Okra is amazing, especially when its many pods are cut up, battered, and fried.
Okra, in all of its golden, delicious, and tender glory, is also one of the easiest plants to grow on our homestead.
It’s one of the most prolific, too; I begin to dislike okra pods as the season comes to a close, to be honest!
Once you’ve eaten pounds and pounds and pounds of even the most delicious food, you just begin to want for something else.
If you are obsessed with okra, you might be tempted to go a bit overboard with the planting.
After all, what harm could come from having ten extra plants?
DO NOT DO THIS.
For the love of everything, DO NOT underestimate the production of a single plant, especially if you grow this spineless variety!
You think I’m kidding?
Go ahead and plant some extra; and when you’re standing in your kitchen crying because you have three Walmart bags full of okra sitting there, piling up, and your freezer is full of those (once-delicious-but-now-you’re-sick-of-them) heavenly little golden nuggets?
You’ll learn the very same lesson that I learned.
Or maybe it’s because I’m in warm & sunny Zone 7a, where the okra plants don’t fool around when the sun comes out to play….
With all horseplay aside, let’s see just how much okra YOU could expect from YOUR homestead!
And if you have a few minutes to spare and are interested in another extremely prolific veggie for your homestead…
Check out this addicting post of sweet potato harvest YouTube videos!!! These potato reveals will speak for themselves!
How Many Pods Will One Okra Plant Produce Per Day?
Once the season ramps up and you’re beginning to see flowers appearing (big, beautiful, landscaping-worthy flowers!), you know the okra is close behind. Once the plants have put out several flowers, you should begin to see the development of several pods on each plant; and, it will continue to flower, as well.
These plants will grow over 8 feet tall, and they can put out a lot of food! It does so well, it made our list of Must Grow Low Maintenance Garden Vegetables for the busy homesteader! At first, the harvest can be kind of slow until the plants are all producing in unison. Don’t be discouraged, they will become harassive soon enough.
You will probably pick your plants once every two days, sometimes once per day if you live in a hot area (boy, let me tell you, okra plants thrive in heat just like peppers do!).
You can expect between 1 and 4 pods per plant every 2 days, making it roughly 1 to 2 pods per day. If you have 20 plants, you could be picking between 20 and 40 pods per day; I pick mine on the larger side, because the variety I grow does not get tough or woody until the pods reach 6″ in length.
Therefore, I pick around 4″ to 5″ long pods; at that rate, I would have at least 3/4 of a shopping bag (I like to reuse my bags in EVERY way possible) every day with 20 plants. Can you see how this adds up? Now, you must remember; my plants thrive in my native soil, they get lots of sun, really hot temperatures, and adequate rainfall.
They also have MONTHS of productivity after maturing.
How Many Okra Pods Will One Okra Plant Produce In Its Lifetime, Or During the Growing Season?
Okra reaches maturity in 50 to 65 days.
IF you plant your Okra on May 1st, you could expect pods to appear close to harvest around July 5th or earlier.
Now, our last frost date here would give us over 3+ months remaining in the growing season; We’ll be generous, and say that we have exactly 3 months; or twelve weeks of mature okra plants producing pods for us.
Even on the very low end of the spectrum, at one pod per day, that’s a whopping 84 pods.
Don’t quote me on this, but I would estimate that a pod weighs somewhere around 0.07 lb, fresh, if we’re assuming one pod is the equivalent of 1/3 cup raw; using this logic, this low producing plant would give us 5.88 lb of fresh okra in my gardening zone!
If we estimate our okra harvest based upon an average plant, at 3 pods every two days, we ought to get roughly 126 pods, or 8.82 lb!
And, dare we venture into the behemoth producers like I’ve dealt with? With up to 4 pods or more every 2 days? We’re looking at 168 pods, or 11.76 lbs! (I also recommend the later tips for heightened production, I have NOT attempted them yet!)
So, as you could see, regardless of WHERE your okra plants fall on the spectrum, in a warm gardening zone ten measly plants could produce between 59 and 117 POUNDS of OKRA!
If you live in a cooler gardening zone, we’ll cut it back to 1/3 of my estimates, in favor of a VERY short growing season; so between roughly 20 lb and 40 lb of okra across ten plants.
That’s a lot of food in a very small space, but that’s due to the fact that these monstrous plants look like small trees. They are gorgeous and breath taking, even if the backyard becomes a small forest for your family!
How to Increase Okra Pod Production
If you want to truly maximize the amount of okra your plants produce, lop off their tops when they hit 3 feet in height. When you do this, you’re pruning them; encouraging them to branch out. Okra grows along the main stem, and by cutting the stem, it is forced to branch out into several pod-producing limbs.
You should always be prepared to fertilize your okra properly with the right fertilizer, as well. Once blooms begin to appear after their frantic growth, top them up with a bit of organic fertilizer or compost. If you prune them, fertilize them when they’re pruned. This will support the intensive growth of new branches and foliage.
Always pick pods when they reach 4″ in length! By keeping the pods picked, you encourage production. I did say I pick them up to 5″; however, those 5″ pods tend to be 2″ to 3″ long before that day’s harvest, because they grow incredibly fast here! If pods are left to mature, production will slow down because the plant is no longer being preyed upon. It grows pods to protect its seeds, ensuring that the next generation has a shot at survival; when you stop picking, the plant has essentially won, and served its purpose.
Just loved your info & video. Thanks!
When you say “lop off the tops” do you mean cut the stem so the fruit isn’t able to produce? I’m a bit confused at what exactly I’m cutting off.
This is my 3rd or 4th year of growing okra and the only season that I actually thinned out the plants. Each is 2′ from the other and I have 21 plants. They are about 2 ft tall currently and are starting to flower. I had to transplant them because I planted them too close, like I did all the years past. Someone told me they would do better spaced out so they are just done coming out of shock from the transplant.
I also used to just lop off the leaves after I picked the pods. It would then grow up, shoot out and create another pod. Do I just leave the leaves so the pods can keep coming back? I feel like I don’t know what I’m doing.
Hello David!
I mean to cut the entire top of the okra plant off by a few inches; where most of the budding is occurring. The size they’re at is an excellent size to prune! I know this sounds utterly crazy, but it works in much the same way as it does with peppers. For a visual, wander on over to YouTube and search “how to prune pepper seedlings.” Instead of growing straight up on a single main stalk, the plant will bush out to the sides on many secondary stalks. You will have a bit longer of a wait, but also an increased yield. Try this with half of your plants, and see the difference. I never prune leaves, most people tend to do this in order to clean the plants up and make harvest easier. However, I don’t feel it’s necessary personally; I also feel that it reduces the plants’ ability to produce energy from the sun’s light, which in turn makes me think it could lower the amount of pods produced. Of course new leaves would be produced, but it’s never been necessary for my okra plants. Okra does take a bit to pull out of transplant shock! I have yet to avoid that. However, they’re pretty hardy, too; I’ve never once lost a transplanted okra plant! Thank you for visiting my blog, and I hope I’ve helped you in some way! –Krystal
Thx am planting mine now.is it good to folia feed them?
Hello Harold! If you feed them, try to feed them after they’ve adjusted to transplanting. You’ll notice that the plants begin putting on new leaves at that time- many times, okra will go into transplant shock. Once they are springing back, go ahead and feed them! IF you’re using a foliar feed, try to do it during the early morning or the later evening to avoid sunburn/sun scald. I usually offer mine a granular fertilizer, if anything.