Okra landrace

Adaptation Projects
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One of my projects is an okra landrace. My aunt grew it every year when I was growing up and it and when I started my own garden I wanted to try it. She lived near Council Bluffs, Iowa when I was a kid. I live about 30 miles west of Sioux Falls, South Dakota now. So, the difference in climate and lack of adaptation puts me at a disadvantage.

Previous years of trying a variety at a time didn’t yield much success. Clemson Spineless was ok one year when it was a very wet year. The next years were terrible. Cajun Jewel was a little better.

This year was my first year of trying a grex. I planted a number of varieties and kept seeds from whatever produced at least one pod.

Zambia Landrace II grew to 45" tall and produced 5 pods with more trying to grow in October. Cajun Jewel reached 17" and produced 3 pods. Baby Bubba, Cowhorn, and Dwarf Long Pod produced 1-2 pods and reached around a foot tall. Motherland grew nearly as tall as Zambia Landrace but didn’t produce flowers until late September and was killed by frost. Others never produced pods.

The ones that produced pods also survived frosts in May and October so that makes them valuable.

In the future I’m looking for production and tolerance of cool weather which I think are interrelated in my garden.

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Wonderful. I’m following to see how this all turns out for you. This year I’ll be starting a new grex for okra. If I’m successful in saving any seed I’ll be happy to share with the seed saving as well. Early and late frosts are a big thing here. Good luck and I hope this year will produce even more for you!

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One of my goals is to breed a landrace that work for northern climates. I hope to be able to share with you in the future. This year was a dry year here and I didn’t weed or water much since my wife was in the hospital much of the summer. So I have high hopes for my seeds in 2023.

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Okra! Great! Let me know how that goes for you. That’s one crop that works very well for me usually. Good luck on your project! Happy to exchange seeds at the end of the season if everything goes well.

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I’ll be also working on that! Good luck on your project I’ll let you know how mine is going. I also had a massive drought here and didn’t water at all so I’m curious to see what those seeds will bring as well. I’m in a wetland though so the drought benefited my crops I think in almost eradicating many fungal diseases.

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Hey folks,

It’s exciting to see interest in okra. I live and grow in Western NC, so okra is fairly easy, but I did plant about 85 varieties in 2021 and allowed them to cross. I also had Abelmoschus caillei and Abelmoschus manihot subsp. tetraphyllus (and possibly others) which seem to have crossed into the A. esculentus seeds.

The Experimental Farm Network have been selling the seeds and have all the information about the parentage listed: Ultracross Okra – Experimental Farm Network Seed Store

A few different Northern growers started selection in 2022 for similar goals to the OP. Interestingly, A. tetraphyllus cross proved to be quite productive but produced mainly sterile pods. I have seeds from a range of plants that look viable and will aim to grow them in 2023. The pods of A. tetraphyllus are aggressively spiny and not good to eat, but I hope the F2 may produced okra quality pods with A. tetraphyllus growth.

I’ll let you know what happens!!

Chris

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I’m so happy people are working on this. I’ve never lived anywhere I could get okra to grow taller than 8" without extensive plastic, nor to set fruit-- everywhere’s been too cool. Hopefully y’all will change that! It’s one of my favourite vegetables.

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Thank you for sharing this info. I am starting a grex of Okra this spring. I had one type of plant grow in my cold northern desert climate and bring 2 pods to maturity. I am hoping to find a few that will do as good and see if I can get a good landrace going too. I’ll have pictures this year coming up.

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I’ve got a few okra’s started from Joseph. Interested to see how they do this year

just starting to get their true leaves

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I also would like to try an okra landrace here in VT but it did not make the list for 2023. I will definitely be buying or trading for seeds in the fall!

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That’s awesome! I didn’t know if he or anyone else still grew it. Hope you post more pictures.

This year in my buying frenzy I bought some okra heirlooms and landraces. With planting almost a month off I’ve talked myself down from planting all of them. Buffalo Seed Company sent me a pack of Zambia Landrace I with my order of Ken’s. Zambia Landrace II did the best for me last year so I am hopeful about the new one. I think those two will be my additions to what I saved from last year. Buffalo Seed Company is located 300ish miles (Kansas City) from me and are closest in environment to me and they grow their own okra for seed.

