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Last edited by shiny on November 10, 2026. View history

okra Okra

Abelmoschus esculentus WD
Also known as ladies' fingers (EN) bhindi (EN) bamia (EN) gumbo (EN)

How to sow okra: Direct seed indoors or outside

Sun requirement for okra: Plant in Full Sun

Okra is a frost-tender annual grown for it's edible seed pods and, less commonly, it's leaves and stems. Plants can be green or red.

11
plantings
0
harvests
3
seed packets
Growstuff is a free, community-run site for people who grow food. Keep track of what you plant and harvest, find seeds to swap, and see what is growing near you. Join to record your own okra.

Okra facts

Lifespan

Annual living and reproducing in a single year or less

Height × spread

250cm × 90cm

Row Spacing

30cm

When to sow

Southern hemisphere Sep–Feb
Northern hemisphere Mar–Aug
median of members' seed packets
Optimal temperature 20–30 °C
Absolute temperature 12–35 °C
FAO EcoCrop
Optimal rainfall 600–1200 mm/year
Absolute rainfall 300–2500 mm/year
FAO EcoCrop
Optimal soil pH 5.5–7
Absolute soil pH 4.5–8.7
FAO EcoCrop

Crop cycle

50–180 days
FAO EcoCrop

Max altitude

1000 m
FAO EcoCrop

Optimal light

clear skies
FAO EcoCrop
What are growing degree days?

A plant grows with warmth, not with days. A growing degree day is one day's worth of useful warmth: how many degrees the day's average temperature is above the lowest temperature the crop grows at. Add them up from planting and you know how far along the crop is, whatever the calendar says.

Say that lowest temperature is 10°C. A day averaging 17°C gives 7 growing degree days. A day averaging 8°C gives none, as it is too cold for the crop to grow. That is why the same lettuce takes about 50 days in a summer and 90 in an autumn: it needs the same total warmth either way.

For okra, the FAO EcoCrop database gives a lowest growing temperature of 12°C and a shortest growing cycle of 50 days at its best temperature, about 650 growing degree days to a first harvest.

Where you've told us where your garden is, we use this and the weather there to predict when your okra will be ready to harvest. We don't use it for how long a plant lives or when it finishes: we go by what members have logged for that.

How members grow okra

Sunniness

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Planted from

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Varieties of okra

Plant okra with

Photos

Okra crops

Okra plantings

Okra
Okra
by cropbot

Video

Where okra grow

Only plantings by members who have set their locations are shown.

What people are saying about okra

Coming together

by shawnacscott,

This weekend I had two full days to really focus on the yard, and I made the most of it. With the intermittent help of several others over the course of the weekend, I got both easement planter boxes filled with compost and soil, cleaned up and weeded the alley, got the stump pulled from the coni…

lettuce lettuces arugula arugula mustard sunflower sunflowers dill onions beet beets tomatoes fenugreek bell pepper bell peppers okra okra artichoke artichokes mint mint lavender spinach spinach basils thyme thyme parsley zucchini zucchini peas calendulas
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Transplant day!

by inkstone,

I originally wanted to do this yesterday but it rained in the morning so that kinda put a damper on things.

So I did it all today instead! A bunch of the seeds I wintersowed in the milk jugs and soda bottles were getting crowded so it was time to move them to their bigger (permanent) containers….

spinach spinach mizuna arugula arugula tatsoi lettuce lettuces radicchio radicchio broccoli broccoli Malabar spinach Malabar spinach okra okra parsley anise
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Image of okra

Who's planted okra

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Okra harvests

Nobody has harvested this crop yet.

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Find okra seeds

Time to harvest

If sown now, expect a first harvest in about 50 to 180 days.

From the growing cycle in the FAO EcoCrop database, which is the same wherever it is grown.

Ecological requirements

Data from the FAO EcoCrop database for Abelmoschus esculentus (L.) Moench

Family / Taxonomy Magnoliopsida
Dilleniidae
Malvales
Malvaceae
Life form herb
Life span annual
Habit erect
Optimal soil depth shallow (20-50 cm)
Optimal soil texture heavy, medium, light, organic
Optimal soil fertility high
Optimal soil drainage well (dry spells)
Optimal soil salinity low (<4 dS/m)
Photoperiod short day (<12 hours)

Learn more about okra

Resources outside Growstuff.