GET DWARF COWHORN OKRA SEEDS HERE: lazydogfarm.com/products/dwarf-cowhorn-okra-seed 0:00 Intro 0:30 Available Planting Space in Our No-Till Plot 0:57 Adding Drip Tape Before Planting 1:41 Why Do We Need to Plant More Squash? 3:21 Our Favorite Zucchini Variety 4:44 Direct Seeding Squash and Zucchini 5:54 Turmeric Pre-Sprouting Update 6:35 Growing Okra Transplants for Spring 9:59 Planting Okra Transplants on Drip Tape 11:03 Why Is This Variety Perfect for Us?
Had to revisit this video! The more this dwarf cowhorn matures the more I am impressed! The pods are surprising tender far longer theñ one would expect. Talk about more vittles per picking! And producing heavily. Some secrets you just hate getting out but this variety is a keeper.
Really happy with the dwarf bush cowhorn. decent production. pods tender at surprisingly longer length. Good flavor light on the slime. Low growth habit worked well planted out in front of my taller okra varieties.
Growing up, when the okra would start putting on leaves and fruit, my grandmother (granny) would get a switch and whip it, shredding most of the leaves. Within a few days, the fruit started coming in fast.
Just direct sowed some Clempsin Spineless ( sorry Travis) the other day. I dont really like okra in general but the wife and MIL love it so I gotta do what i gotta do. Great video and awesome channel!
With your background in biology and your natural curiosity, I will again encourage you to try crossbreeding the Ruiz Okree with the Dwarf Cowhorn cultivar. Both are OP heirlooms and okree being self-pollinating, the project should be very do-able. Gardening fame and horticultural gratitude await your stable Lazy Dog okree cross.
I have to wonder how many years it would take to stabilize that cross. OP varieties of self pollinating plants are likely to be inbred, so the F1 generation might have predictable characteristics, but seeds saved from those plants would probably be quite variable for many generations.
My dwarf okra seeds will be here tomorrow. I am very excited about trying it. Thanks for the info on adding bleach to the water to soak overnite. I will be doing that.
Good info on this Dwarf Cowhorn Okree - my seeds took forever to germinate in controlled conditions but they all sprouted eventually. I’ll need to remember to soak in dilute bleach as suggested in the future.
I like to soak my okra seeds for about a day or two, or until they begin to show signs of sprouting, and then plant them. Two advantages: it confirms that the seed is viable, and it speeds up germination considerably.
Hey, keep doing okra. I love it. Beats bending over for f'en beans. Might try to get a 3rd variety here. We just have Clemson Spineless and Burgundy on our seed racks. Did like the fact that burgundy was more forgiving before turning to wood. Your dad just did an homage to your grandma on fried okra. I'm good with that. Though fermenting them seen novel for trying with pickles as well. That turmeric is next on the list. Not sure if I can fit it in this year yet. Plus what the point of Zuchinni? Can you just grow it for chickens or hogs? What is the value in it outside everyone on the planet can grow it huge? I guess if you have soy sauce, rice, and need to feed a family - at least they had rice to eat. - Just asking.
I'm trying beans in waist high raised beds this year. No bending over! Also, I find that I keep up better with tasks like weeding in such beds, as I don't care for bending over for weeding, either!
@@bobbun9630 Anyway, that was my analogy of okra to beans. Okra taste like beans. More of a nuttier flavor. There IS something to them for growing. And the South love them. I accept them for what they are and provide. Not a huge crop here like they are in the South. And God Bless those people that have to live and grow in the hot humid $hit that we don't have to. They have an advantage on growing a delicious varieties of watermelons as well.
@@brianczuhai8909 I actually live in the South (though not new Travis and his family). The climate where I live is a little less hot and humid, but it sounds like you still wouldn't enjoy it! I grow both beans and okra (and watermelons!), and don't consider them to taste the same at all. Though I don't roll beans in corn meal and fry them. Maybe the cooking method is what makes the difference!
Some people don't get over the fuzzy outside, slimy snotty inside. I use generic fish fry mix, which sticks to it when I cut it. I'm in Michigan. We may have frost mid May and mid Oct. Our season is short. I hear okra love hot weather and can grow in not so great soil.
