Rain beat up my okra seed pods! Can they be saved?

meanwhile · #1 09/18/12, 02:30 PM

I have been saving okra seed pods on the plants to let them fully ripen and get dry. Now - I look outside and the okra looks like someone beat it with a stick! Should I just leave the pods/seed heads on the plant even though they are bent over? Should I try to tie them up till they dry more?

We pulled some seed heads off last weekend and they were still white and not fully ripe. I hate to loose these. They were my seeds for next year!

Suggestions?

Paquebot · #2 09/19/12, 02:20 PM

If the pods are mature enough to where they are beginning to crack, that's far enough along. The seeds will already be mature and just need drying. No good reason to subject them to anything else that might happen to them if left exposed to the elements.

Martin

meanwhile · #3 09/19/12, 03:52 PM

The pods were not cracking yet. The plants are laying on the ground or propped up over a fence. Should I leave them there and hope they finish maturing? Some plants plain ole broke off and so I have to pick those up.

Think the plants that still are partly hooked on will still mature some? Thanks.

Sparkie · #4 09/19/12, 04:25 PM

I'd leave them on the plants thinking the stress the plant is under might hurry up the maturing of the pods.

Allen W · #5 09/19/12, 04:46 PM

Leave them on the plant, they can still pull nutrients from the plant and hopefully mature.

meanwhile · #6 09/20/12, 09:55 AM

Ok - thanks. Some had broke off. We picked those up yesterday but the seeds inside were still white and soft. We are drying them anyway just in case some might work. But we are going to store them separate from the riper seeds.

Some of the plants just bent over. They did not stand back up yesterday and so I hope they will just finish the ripening process.

So frustrating. We have saved and watched these pods for weeks. But...guess that is gardening.

Thanks everyone.

bywaterdog · #7 09/20/12, 09:34 PM

My grandfather used to pull up the entire okra plant (with root ball) and prop them up in his barn against an empty stall. they not only ripened the seed okra but still bloomed and set new pods until the plants finally died in the winter. The new pods were white in the darkness of the barn and a treat for Thanksgiving dinner.
He also roasted/ground the black ripe seeds to add as a filler to his coffee- like chicory.
I do very much miss that "old co****s.

Paquebot · #8 09/21/12, 01:20 AM

Good point about the pods ripening just on what energy is in the stalks. It is a definite fact. What I wonder about is why there is so much concern over what appears to be a large number of plants and pods. I grew several varieties for a friend several years ago and only needed several pods to stuff a 2¼x3½ ziplock with seeds. They were large varieties but just 2 or 3 pods would still could be an awful lot of seed even for smaller varieties. Save the best, scrap the rest, unless you've got a market outlet for hundreds of pounds of okra next year.

Martin

meanwhile · #9 09/21/12, 06:44 AM

Martin - I am not worried about it now. I was worried when the rain first knocked the okra over since I was mad that I might not have any seeds at all for next year. This is our 2nd year saving the okra seeds and I need many more seeds to stock up. At first I thought I had lost all the seeds. You are right - only a few pods will make enough seeds for next year for just our family.

We do have a market for okra next year at our town's farmers market. Also, we have a market for the seeds. My sons's sell the seeds as part of a seed saver project. So - we need all the seeds we can get but they have to be good ripe seeds since it would be rude and not right to sell seeds we know are not good.

We did save all the larger pods that were broken off. We just tossed the rest behind the compost pile and will see if any sprout next year. It is our Volunteer area. We toss tomatoes, peppers, herbs and now okra in an area behind the compost pile. Every year we have volunteer plants grow there and we just move them to the garden.

Thanks everyone.

Allen W · #10 09/21/12, 09:06 AM

Never seemed to take okra long to make seed. A missed pod would be well on its way in a few days.

meanwhile · #11 09/21/12, 01:02 PM

Yes, the pods did get hard quickly. We left those on the stalk. But, when we opened up a few, the seeds were not mature yet so we stopped cutting the hard ones off and just left them on the stalk to ripen. We have taken the pods we had to pick up off the ground and set them on the front porch to dry out. Hope it works.