Thursday, February 20, 2014
Jim Mannino last summer grew a species called Abelmoschus caillei...there are many strains...this one came from ECHO. He and his wife enjoyed good solid harvests all summer, then in the fall he let several pods ripen, then kindly mailed me one. Notice the dramatic striping. Some strains can be perennial in Africa, so as an experiment he cut it back HARD and despite the chilly winter it is regrowing and flowering! It will be cool to see what it does this summer. I'm usually a 'Fife Creek' okra man as the pods can be tender at 11 inches in length (!!!) but a perennial okra would be wonderful. To insure no cross pollinations I'll cover several unopened blooms of each with either an envelope or panty hose feet. I can't believe how much I learn from people that I initially meet on FaceBook!
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been looking for this West African okra for sometime and ran across your post about it, are you still growing it, if so do you have any seed that you might share or trade I have lots of heirloom tomato varieties if you are interested including a couple from Brad Gates Wild Boar Farms Dark Galaxy and Brad's Atomic grape tomato if your interested. The seeds don't have to be true as I will be using them to cross into my orange Jing okra this year. You can reach me at strawdog6352@gmail thanks.
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