@@brianczuhai8909 My growing season isn't that much longer than yours. I'm in the Arkansas Ozarks, right on the boundary between zone six and zone seven, with my average frost dates in mid-April and mid-October. The climate is affected by altitude just a bit, and by being far away from large bodies of water much more, so winter is fairly cold, summer is quite hot, and spring and fall are short. Okra doesn't actually need a long growing season. It can certainly begin producing pods regularly within 45-60 days of planting. What it needs to thrive is heat, though. I will have 80+ temperatures on most days May-September, and 90+ most days in July and August, with 100's sprinkled in. When fried properly, the fuzziness and slime associated with okra should be unnoticeable. Slice the pods thinly, across the grain, roll the slices in pre-seasoned coating (rather than batter coating them like that commercial stuff), and pan fry them in a non-stick pan. All the oil will be soaked up--use a fairly modest amount even if the pan seems dry. You want to coat, not soak. Most of the cooking time should be uncovered so that moisture can escape, and don't be afraid to cook them long enough that they develop just a few blackened spots.
Love your videos man. 1 question for you if you don't mind. What's the advantage of the drip lines versus running a sprinkler system. We are new to the gardening scene and trying to learn all we can here in north FL
Travis, our highs are good for okra but the lows are in the 60's. Is that ok? Zone 6b. I have Jambalaya seeds from you all and this is the first time. I live in KS and my friends love it. So I'm real excited to see how they grow. However I do plant the seeds closer than I should. Vicky
We're in zone 5b/6a, and our nights often go below 60 even in July, so I grow okra and other hot-weather crops (like melons) with a black plastic mulch. It helps keep the soil warm. If plastic concerns you, there are biodegradable black "plastic" mulches made from cornstarch that work just as well and break down after a few months in the sunlight.
Yeah my okra looks so pitiful. Been real slow to take off but I did direct seed. Some reason I have had a hard time getting any real production with my okra.
Hey Travis, in past years I have had some issues with growing Okree in starting trays because they seem to have a long little tap root that snaps easily... if so it seemed to slow them down a bunch. But I see nice root balls there, any particular reason for that? (this year mine are growing in red solo cups with no drain hole and protected from too much water as an experiment)
Sonder... I use the 16 oz red Solo cups as step-up containers for about everything I transplant. Costs about $.06 each and can be re-cycled. But I also melt little drain holes around the bottom edge with a $5.00 soldering iron from Harbor Freight. I provide a lot of tomato seedlings to friends and neighbors and the square nursery containers at $0.45 each are too spendy to not get back.
If you want to sacrifice some of them onion tops to use as mulch around your squash plants it should keep the squash bugs away, at least so far it is with mine. Had the bugs,/eggs, put the onion tops in the buckets now no more squash bugs.
Another tip for thwarting squash bugs, although it sounds a little weird: if you have someone in the family that smokes, mix about a tablespoon's worth of the ashes (not the filters - just the ashes) into the planting soil for each squash or other cucurbit station. In our experience, squash bugs don't like plants grown with tobacco ash in the soil. Cucurbits only - DO NOT do this with tomatoes, potatoes, peppers, eggplant, or other nightshade family members, as it can give tobacco mosaic virus to nightshade family plants.
Travis I have these weird red and black stink bug looking things input in healthy nematodes so don't want to put down diatomaceous earth??? What can I do ?
I’ve been wondering if okra can be interplanted with watermelon. I’m putting in a few watermelon plants to run on the ground and was thinking maybe I could put in a few okra plants among the watermelons. Any thoughts?
I've never tried that, but it seems to me it might work :) Might want to make sure the okra plants are tall enough (when you put them in) that the baby plants won't get shaded out by the fast-growing watermelon vines. One concern I would have, though, is that it might be kind of difficult to get in there to harvest the okra without stepping on the watermelon vines?
