Dwarf Okra Plants

My Okra plant is now more than 6-feet tall. I think I planted it from seed in February 2016. It took 2 months to grow to about 2 to 3 feet and started flowering. The first flower didn't develop into a pod and was aborted. The second flower was successful and I tried to hand pollinate it. Then I realised that it did not matter whether you hand pollinate it or not, it would still develop into a pod.

The 6 feet okra is getting taller and taller and making it harder to harvest the okra. I only cut the pod away when it is 6 inches long. You need to use a scissor to cut at the stalk area because it is quite thick.

I had harvested about 22 pods from the okra plant already. The flower will only bloom for one day and it only bloom in the morning and by evening time the flower will close and drop away. The pod will grow about one inch per day and at the 5th day or 6th day morning, the okra will be about 6 inches long. I try to harvest them in the morning.

There are "runners" growing from the main stem of the okra. I was not sure whether to remove them and had kept them so that I can harvest the okra at the lower height. The plant seems to get heavier and heavier each day as the tip is quite thin as compared to the bottom. The okra pots at the top added more weights to the plant.

The dwarf okra plants look quite healthy at the local nursery, World Farm, aka Hua Hng. However, I'm not sure the origin and didn't buy them. I was wondering whether we can propagate the okra by cutting the runners and planting them. Will it ever root? Has anyone tried it before? I will try it and let you know.

Dwarf Okra Plants