hoping for an idea on my okra problems, but i'm aware okra is (quite
rightly!!!) not particularly popular, so maybe i'm whistling :-)

had 8 plants, & all but one were pretty healthy & grew to the appropriate
height, etc (one was stunted). all had loads of flowers. what i found over
summer was that as each flower fell off, the bud, instead of growing on into
a pod, would just shrivel back to the stalk as soon as the petals fell off.
over all of summer, dh got, iirc, 3 pods in total :-) the plants would grow
& flourish & continue on regardless, but all covered in withered knobbles on
dead stalks. ;-)

one thing i did notice about them was that black ants (the slightly larger
kind, about 4mm long) were terribly attracted to the flowers. other than
that, nothing odd to report. i think it might be too cool here for them
really (i had a notable lack of success with my watermelon too - they simply
just never got ripe) so perhaps that is part of the problem?

when i pulled the okras out today, i did notice that the roots were all sort
of lumpy & gnarly & twisted, a bit like pictures of clubroot on brassicas
that i have seen, but i don't know if that is significant because i don't
know what they're meant to look like anyway. :-)

thanks if anyone has any ideas.
kylie

I dont have your answers. My melons failed a couple of years due to the
weather. Melons have their growth stunted when the temp falls below 55 F,
or 13 C, any time after they have they have been set out or come up from
seed if you dont start them yourself in pots. A few years ago I had planted
about 50 melon plants and didnt harvest any. Last year I harvested about 3
from 20 plants.

I have raised okra when I lived farther South and have had very good luck
with it. It loves hot weather and quits bearing early if you dont water it.
I never paid any attention to the ants or the roots. I do have a recipe for
canning it (hot water bath) when you get enough to can, if you are
interested. You will have to send me your e-mail. After canning, you are
supposed to be able to rinse it off and get rid of the slime that a lot of
people dont care for. Otherwise you can cut it into 1/2 inch slices, roll
it in egg batter and then crumbs or flour and fry it. This also gets rid of
the slime.

Good luck. Dwayne (in Kansas)


"0tterbot" wrote in message
...
hoping for an idea on my okra problems, but i'm aware okra is (quite
rightly!!!) not particularly popular, so maybe i'm whistling :-)

had 8 plants, & all but one were pretty healthy & grew to the appropriate
height, etc (one was stunted). all had loads of flowers. what i found over
summer was that as each flower fell off, the bud, instead of growing on
into a pod, would just shrivel back to the stalk as soon as the petals
fell off. over all of summer, dh got, iirc, 3 pods in total :-) the plants
would grow & flourish & continue on regardless, but all covered in
withered knobbles on dead stalks. ;-)

one thing i did notice about them was that black ants (the slightly larger
kind, about 4mm long) were terribly attracted to the flowers. other than
that, nothing odd to report. i think it might be too cool here for them
really (i had a notable lack of success with my watermelon too - they
simply just never got ripe) so perhaps that is part of the problem?

when i pulled the okras out today, i did notice that the roots were all
sort of lumpy & gnarly & twisted, a bit like pictures of clubroot on
brassicas that i have seen, but i don't know if that is significant
because i don't know what they're meant to look like anyway. :-)

thanks if anyone has any ideas.
kylie

On May 5, 4:58 pm, "0tterbot" wrote:
hoping for an idea on my okra problems, but i'm aware okra is (quite
rightly!!!) not particularly popular, so maybe i'm whistling :-)

had 8 plants, & all but one were pretty healthy & grew to the appropriate
height, etc (one was stunted). all had loads of flowers. what i found over
summer was that as each flower fell off, the bud, instead of growing on into
a pod, would just shrivel back to the stalk as soon as the petals fell off.
over all of summer, dh got, iirc, 3 pods in total :-) the plants would grow
& flourish & continue on regardless, but all covered in withered knobbles on
dead stalks. ;-)

one thing i did notice about them was that black ants (the slightly larger
kind, about 4mm long) were terribly attracted to the flowers. other than
that, nothing odd to report. i think it might be too cool here for them
really (i had a notable lack of success with my watermelon too - they simply
just never got ripe) so perhaps that is part of the problem?

