , lemon yellowish , or burgundy , depending on the variety ) .
Either place the extra - matured fruits in a mesh travelling bag and hang up them to dry out in a cool , dry place , or target them on screen or mesh field goal put down over mainsheet of parchment to dry out on a counter .
permit them heal until the skins are crackly and somewhat light brown or white . Thendon garden glovesto break the pods open , and confidential information or softly scratch up the seed out with your finger .
Some okra varieties grow so large you may need pruner to lop the dried pod in two .
Separate out all of the teetotal membranes and skins that stay , otherwise known as the chaff . This debris can go in thecompost , if you wish .
Storage
The process of storing okra seeds to originate again next year is the same whether you ’re working with your own premium or extras depart over from pre - purchased variety .
come out them in a clean , sealed envelope or an airtight container with a lid , and lay in them somewhere cool and disconsolate . check that it ’s somewhere rodent , possums , and the like are n’t able to get to them .
They may stay viable for two or three old age , meaning that ’s how long they ’ll be able to both sprout and create vigorous seedlings .
But you could only truly swear on them to produce tidy plants if you practice them the very next season .
If you wait longer than that , attempt to start some indoors about a calendar month before you intend to implant out , as proof that the source will germinate .
Okra Seeds for Everyone!
This is well one of the simplest vegetable seed - saving process you ’ll ever encounter .
The seeds are large and easy to see , and the plant life produce so many pods to work with that you may well start over if one of the stairs does n’t work out .
And if you find this info helpful , check out theseokra guidesnext :
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About
Rose Kennedy
