Easy to grow, Healthy & Delicious when fresh
Let's look at growing okra
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So we will be growing two okra varieties today
Emerald and the other variety is called Louisiana Green Velvet
And both these varieties are not only very delicious but also very easy to grow
So this is our site where we will be growing our okra
Its a 4'x4' raised bed
And what I have done is I have sowed the seeds directly on these raised beds
Okras don't like to be transplanted
Its best if you sow them directly
So you can grow about 25 okra plants ib a 16'' square area
So at 20 days you can see all the seedlings have emerged
And you can thin the seedlings so that there are not multiple plants growing at one place
But I have noticed that with okra, its OK to leave a few areas with a few plants
This is how the plants look like once they have grown a little bit more
And this is really the time they need to be fed really well to develop their leaves and
stems
Now if you are using organic fertilizers, they take time to decompose
So you might want to start a least 3 moths in advance before you reach this stage
If you are using synthetic fertilizers,they are readily available to the plants
You could either use a slow release fertilizer like Shake n Feed
Or you could use an instant fertilizer
The instant fertilizers need to be reapplied every 15 days
If you are going organic, just make sure you use a variety of organic matter
And that's going to supply all the nutrients that your plants need
For this raised bed, I went mostly with organic ingredients
I used an all purpose or balanced fertilizer
And that seemed to do a really good job for this okra bed
So as you can se the okras have now started emerging
And okra pods will keep forming as long as the temperatures are good
You need warm to hot temperatures for okra
And if you've seen our earlier video on growing okra
You might have realized or known that cool weather is not a good thing for okra plants
This is an okra flower
And okras have no problem with pollination at all
I never had to pollinate any of my okra flowers and they all set fruit
So its now grown to a size where we can harvest the okra pods
So let's go ahead and do that
So from a 16 inch square area of growing okra
You can get a lot of pods every day throughout the growing season
So I would suggest that for a family, a small family, these many okra plant
Like about 20 to 25 are quite enough
Now some of these okra plants did get aphids and some other insects
That disfigured some of these leaves that you see here
But for this batch of okra I never used any insecticides, including organic ones
All I did was wash away the aphids that were sitting on the okra plants by using a water
hose
That's all I did for getting rid of the insects om the okra plant
And other than aphids I did not see any other insects attacking my okra plants
You can see here the okras are now forming really well
And soon you will see that all plants will have a lot of pods
And you will have a big supply of okra coming up
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Okra is one vegetable that I always recommend eating fresh
They just taste so good when they are fresh
They are nice, crispy and you can make a lot of things out of it
Now I wanted to show you the difference between the two varieties that we grew
This is the Emerald Okra
Its a little bit fatter and less long
This one is the Louisiana green velvet
Long pods, very slender and silky
So bot of these are great varieties to grow; they are just different
So at the end of the season, the okra plants that I am growing are about 10 foot tall now
So I had to cut off some of the tips so I could harvest them easily
And okra is a very prolific grower
At least these two varieties grow really well
As long as you take basic care of it
So I hope you enjoyed this video on growing okra in raised beds
And I hope this inspires you to grow okra in your garden
I'll see you again soon...
Happy Gardening!!
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