Corn and okra
 

We?re starting to plan our spring garden and thinking about trying some corn and okra this year. I can get about 75? rows in my front yard. I was thinking of doing one row of corn, one of okra, and another row my cousin and I will split for assorted peppers to pickle, make chow chow, and whatever else. I?m keeping my raised bed for my other vegetables. The square foot garden has worked great for us.

My questions are:
1. What variety of corn and okra would y?all recommend?
2. How much yield can I expect with a 75? row of each?
3. When do I plant?
4. Do I start with seeds directly in the ground, or transplants?

I really like long horn okra I really cant tell ya the variety cause I been having the seeds for ever. They are longer paler and less slimy than the others and the great thing about okra is it will bare through the summer heat on into fall and keep baring till the frost gets it. Also remember it is very difficult to transplant okra ya have far better luck planting seeds. The great thing about where we live okra has a very very long season.

Okra does not do well in cooler temps and will produce until late in the summer when all other plants are dying from the heat. So the later the better. You can plant corn as early as the end of February and as late as March. Plant too early and you could lose everything to a frost. Plant too late and you will have more problems with bugs and diseases. Also note that the corn will tower other anything planted next to it. So give it plenty of room.

March 15th is the historic date in S La to plant summer crops

Don't you have to plant corn in 2 rows to allow for pollination? For some reason I thought I remembered hearing that a single row wouldn't produce but I can't recall the source.


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That's something I'll have to look into as well. If so, I can plant 2 half rows for pollination.

You can plant 1 row but better to plant 2 half rows . Next year swap them out . I used to plant funky g-90 . A white and yellow mix and just put in zip bags and freeze . Probly be even better in vacum seal . My first 2 years with corn was great . Then got ear worms . The next year they started falling over , worms in the stalk . Over the counter sprays just wouldn't work so I quit growing corn . I think you can get better spray these days .

I plant Sweet G-90 corn, probably the same as mentioned above. I also use okra seed from the year before. It is a dwarf that really bears well. Sorry I don't know the variety. If you could plant three short rows of corn with okra and your other plants on the rest of the rows you should get better pollination.

Thanks guys. Where do you get the g-90 seeds from? Order them online or pick them up locally?

It is pretty popular. Feed stores that carry plants and seeds might have it.

Well I finally found the time to get in the yard and get my garden going. It seems every time I had the weekend off, it was either raining or had just finished raining. The spring time weather we got last week dried up the yard enough for me to get in there with the tractor. We got the corn, okra, snap beans, tomatoes, squash, zucchini, eggplant, and some lettuce and cabbage in the ground. My peppers are being hardened off and will be ready to go in the ground next week.

G 90 does well for us. I till then hip my rows, starting off low then as the corn grows hip it again as needed until the tractor can't pass. You will want to go multiple rows for best results. We filled up the back of a pick up truck one year.

Here are a few pictures

Our corn is looking good. The tomatoes are starting to take off along with the snap beans and potatoes.. My okra is growing extremely slow and some of the squash and zucchini are looking rough.

Anybody else struggling with cucumbers this year? I?m struggling with them for some reason. I?m down to 3 plants out of 16.

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Cukes can't take cold or really cool nights . Seems every week we had warm weather then a front comes thru with couple cool cold nights and the cukes turn yellow . Zukes don't care much for cool either. I've picked a few but they catching heck with the cool nights. I added calcium this year and it's the first time in 3 or 4 years they not rotting . My father nlaw used to grow okra and never planted till mid may .

I may have to look into the calcium. The yellow squash that I planted in my raised bed in late February has a ton of small squash that keep falling off. We haven't gotten one mature squash off of the plant yet. I did side dress with 10-10-10 a few weeks ago. The plant is big and beautiful, but not bearing to maturity.

Mine was the same and I looked in to it and everything pointed to calcium . But you also need the nitrogen for the calcium to be absorbed . And I never had this problem till I started growing in my raised bed.