re: Best Okra variety

Texas longhorn or dwarf Texas longhorn.

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I generally try to pick the okra when they are 4-5 inches long and I find that to be the ideal size for my use.

I pickle them, smother them down and freeze to use in soups and gumbos, fry it, steam it and hit it with salt, pepper and lemon juice to snack on and absolutely love it grilled.

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I've grown okra a few times before and that's about the size I'd always try to get them. The smaller, the more tender, so I'd often pick them relatively small.

One of my favorite ways to cook them is to cut off the end and slice them down the middle. Saute in olive oil, salt/pepper and top them with sesame seeds shortly before taking them out of the pan.

Mine sucked I had only 1 okra per plant last year

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Mine sucked I had only 1 okra per plant last year

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Where do you live? I see "Montana Fan" by your name, so are you that far north?

Okra is a heat loving, drought loving plant and grows like crazy in S.E. La.'s heat and humidity of our summer months.

I plant mine around April and by late June I'm getting started picking okra, and that goes on until I pull the plants in mid September, often getting a pod a day per plant.

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no I was growing it in tennessee I think the garden was to crowded and I was late getting it in the ground.

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As for okra, I crowd the plants growing them just a shade over a foot apart in rows 3 ft. apart. For such big plants, they do pretty well growing close like that.