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Doubt this will be of much use for folks in other climates, but okra grows very well here, almost too well for my little garden. Last year I planted it in the most awful spot I have, in the root zone of a big oak tree whose lowest branches are high enough and far enough away the full afternoon sun hits full force. The combination makes for a spot where not much likes to grow.

I didn’t water or care for it much at all and some plants died but a half dozen or so made all the okra we wanted, and the plants only got about five feet tall or so. I’m wondering if I might select for smaller plants or if there already smaller varieties available. I just did a search, “how tall does okra grow” and the source I clicked said about six feet. HA, it gets much taller than that and it spreads out a lot too. If the rabbits would leave it alone, I’d banish it to outside the small, fenced gardens.

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he gave me the seeds like 5 or 6 years ago and I figured why not :slight_smile: they all sprouted great (i had to get rid of some because i only planned room for 6 plants

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That’s okra (and cowpeas) for you… 110 degrees, 2% humidity, blast furnace winds, and you better be out there picking every other day, at least.2

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Awesome! I love the sound of that desert adaptability!

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Interesting :thinking: I’m trying the Annie Oakley variety from EFN this year. Most everyone grows Clemson spineless around here.

Btw, I’m trying to bring back Joseph’s original muskmelon landrace. He apparently lost it at some point. If I can get enough seed I’ll trade you some for the okra if you’re down.

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Burmese okra is really early and seems to do well in cool climates.
Available at Southern Exposure Seed, Adaptive Seeds, and Quail Seeds.

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That sounds cool. I want to see how my landrace develops this year.

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I’m not an expert on okra, but I’ve grown my share. Just some of the criteria I look for in an okree plant. =)

Bushing versus non bushing trait - Okra picking is a hot, itchy business, and never any fun for those few people very allergic to the Okra sting. Because of this some growers like to grow their okra closely spaced together in a row garden layout. The lower leaves are removed as well as any suckering. This leaves a few nodes at the top with leaves and flowers and very easy to see and easy to harvest okra pods. As the plant grows new nodes on top, the same number of nodes below have the leaves removed to keep up with the upward growth. For this type of grower, selections that do not sucker and want to bush out as much are preferred over those that want to go to bush form. One of the most productive commercial garden varieties is jambalaya but it also has some of the strongest okra stings you can get and have seen some growers who could handle growing and harvesting it one season come down with a bad reaction the next to the point they stop growing that one variety.

Tall versus short growth habit - A shorter growing okra has longer harvest period if using the row garden layout. Once okra gets too tall, you have to bend them over to try and get to the pods which can lead to damage to the plant. That or start pulling out ladders!

Pod length to woodiness - A lot of the short fat okra pod varieties are much more difficult to tell with a quick look at the pods if they are at optimal harvest size or have crossed over and gone to a woody texture. For this reason a lot of growers prefer the longer pod varieties. Selections are usually for those plants that can grow the longest pods before woodiness affects the pods. This is hampered at the end of the season when natural environmental stress tends to make the pods go woody quicker.

End use for pods - Do you want to fry okra? you want a lot of surface area for breading to stick to and shorter fatter pods and pods with spine ridges give more surface area. Do you want to pickle okra? You want smooth pods without spine ridges so you can fit more pods into a jar for pickling and have less wasted space.

Pod color - Not as important if you consider once cooked most colored okra goes green when cooked. But if you want to catch the eye and sell seeds from a Baker Creek catalog then having colored pods will help you sell to someone a bit bored with the standard green varieties.

Based on all the above criteria, I have kept a shorter growing, spined, less powerful sting okra for general use that has one of the longer pod lengths before they go woody, the Burmese variety.

Based on all the above criteria, I have kept a shorter growing, smooth, less powerful sting okra for pickling use that has one of the longer pod lengths before they go woody, the Choppee variety.

Others will have other criteria and varieties that suit their needs better. But if you don’t have a lot of experience in selecting an okra, this might help someone in developing their own selections from their okra landrace/s.

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Lots of good advice in your post.

Due to my location get okra to do much is a challenge for me, which is why I decided to try the landrace project. Last year my plants ranged in production from 0 to 6 pods. The plant that produced 6 pods produced them at the end of our growing season. It may grow very well in California or Texas but not so well here. My selection criteria for now is breeding plants that produce a crop.

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