OKRA FARMING TIPS

Okra is a kind of vegetable that is mainly grown for cooking soup, making souce or eating raw. In this article, I will be writing the full farming tips and information about okra.
Okra as a vegetable is a good and lucrative business for farmers when grown very well, that is why I choose to write this article, to enlighten people with full information about okra.Okra farming tips are:

Cultivation of land. Planting of okra seed. Adding fertilizer. Removing weed From it. Harvesting it.

As I said stated on the farming tips of okra above, I will now go into the full details to explain them one after the other.

TABLE OF CONTENTS

CULTIVATION/PREPARATION OF LAND

TYPES OF OKRA

PLANTING OF OKRA SEED

ADDING FERTILIZER

REMOVING WEED FROM IT

HARVESTING

STORAGE

PREPARATION OF LAND

The first step to okra farming is the cultivation of the farm land which you are about to plant the okra. In Africa, especially in Igbo land, farming season starts immediately the first rain, this is between February and March, that is when they begin to clear their various farm lands and ready to start farming. In this case, the okra farming is not different from other crops that are farmed during the first rain. Back to the topic. immediately the first rain, go and clear the farm that you think is rich in nutrients. This is to maximize result of harvest because okra can do well when planted on rich soil.( Avoid Sandy soil).
Clear the farm and rake it very well to avoid stones, water-proove or any hard substances in the sand because it can hinder the growth of your okra or even kill some of them.

TYPES OF OKRA

CAJUN DELIGH: this okra has spineless dark green pods and grows to about 4 feet tall in height.

PARK’S CANDELABRA BRANCHING: this specie which is a base branching okra plant. This type of branching makes picking them easy and smooth

LOUISIANA GREEN VELVET: is good for big areas, it is vigorous and its plants grow to be 6 feet tall. It is also smooth and spineless.

ANNIE OAKLEY: this type or specie of okra take about 52 days to mature and has spineless pods. It grows to about 4 to 5 feet tall in height.

PLANTING OF OKRA SEED

After you are through with the farm clearing, dig holes of about 1 and half inch on the ground and make sure you give a separation gap of about 10 to 15 inches, this is to give the okra enough space when they grow. Now put your okra seed in the holes you dug and close them with sand.You can buy good okra seed here Note – you can plant 3 to 4 seeds in one hole. After planting them, leave it to germinate and start growing, then it is time to get to the next step.

ADDING FERTILIZER

The seed could take between 5 to 7 days before it could germinate, at this juncture, give it a little time, maybe 2 days so that they could grow a little bit, now go and buy fertilizer and put on them. This will boost the growth and enhance your harvest. Please measure the amount of fertilizer you put on them, at least one tea spoonful on each of them.
If you ain’t adding fertilizer or you don’t have money to pay for it, I have a good alternative for you. This has almost the same result as the fertilizer, here it is – before or after you might have cleared the farm, go and get cow, pig, goat or chicken dung, spread them on the farm in large quantity and leave it there for rain to mix it with the soil properly, then go and plant your okra on it. I promise you, this is as good as the fertilizer you will spend money to buy.

REMOVING WEED FROM IT

After adding fertilizer, your okra will begin to grow up, and weed will start springing up from every angle. This is because they also enjoy the manure or fertilizer you added to your okra plants, they are necessary to be removed because they might harm your plants or deplete the nutrients in the soil thereby depleting the growth and the harvest of your okra plants.
There are various ways to do away with the weed in okra farm, one of them is ” removing them with hoe the other is removing them with hands, the last is spraying anti weed insect, disease medicine on them. Among these 3 methods,the most common ones are doing it with hoe or hands, but I do advise doing it with hands if you can’t afford the medicine because hands are more economical and risk free. With hoe, there might be accidents of cutting okra plant, which you don’t want to withness. ( The use of hand is more appropriate for small farms)

HARVESTING

The okra plant takes about 2 months to mature. Now read carefully, havesting of okra is a gradual thing, it take days or even week to harvest okra plants, this is because once it matures for the first time and you harvest it, the little ones keeps maturing and it always produce little ones,keep checking them every day or 2 days so that you could harvest the new ones.
It is advisable to always go and check and harvest them them in the morning or evening, and it is also advisable to put on thick clothes and make sure every part of your body is covered, to avoid the sting of okra.

STORAGE

In this article, I will write about 2 methods of storing okra. It really depends on what purpose you have for storing it. If you are storing it to maybe use it later in a short while to cook or eat raw, maybe in weeks, it is good to store in a refrigerator. Wrap them up in a nylon or rubber container and place in the refrigerator. That will do.The other method I recommend is for long term storage. I always use this method to store okra seeds that I will plant the next farming season. Here is the method, allow them to mature very well and become old before you could harvest them, harvest them and allow them to shrink and begin to dry, leave them to dry very well and either hang them 4 to 5 feet above the fire place and leave them there till the next farming season, fire will be maintaining them so they won’t go bad or attacked by insects or be spraying them under hot sun regularly, so that the heat from the sun will be maintaining them and chasing away insects.

CONCLUSION

If you follow the about steps given, you will be able to plant and harvest and store okra without any kind of problem, and in good condition and make profit out of them. ( if you plant for business).Hope this article helped you? then share on social media.