Clemson Okra

Bough seeds from Etsy: https://www.etsy.com/listing/803524173/5-gram-100-clemson-spineless-okra-seeds?ref=yr_purchases

Timeline (took me 83 days to first harvest...supposed to be 50-60 - not sure if it was the heat or transferring containers too many times)

- 7/8/20: planted 3 okra seeds

- 7/11/20: first seedlings appeared

-7/13/20: had two strong looking seedlings and a third just emerging (in hindsight, should've just started them out in their own pots)

- 7/18/20: separated 3 seedlings into larger 2 gallon pots, getting first set of true leaves

- 7/24/20: got some solid looking okra seedlings with four leaves now (2 cotyledons, first set of true leaves)

- 7/26/20: 5th leaf coming on the fastest growing okra plant - so transferred into a larger plastic container from Daiso, which happened to be the smallest of the final 3 containers I transferred them - after this, this guy has yet to produce a single okra pod. Not sure if the container was too small or what, the ones in the 5 gallon grow bags eventually grew much better)

- 8/7/20: other two okras still in the 2 gallon containers getting larger and about 5-6 leaves now

- 8/15/20: finally moved the two remaining okra plants into 5 gallon grow bags (when I took them out, their roots were all squished in the 2 gallon pots)

-8/20/20: first okra plant's got a huge array of massive leaves now

- 8/26/20: first flower pods start forming! The plants are about waist-height now. A forest of mini-trees!

- 9/8/20: first okra flower bloomed! Despite my best attempts at pollinating, it did not produce a viable okra

- 9/15/20 and throughout, lots more okra flowers popping up. They are now almost at chest level, so I'd say a goof 3.5-4 tall

- 9/27/20: after many flowers that did not produce viable fruit, finally got one growing!

- 9/29/20: I got nervous that it would grow too big, so harvested way early lol. It was about 2 inches at this point

- 10/8/20: I managed to wait longer, and got more okras around 3-4 inches now. From here, they started coming like hotcakes, although just successfully on one plant. I got maybe 3-4 on the second plant, and still none on the third.

- 10/19/20: total of ~25+ okra pods harvested, right before the cold snap in the 30s hit. So I got ~20 days of harvesting. They kept really well in the fridge though

- As of 11/1/20, no more new okras. The plants are still alive, but the cold really seemed to set them back.

2021:

- 3/14: sowed seeds after soaking (some germination already begun)

- 3/18: germination

TOP LESSONS:

- Plant earlier (!!) and plant in separate containers. Soak seed overnight to increase chance of germination

- Roots are brittle and don't like to be disturbed. Would probably start in a small biodegradeable seed pot next time, and then directly plant into 5 gallon container once it's big enough

- These things get big and they blow away in the wind lol. 3 okra plants took up a lot of room, so I don't know that I would plant more than that at a time. Hopefully next time I'll actually have more than 1 okra plant producing.

- In triple digit weather, the leaves wilted. I think this is ok and the minimize water loss?...they perked up after I watered them. The stems also created water droplets/sap and ants crawled up and down them - from what I could find, the ants were harmless?

- Okra flowers last only a couple of hours - so I had to make sure to go around pollinating them with a paint brush during the day if I was able to (sometimes I got home from work too late and they had already closed).

- Harvest when pods are ~4 inches in length

Okra seedlings

They became behemoths and literal okra trees at ~3.5 feet tall. Those leaves would slap me in the face all the time. Last pic is them wilting in the triple digit heat