It's Okra Growing Time!

If it's just not summertime without some fried okra, pickled okra, or gumbo, then you've gotta try growing your own okra.

Okra is one of the easiest and most prolific vegetables to grow at home. Originally from Ethiopia, it thrives in hot, humid climates, even while other plants are struggling. Okra flowers are also incredibly beautiful. Okra is a member of the hibiscus family, so okra blooms can honestly hold their own against ornamental flowers.

Here are some tips to grow your own okra from Jill McSheehy of the Beginner's Garden Podcast and garden consultant Danielle Boss.

Is Okra a Fruit or Vegetable?

Okra is one of many plants that's one thing in the kitchen and another thing in the garden. If you ask a chef, okra is a vegetable that's great fried or tossed into soups and stews to add some firmness with its mucilage.

If you ask a botanist, okra is a fruit since okra pods form from flowers and contain the seeds for the plant. For our purposes, it's important to treat okra like a fruiting plant in your garden so you can grow it under its preferred conditions.

The Best Time to Grow Okra in Your Garden

Okra is a hot season plant. Most okra varieties can handle both heat and humidity or more dry conditions. When everything else is struggling in the heat, that's okra's time to shine.

You don't just want to wait until all threat of frost has passed to plant your okra seeds. You actually want to wait for your daytime temps to be in the 80s.

In Arkansas, Jill plants okra in early May when the temperatures are typically already reaching 85°F, and her plants really start taking off in June. She'll have three good months of consistent harvesting, before the plants slow down in September, once the day length is reduced and the temperatures become a bit more moderate.

Is It Possible to Grow Okra in Cooler Climates?

If you don't have at least 60 to 70 days with temps above 85°F in the summertime, you may struggle to grow okra. I have a good friend who would plant okra in Chicago for her clients just for the beautiful flowers. She said she rarely had enough hot days to end up with actual okra pods.

I talked to another gardener who manages to grow okra in Wisconsin, but he says his plants stay 2 to 3 feet tall instead of growing into small trees like they do in the South.

You could always try to start okra seeds indoors about 4 to 6 weeks before your last frost date so the plants have more time to grow if you have a short season. Just use biodegradable pots to avoid root disturbance.

Where to Grow Okra

You can grow okra in the ground (these plants don't even mind being grown in clay-heavy soil) or in raised beds. The good drainage and looser soil in a raised bed does produce a larger, more healthy okra plant, according to Jill, but even areas with bad drainage will still give her harvests.

Do keep in mind that okra plants can easily grow 6 to 8 feet tall. You might need a step stool to harvest from mature plants if you're growing in raised beds.

Okra grows way more up than out, so you can plant medium- and small-size plants around the base of your okra plants, especially crops that benefit from some shade during the hotter months. Good okra companion plants, according to Danielle, are peppers, cucumbers, and melons. Jill uses okra plants as a vertical structure for her pole beans to climb.

Make sure you've picked a spot that gets at least 8 hours of sunlight a day.

The Best Varieties of Okra to Grow at Home

Here are the okra varieties that gardener Jill McSheehy most enjoys growing:

• Clemson Spineless Okra - This plant produces tasty green pods and has long been the standard in home gardens.
• Burgundy Okra - This variety produces tender and delicious deep red pods that look beautiful against the green leaves.
• Jing Orange Okra - This Chinese variety produces reddish-orange pods that are as flavorful as they are beautiful.
• Alabama Red Okra - This Alabama heirloom variety produces fat, red-tinged pods that are perfect for frying or making gumbo.

Once you've bought seeds for an okra variety you really like, you can easily save your own seeds for next year.

How to Plant Okra

You may find okra seedlings at the plant store, but it doesn't really like to be transplanted. That being said, Jill bought transplants from the nursery her first year and had a great season. It's super easy (and cheaper) to direct sow okra seeds in the garden.

Seeds germinate really well in warm soil. Okra seeds are nice and big, so you can see where you're sowing them. Check your seed package to see whether they recommend soaking the seeds for 24 hours immediately before planting.

Use a dibber to make holes that are 1 to 1.5 inches deep, and space your holes 12 inches apart. Place 2 to 3 seeds per hole. Once your okra seedlings have a couple of leaves, you'll pick the strongest one and thin the others.

Water the planting area well and keep moist until your plants germinate.

How to Care for Okra

Okra is a super low-maintenance plant. It doesn't need to be supported on a trellis or with a stake. While Danielle Boss mulches around her okra, I just press some compost around the base every couple of weeks to support the growing plants.

