The only real draw back is that the Jing is unforgiving if you miss a pod at picking stage. I’m pleased as punch at how well this variety performs in my climate and how it cooks up. So far this has been an easy plant to grow, even in my very shady kitchen garden. I so enjoy slipping between my rows and harvesting one of my favourite vegetables. The plants are beautiful and the pods are spineless. I did mulch heavily with freshly soiled sheep bedding and rotten cow manure. The transplants were then put in the ground and watered well. I didn’t do anything to my rocky soil other than give it a good breaking up with my hoe. Now in the second week of September I’m harvesting enough daily to eat my fill and dehydrate for this winter. By the first week in July I was lightly harvesting my okra three times a week. Twenty of the twenty four seeds I planted came up and survived. After the Mother’s Day freeze, I am happy I waited. I didn’t bother planting my seeds until June first this year. So, I gave the nice people at the seed company three dollars and they sent me okra seeds. I have become more interested in Asian varieties over the past couple of years after realizing that my microclimate is similar to a large portion of that continent. This past winter as I was perusing the Baker Creek catalogue the Jing Orange Okra caught my eye. It was just a landrance variety developed by some friends who are long time commercial okra growers. Even if I had okra at home I always ate a double order of it and stole as much as I could from my Papa’s plate.įour years ago I grew Clemson Spineless in my own garden. The restaurant we frequented most was Po Boy’s. I well remember Papa picking it so I wouldn’t get itchy from the mature plants and Mimi patiently frying it. Growing up in Florida okra was one of the easiest crops to grow over the long summer season.

Jing orange okra plant