Growing lady’s finger in containers/pots

Growing lady’s finger

Whenever I talk about lady’s finger, I remember, how I liked to eat the day before “maths exams”. As a child, my mom used to say,

“Those who eats lady’s finger more, they will become brilliant in maths”.

Haha! Whatever, the myths are, I loved to eat lady’s finger. Here is my story of growing lady’s finger from seeds to harvest.

OKRA
HOME – GROWN OKRA PLANT

How to grow lady’s finger?

Before stepping into the topic, let us make it clear that there are different varieties of lady’s finger, that can be grown. Meanwhile lady’s fingers are called using different names all over the world. Some of them are (that I came across):

  • Okra
  • Gumb
  • Bhindi in hindi
  • Vendakkai in tamil.

If you are a newbie in gardening, starting this summer, then growing lady’s finger is the right choice.

HOW TO START?

  • TEMPERATURE

Okra loves warm climate. Ideal temperature is 70F in daytime and 60F in nights. Summers are the best time for growing lady’s finger.

growing lady's finger
PLANT OKRA IN WARM CLIMATE
  • SOIL

For growing lady’s finger, a well draining soil must be used. Usually, the plant grows faster and healthy in a well draining soil.

GROWING LADY'S FINGER
HEALTHY OKRA PLANTS WITH RICH SOIL
  • FERTILIZERS / MANURES

Natural / organic manures can be added initially at the time of soil preparation. Instant manures or fertilizers like seaweed, etc,. Can be added after the plants shoot shows up.

  • SOWING SEEDS

Lady’s finger should be “directly” sown. If you prefer transplanting, if planting before the last frost date, make sure you are giving more attention to the “fragile” tap root.

SEEDS OF LADY’S FINGER

Or if you are directly sowing the seeds in the pots / containers, consider sowing seeds at a depth of ½ inch and 12 inches apart from each plant.

HOW TO GROW LADY'S FINGER
IF THE POT IS SMALL – 1 PLANT
LADY'S FINGER
IN CASE IF THE POT HAS GOOD SPACE – GO FOR 2 PLANTS

If you are using grow bags, then plant 2-3 seeds per bag with enough space.

OKRA IN GROW BAG
OKRA IN GROW BAG
  • WATERING

Lady’s finger can withstand drought. But providing enough water in summers, the plant to grow faster and healthier. Water the plant in the mornings, to avoid pests.

OKRA
WATERING OKRA PLANTS REGULARLY = FAST GROWTH

GERMINATION

Lady’s finger germinates and starts showing up in 2-3 weeks. If you see any weeds, clear it. At this stage, it needs good nutrients and warm climate. So water the plants daily.

GERMINATION OF LADY'S FINGER
GERMINATION OF LADY’S FINGER

2 weeks after germination, it is the best time to give, manures / fertilizers that enhances the growth of the plants.

LADY'S FINGER
2 WEEKS AFTER GERMINATION

This is the best time to provide fertiliser and manure. Keep adding nutrients to the plant at regular intervals to get healthier growth of okra.

FLOWER BUDS & POLLINATION

The flower buds of lady’s finger starts to appear in the 3rd to 4th week after germination.

okra
FLOWER BUDS APPEARS

The buds blooms so beautifully. Okra flowers are half-white or pale yellow with reddish core, so attractive.

OKRA
GROWING FLOWER BUDS
GROWING LADY'S FINGER
FLOWERS OF OKRA

These okra flowers are “self – pollinating” and we need not pollinate manually.

okra
FLOWERS SET FOR BUDS

PRUNING

Pruning okra always makes the plant to grow faster. Okra grows up to 6-10 feet high. In that case, to make harvest easier, we shall prune them.

LADY'S FINGER
LADY’S FINGER CAN GROW UP TO 10 FT

STAGES OF PODS GROWING

These are the stages of okra growing from flower to pods. A quick glance!

lady's finger
OKRA FLOWER
OKRA
FLOWER SET TO POD
LADY'S FINGER
POD FORMATION
growing lady's finger
GROWING POD

OKRA PODS – HARVEST

Okra pods starts to appear 3-6 days after the flowers appear. Wait for the tender lady’s finger to grow 2-4 inches and then start harvesting.

GROWING LADYS'S FINGER
PODS OF LADY’S FINGER

Harvest these pods daily based on their growth. Okra pods are ready for harvest in 2-3 days. If you let the pod to mature, their skin thickens and becomes unable to eat. Okra tastes good when they are tender.

GROWING LADY'S FINGER
PODS READY FOR HARVESTING

If you missed any pods to harvest in their tender stage, dont worry! Instead save the pods for saving seeds. Generally speaking a lady’s finger plant can provide more yield in summers than winters.

