Salty's EPIC garden testing thread

[SaltyNuts]

OK, going to list all the shit I'm testing, even loosely, here. Mainly so I don't forget what I'm doing LOL.


So, here is the first one so far. There are 2 cowhorn okra seeds in each of those 4 McD's cups. One cup has potting soil (actually raised bed soil I think, but close enough). One has humus/manure, rated at 0.05 - 0.05 -0.05 on the bag. The other two have top soil. One of the top soil I will water with with probably some masterblend complete soluble fertilizer, all 3 of the other cups I will put in just plain water.

 

[SaltyNuts]

These are three "motherland" okra plants (apparently native african okra). If they survive their transplant into this pot, I am going to water one with the standard Miracle Grow (24-8-16), one with the tomato forumla miracle grow (18-18-21 I think, but I need to look at box to confirm), and one with the miracle grow bloom booster forumula (15-30-15), in order to see which one works best. Not perfect obviously since they are in the same pot, but should be good enough to tell a difference, I will add the fertilizer in the water (and in excess water I give them) as closely as possible to each of their stems to try and minimize crossing the different fertilizers.

 

[SaltyNuts]

These are several "pest" okra plants that popped up in my garden beds and quickly overtook the other things I had planted there. They are planted in the humus/manure mix as well. At the very top there is potting soil, but right underneath it is humus/manure mix. It will be interesting to see how they do. If they can survive the transplant - okra HATE being transplanted apparently. I am soaking them with water as I type this.

 

[mindless1]

Yes, Okra hate being transplanted. They're best started, wherever you leave them for the season. Any ONE of the okra you planted in the pot of three, EACH needs about 3-4X that much soil to come close to full potential.

The thing about okra is, they go through a lot of water (they readily perspire, with the plants even damp to the touch if it's not windy), but you don't want the roots soggy either, so a greater volume of soil to minimize soil moisture fluctuations helps a lot.

I don't understand why you'd put three in a pot too small for one instead of each isolated to its own pot and then, fertilizer far better isolated too.

I just direct sew okra, right into the native soil in the ground. I've tried 6 gallon containers per each 1 plant and it stunts them. If I were to estimate, the point of diminishing returns would be about 10 gallons, but of course this depends on the length of the growing season too. Mine isn't particularly long, about mid-may it's warm enough, till freezing weather kills them in early november, 6 mos. They're usually about 9-10 ft tall at that point. They just get standard 10-10-10 fertilizer, whichever brand of 40-50lbs bag of granular is cheapest at the time. No mixing fertilizer into water, just throw out some fertilizer every few weeks, and some at first right before I till up the soil to sew the seeds.

If the native soil is poor enough, I till more material into it. I make a line with a seed every ~3 inches then cull away those too close to each other that aren't growing as fast, so I end up with about 1 plant per ~foot (minimum) in the row.

Ultimately I feel like my limit on yield is the length of growing season and amount of area for solar exposure (use a larger ground surface area, longer row or multiple rows), not a special soil or fertilizer. If each plant got to be 30% larger, they'd just crowd each other more competing for sun. Plus... I'm happy with 9-10ft height, means I can bend the tops of the plants down just enough to harvest without them breaking from excessive flex angle, instead of plants taller then having to get a ladder out to harvest, 1 to 2 times a day near the end of the season.

 

[SaltyNuts]

Hi mindless1!

I hear you, I'm just out of garden space. And I have plenty of okra planted in my garden space, these are just off to the side so I can run the expirement. I'm not 100% convinced the okra REQUIRE so much space however, I had several in my aquaponics set up and they grew great with not a ton of root growth. And youtube videos often have them being grown in pots and they seem to turn out great. Sure, not as great as if in soil with tons of free space, but that is OK they will still throw off a TON of pods, I have no doubt.

I am going to have SO MUCH okra in a month or so it will be insane. And there is LITERALLY no better okra than it cut and straight away mixed in cornmeal with a lot of salt and fried, SO unbelievably good!!

 

[mindless1]

I just don't understand the effort, when you can just sew them into the ground... It's very much about solar area not precious soil. That doesn't mean soil can't make difference, but the density is too high for this experiment.

 

[SaltyNuts]

I hear you mindless1, but that is the problem, I have filled up all my raised gardens and don't really have any more space. At least not any place with sufficient sun. So I gotta try what I can!

More to come!!!

 

[mindless1]

^ Even so, if you put too many in too little soil, they will be shading each other yet still be leggy, have to be watered constantly if they get any reasonable size to them, and all the more likely to blow over from a strong gust of wind. You have pots right next to lawn, could have just put two in the ground right there.

 

[SaltyNuts]

Oh, 2 in the ground in the lawn? Damn, I didn't even think about that LOL. That won't potentially violate homeowners association rules? I've never seen anyone growing okra or any other veggie in their front lawn. I'll start plating more okra all over the yard if its legal!!!

 

[mindless1]

Put a skirt around each so they look like they're in pots.

I've no idea what your HOA rules are. I've had okra on the front corner of the house before and nobody said anything, but by the time they were large enough to see well, they were blooming, so "decorative".