It’s hard not to love a plant that looks beautiful, produces incredibly nutritious fruits, and thrives in the oven that is Central Texas in July and August. Seriously, if you haven’t grown your own okra, you’ve got to give this hot-season favorite a try.
Okra is one of the easiest vegetables to grow during our hotter months. Follow these tips to grow okra under its preferred growing conditions and set yourself up to harvest pod after delicious pod.
The Best Time to Grow Okra in Your Central Texas Garden
The okra growing season here in Austin and surrounding areas is summer (specifically late spring to early fall). Okra does well in your veggie garden even when tomatoes and peppers are wilting in the heat, and you have time to plant at least two rounds of okra thanks to our many months of warm weather (temps above 85 degrees).
When to plant okra seeds
The earliest you should plant okra in Central Texas is April, once we’re two to three weeks past our final frost date. You can continue sowing okra seeds until the end of July to give your plants plenty of time to mature and produce before we might expect cooler temps at the end of October.
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How to Plant Okra in Your Garden
Okra is not very particular about soil, so some Central Texas gardeners do grow okra in the ground. Because okra can grow so tall, however, the plants need to push their roots down deep for support. For this reason, we find it’s best to grow okra in raised beds. The height of the raised beds not only ensures the plants have plenty of soil to anchor themselves so they won’t fall over, but it also provides the well-draining soil that okra prefers.
Okra will need to receive at least eight hours of direct sunlight to form fruit.
Before sowing seeds, add a 1- to 2-inch layer of compost over the soil in the planting area to give your okra a nice little nutritional boost.
Okra seeds typically germinate within a week, and the plant grows quickly after that. It’s not necessary to go through the hassle of starting okra by seed indoors. Just wait until warm weather to sow okra seeds directly in your garden.
Space okra seeds 4 inches apart and plant them 1 inch deep. Sow only one okra seed per hole. Stagger your holes if you’re planting multiple rows. Once the plants have emerged, thin to about 10 to 12 inches apart.
After sowing seeds, keep the soil moist until you see okra sprouts pop up.
How to Care for Okra in Your Central Texas Garden
If you’ve never grown this plant in your vegetable garden, you might be amazed at how okra grows. Some plants can grow 8, 10, even 12 feet tall (which means you’ll need a ladder to harvest the highest fruits)!
How often to water okra plants
Okra needs at least 1 inch of water a week to set fruit. Once your plants are established, you can provide this water once a week to encourage the roots to go deep and help anchor the plant. A drip irrigation system is an efficient way to keep okra plants watered.
How to fertilize okra plants
Okra is not a particularly heavy feeder. Adding a layer of compost before planting can often be enough for the plant to power through its growth. If you have time for the plant to continue producing fruit once you’ve harvested your first batch, consider adding more compost around the base of the plant or an organic fertilizer high in phosphorus and potassium.
Additional okra growing tips
Okra is a pretty low-maintenance vegetable that doesn’t need much attention from the gardener while it’s growing. It can, however, fall prey to pests, particularly stink bugs, aphids, and ants. Ants themselves don’t hurt the plant (unless they’re fire ants), but they do bring aphids with them.
How to Care for Okra in Your Central Texas Garden
If you’ve never grown this plant in your vegetable garden, you might be amazed at how okra grows. Some plants can grow 8, 10, even 12 feet tall (which means you’ll need a ladder to harvest the highest fruits)!
How often to water okra plants
Okra needs at least 1 inch of water a week to set fruit. Once your plants are established, you can provide this water once a week to encourage the roots to go deep and help anchor the plant. A drip irrigation system is an efficient way to keep okra plants watered.
How to fertilize okra plants
Okra is not a particularly heavy feeder. Adding a layer of compost before planting can often be enough for the plant to power through its growth. If you have time for the plant to continue producing fruit once you’ve harvested your first batch, consider adding more compost around the base of the plant or an organic fertilizer high in phosphorus and potassium.
Additional okra growing tips
Okra is a pretty low-maintenance vegetable that doesn’t need much attention from the gardener while it’s growing. It can, however, fall prey to pests, particularly stink bugs, aphids, and ants. Ants themselves don’t hurt the plant (unless they’re fire ants), but they do bring aphids with them.
Read these 6 tips for organic pest control to be ready to deal with pests in your garden.
Pro tip:
Okra plants are covered in little spines that secrete a sticky substance, which can cause skin reactions when handled. We recommend wearing gloves and long sleeves when handling okra.
How to Use and Store Okra
Okra is a prolific producer. Enjoy as many pods as you can garden-fresh (and soon, since okra left out molds very quickly). Okra has a mild flavor, and the mucilage, the sticky substance inside, acts as a natural thickener when heated. Boil it, fry it, pickle it, or toss it into soups, gumbos, casseroles or fresh in salads.
We love to chop our okra up, add some salt, and roast in the air fryer or oven. It makes a wonderful crispy snack!
Did you know you can even toss okra into smoothies? This helps you add more veggies to your diet and helps thicken up that smoothie.
Store the rest in the fridge for 3 to 5 days wrapped in a paper towel or paper bag and then placed inside a container. If you’d prefer to freeze okra, you’ll need to process it first, either by blanching or roasting it.
How to save your own okra seeds
If you like the variety you grew this season, there’s no reason to buy more seeds for next summer. Okra seeds are easy to save. When you’ve harvested as many pods as you can enjoy from a plant, simply leave the remaining pods on the plant and allow them to grow large. Harvest them and let them dry out. The okra seeds, which look like small dark pebbles, will come out easily. Compost remaining plant parts.
Store okra seeds in a paper bag, seed envelope, or glass jar in a cool, dark place for up to three years.
