Okra 2024

[GoDawgs]

Woo hoo! I got FOUR more okra pods today.

Well, it's four I didn't have before so they're cut up and on a very small tray in the freezer. LOL!

[JRinPA]

I picked 12 or 13 that I planned to pick yesterday but didn't make it over. Cooked them all as soon as I got home.

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They look like they are on the way out. I don't THINK anyone sprayed any type of weedkiller inside the garden. I think they got beat to death by the wind, and also, that is floodiest area so 4" of rain in 4 days. Just those last 3 plants affected, but those are the least wind protected...

[karstopography]

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The okra is really picking up steam now that the ants, with my help, are mostly gone.

Plenty of side branches flowering adding to the bounty.

[JRinPA]

I am always surprised by the amount of shade on your okra bed area.

[karstopography]

I am always surprised by the amount of shade on your okra bed area.

It is 8 am when the photos taken. Sunrise here at 6:53 am. Hurricane Beryl knocked out several trees to the east so all the beds get better morning light now. These beds will get hammered by the sun in a couple of hours and throughout most of the day.

I do believe at this latitude some leafy filtering of the light is a good thing for most of the crops. The hurricane thinned out the canopy just enough, but thankfully not completely.

[karstopography]

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Same beds about 30 minutes later, 8:35 am.

The eastern wall of trees filtering the light shown is pretty porous to sunlight now. One whole row of trees was removed during the hurricane.

[JRinPA]

Got it.
I end up making my own shade the last few years, for my okra. Too many tall rows, adjacent.

[karstopography]

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Okra pickings this morning.

Roasted okra this evening.

Going to stuff a few or more than a few of those peppers also with cream cheese and cheddar and wrap them in bacon for some poppers.

[worth1]

The curved one looks like fire ant damage.

[karstopography]

The curved one looks like fire ant damage.

I had fire ants something terrible, but I went around the base of the plants with a weak pyrethroid spray and the ants have since departed. The ants were eating into the pods, the flowers, the buds and in the one 4’x 8’ bed I was getting zero okra. Never had the fire ants taken over the okra like that and done so much damage to the flowers and pods. I hate to spray stuff, but I wanted a quick solution to the problem. I guess the spray didn’t do much to the other bugs on the okra as I have a giant one legged grasshopper hanging out on top. He’s been eating my peppers in the adjacent bed, but likes to perch on the tall okra. The grasshopper is too fast for me to catch and I’m only a little motivated to catch him since he’s been eating mostly the little Aleppo peppers I have more of than I care about. He did eat into a bell pepper and I that keeps up I might get a little faster.

[worth1]

Yeah the fire ants are me alive down there.
They infest everything up here too.

[JRinPA]

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Got a nice haul tonight. Forgot it yesterday, figured I better get it now in the dark rather than forget tomorrow. Good thing I did, a bunch are maxed out and might have had hard noses by tomorrow noon. As is, these are all good and not woody yet.

[Shule]

The curved one looks like fire ant damage.

I had fire ants something terrible, but I went around the base of the plants with a weak pyrethroid spray and the ants have since departed. The ants were eating into the pods, the flowers, the buds and in the one 4’x 8’ bed I was getting zero okra. Never had the fire ants taken over the okra like that and done so much damage to the flowers and pods. I hate to spray stuff, but I wanted a quick solution to the problem. I guess the spray didn’t do much to the other bugs on the okra as I have a giant one legged grasshopper hanging out on top. He’s been eating my peppers in the adjacent bed, but likes to perch on the tall okra. The grasshopper is too fast for me to catch and I’m only a little motivated to catch him since he’s been eating mostly the little Aleppo peppers I have more of than I care about. He did eat into a bell pepper and I that keeps up I might get a little faster.

Your grasshoppers eat fruit? That's fascinating. Our two-striped grapphoppers usually just eat leaves (whether fresh or dry). However, I poured out some old canned unripe tomatoes I had experimented with once (I don't recommend doing that), and a grasshopper jumped on the wet dirt and started sucking on it like it was the best thing in the world. So, they seem to like cooked unripe tomato juice.

