developing a new strain of crop - food plants

Okra is probably the very best beginner food crop there is! It is hardy, drought -heat & tolerant, disease resistant, insects have little effect on it, and it is highly prized by your neighbors, if you have enough to share! I am a Certified Organic Farmer who has spent the last seven years, developing a new strain of crop - food plants. Okra is kind of my specialty. I plant about 1,500 seeds per year. I grow it fresh for a local health food store, the Farmers' Market, and deliver about 50 to 100 pounds per week to a local grocery store.

When planting okra, it is best to soak the seeds over-night. The next morning, lay out a row and plant your soaked seeds about every 9" to 12" inches. OSU says "Never plant a seed deeper than 3 times the diameter of the seed", but to avoid birds digging mine up, I plant about 3/4" to 1" inch deep. Make the rows about 3' feet apart, so the leaves don't rub your arms while walking between the rows when they are bigger... Some people are allergic to the itchy spines! I say, "Just wear a long sleeve shirt and use gloves when cutting the pods". I plant mine about the 1st of May (it is very frost sensitive). Once the plants are established, keep them weeded. In about 2 months, the beautiful yellow blooms will greet you at 7:00am every morning!

It only takes four days for the 3" to 4" inch okra pods to form after blooming, so be ready! They are best if picked when 3" or 4" inches long, and are great for frying, pickling, making soups, gumbo, or for boiling. We even salt & pepper them raw, right after slicing, while still gooey, then dehydrate them, and eat like popcorn. It's a great healthy snack when watching a movie.

The only problem with okra is that it takes so many plants to make enough pods for a meal. You generally get only one or two pods per plant, but I've developed a new strain of Clemson Spineless that bears anywhere from one to forty-one pods per day! This greatly alleviates the need for so much garden space. I'm working right now on seed increase of this new strain to be released in Spring of 2013.

To check out my progress on this endeavor, or to view more photos, and read new research information, create a Google search by typing, or pasting in: Project developing a new strain of crop - food plants

My new strain of certified organic okra is called 'Heavy Hitter' and has out performed, the existing variety 'Zee Best'. My new strain was developed from the old Clemson Spineless line and has the same characteristic, tender pods, that make Clemson Spineless so desirable for pickling and frying. As seen in the photo, I have successfully grown plants of this new strain with over 60 branches, bearing over 200 pods in one season, and exhibiting trunks over 8" inches in circumference. You can barely see my 13 year old Son standing behind the plant. (It's that big). Because of the extensive root system, we were unable to pull these huge plants by hand in Winter. So we had to rig up a hoist to pull the old plants out of the rows, in order to do our Spring plowing.

The neighbors love it! As shown in the photograph, you can pick a full meal four a family of four from one bush!

God has really blessed us!

Need any regional testers *G*? I live near Clemson....

Looks like a great project, and I'll go check out your site. Thanks for sharing:)

I would also be interested in testing if you need it or if the seeds were available for purchase. I live in the Texas Panhandle and Okra does very well here.

This post is on December 10, 2014
Heavy Hitter okra is still going strong. It is now growing on three continents, America, India, and Africa. I've distributed over a quarter million seeds to third World Countries, and regional small farmers alike since 2011. To read more about it and to see some great photos of these plants, type in a search for heavy hitter okra green country seed savers, or just search heavy hitter okra images. A picture is worth a thousand words. My email address is: fourteenmilecreek@yahoo.com

Congratulations on noticing and preserving one superior plant!

One article or post by you made it sound like, if you had lost one years crop, you would have lost all your 'Heavy Hitter' seeds. If the seed viability charts I see are accurate, you could have been saving 1/2 or 1/4 of your seeds each year so that you had a fall-back.

It sounds like you have them well-distributed now, but have any seed banks accepted an accession from you and deep-frozen the seeds?

Are they commercially available anywhere?

I have difficulty in growing okras , last year was my best produce because I bought plants from the garden center. This year I ordered Bubba dwarf seeds and hope I will get crops , since it will produces earlier .I will plant in containers to retain more heat for these heat loving plants.

I would be interested in trying your new variety here in South East Texas! I'm roughly 2 hours north of Houston, and 2 hours south of Dallas.

Heavy Hitter Okra seeds are not commercially available, although I have had offers from Baker Creek Seed Company, and Rasi Seeds, of India. Currently, I am the sole supplier of Heavy Hitter seeds. As I developed this strain here on our Certified Organic farm, and only grow a limited supply. My garden is only a quarter acre, so I have limited space. I also grow 300 caged tomato plants, cucumbers, pumpkins, squash, turnips, radishes, lettuce, beans, peas, beets, corn, onions, cabbage, sweet potatoes, Irish potatoes, peppers, egg plants, watermelons, cantaloupe, sheep sorrel, rabbit tobacco, poke, wild onions, fruit trees, and morel mushrooms. So, I don't have much room left for okra. I grow about 1,500 okra plants in 150' foot rows, and still plow with a mule. (It's hard to keep up with demand). I sell vegetables to grocery stores, the City Hospital, and occasionally the Farmers' Market. Plus, I give a lot away to my neighbors, and relatives.

You can contact me by email for further details at: heavyhitterokra@gmail.com or view my Heavy Hitter Okra thread at the following website: green country seed savers

In reply to some previous posts: My youngest son has recently set up a website, for his poor ol' computer illiterate daddy. Now, you can purchase Heavy Hitter Okra Seeds by visiting. our new farm store. Enter a Google search for: heavy hitter okra/dry creek farm store.

Or just to read more about Heavy Hitter Okra, enter a Google search for heavy hitter okra/green country seed savers.

I've been working on this selection since 1972. We're finally getting there! Heavy Hitter Okra has been featured in Chis Smith's new book, "The Whole Okra: A Seed to Stem Celebration" and seeds have been collected and stored, by the USDA National Seed Vault in Fort Collins, Colorado. The Fort Collins seed vault was built by the federal government in 1953 — decades before the Svalbard Global Seed Vault opened in 2008 on the Norwegian island of Spitsbergen. The Choice City of Fort Collins was chosen because of the dry climate and adjacent university.

The building, 1111 S. Mason St., has thick cement walls and is specifically designed to withstand natural disasters like tornadoes or severe flooding if Horsetooth Reservoir were ever to break.

I've now gotten new growers in Panama, India, Africa, Australia, New Zealand, Pakistan, Saudi Arabia, and even in Canada (The okra in Canada is grown in heated greenhouses). Thanks to 'farming so many of these seeds out' I don't think there is much chance I'll ever come close to losing my germplasm again.

I owe a big, 'THANK YOU' to all the folks who have helped make all this happen. God has really blessed us here.

This message was edited Feb 12, 2020 12:22 AM

How do you get other companies interested in your strain? I’ve developed new pepper and a shrub and nobody ever offered to buy seeds from me?