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Post by pepperhead212 on Jun 27, 2020 12:38:44 GMT -5
Harvested my first okra today - 5 of the Little Lucy ones. I left the first 2 on one, and the first one on another, since they were the first, and those plants were the largest two, so I figured I'd save the seeds from those, since there are no flowers on the Emerald yet. They are all at least 8", so I'll have a lot of seeds!
That Emerald has recovered well, and has flower buds, but LL is still way ahead. Pretty soon, I'm going to have more than I know what to do with them, having 50% more than last year!
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Post by bestofour on Jun 29, 2020 21:15:42 GMT -5
Jealous. Mine is not near ready to produce.
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Post by brownrexx on Jun 30, 2020 6:14:07 GMT -5
My LL popped out one pod which I didn't even see coming. The plants are still small but they are supposed to be a dwarf after all.
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lisaann
Junior Member
Posts: 76 
Joined: June 2016
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Post by lisaann on Jun 30, 2020 17:24:21 GMT -5
I never even saw a flower on my little lucy but I had pods on all 4. I broke them off and gave them a pitch and now the plants are actually starting to grow better. That chilly spring reeked havac on okra and peppers here. I never had a killing frost, just chilly weather, that stunted them.
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Deleted
Posts: 0
Joined: January 1970
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Post by Deleted on Jul 2, 2020 10:36:38 GMT -5
cold late Spring here too; Okra only ten inches high but growing.
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Post by pepperhead212 on Jul 2, 2020 11:06:19 GMT -5
Just picked 6 more LL this morning, and saw a good number of open flowers on them. And I saw the first open flower on an Emerald!
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Post by pepperhead212 on Jul 3, 2020 19:28:38 GMT -5
I got an idea yesterday, that worked out great - thaw some of last year's okra, and dehydrate it. I have tried dehydrated okra before, but it didn't work out; I've eaten store- bought dried okra that was good, but it was fried, and heavily salted. But since this was cooked briefly when blanching it, I thought that maybe it would be good, and it was! However, it took a while to wash the slime off, and actually, I didn't get it all off, and I put the only rack on the bottom, but it didn't seem to drip a lot on the floor of the dehydrator. I might do this with the rest of my frozen okra, once I start getting so much that I have to start freezing it again. And maybe I can simply blanch it, then dry it - much better than thawing and rinsing! The rack was pretty much filled, before the shrinking!  Dried okra, from frozen okra. by pepperhead212, on Flickr  About 3/4 c of dried okra, originally filled the pint container to the top. by pepperhead212, on Flickr |
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lisaann
Junior Member
Posts: 76
Joined: June 2016
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Post by lisaann on Jul 4, 2020 17:12:01 GMT -5
pepperhead212,
You need another hobby. hahhaha I know what ya mean though. we hate to throw away anything. |
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Post by pepperhead212 on Jul 4, 2020 20:30:10 GMT -5
lisaann I have also done this with red Thai peppers, which is what gave me the idea. I was looking for some of my other frozen peppers, in Foodsaver packs, and saw the Thai peppers, and thought about doing this with the peppers, and this idea popped in my head!
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Post by bestofour on Jul 6, 2020 20:51:50 GMT -5
I never even saw a flower on my little lucy but I had pods on all 4. I broke them off and gave them a pitch and now the plants are actually starting to grow better. That chilly spring reeked havac on okra and peppers here. I never had a killing frost, just chilly weather, that stunted them. That happened to me last year, didn't have flowers but did have pods. This year on one plant I have 4 pods haven't seen a flower, on another plant there's one gigantic flower but no pod forming yet. It is weird. |
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Post by pepperhead212 on Jul 6, 2020 21:01:10 GMT -5
I picked 2 of my Little Lucy okra pods, about 8 inches long, that I let grow out for seeds. They had gotten woody, and I didn't want them to get soaked in that rain today! Still two more out there, but they have to be left a little longer. Both are on the tallest plants, and there were no Emerald flowers, when these were set, so no crossing.  2 of my saved Little Lucy pods, that I let almost dry on one plant, and picked these today, so they would be dry. by pepperhead212, on Flickr |
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Post by Laura_in_FL on Jul 7, 2020 10:58:16 GMT -5
Have you saved and grown seeds from that pods at that stage of maturity before? I have always waited for the pods to completely dry and start to crack before harvesting pods for seeds.