[karstopography]

The curved one looks like fire ant damage.

I had fire ants something terrible, but I went around the base of the plants with a weak pyrethroid spray and the ants have since departed. The ants were eating into the pods, the flowers, the buds and in the one 4’x 8’ bed I was getting zero okra. Never had the fire ants taken over the okra like that and done so much damage to the flowers and pods. I hate to spray stuff, but I wanted a quick solution to the problem. I guess the spray didn’t do much to the other bugs on the okra as I have a giant one legged grasshopper hanging out on top. He’s been eating my peppers in the adjacent bed, but likes to perch on the tall okra. The grasshopper is too fast for me to catch and I’m only a little motivated to catch him since he’s been eating mostly the little Aleppo peppers I have more of than I care about. He did eat into a bell pepper and I that keeps up I might get a little faster.

Your grasshoppers eat fruit? That's fascinating. Our two-striped grapphoppers usually just eat leaves (whether fresh or dry). However, I poured out some old canned unripe tomatoes I had experimented with once (I don't recommend doing that), and a grasshopper jumped on the wet dirt and started sucking on it like it was the best thing in the world. So, they seem to like cooked unripe tomato juice.

As far as I can tell there’s no sign of the one legged grasshopper (missing the right rear jumping leg) eating any of the leaves, just peppers and okra pods, but mostly the peppers, Aleppo, poblano, jalapeños getting the most of the damage. This grasshopper rasps away at the peppers. There may be more than one, but so far I’ve only seen the one with the missing leg. Schistocerca obscura - Obscure Bird Grasshopper Is the species.

https://bugguide.net/node/view/5009#size

Good flier, I gave the grasshopper a good wack yesterday morning on an okra stem and I didn’t see it escape, but I couldn’t find it either. I get these grasshoppers every year and just a few at most and every year they eat my peppers.

[karstopography]

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A different with both hind legs intact Obscure Bird Grasshopper. This one likes okra leaves and peppers for its forage. Strong and they will bite a plug out of you, but I wouldn’t let it get to me although it tried.

[worth1]

We have the big jumbo migration in parts of central Texas.
The darn things cross the roads in massive numbers all going the same direction.

[karstopography]

We have the big jumbo migration in parts of central Texas.
The darn things cross the roads in massive numbers all going the same direction.

Central Texas is grasshopper central and so is the Edwards Plateau based on any time I have taken a walk in either of those areas. Grasshoppers are few and far between here in the Columbia Bottomlands. I don’t believe grasshoppers do as well in these live Oak woodlands and yaupon thickets.

[worth1]

We have the big jumbo migration in parts of central Texas.
The darn things cross the roads in massive numbers all going the same direction.

Central Texas is grasshopper central and so is the Edwards Plateau based on any time I have taken a walk in either of those areas. Grasshoppers are few and far between here in the Columbia Bottomlands. I don’t believe grasshoppers do as well in these live Oak woodlands and yaupon thickets.

They can get so thick in the summer they're actually disgusting.
I've seen them lined up nose to tail and side to side on plants just eating away.
I learned really fast start mowing next to the garden and drive them away.
If not going the other direction will put a million of them in your garden.
I hit the plants one year with dust insecticide and the ground was covered in dead grasshoppers.
It was either that or a flame thrower.
I never seen so many grasshoppers in my life.

[JRinPA]

Been a pretty good last couple weeks for okra. But some of the plants are really starting to die back, now. I can't figure why some thrive and others don't.

[karstopography]

The ants are back, but only in the one bed, the raised bed. The ants end up ruining most of the okra in the one bed. Ants attack the buds and the pods. They drill or bite holes in both. It’s okay since we are getting a little okra-out. Kind of like we are getting eggplant-out. Tired of the same old same old.