OKRA
FRESH HOME-GROWN OKRA

The best way to pick okra pods is to wait for 2-3 days after the pods appear. Or try to break the last or tail part of lady’s finger. If it breaks easily then, it is tender!

DISEASE & PESTS

The common pests that I saw across my lady’s finger plants are aphids and ants.

OKRA
ANTS IN OKRA PLANT

I used neem oil cake to protect my affected plants. It worked pretty well. You can also use neem oil or any measures you prefer.

OKRA
WATERING OKRA PLANTS  – PREVENTS PESTS

Meanwhile, when I see any pest in my plants, I usually water the plants especially at the infected areas forcely or wash the pests away. This helped me when the pests or disease is at the first stage.

SHEDDING OF OKRA FLOWERS

You can also come across many problems other than disease and pests while growing okra. Like, Shedding of flower buds, before they set to pods.

GROWING LADY'S FINGER
shedding of okra flowers

This is mainly because fluctuation of temperature. Either the temperature is not constant, too cold or too hot for the plant to grow.

HEALTH BENEFITS OF LADY’S FINGER

Lady’s finger is famous for its myth (as said before) that is

“Ladys finger is good for excelling in maths “

It is true because okra is rich in nutrients that helps the brain development. Okra mainly rich in

  • Fibre
  • Vitamin C
  • Little amount of vitamin B, K
  • Folic acid
  • Calcium, magnesium
GROWING LADY'S FINGER
NUTRIENTS RICH LADY’S FINGER

It helps in managing diabetes. Since growing lady’s finger is very easy to grow and maintain, do give a try this summer in your garden.

Nothing tastes as good as growing your own greens!

So I encourage you to grow okra in your garden and share your experiences with me. Hope you liked my story of growing lady’s finger. Comment me below how many pods you harvested this summer.

GROWING LADY'S FINGER
FRESH OKRA

If you are interested in growing mint, click here : growing mint!

Happy gardening!

Growing lady’s finger in containers/pots

16 thoughts on “Growing lady’s finger in containers/pots

    1. Hello Premkumar, Thank you so much for reading our post. When talking about fertilizers, I highly recommend homemade compost or earthworm manure, as they do wonders in my garden. Other than that you can also use liquid-fertilizers like seaweed solution, or wdc. They work well too.

  1. I just sowed the okra seeds and this post definitely helps me to grow the best okras ❤️🥰 thanks for sharing the detailed stuff. Happy 🌱

    1. Hello Ashwathi. I am so glad, that I helped you a bit in gardening. Looking forward to your okra harvest. All the best. Happy gardening 🙂

  2. Dear Preethi
    May I know what is the size of the pot that can be used to grow okras? What if I used a car tyre to grow okra, is it large enough?

    Thank you

    1. Hi Sundeep,
      Thanks for writing to us. Okra plants can grow well in a 10inch pot. What I observed is, the okra plant can grow up to 7ft (if it is grown directly in the ground or raised beds). In my case, I tried using a 40 cm/16 inch(approx) pot, where my plant has grown up to 4-5ft(max approx). I think the car tyres will work well. Try it and do not forget to share your results with us. We will be waiting! All the best!!:)

  3. Hi Preethi.. thank you for this to the details. I have a query though. It’s been a week my buds are there but don’t seem to be flowering. How long does it take for the buds to flower? The buds look healthy and sturdy.
    Appreciate your response. Thank you!

    1. Hi Krishnan, sorry for the late response. The bud will usually flower in 5-10 days. In my case, the buds started flowering in a week. The climate plays a major factor. Be patient, watch your plant and take a note of it. (as I do if I am growing plants for the first time). Hope this helps!

      1. This is useful information. Have been staring at the buds for days and wondering why they are not blooming yet. Can’t find any answers on Google as well, as most only detail how Long it takes from sowing to flowering but never from bud to flowers. Patiently waiting for the blooms now. 🙂

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  6. Hi Preethi,

    I found a link to your blog on g+

    Nice start on your DiArytale blog. you have put up some amazing pictures here of growing OKRA. Congrats!

    Ladies fingers are truly amazing plants to start with. AND I too had my mother saying the math stuff when I used to skip eating them.:)

    I’m a gardening ENTHUSIAST too. I do like traveling but I miss my garden plants during that time.

    Please do visit my g+ link below to read my posts.

    https://PLUS.GOOGLE.COM/U/0/100836868383563556784

    Keep GOING!

    AND BTW, is the comments section in your blog pages, hard-coded to leave comments only as CAPS? I find it little strange as though I’m shouting at someone when I see the text I’m typing changing to caps.

    1. Hi RadhaKrishnan! Glad that u found us! I liked your balcony garden. They look so pretty! Your comment made my day! Thanks for stopping by and taking your time to write to me! Stick around to get more updates from us!

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