From webMD: Okra is rich in vitamins A and C, as well as antioxidants that help reduce the risk of serious health conditions like cancer, diabetes, stroke, and heart disease. Okra is also a good source of: Magnesium Folate Vitamin A Vitamin C Vitamin K Vitamin B6
If the South would have promoted Okra more, it would have won that war. I recognize that's one thing thing the South has over the North is the use and knowledge of Okra. It truly is God's gift. Zuchinni is God's last effort to feed someone, somewhere. Vertuously useless plant. But grows like a M'f'r.
For me, okra is one of those plants that either comes up quickly, or doesn't, without any special treatments. This year my okra came up in 4-5 days with no treatment. Germination rate in that time? No idea. I save seeds so I have far more seeds than I need. I sow thick and thin later. Direct sowing. To be honest, I think your transplants look rather tall and leggy compared to directly sown plants. I fry up some okra every couple of days when it's in season, but I'm only cooking for me so the idea of trying to get more okra per plant seems a little over the top. That may be different for feeding an entire family.
GET DWARF COWHORN OKRA SEEDS HERE: lazydogfarm.com/products/dwarf-cowhorn-okra-seed
0:00 Intro
0:30 Available Planting Space in Our No-Till Plot
0:57 Adding Drip Tape Before Planting
1:41 Why Do We Need to Plant More Squash?
3:21 Our Favorite Zucchini Variety
4:44 Direct Seeding Squash and Zucchini
5:54 Turmeric Pre-Sprouting Update
6:35 Growing Okra Transplants for Spring
9:59 Planting Okra Transplants on Drip Tape
11:03 Why Is This Variety Perfect for Us?
Planted my okra a week ago and got 100% germination rate!! im very excited for this growing season.... Love you videos very informative!!!!
Had to revisit this video! The more this dwarf cowhorn matures the more I am impressed! The pods are surprising tender far longer theñ one would expect. Talk about more vittles per picking! And producing heavily. Some secrets you just hate getting out but this variety is a keeper.
Glad you like it!
My turmeric sprouted closed up in a paper bag in the garage. Good video Travis.
Really happy with the dwarf bush cowhorn. decent production. pods tender at surprisingly longer length. Good flavor light on the slime. Low growth habit worked well planted out in front of my taller okra varieties.
Growing up, when the okra would start putting on leaves and fruit, my grandmother (granny) would get a switch and whip it, shredding most of the leaves. Within a few days, the fruit started coming in fast.
Just direct sowed some Clempsin Spineless ( sorry Travis) the other day. I dont really like okra in general but the wife and MIL love it so I gotta do what i gotta do.
Great video and awesome channel!
CajunB and I already picked 4- 5 gallon buckets and they are only 14 inch tall right now.
With your background in biology and your natural curiosity, I will again encourage you to try crossbreeding the Ruiz Okree with the Dwarf Cowhorn cultivar. Both are OP heirlooms and okree being self-pollinating, the project should be very do-able. Gardening fame and horticultural gratitude await your stable Lazy Dog okree cross.
I have to wonder how many years it would take to stabilize that cross. OP varieties of self pollinating plants are likely to be inbred, so the F1 generation might have predictable characteristics, but seeds saved from those plants would probably be quite variable for many generations.
It'd probably take at least six generations or so.
I like the florida weave for the pepper plants
Thank you for this. I love me some Okra! New to growing it. It’s now a favorite!
Blessings!
Thanks! Great germination tip for okree 🌱
Thanks Melissa!
I cooked some tomatoes and okra tonight it was yummy
My dwarf okra seeds will be here tomorrow. I am very excited about trying it. Thanks for the info on adding bleach to the water to soak overnite. I will be doing that.
I just saw on the web hydrogen peroxide softens the seeds for germination. The bleach kills off your bio-organisms in the soils.
Good info on this Dwarf Cowhorn Okree - my seeds took forever to germinate in controlled conditions but they all sprouted eventually. I’ll need to remember to soak in dilute bleach as suggested in the future.
I like to soak my okra seeds for about a day or two, or until they begin to show signs of sprouting, and then plant them. Two advantages: it confirms that the seed is viable, and it speeds up germination considerably.
much love
Love your videos. We are starting plots and would like to know what brand tiller you use and how you like it.
The one I have is a Grillo. It's an Italian-made tiller that's sold here in the US by a company called Earth Tools. I like it a lot.
