How to grow okra

Okra is a tall, upright plant in the mallow family, related to hibiscus and cotton, with the same showy, trumpet-shaped flowers before it sets pods. Gardeners grow it for the ridged green pods used in gumbo, stews and fried preparations, and some let a few stalks mature further for dried seed pods in fall arrangements. A single row can stand four to five feet by late summer, tall enough to shade whatever is planted just to its north, and it keeps producing new pods through the hottest stretch of the season when many other vegetables have stalled out.

The hardest part of growing okra well is keeping pace with how fast the pods size up. University of Georgia Extension notes the plant grows quickly enough that it needs picking every few days, and pods harvested at two to three inches long stay tender while larger ones turn tough and fibrous. A second-year gardener who skips a harvest during a stretch of hot weather, when a pod can go from finger-sized to overgrown in a day or two, comes back to stalks studded with woody pods that no amount of cooking will soften, and the plant's own production slows in response.