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Planting, Growing, and Harvesting Okra
Okra thrives in warm weather and is traditionally grown in the southern U.S., though there are varieties for northern growers, too. Once it鈥檚 harvest season, pick the pods every day so it doesn鈥檛 get overripe and tough. See how to plant, grow, and harvest okra.
About Okra
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.
If you look at the flower of okra, you鈥檒l see a resemblance to a hibiscus flower. It鈥檚 no coincidence鈥攐kra is a member of the hibiscus family!
Growing
- Eliminate weeds when the plants are young, then mulch heavily鈥4 to 8 inches鈥攖o prevent more weeds.
- During the growing season, recommends that you 鈥渃ultivate around the okra plants to remove weeds and grass. To avoid damaging the okra roots, pull weeds close to the plants by hand.鈥
- 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.
Photo credit: Chunumunu/GettyImages
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. 鈥淪pineless鈥 types have pods that don鈥檛 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.
Cooking Notes
Okra can be consumed in a number of ways鈥攂readed and deep-fried, pickled, stewed (in Indian cuisine), air-fried (a reader favorite), and even raw in the field! Of course, the most famous okra dish is probably gumbo.
For a nice stewy dish, simmer fresh tomatoes and onions and perhaps some pre-fried bacon pieces. Add chopped okra. On the stove, cook for 25 minutes, and the soft insides of okra will help create a nice thick, savory broth to serve over rice.
Or, try roasting okra to bring out its natural nuttiness. Just remove the cap, split lengthwise, and roast on a baking sheet for 25 minutes; we cover with aluminum foil for the first half of cooking.
Catherine Boeckmann
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Not true, cutting okra up and frying it is just as delicious. As for tomatoes, this is an idiots opinion! Fried green tomatoes and fried okra mixed together is absolutely delicious. Dummies can ruin almost anything simple.
Folks in the south have eaten stewed okra and and tomatoes our whole life. Only a yankee would say something like mixing okra and tomatoes together would spoil it. That is totally, absolutely BULL Crap!!!
Ha, just goes to show you that you are a took. I am born and raised in Alabama. No one knows okra better than the folks from the Deep South. Most southerners know that when okra is thin or things aren't bountiful like they should be, fried green tomatoes make okra go father if it's not what you would hope. My great grandparents have been doing this since the 1920's. Dummy's are more prevalent than ever folks.
Please help! I am in (blazing hot) NC and just moved so got my garden started late this year using seedlings that I purchased. This is my first time growing okra. The seedling came as a 6" tall cluster of skinny stems with maybe a single round leaf on each of them. Since I consider myself lucky when I find a "two-for" seedling in a container for purchase, I assumed that this was just one okra plant and surely it wasn't like TEN okra plants! Well I've been wondering when my okra was going to do anything because my tomatoes are taking off but no baby okras growing, so I googled some info and discovered holy cow, okra has a single tree-like stem that grows super tall - so I transplanted like 10 plants TOGETHER! Now they are over 1' tall and have the bigger okra-plant-leaves and the stems are probably 0.5 cm wide. Should I thin this cluster at this point, or is it way too late? Should I wait and see if like 10 "trees" will grow in a cluster like that and actually produce, or risk injury to other roots by thinning so late? Thank you in advance!
Tough call. Overcrowding might affect the yield and possibly the health of the plants. Some gardeners do keep a few clumped together, but I haven't heard of ten together. It would also depend on how closely they are clumped (less than 1 inch between stems, or 3 to 5 inches between, etc.).
Since the plants will likely grow much larger, it might be best to thin them now, even though they are a foot tall. You might try removing most of them, leaving 1 to 3 plants together. Keep the healthiest plants, and preferably, the ones furthest apart from each other. Do not pull the thinnings up though, or they might injure the roots of the other plants (which are fragile). Use pruning shears to cut each stem off at the soil line, being careful not to injure the stems or leaves of the plants that you are keeping. Just leave the roots of the thinned plant(s) in the soil. Good luck!
Thank you so very much for taking the time to write such a helpful response! The stems are less than 1/2 cm apart - so close that I really thought okra was a shrub rather than a tree :-( I heeded your instructions this morning and will hope for the best! Thank you!
I am from India. Okra is one of my favorites. It is very easy to grow and taste really good. I had successfully planted okra last summer in my home ground. This time I purchased okra seeds that seems to be hybrid ones with spineless pods. The plant is shorter and produces small pods. Last year they were really big ones.
am a project student willing to plant okra using urine as a fertilizer, how many weeks/months will it use to germinate using a green garden.
I want to start planting okra on a commercial level, starting with least 4acrers of land in africa , Uganda ...want advise do u give me especially on managing this kind of project?
One thing to keep in mind about okra is it is high quality food which spoils very quickly so you would need to sell or process it immediately ! Fresh Okra only lasts about 2 days before spoling. You would have to can it , pickle or freeze or pickle it if it needs to be transported or stored. You could use to make canned soup (gumbo ) Another thing to consider is if you have enough available water for irrigation or rain to produce a good crop.
Use quality seed of a spineless variety, and use gloves to pick as even the spineless is rough enough to wear skin off your hands. Cost of fertilizer can be reduced by using manure or diluted 20 to 1 urine . Break curses off of land before planting as well.
Thanks,
Alex