Hey, keep doing okra. I love it. Beats bending over for f'en beans. Might try to get a 3rd variety here. We just have Clemson Spineless and Burgundy on our seed racks. Did like the fact that burgundy was more forgiving before turning to wood. Your dad just did an homage to your grandma on fried okra. I'm good with that. Though fermenting them seen novel for trying with pickles as well.
That turmeric is next on the list. Not sure if I can fit it in this year yet.
Plus what the point of Zuchinni? Can you just grow it for chickens or hogs? What is the value in it outside everyone on the planet can grow it huge? I guess if you have soy sauce, rice, and need to feed a family - at least they had rice to eat.
- Just asking.
I'm trying beans in waist high raised beds this year. No bending over! Also, I find that I keep up better with tasks like weeding in such beds, as I don't care for bending over for weeding, either!
@@bobbun9630 Anyway, that was my analogy of okra to beans. Okra taste like beans. More of a nuttier flavor. There IS something to them for growing. And the South love them. I accept them for what they are and provide. Not a huge crop here like they are in the South. And God Bless those people that have to live and grow in the hot humid $hit that we don't have to.
They have an advantage on growing a delicious varieties of watermelons as well.
@@brianczuhai8909 I actually live in the South (though not new Travis and his family). The climate where I live is a little less hot and humid, but it sounds like you still wouldn't enjoy it! I grow both beans and okra (and watermelons!), and don't consider them to taste the same at all. Though I don't roll beans in corn meal and fry them. Maybe the cooking method is what makes the difference!
Some people don't get over the fuzzy outside, slimy snotty inside. I use generic fish fry mix, which sticks to it when I cut it.
I'm in Michigan. We may have frost mid May and mid Oct. Our season is short.
I hear okra love hot weather and can grow in not so great soil.
@@brianczuhai8909 My growing season isn't that much longer than yours. I'm in the Arkansas Ozarks, right on the boundary between zone six and zone seven, with my average frost dates in mid-April and mid-October. The climate is affected by altitude just a bit, and by being far away from large bodies of water much more, so winter is fairly cold, summer is quite hot, and spring and fall are short.
Okra doesn't actually need a long growing season. It can certainly begin producing pods regularly within 45-60 days of planting. What it needs to thrive is heat, though. I will have 80+ temperatures on most days May-September, and 90+ most days in July and August, with 100's sprinkled in.
When fried properly, the fuzziness and slime associated with okra should be unnoticeable. Slice the pods thinly, across the grain, roll the slices in pre-seasoned coating (rather than batter coating them like that commercial stuff), and pan fry them in a non-stick pan. All the oil will be soaked up--use a fairly modest amount even if the pan seems dry. You want to coat, not soak. Most of the cooking time should be uncovered so that moisture can escape, and don't be afraid to cook them long enough that they develop just a few blackened spots.
Hey Travis! There are ants all over our okra. Is that a problem? If so, how do we get rid of them? Thanks.
I get that sometimes too. Spinosad should take care of them.
I started okra, only second time. They all germinated.
Love your videos man. 1 question for you if you don't mind. What's the advantage of the drip lines versus running a sprinkler system. We are new to the gardening scene and trying to learn all we can here in north FL
It keeps water off the leaves which can cause a fungus . Plants should only be watered at the roots.
Travis, our highs are good for okra but the lows are in the 60's. Is that ok? Zone 6b. I have Jambalaya seeds from you all and this is the first time. I live in KS and my friends love it. So I'm real excited to see how they grow. However I do plant the seeds closer than I should. Vicky
We're in zone 5b/6a, and our nights often go below 60 even in July, so I grow okra and other hot-weather crops (like melons) with a black plastic mulch. It helps keep the soil warm. If plastic concerns you, there are biodegradable black "plastic" mulches made from cornstarch that work just as well and break down after a few months in the sunlight.
Yeah my okra looks so pitiful. Been real slow to take off but I did direct seed. Some reason I have had a hard time getting any real production with my okra.