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Post by pepperhead212 on Jul 7, 2020 12:01:09 GMT -5
Laura_in_FL This is what I did before - let them grow a few weeks from when they first appeared, then when they get more or less hard and woody, I cut them off, then let them dry the rest of the way inside. They stopped growing at least 2 weeks previously, so I assume the seeds are well developed. The ones in the other EB are ones I missed, a couple weeks later, which is why I left those - they just stopped getting longer maybe a week ago, so I'll let them develop a little more. With the Emerald, I'll have to isolate the blossoms I'll save the seeds from, since both will be blossoming by that time - I saved these LL pods since the Emerald was behind, and had no flowers. Last year I had a question about whether okra was one of those plants that stops flowering if the pods were left to totally mature on them, but others hadn't seen this happen, which was good to hear. And the ones that I left on to totally mature, definitely haven't even slowed down the flowering on those plants! I have over a half pound of okra I have to use soon.
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Post by brownrexx on Jul 7, 2020 14:34:33 GMT -5
When I saved seeds last year I let the pods dry on the plant at the end of the season and I took them from the shortest plants. Laura_in_FL, these would be the seeds that I sent to you. Little Lucy is supposed to be a dwarf and I got my original seeds from Hairymooseknuckles. He said that they were F4 and I saved them for 2 years so I guess that they are F6? I did notice that my plants seemed small this year and I thought that there was something wrong with them but they started producing pods even though they were small so maybe I am seeing that dwarf characteristic. |
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Post by september on Jul 7, 2020 16:29:07 GMT -5
I think you just did a good job selecting for the dwarf characteristic! Mine definitely seem short to be producing pods, but I'm not complaining, I hope they stay short. All six seem very uniform in size. I seem to remember someone in an earlier thread (HairyMoose?)saying that later generations were not as short as the original hybrid. Hopefully you have re-captured the original characteristic. I'm curious what generation the saved seeds are by now, anyone know?
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Post by pepperhead212 on Jul 7, 2020 22:32:06 GMT -5
All but one of my LL plants last year (seeds from brownrexx) were quite large - only one shorter, but sill 4' tall, and I thought that was due to shading behind the largest. One is like that again this year, a shaded one. If it's a small one I'll save seeds from that, for anyone that wants it, but, like last season, I saved the largest, though it's hard to tell early. I want the most productive, when I do selection! |
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Post by brownrexx on Jul 8, 2020 7:00:14 GMT -5
I'm curious what generation the saved seeds are by now, anyone know? Hairymoose said that he had sent me F4 and I saved seeds for the past 2 years so I guess that these are F7? We will all have to compare notes on height later in the season. Interestingly last year I wanted to read their descriptions online and absolutely no one had and LL seeds for sale. I have grown 3-4 different varieties of okra and I like these best because the pods seem to stay more tender than others I have grown and they are not stringy even when the pods get large. |
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Post by pepperhead212 on Jul 8, 2020 8:10:36 GMT -5
brownrexx This, and emerald, definitely are the two best I've found for staying tender, when a little oversized. I try to pick them around or before 4" (many are fibrous by this size), but even at 6" I've never had them getting tough. And both are also the branching kind - some grow straight up, and a number of them haven't started branching, after I topped them - they just stopped growing! I've never seen LL anywhere else, either, and I've grown a number of other purple okra, which were nothing like it, and not keepers, for me.
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Post by Laura_in_FL on Jul 9, 2020 10:30:22 GMT -5
Mine are over 4' tall so far, after allowing for the height of the Earthbox.
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Post by pepperhead212 on Jul 9, 2020 11:17:55 GMT -5
Harvested my first Emerald yesterday! It was at least 6", so I don't know how I missed it for so long, but it was not at all fibrous, when I cut it up for that curry last night.
Those LL are just over 3', and all but one are growing fast. One of those things I will have to check every morning now - they are in the shade early!
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lisaann
Junior Member
Posts: 76
Joined: June 2016
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Post by lisaann on Jul 11, 2020 15:58:58 GMT -5
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Deleted
Posts: 0
Joined: January 1970
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Post by Deleted on Jul 11, 2020 20:13:39 GMT -5
On saving seed: It is my understanding that vegetables do not have to be mature to have viable seeds--in theory you could pull a green okra pod, take out the seed, dry them yourself and get a crop from them.
