I harvested some okra. Two pods were dried (grey), two pods had black seeds and two pods had white/green seeds (see photo).
Are the white/green ones still viable? Or do they have to turn black before harvesting to be viable?
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White/green are not viable.
I have played around with trying to “ripen” and grow immature okra seed and have never had any luck. Even with seeds that were past the white stage and more yellow/tan colored (like the two near the center of the photo) they just aren’t viable in my experience.
Although it might be interesting to plant hundreds of seeds and see if you can find the one that will grow. I’m going to try that with the corn I picked immature this year.
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That’s what I figured. Thank you for confirming!
Other than being - little smaller than the ones with the black seeds, they didn’t look that different. Any advice on how to tell they have matured enough other than leaving them on the plant to dry? It doesn’t seem to be affecting the plant producing more pods to have dried pods on it like it does with other plants.
I just let them stay on the plant until they dry enough to crack but not split open. Mine still continue to produce lots of new pods.
I’m sure it does reduce productivity at least until the seeds have reached the minimal point of viability just due to the plant still putting energy into that pod/those seeds. But as long as it is a healthy plant I don’t think it is going to be enough to cause a noticable effect.
Viability doesn’t come suddenly, but at what stage it actually comes is a little harder to define. I had some olive coloured (not very dark) seeds and those were fine. I do wonder if there are varieties that break the rule like with so many species and have normally white seeds. That said, mainly would look for dark seeds, but if you have the habbit of oversowing then mixing anything is just fine. Just consider it when sowing. To save seeds just wait as long as you can or when they look like in the pictures above. Although they don’t take that long to ripen compared to many other species. My season doesn’t allow me to ripen them long on the plant, but it seems it only takes a few weeks for them to be ripe (and dark). So just a little patience.