My okra plants

[arthoz]

I just gotten the first harvest of okra (ladies finger or kacang bendi as we called it here in Malaysia) from my aquaponics system. My family said it grew rather fast, the plant sprouted well with little fear from pests beside grasshoppers but I've seen some dead grasshoppers due to the helping claws of my spider friends. The fruits are big and long, even bigger and longer than those I've found sold at our local market. Also they say it is very soft and I've compared them my self. My okra are much more tender and softer than those sold at market. Sorry if I can't post any pictures yet, I'll try if I could.

The only thing that I dislike is that my okra are not as green as the one at the market. Mine are paler while the okra at the market are not only just green, they are of deep green. Is that a bad thing? Are mine deficient of nutrients? If so what are they? Could anyone help me to fix this problem?

[GaryD]

Hi Arthoz,

It is possible that your okra are deficient in something but, if your fruit is larger and more tender than the same thing in the market, it can't be too big a problem.

Is it possible that your okra are a different type to those in the market?

I'm sorry I can't be more specific....but I've never actually grown okra.

Gary

[arthoz]

Thank you all the same, Gary.

They are of the local type. Had another harvest yesterday and my grandmother absolutely enjoyed eating them in her salad (ulam as we call it). Although there are molds on the leaves and grasshopper had been munching a lot lately. I did found a couple of spiders prowling under the leaves but those cuties could only eat so much grasshopper...

I had made some organic pesticide and fungicide two days ago and sprayed the solution this morning. We'll see in a few days how it'll work. But I believe organic pesticide/fungicide should be applied as a preventive than as a cure...well I need to take my own advice someday...just too lazy to do it...

The annoying thing is that others who grow okra in their garden had bushy plants and they grow generally wide in term of being leafy and the size of the stem. Though mine are just as big but they grow taller than others who planted them on the ground, I'd say four feet tall or so...please don't laugh at me if this is the normal growth, I am rather ignorant at gardening.

I don't really enjoy this wet climate especially working in this weather at the orchard. Although its cooler to work but they are hazards. Yesterday I killed a scorpion just at the foot of the stairs and my brother caught a scarlet, half foot long centipede..., he pulled out the stings and played with it...as for me, I had this phobia with centipede, most of my family does and so does a few of my acquaintance.

Sometimes when we rolled a log or moved some rocks, a centipede might scurry out into the open (they are fast!) and you'd see grown men screaming and jumping for safety...

[MarkEinOz]

Hi Arthoz,

A little late now, but I was discussing this with my father, and he suggests that your system is probably a little deficient in Iron. You can add a teaspoon of chelated Iron powder once a week for a month to see if that improves at all. That is a small dosage, but plants will respond quickly in colour change if Iron is the culprit.

Can you take picture and upload it please for us to visually check. Then we will know for sure and can advise more thoroughly.


Best of luck!

[arthoz]

That's a good idea but the only problem that I have is looking for any supply of iron chellate. Since those stuff are rarely used locally it's hard to find them in small quantities. I had to order them in bulk and I don't think at the moment I could afford that. I remembered last time when I need to experiment planting paddy in my system they told me I have to buy a whole sack of seeds. Luckily a farmer gave me some that I could use.

Anyway thanks for the help but can't post any pictures for now since I'm away from home. Maybe during chinese new year holidays I'll try to post some usefull pics...if there's any okra left...my mother tend to experiment planting different types of herbs and vegetables although she seemed to be hooked with the idea of planting okra...she eats them raw in salad and I enjoy them too...

Perhaps there could be another option to remedy iron deficiency in plants. I tried placing a few iron bars inside the growbed...anyone got a better, reliable and proven method they could share?

[DaveOponic]

Hi Arthoz

I am in Brunei so I share the same climate as you have in Malaysia. I started growing okra last year after a friend gave me some seed pods he had grown in his AP system. Well the okra grew well in the AP but outgrew my growbeds very fast (299 mm grow beds. . . . not deep enough!) I also discovered that I don't really like okra and my wife and kids dont either. It was gluey and full of seeds. Didn't matter whether picked small or big . . . too gluey lah!

So I pulled all the okra out of the growbeds. The roots were long and curled when they hit the bottom of the bed. I planted them in the backyard and they are still growing. The okra in the growbeds reached the eaves. About 5 - 6 foot in height I would say. I wouldn't grow it again as we don't like it. By the way, the variety we have is not very green either, it is more or less a dull light green colour and pods grow to 1 or two feet long.


Dave

[Ravnis]

Arthoz, what is the PH of your system? IF it is above 7, then you might consider lowering it to 6.5 or so, makes a big difference in Iron take up.