I see no reason to do this when it is so easy to let them dry on the stalk. I usually take them when the pod first begins to crack, hang them in a mesh sack until they are bone dry, then take the seed.
Cold wet Spring here; okra about a foot high, at least one plant blooming. One end of the patch is poor ground and nothing good there.
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Post by pepperhead212 on Jul 20, 2020 11:46:50 GMT -5
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Post by pepperhead212 on Jul 20, 2020 18:51:49 GMT -5
Today I did an experiment with several days worth of okra - I cut both ends off, then them in half, and steamed them for 3 minutes, then cooled them by rinsing. Then I put them on two dehydrator racks, and put them in there with 2 racks of eggplant chunks, plus those Peachy keen tomatoes.
I've tried drying raw okra, but it didn't really taste very good, but I rinsed a couple of pints of thawed okra off, and dried that, and it was delicious. Since that was blanched, I figured that was what made it good. I might get the rest out of the freezer, and do that with the rest, to make room for the fresh, from this year.
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Post by pepperhead212 on Aug 5, 2020 17:04:20 GMT -5
My okra is at what may be a permanent "lean", after that tropical storm went through yesterday, but none of them were snapped, fortunately. They were leaning at about a 45° angle, during the worst part of the storm. Flowering as usual this morning! Here are my saved Little Lucy seeds, from 5 pods which I let grow, before Emerald was even close to blooming, so there was no chance of crossing. In case anybody needs some for next season.  My saved Little Lucy seeds, from pods before Emerald blossomed. by pepperhead212, on Flickr |
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Post by bestofour on Aug 5, 2020 21:47:57 GMT -5
Knocking mine around a little bit seems to have helped. I probably won’t have enough to freeze but we’ve got some to eat.
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Post by brownrexx on Sept 16, 2020 11:21:12 GMT -5
I can't remember which thread it was on but Laura_in_FL, said that her Little Lucy okra were 7 feet tall so I took a picture of mine yesterday. Isn't it interesting how hybrids can lead to different looking progeny? Little Lucy is a hybrid that was originally developed to be a dwarf suited to pots. I received the seeds from hairymooseknuckles in TX 3 years ago and I have grown them and saved my own seeds each year. I always save seeds from the smallest plant but look at the tall one that grew this year. You can see the one with the large pods is where I am saving seeds this year. It was the plant that branched the most. If anyone would like some seeds, please let me know and I will send you some.  Little Lucy - 2020 by Brownrexx, on Flickr |
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Post by pepperhead212 on Sept 16, 2020 11:56:53 GMT -5
Out of curiosity, I measured the tallest of my okras - one of about 4 the same height - and it was 79". Only a few of them are short - about 40" - and they are in the back row, so I assume that they are that way because of the shading out by the front plants - same with the Emerald.
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Post by brownrexx on Sept 16, 2020 12:39:32 GMT -5
OK, I got out the tape measure and the plant with the pods is 40" and the tall one is 58". You guys must be feeding yours too well pepperhead212 , and Laura_in_FL , Mine look a little spindly right now because they have dropped some leaves but they each produced 1-3 pods each per day. I am happy with both the size, production and flavor of these plants. |
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Post by Laura_in_FL on Sept 16, 2020 13:13:38 GMT -5
Some of mine got well over 7' before I cut them back. A few of them stayed short. All of my plants are about 3.5' tall now, whether they want to be or not.  And yes, growing them in the Earthbox they were very well-fed. They restarted blooming a couple of weeks ago, but are still not setting pods. Like I said earlier, this is strange to me because every other time I have grown okra, almost every flower has set a pod without any intervention on my part. And that includes when I grew Little Lucy before. I see some bees in my yard - they are on the weeds. But they really don't seem to like my okra this year, which is weird. Maybe they just like the weeds much, much more? (Especially this low-growing stuff which I think is chickweed.) But yes, I would like seeds from your short, productive plant. Thank you! Is there anything I can send you in trade? (I am not an organic gardener, but some of my seeds are certified organic vendor seeds.) EDIT: I had thought (and had said) that all of my Little Lucy plants were tall. But when I went to cut them back I found that some of them had stayed short. I don't know if they were out-competed by their taller neighbors or were genetically inclined to stay short. |
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And yes, growing them in the Earthbox they were very well-fed.