How Often to Water Okra

Your okra seedlings need water daily until they are are a few inches tall. Once established, okra can go much longer between waterings. I recommend a nice, deep soak once a week.

How to Fertilize Okra

I don't fertilize okra with anything but compost. I've found that setting these plants up in the nutrient-rich soil of my raised beds gives them everything they need. Danielle Boss fertilizes with fish emulsion about once monthly.

How to Protect Okra from Pests

Okra is prone to aphids. You may actually notice ants first, and they're a sure sign you have aphids. Every couple of days, squirt the leaves with a water hose to knock the aphids off, and you should be good.

If the problem is really bad, spray the leaves with some Dr. Bronner's Castile soap mixed with water. Prune any yellow or pest-damaged leaves.

How Okra Grows

Okra takes about 50 to 70 days to reach maturity.

Okra plants grow tall and upright and produce beautiful white blooms that then form okra pods. These pods mature pretty quickly, like within just a few days. It's important to stay on top of harvesting these pods while they're tender and young, before they mature fully and become stringy and tough like cardboard. If you take a knife to the outside of the pod and hear a crunch, that okra is already past the point of being edible.

Early in the okra growing season, you might harvest pods every couple of days. The hotter it gets, the more often you'll need to harvest. At the peak of okra season, you should harvest pods every single day. If you don't keep an okra plant harvested, the plant will slow down its production of pods. Basically, the more you pick, the more the plant will produce. Even if a pod is past its prime, cut it from the plant to encourage more pod production.

At the end of the summer season, leave some pods that have gotten too hard on the plant and let them continue to mature and form seeds. These seeds can be saved for next year or ground and roasted to make okra coffee (yep, that's a thing).

Tips to Harvest Okra Pods

I dunno about you, but I love growing a plant where the biggest tending task is just picking often. That's a good problem to have! Make sure to follow these tips when harvesting okra pods:

Tip Number One: Use Pruners

Okra pods aren't easy to snap off, so it's best to cut them with a clean pair of pruners to avoid damaging the plant.

Tip Number Two: Protect Your Skin

Make sure you wear a pair of gloves and long sleeves when harvesting because the little spines on okra can irritate the skin. Sometimes I like to think of my plants as people, and okra is like, “Don't touch me, girl! I'm keeping my pods.”

Tip Number Three: Harvest Pods When They're Young

Remove pods from the plant when they're only about 2 to 3 inches long for the best flavor and texture. If you let a couple pods grow too large, try cutting them up and frying them.

How Much Okra Can You Pick from One Okra Plant?

Even though okra is a prolific producer, you still need to grow a couple plants to harvest enough pods daily for a side dish. Each plant will typically produce between two to four pods every couple of days.

Danielle Boss recommends planting 1 to 2 plants per person. "Last summer, I planted eight okra plants," she says, "and let me just say, I had so much I was giving it away to all my neighbors. Okra for everyone!"

Did you know that you can also harvest and eat okra leaves? Both okra leaves and blooms are edible. Okra leaves have many nutritional benefits and work well being cut up and sautéed like you would spinach leaves. That's one of the best parts of growing a plant yourself—you get to enjoy more plant parts that don't travel or store well.

How to Store Okra from the Garden

Okra doesn't have a long shelf life, unfortunately. I struggled to find fresh (and sometimes even frozen) okra in Chicago because it's not locally grown, and even in Houston when okra was in season, the pods in the produce section were often already starting to brown.

When you pick okra from your garden, use it fresh or freeze it within a week. Blanch your okra before freezing it to prevent it from becoming mushy.

Store fresh okra harvests in the fridge. Store okra leaves in your fridge for up to three days.

Okra Benefits

We should all be eating as much okra as we can get!

There are only 33 calories in 100g of okra and 7.5 carbs per serving. Each serving also has 3.8g of fiber, 2g of protein, 81mg of calcium, 57mg of magnesium, 53mg of vitamin K, and 21.1mg of vitamin C—that's 10 times the amount of vitamin C as sweet potatoes. Oh, and more calcium than cow's milk!

Did you realize how nutrient-dense okra is?

There are tons of ways to work okra into your diet. Danielle Boss recommends "stewing in soups or gumbos, frying or baking it, or my favorite, slicing it and grilling it with spices!"

Grow Your Own Okra

I can't wait to see the okra you'll pull from your garden this summer if you follow these tips! (And if you ever make coffee from okra seeds, let me know how it tastes!)

Thanks for bringing back the kitchen garden with me, one okra plant at a time!