when i pulled the okras out today, i did notice that the roots were all sort
of lumpy & gnarly & twisted, a bit like pictures of clubroot on brassicas
that i have seen, but i don't know if that is significant because i don't
know what they're meant to look like anyway. :-)

thanks if anyone has any ideas.
kylie

Hi Kylie,
If I remember correctly, you're in Sydney. Is that right? We are near
Campbelltown and have successfully grown okra over the last two
summers, so it is unlikely to be the climate. As Dwayne said, okra
needs hot weather, but Sydney is plenty warm enough for it. For what
it's worth, the plants won't set fruit until it gets hot; before that
all the fruit fall off when they're tiny (or just shrivel into ugly
things).
In both years our okra has had aphids (and associated ants) in the
later half of the season, but that has not had much of an impact on
fruit set. Is it possible that your okra isn't getting enough
pollination? We find that honeybees and native bees will both visit
okra quite happily.
My veggie book says that okra likes quite a lot of fertilizer
(somewhat like tomatoes, but less than pumpkins) and even watering.
Our okra also has gnarled, ugly-looking roots and a surprisingly
shallow root system for such tall plants.
For what it's worth, my take on cooking okra is to follow the Greek or
Indian way of doing things - if you cook okra with something acidic
(lemon juice in Greek cooking or tomato and tamarind in Indian) then
it doesn't make that nasty, nasty mucous, but instead you end up with
a delicious and unusual vegetable.
Tish

g'day kylie,

we've always found okra easy to grow and get fruit from, always too
much too eat as once it starts producing picking is a dail affair.

now the ants may have bought aphids onto the flower buds and that
could cause problems with bud development.

maybe for the flowers that did open as normal they didn't get
pollinated yo may have shortage of bees etc.,?

can't quier remember but i think they have gnarly looking roots, but
just in case it is nematodes pre-treat anotehr planting spot and try
again, we have reciped for pre-treating on our remeidies page.

they do like to be well watered but we kept them heavily mulched.

so get a spot ready for next seaon.

snipped
With peace and brightest of blessings,

len & bev

--
"Be Content With What You Have And
May You Find Serenity and Tranquillity In
A World That You May Not Understand."

http://www.lensgarden.com.au/

"len garden" wrote in message
...
g'day kylie,

we've always found okra easy to grow and get fruit from, always too
much too eat as once it starts producing picking is a dail affair.

now the ants may have bought aphids onto the flower buds and that
could cause problems with bud development.

maybe for the flowers that did open as normal they didn't get
pollinated yo may have shortage of bees etc.,?

can't quier remember but i think they have gnarly looking roots, but
just in case it is nematodes pre-treat anotehr planting spot and try
again, we have reciped for pre-treating on our remeidies page.

they do like to be well watered but we kept them heavily mulched.

so get a spot ready for next seaon.

hm, thank you everyone.

i am really thinking now that it wasn't consistently hot enough for them
(i'm not in sydney, tish - southern tablelands in fact, where the summer
maximum average is about the same, but it cools right down at night, and the
weather is really _variable_ e.g. we had a frost on christmas night!!!)

while we do have plenty of bees (and other pollinators) i can't recall if i
ever saw any on the flowers or not - i'd assume so, but who knows. i think i
got everything else as right as possible. we'll see what happens next year!

thanks for the cooking tips, dwayne and tish. i must say, i don't even know
what they taste like, as the slime just gets me. dh mustn't mind the slime
at all, but i do! if we actually get a crop next year somehow, we'll work
our way through that ;-)
ta!
kylie

On May 8, 9:50 am, "0tterbot" wrote:
"len garden" wrote in message

...



g'day kylie,

we've always found okra easy to grow and get fruit from, always too
much too eat as once it starts producing picking is a dail affair.

now the ants may have bought aphids onto the flower buds and that
could cause problems with bud development.

maybe for the flowers that did open as normal they didn't get
pollinated yo may have shortage of bees etc.,?

can't quier remember but i think they have gnarly looking roots, but
just in case it is nematodes pre-treat anotehr planting spot and try
again, we have reciped for pre-treating on our remeidies page.

they do like to be well watered but we kept them heavily mulched.

so get a spot ready for next seaon.

hm, thank you everyone.

i am really thinking now that it wasn't consistently hot enough for them
(i'm not in sydney, tish - southern tablelands in fact, where the summer
maximum average is about the same, but it cools right down at night, and the
weather is really _variable_ e.g. we had a frost on christmas night!!!)

while we do have plenty of bees (and other pollinators) i can't recall if i
ever saw any on the flowers or not - i'd assume so, but who knows. i think i
got everything else as right as possible. we'll see what happens next year!

thanks for the cooking tips, dwayne and tish. i must say, i don't even know
what they taste like, as the slime just gets me. dh mustn't mind the slime
at all, but i do! if we actually get a crop next year somehow, we'll work
our way through that ;-)
ta!
kylie

It may not be warm enough, as you said. When I lived in Armidale
(northern tablelands NSW), things like okra were not even remotely
possible (in fact, it was too cold to even grow lemons, except meyer
lemons, which don't cut the mustard IMHO). Instead, you probably get
to enjoy such delicacies as gooseberries, greengage plumbs, asparagras
and other things which enjoy a proper winter chill.
Tish