Melissia,

If you want to do a germination test, you can wrap 10 or 20 seeds in damp paper towels and place them in a ziplock bag and place them in a warm room out of direct sunlight. I usually leave the bag slightly open so there's enough airflow that there's no mildew or mold starting up.

If you want to speed up germination, soak the seed in water for 12 hours first.

For seed planted in the ground, your germination time varies depending on the soil temperature at the time it was planted and the soil temperature since that time.

If you seeded okra into soil that was at least 60 degrees, it should sprout before it rots if it was viable seed. However, seed sown in 60 degree soil can take up to 3 or 3 and 1/2 weeks to sprout. If you seed okra into hot soil (between about 70 and 95 degrees), it normally will sprout in 6 to 10 days. My best guess is that soil temps here in southern OK have fluctated between the mid-60s to mid-70s for the last two weeks, so your okra seed ought to be sprouting in the next week or so if it was viable seed.

Okra seed is not always viable. I think the Federal Germination Standard for commercially sold seed is only 50% so you always need to sow more seed than you need and sow it more closely than the plants' ultimate spacing will be. Then, if you get great germination, you can thin as needed and if you don't get good germination, you'll still be in good shape if you planted more seed more thickly than needed. Germination of saved seed is highly variable depending on the seed-saving skill/experience of the person doing the saving of the seed as well as how the seed was stored after it was saved.

Dawn

Speaking of okra...and spacing. It always seems to me that the recommendation is too far apart, but it seems I do the opposite and plant too close. Let's hear some 'real people' stories. I am really short of room.

I plant everything too close, with the intentions of thinning later. Then when when its time to thin I cant make myself do it, It's almost feel like I am killing one of my kids. This year I planted Okra at about 1.5 inches apart for about 3 or 4 seeds, skip about 18 inches and do the same thing again. I planted about 50 seeds and 40+ came up. There is a spot where a dog or something got into the row and dug it up, in that spot I have nothing, I will transplant some of the others into the bare spot.

Last year I started plants inside in newspaper tubes. When they were about 3 inches tall I cut a gauge stick and planted them into the garden, all on equal spacing. They looked nice but did not grow any better.

Larry

I put my sprouts 12 inches apart. With a ruler. You'd expect nothing less from someone who counts her bean seed.

Okra seed is one of the least durable in terms of viability. It's really only dependable the year after it is harvested. I usually test mine even if I buy it fresh and definitely if I try to keep it over the winter.

I like to thin so that my final spacing is a foot apart at least. I have seen some people raise it much closer but my soil is very good and in a good year okra can have stalks as big as my ankle and 8 ft tall.

I usually space a foot apart too, but sometimes I cheat and instead of leaving 3' between rows, I'll plant a double row with 2' between the rows, but I only harvest from either side of the double row because there's no space between the rows 2' apart in order to walk and harvest.

If I was space-challenged, I'd only grow the shorter and more dwarf types, but even they can get pretty big in a good rainfall year.

Sometimes I vary my spacing a bit....Baby Bubba and Little Lucy can get by on 10" spacing in rows only 2' apart just fine. Some of the really big ones, though, like most cowhorn types get huge and I like to put them 18" apart.

Okra seed certainly doesn't hold its viability very long and I don't like to use okra seed that's more than 2 years old.

Seedmama - You're right. I would expect nothing less. LOL

Mulberryknob, I have never seen okra that big. One year my sister said she bought the wrong kind and I thought it looked a little like palm trees (LOL), but still it wasn't that big.

I will try to control myself this year and make sure there is (about) a foot in between plants. No rulers tho!

A ruler??? Well now...that must be a multi-purpose tool, huh? LOL! Use it to flip the bugs in a cup to drown, plant a few okra seeds...swat at an annoying fly....plant a few okra seeds....I need to put one in my planting bucket!

I plant every 6 to 8 inches...rarely ever thin. Rows are 3 ft apart...sometime 2 and a half. Rows are usually around 30 ft long and only 2 or 3. We STILL have some breaded okra in the freezer as well as a couple of bags for gumbo. This year, I seem to have lost all sense of reason...I've planted 5 rows of 4 different kinds. Not all are up so I'm still trying to wait patiently....Been almost 2 weeks but the ground temps are still a bit cool. Hoping for better germination in the next week. If not...back to the drawing board.

P-mac I buy rulers and all other school supplies when they are dirt cheap for the new school year. Rulers are often a nickel. I stock up to the limit on everything possible that is almost "free", then use it for gardening, cub scouts, and mostly, as stocking stuffers for adopted families at Christmas time. Kids like getting fresh markers and crayons. My own even get excited about pencils, erasers, rulers, glue and scissors so it's good to have a stash.

okra...wait till ground is warm, in east okla, may....plant direct in ground....okra seeds usually good for only two years...a trick i am trying....ice trays, one seed to each cube, freeze over night and plant cube next day....keep soil moist for germination...the indian

okra...NGA national gardening ...says to freeze okra over night for fast germination...the indian

Good info!

The least effective way I have ever plant okra was this year. I have okra pods lying on the back porch from last year. I did not know if they would come up so I did not go to a lot of effort to plant the seeds. I just went down the row shelling the pod, planning on coming back and covering then later. well I forgot and when I went out this morning there were almost no seeds. I think the birds came along and replanted my okra, all over the valley. I will have to replant, but this time I will take my wife to the garden with me to remind me to cover the seeds.

Larry

That's was quite funny Larry. My least effective way was soaking them for 24 hours instead of 12. Just got busy with things. Then behold, they were already charging out of the gates when I ran out to stick them in the soil. 100% casualties. Then, since I can't tell the difference between 12 hours and 24, I just direct seeded and have some coming up. But looks like temps are getting quite cool at night for a few days here in a row, so according to the experienced gardeners here my little plants may do poorly until it warms up. Not worried though. We had an okra plant last year that simply would not die. Stray seed somehow. We applied the STUN method: Sheer Total Utter Neglect. It produced good okra too.