Okra doesn’t require a lot of maintenance. When it is small, you need to keep the area around the plants clear. Because okra doesn’t do much until it gets hot, it’s easy for weeds and grass to block it out, inhibiting its growth. Okra is a heavy feeder, so it’s a good idea to use a balanced fertilizer like 10-10-10. This should work well for you if you haven’t use the field for many years and rotate your crops. However, I noticed a diminished crop over time, and then it got to the point where my okra was producing almost no pods. What I discovered was okra requires a lot of phosphorous (phosphate), and the regular 10-10-10 fertilizer was not producing enough. Phosphorous is the middle number in the fertilizer grade. So, I needed something with a large middle number. The product I decided to use was Fish Bone Meal, which had a grade of 3-16-0. When I started using it, my okra production skyrocketed. We gave a lot away. We ate it all the time. We upgraded our freezer to a larger one and filled it. It took us two years to eat it all. Some people ‘harvest’ their okra. Others ‘pick’ it. Around here, we ‘cut’ it. I like to cut mine when the pods are 2-3 inches long and very tender. Red okra can go a little larger, around 4 inches. Your plants will produce more pods this way, and they will all be good. It will also allow you to catch most of the ones you miss before they become too big to be edible because you will miss some. Okra is very good at hiding. I will usually make two passes down each row, and even then, I will find some I missed previously. Here’s a picture of two pods at a size where they are both very tender. The top one is the Star of David variety, which grows more plump. The bottom one is a Clemson Spineless.
