Heavy Hitter appears to offer everything Clemson Spineless does plus more of and bigger.
Seller Description
Heavy Hitter Okra seeds. This is a very prolific okra that remains tender up to about 6 inches. From 13 plants last year we canned approximately 35 pints of pickled, froze 10 quarts for frying, dehydrated some and ate quite a bit.
The package only contains 20 seeds but that is okay for a trial. If 75% germinate that will be plenty.
I am going to have to try some of that @Auburn.
Sounds ideal.
How was the dehydrated okra ? Never tried that.
You got a recipe ? Seasonings used ?
Did it turn out crunchy ?
I have a very nice dehydratorā¦
Got my order of seeds in. Includes red okra, purple mustard, black mustard, black carrots, purple kohlrabi and chocolate cherry tomatoes. Etc.
I have a cheap dehydrator and I will probably upgrade later. I saw an interesting video where they cut off both ends of the okra pod and dehydrated until it was crunchy. If they taste good this would make a good low carb snack.
Iāve grown Heavy Hitter a couple of times in the last 10 years. Plant in hills 5 feet apart, the plants grow MASSIVE. Put down 4 seed so close together they are touching in well tilled soil. Step on the seed lightly, just enough to establish capillarity with the soil. Cover with very loose soil or seed start mix about 1/2 inch deep. Okra is not a very strong germinator and can be trapped beneath a soil crust. Putting 4 to 8 seed in a single hill helps because multiple seed can break the crust. Plant the seed about the 1st week of May for your location. Earlier planting often is stunted by cold weather. When the plants are about a foot tall, thin to 2 plants per hill. Heavy Hitter is also a heavy feeder. Give it a tablespoon of 13-13-13 every month to maintain growth and production. I have very few problems with pests on okra, but occasionally fire ants will invade the pods and chew out the seed. Keep fire ants down with pesticide.
Thanks
I dehydrate all the okra. I eat it like chips. salt, pepper and a little chili and garlic powder, a dab of olive oil. then dehydrated completely until crisp. I leave the ends on, each one whole, but you could remove them.
Heavy Hitter is really starting to grow now (12-15ā high) and it is starting to fruit. Itās a little early for me to determine how well I will like the variety and I could be wrong but it looks to me like it has several more fruit buds forming than other varieties. I havenāt fertilized these plants and they donāt appear to need any. They are spaced 3ā apart and look to me like the 5ā suggested above would be better. I donāt think it will be long before I can cut enough to cook.
My name is Ron Cook. I live on a small farm in Northeastern Oklahoma, where Iāve been working steadily over the past several decades on improving āHeavy Hitter Okraā the name that I gave to the new strain that I developed here on our certified organic farm. There are many āknock-offsā out there, sold by people of questionable character, all of them pedaling what they claim to be āHeavy Hitterā okra seeds, so be careful who you buy your seeds from. Research the sellers, and ask them personal questions to verify their seedsā origins and the required one mile of seclusion from other okra varieties in order to keep these seeds pure. Iāve been selling seeds from my personal selections since 2011. I can be contacted at heavyhitterokra@gmail.com
There are no other authorized purveyors of this seed other than Baker Creek Rare Seeds. They have been buying seeds from my okra patch for 5 years running. In fact, Heavy Hitter Okra was Baker Creekās #1 seller in 2019 warranting our farm much appreciated and sizeable recognition for the decades of concentrated effort weāve made to bring this seed to market. This reply is not a solicitation, itās just a note of appreciation to all of you who have supported this variety over the years.
Thank you,
Ron Cook
Dry Creek Farm
Tahlequah, Oklahoma
For anyone interested, Ron hangs out on https://seedsavingnetwork.proboards.com/ quite a bit and also has a website at https://www.heavyhitterokra.com/
He sent me some seed 6 or 8 years ago which is why I knew for sure I had the original.
