@resonanteye
I got soil blockers for xmas and gave them a shot on sunflowers this year. Think I need to just follow the mix recipie it came with. Old seeds in combo with heavy/wet dirt and I got nothing from that.
Well, I got a learning experience.
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Is this the place to ask about okra? I desperately want more than two plants this year. That is as many as I had last year! I got two whole okra (of which one I saved for seed.)
I had two come up this year, but in the past couple days they died off.
So I paper towel sprouted some more and just put the sprouted seed into 4" pots this morning.
I’m thinking I will try planting them in ground in my greenhouse.
Comments, tips, suggestions?
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Best just to plant okra in the ground, they seem to be more of a warmer climate crop, but I’ve had decent success with them here. I grew Emerald a couple years ago, they did really well, plants got over 4ft and were prolific.
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The 1 acre market farm two houses down is growing okra right now. Loves the heat (low to mid 90s since they planted it), loves water, loves being fed.
I started my roselle and cranberry hibiscus (related to okra) in 18 cell trays and got pretty good germination. Think the big thing for the hibiscus/mallow plants is heat.
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Okra grows well here for me in 6B southern Indiana. But we do get a fair amount of hot days and lots of sun in summer. Okra does great with just planting the seeds right in the ground. I plant several in a hill and thin them to a couple of plants per hill after they are up growing well.
I do fertilize with granular tomato fertilizer just because that is what I have available mixed into the soil at time of planting and might throw a shot of liquid Miracle Grow on them once they are up and growing. Then I stand back and watch them shoot up. I don’t fertilize after that initial fertilization, but I do water if there hasn’t been much rain. I think they would live just fine without the watering, but I think adequate water produces better and more pods.
I am pretty tall for a woman and I often can’t reach the top of the plant to cut the pods off without bending it over. I save my seeds, but I really need to find a shorter variety.
As said in this thread, I think the big key to this plant is hot weather and sun with adequate water. Therefore, I think planting it in a greenhouse in the ground might help in areas that have cooler summers. Every greenhouse I have ever been in has felt like a sauna to me, which seems to be what okra loves.
Sandra
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No pics but I finished putting in my purple tomatillos today! I have some tomatoes left and then there is the peppers. Probably pots for them.
Only two eggplant came up and they are tiny so may or may not try reseeding those.
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I usually do a nightly round to check for bugs. I’ve noticed a couple of plants, about eight, have been growing weirdly. Well, after looking at photos of tomato diseases, it seems these plants have tomato spotted wilt virus. My tomatoes look exactly like these photos. I have noticed and removed thrips in the night. It’s unfortunate because a couple of them have nicely sized fruit.
Going to be removing them tomorrow after work. I’m thinking I might go to a local nursery (or a big box store) to see if they have any hybrid tomatoes to fill in the empty areas. Or should I avoid planting in the same spot? It seems the virus spreads by an insect.
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85F today. everything has been slow or stunted as the nights were in the 40s until now. cool rainy days.
I’m hoping things take off as it warms up. I put everything out
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I’m up to about 210 total pepper and tomato plants in the garden. I still need to put in about 150 more to get all the varieties I started as seed set out. 66 varieties are in the garden, maybe 30 more tomato varieties to go and about 14 more pepper varieties.
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Such a bummer. I’m removing more plants. Tomato spotted wilt virus spreads quickly by thrips. I sprayed with neem oil a couple of days ago. Will do another round tonight. I’ve never dealt with this before: aphids, whiteflies, spider mites, and powdery mildew but not thrips. Every year I have to keep on learning about a new threat.
I really need to plant my second round of tomatoes.
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Moskvich and Rutgers tomatoes are taking their sweet time. I want some tomatoes. 
I have planted the second round of tomatoes. Final round later in the month. This is the first year where I planted tomatoes in stages. I’m not sure why I did this. I’m pretty sure the last round won’t set fruit during the hottest month of August or September. We’ll see.
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Have some super 100 cherry tomato’s growing. They are about five foot tall and just now flowering, but only at the top. Should I cut off the lower branches or will they flower later?
Are you talking about lower branches or leaves? If branches that develop at each leaf junction, those will flower when they get long enough. Since this is an indeterminate vine, I plant similar varieties fairly close together and remove all side branches. If you provide enough space for the plant, you can allow some side branches to grow.
I’m curious if anyone leaves a leaf above each fruit cluster for indeterminate tomatoes? I go pretty severe and don’t. But, I also leave most suckers letting the plants grow out big, something I know commercial and big growers don’t do.
H2J Meteor with one fruit so far. Staked it up because it was starting to fall over.
Mocha Swirl doing very well.
Two very tall peppers where the labels got washed away.
Peppers are gearing up for a good July, August and September. The Mattpenos are flowering, the Bells have like 4 peppers each, the Jalepenos are loaded with fully ripe ones. I had to cut back my serranos though because they were getting a mold on the peppers.
Roma tomatoes are on their way out. The Midnight Snack seedling, Everglades and Clackamas are in. 42 day and some other cherries are on deck in seed trays.
Casper Eggplant has been very good. I only have two plants but I have had over 10 fruit of it.
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I have had a couple of tobacco hornworms this season. There was a few on some generic Cherries (which were dying/struggling anyways) but the majority were on my Dwarf Tamarillo (Solanum/Cyphomandra abutiloides). Not sure if they targeted it or if they crawled over from the tomato plant leaning on it. I am assuming its because the leaves are so big, but they didn’t strip it bare like they do to a tomato or pepper. Maybe the arboral solanums will make good trap/hosts for the hornworms and help spare my tomatoes.
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I don’t think you’re likely to get less of an undesirable organism by providing it food and habitat.
Planted my second round of tomatoes a bit ago, and now they are flowering, some have fruit. I finally went with it and kept every plant single stemmed. I tried to do it in other years, but I always left them at two or three stems. This year, with thrips being such a nuisance (and planting so close), I had to single stem. I had labels for every single one; alas, the wooden sticks have faded, disappeared into the soil. Another year of surprises. I am excited for Green Giant tomatoes! I have never tried a ripened green one before.
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