When is the best time to sow okra?

Okra is a nutritious health vegetable, also known as kidney-tonifying grass, okra, croissant beans, etc., which is native to tropical regions such as Africa, the Middle East, India, Sri Lanka and Southeast Asia. Hebei, Shandong, Jiangsu, Zhejiang, Hunan, Hubei, Yunnan, Guangdong and other places in China have been introduced and cultivated. Let's take a look at the best time to sow okra.

When will okra sow?

Okra likes warmth and is afraid of frost. the whole growth period should be arranged in the frost-free period, and the flowering and fruiting period should be in the warm and humid season. Open-field cultivation is mostly sowed from April to June and harvested from July to October in the north and south. The seeds are generally sown in the middle and last ten days of April to May in North China. Seedlings are raised in solar greenhouses and plastic greenhouses in cold areas in the north, and then planted in the field after frost in early spring and evening. It takes about 60 days from sowing to the formation of the first tender fruit, and then the whole harvest time is as long as 60-70 days, and the whole growth period is about 120 days.

Planting conditions of okra

1. Temperature: okra likes warmth, is afraid of severe cold, and has strong heat tolerance. Seeds can germinate when the air temperature is 13 ℃ and the ground temperature is 15 ℃. When the monthly average temperature is lower than 17 ℃, it will affect flowering and fruiting. When the night temperature is below 14 ℃, the growth is slow, the plant is short, the flowering is less, and the flowers are more.

2. Moisture: okra is resistant to drought and moisture, but not to waterlogging. Excessive soil moisture in the germination stage is easy to induce seedling blight. In the fruiting period, the dry plants grow poorly and the quality is poor, so the soil should always be kept moist.

3. Lighting: okra is particularly sensitive to light conditions, requiring long and sufficient light. Sunny plots should be selected, ventilation should be strengthened, and reasonable close planting should be paid attention to so as not to shade each other and affect ventilation and light transmission.

4. Soil: okra has wide adaptability to soil and does not select soil fertility. It is more suitable for loam or sandy loam with deep soil layer, loose and fertile soil and good drainage. Nitrogen is dominant in the early growth stage, and more phosphorus and potassium fertilizer is needed in the middle and later stage.

Planting methods of okra

1. Soil preparation and fertilization: okra planting plots should be ploughed deeply in autumn and winter in time after the previous harvest, and the land should be made fine, flat, loose and soft before planting. 5000 kg of rotten barnyard manure and 20 kg of compound fertilizer should be applied per mu, and then ditches should be opened to make beds.

2. Sowing method: okra multipurpose seed propagation in production, seedling transplanting and direct seeding, seedling transplanting about 0.6 jin per mu, direct seeding about 2 jin per mu.

① field direct broadcast: spring sowing is the best way to sow okra. Soak the seeds 12 hours before sowing and put them under 25: 30 ℃ to promote germination, and sow seeds when 60% of the seeds are "broken". It is suitable for acupoint sowing, 3 plants per acupoint, and the depth of the acupoint is 2-3 cm. First water, then sow, and then cover the soil about 2 centimeters.

② seedling transplanting: okra raised seedlings in sunny beds and solar greenhouses in the first and middle of March, soaked seeds to accelerate germination, sowed according to the row spacing of 10 cm, and covered soil with a thickness of about 2 cm. The bed soil temperature should be kept at 25 ℃ after sowing, germinated and unearthed at 4-5 days, and planted at 30-40 days old.

4. Interseedling ploughing: okra seedlings should be ploughed and weeded in time after being unearthed, once every 10 days or so. Before the first flower blossoms, we should strengthen ploughing and squat seedlings properly to promote root development. Cultivate the soil before closing ridges to prevent plant lodging.

5. Fertilizer and water management and protection: okra requires higher air and soil moisture during the growth period, especially sufficient moisture during the flowering and fruiting period. At the same time, proper topdressing was applied on the basis of sufficient base fertilizer, and the first topdressing was carried out after seedling emergence, applying 6kg urea per mu.

6. Setting up shelves to pick leaves: okra should be set up to prevent lodging in summer, to prevent overgrowth caused by vegetative growth in the early growth stage, and to remove the old leaves below the harvested tender fruits in time in the middle and later stages. Those who are reserved for planting fruit should pick the heart in time, which can promote the ripening of the fruit.

7. Timely harvest: okra blossoms and bears pods when the plant height is about 30 cm from sowing to plant height, and the first tender fruit takes about 55 days to form. After that, the whole harvest time is as long as 90,120 days, and the whole growth period can reach about 150 days, or even longer.