THE FASTEST WAY TO GROW OKRA NOBODY TALKS ABOUT!

Hello everyone, welcome to Dr. Obi's garden. In this video, I'll show you a way to sprout okra or okra seeds fast to ensure faster germination and vigorous growth. There are two key steps that should be combined to attain the results you will see in this video. Let's get to it. You can use okra seeds saved from the previous harvest or your favorite variety purchased from the store. I normally save seeds from the last season so I don't have to buy from the store every time. Here is a quick tip, never save and reuse seeds from hybrid okra varieties, they will never do as well as the original seeds. Now, after breaking open the fruit to release the seeds, the first step is to soak them in water. The kind of water you soak the seeds in can affect the results you get so pay attention to this. I'll be using two different kinds of water to demonstrate what I mean. I will fill two bowls with water. The one on the right will be filled with cool tap water. The one on the left will have warm water, not hot water, warm water or lukewarm water if you will. You should be able to dip your finger in it without being burned. Next, I'll pour a set of 50 seeds in each water. I'll cover and give each a little swirl before setting them aside on the counter for a couple of hours. It's been about 5 hours since I soaked the okra seeds. Let's see what has happened to them. Let's open the plastic bowl with the tap water first. Notice that a lot of the seeds are floating. These are generally non-viable seeds that should be discarded. Let's see the warm water treatment. Here, only a few seeds are floating. This could mean that only a few seeds from this lot were non-viable. I'll use a spoon to skim off all the floating seeds for bowl treatment. After discarding the floating seeds, the water needs to be drained to expose the seeds at the bottom. You can use a strainer to do this. Or use a finger to block the seeds as you drain the water as shown. Next, I'll place a layer of paper napkin in the bowl that has a lid. Plastic take-out bowls work great. I'll pour all the seeds from one set onto it. This is the set from the tap water. I messed up the napkins to keep it moist but not soggy before covering the seeds with one half of the moistened paper napkin. Let's do the same with the seeds from the warm water treatment. Because most of the seeds sank to the bottom after this treatment, it has more seeds than the other but the difference can still be seen in a short while. I'll cover them and keep them in a warm place in the garage. The kitchen counter should work just fine. It's been about 24 hours since I incubated the seeds soaked in either warm or cool tap water. Let's see what's going on with them. I'm starting with the seeds soaked in tap water. Some of the seeds have started sprouting from the roots. I can count 3 of them. Let's check the warm water soaked seeds. Wow, I can see so many seeds sprouting. The difference is clearer when they are laid side by side as shown. The radical or the roots of the seeds soaked in warm water are even longer than that of the tap water. Now, it's clear that soaking the seeds in warm water enhances sprouting of okra seeds so you should use warm water when trying this method. Next is to move to the next step of this technique. This is a critical step to ensure success when planting in the soil. You can leave the seeds to keep them growing for a couple more days to sprout completely but that is not really ideal for okra. Unlike most other vegetables, okra is not normally nursed before transplanting because any root disturbance can affect the growth. Therefore, sprouted seeds should be transplanted as soon as possible to prevent them from growing more roots before transplanting. It is best to transplant them just after 24 hours when they start to sprout like this. You can transplant in batches if the seeds sprout in batches. To transplant, dig a hole about half to one inch deep and place the sprouted seed in it with the roots facing down. Cover with soil. You can also place the seed on a side but make sure that the roots is not facing up and water it well. You should plant only one seed per hole since the seed has already sprouted. However, you can plant two seeds per hole if you have limited space. Maintain a planting distance of 10 to 24 inches apart depending on the climate and the okra variety. Keep the area moist but not wet for the next couple of days. There is a key step that makes a big difference at this stage and you will see this shortly. After 3 days, the seedlings will finally emerge from the soil as you can see in your shot. These are seedlings from the standard treatment after sprouting seeds soaked in warm water. Let's now look at another treatment that facilitates rapid growth. This is a simple action of mulching. I use dead weeds as mulch but any breathable organic material can also be used. Let's look at the mulch plants. Wow! Look at the growth in the mulch seedling. The leaves have opened fully and the seedling has grown taller than the seedlings without the mulch. Here is another mulch seedling and a similar effect can be seen. This shows that mulching is very critical for the growth of okra. Mulching is recommended especially if the weather is very dry and you cannot maintain a twice daily watering regime. Once the seedlings emerge, the mulch can be spread around the stem to keep maintaining the soil moisture. Within the next 4 days, the seedlings will begin to grow more leaves. At this stage, the difference between the mulch seedlings and those not mulched will still persist. The mulch seedling has bigger leaves whereas the seedling without the mulch has smaller leaf sizes. It is clear that the warm water treatment together with mulching promotes faster growth of okra seedlings. Within a couple of months, they will grow big and start bearing fruits like this plant. That is all for now. Thanks for watching. Give these tips a try and let me know what you think. If you found this video useful, smash that like button and also share it so that more people will benefit from it. Don't forget to subscribe if you have not already done so. Check out our other videos or see you in our next. Until then, it's adios.