Iron sulphate is another possibility if you can get that there. I use greensand which is a compound of iron and pottasium, but I am not sure if it is availble where you are.

Also have you added magnesium? I found that magnesium shortage can look the same as iron deficiency.

Dave,

The UVI growbeds for okra were 410 mm, guess you have a point there

[arthoz]

Well the okra grew well in the AP but outgrew my growbeds very fast (299 mm grow beds. . . . not deep enough!) I also discovered that I don't really like okra and my wife and kids dont either. It was gluey and full of seeds. Didn't matter whether picked small or big . . . too gluey lah!

So I pulled all the okra out of the growbeds. The roots were long and curled when they hit the bottom of the bed. I planted them in the backyard and they are still growing. The okra in the growbeds reached the eaves. About 5 - 6 foot in height I would say. I wouldn't grow it again as we don't like it. By the way, the variety we have is not very green either, it is more or less a dull light green colour and pods grow to 1 or two feet long.
Dave

Oh Dave, it's the gluey stuff that makes me crazy for it...slice it up and fried with chili and minced ancovies...oh my mouth is watering and that was yesterday. For lunch today I had them with scrambled eggs and fried golden only the cook made them a little bit too salty for my taste. Be sure to pick them up before they harden. By the way I've read in wikipedia that people did try to ground their seeds into coffee...not sure how it'll taste. Well, haven't much to worry since mine had the same growth as yours, Dave and we're planting lots more since my grandmother wants them for salad.

Earlier this month I had tried to plant some okra the conventional way a.k.a. by digging the ground. It took a whole week squatting with a small hand hoe tilling the earth and removing rocks and concrete fragments. Then raising the bed and making the drains for watering. Did tried to experiment with wicking bed but it didn't go well since the neighbour dog dug them out. From what I've seen it's been a month and the okra had only been growing well around six inches!!!

Sure, I'm a lousy farmer. I don't till the ground too well and didn't even fertilize it properly (though the neighbourhood cats do their business there, so no lack of organic fertilizer)...but my knees and ankles are throbbing after each squatting session and I sometimes in my hurry forgot to water the plants.

Anyway compare to my aquaponics system, rhetorically speaking, I use ten times less effort (and ten times extra fat to my weight). Yes, building the whole aquaponics set is hard, took me a week to do it on my own (not including planning and researching) and a year to tune it to balance everything. But I get vegetable and fish and I only need to drop a seed into the grow medium and within two or three weeks I get to pick my favourite okras.

I don't think I'll ever repeat that cycle of digging dirt, well maybe I would with an engine powered plough, but never with a hoe. And I'm going to do it at the orchard where my dogs would tear to ribbons any dogs who'd dare lay paws on my garden bed!!!

P.s. My other favourite food is tempeh but I'm still searching for soya beans seeds at the moment. Nothing taste better than a homemade and homegrown food.

[arthoz]

By the way Ravnis, I use corals and shells for my biofilters so the pH might be balanced around neutral. No help for that unless I change my biofilter medium. As for the other, I don't think I can find any. Here in Malaysia people are too focused on dirt digging since the land is too fertile. I've read a british engineer's memoir while he was building the railroad in Malaya (what Malaysia was known back then) in the 1900's. They had driven pilings into the humus for a hundred feet before it was obstructed by a log--an ancient log!!! So you can imagine the level of fertility of the earth here. The point is, there's no way I could find any materials relating to aquaponics or even hydroponics unless they border on stuff used in the plumbings.

Yes, some Malaysian might flame me for not mentioning a few entrepreneurs that sells those stuff on the net or in some place I might never pass by in my travels...it's the availability that matters. I'm an old fashion consumer--I need to hold and appraised the merchandise before I decide whether to buy it or not.

Though I might contradict the fact that people still use chemical fertilizer here. Why? Because fact is, extensive farming exhaust the earth and without any effort at composting, chemical fertilizer are the best option.

Talking about fertilizer, there are already a few rivers in Johor (a state in Malaysia) that water are undrinkable due to ammonia contaminant because of excessive use of chemical...well, it's something for us to think about....

[DaveOponic]

P.s. My other favourite food is tempeh but I'm still searching for soya beans seeds at the moment. Nothing taste better than a homemade and homegrown food.

You are in Malaysia right? Can't you buy tempe in the market?

My wife is Javanese so we eat a lot of tempe. I tried making it myself once when we were home in Australia. It was hard because I couldn't get any starter culture.

We have tempe every day here. Very cheap. Only 50 c a packet (250g?)

I love it just fried in olive oil. Very healthy food.

Dave