Hey Travis, in past years I have had some issues with growing Okree in starting trays because they seem to have a long little tap root that snaps easily... if so it seemed to slow them down a bunch. But I see nice root balls there, any particular reason for that? (this year mine are growing in red solo cups with no drain hole and protected from too much water as an experiment)
I've never had any issues growing okra transplants. But we do feed ours pretty well once they get going. That helps establish a nice root ball.
Sonder... I use the 16 oz red Solo cups as step-up containers for about everything I transplant. Costs about $.06 each and can be re-cycled. But I also melt little drain holes around the bottom edge with a $5.00 soldering iron from Harbor Freight. I provide a lot of tomato seedlings to friends and neighbors and the square nursery containers at $0.45 each are too spendy to not get back.
If you want to sacrifice some of them onion tops to use as mulch around your squash plants it should keep the squash bugs away, at least so far it is with mine. Had the bugs,/eggs, put the onion tops in the buckets now no more squash bugs.
Another tip for thwarting squash bugs, although it sounds a little weird: if you have someone in the family that smokes, mix about a tablespoon's worth of the ashes (not the filters - just the ashes) into the planting soil for each squash or other cucurbit station. In our experience, squash bugs don't like plants grown with tobacco ash in the soil. Cucurbits only - DO NOT do this with tomatoes, potatoes, peppers, eggplant, or other nightshade family members, as it can give tobacco mosaic virus to nightshade family plants.
Do you think I could use slices of a cut onion instead? I'm having terrible problems with squash bugs and cuke beatles!
Travis I have these weird red and black stink bug looking things input in healthy nematodes so don't want to put down diatomaceous earth??? What can I do ?
I’ve been wondering if okra can be interplanted with watermelon. I’m putting in a few watermelon plants to run on the ground and was thinking maybe I could put in a few okra plants among the watermelons. Any thoughts?
I've never tried that, but it seems to me it might work :) Might want to make sure the okra plants are tall enough (when you put them in) that the baby plants won't get shaded out by the fast-growing watermelon vines. One concern I would have, though, is that it might be kind of difficult to get in there to harvest the okra without stepping on the watermelon vines?
So I planted my okree on May 3 but it is still only about 4 inches tall. I am in 7b and wondering why it’s not taking off like the rest of my garden?
Not hot enough yet.
Do you not have issues with your squash and zucchini cross-pollinating? I have had that happen and so try to separate them.
Cross-pollination is only a concern if you're saving the seeds to replant. It won't affect the fruits themselves.
@@LazyDogFarm I do not plant mine near each other because I did once, they cross-pollinated and had a zuccsquash...not really that good.
Using bleach sounds harsh, I use 3% Hydrogen Peroxide and it works wonders especially for bigger seeds like zucchini.
Do you ever transplant squash and zucchini? Or cucumbers?
I have transplanted cukes, but I'm back to direct-seeding this year. All the commercial farmers around here transplant squash, zucchini, and cukes.
I have never liked okra and give you credit for growing and eating the slimy things.
From webMD: Okra is rich in vitamins A and C, as well as antioxidants that help reduce the risk of serious health conditions like cancer, diabetes, stroke, and heart disease.
Okra is also a good source of:
Magnesium
Folate
Vitamin A
Vitamin C
Vitamin K
Vitamin B6
If the South would have promoted Okra more, it would have won that war. I recognize that's one thing thing the South has over the North is the use and knowledge of Okra. It truly is God's gift.
Zuchinni is God's last effort to feed someone, somewhere. Vertuously useless plant. But grows like a M'f'r.
💪🏽
For me, okra is one of those plants that either comes up quickly, or doesn't, without any special treatments. This year my okra came up in 4-5 days with no treatment. Germination rate in that time? No idea. I save seeds so I have far more seeds than I need. I sow thick and thin later. Direct sowing. To be honest, I think your transplants look rather tall and leggy compared to directly sown plants.
I fry up some okra every couple of days when it's in season, but I'm only cooking for me so the idea of trying to get more okra per plant seems a little over the top. That may be different for feeding an entire family.
Those transplants should have been planted a week or two ago. They were starting to get a little leggy.
Okra is a four-letter word if my math is correct.
Yep. Okre
L.O.V.E.
God's
Gift
Nobody wants to know how to grow okra