Okra
Abelmoschus esculentus
Wants hot soil, not merely a passed frost date; sown late and bears until autumn.
When to plant in Washington
- Direct sowOpens in 24 weeks
March 20, 2027 – July 31, 2027
UF/IFAS North Florida planting dates: late March to July. The guide writes this as "late March" rather than as a date; the 20th is this platform's reading of it and the boundary is soft.
- HarvestOpen now
May 19, 2026 – October 9, 2026
Derived, not published as a window by the guide: the late March to July planting plus the guide's 60–70 days to harvest from sowing.
Growing it
- Days to maturity
- 60–70
- Sun
- Full Sun
Okra is the crop most often sown too early here. The frost date passing is not the signal — cold soil gives patchy stands and sulking plants even in April. Sown into genuinely warm soil it bears through the worst of the summer, when little else is setting, and pods have to be cut every day or two or they go woody.
From the guide: UF/IFAS gives the North Florida planting dates for this crop as late March to July. It gives 60–70 days from seed to harvest, 4–10 inches apart in rows 36 inches apart, sown ½–1 in. deep. On the crop itself it says: Soak seeds in water for 6 hours for better germination. Requires warm soil and temperatures. Very heat tolerant. Highly susceptible to root-knot nematodes. Harvest pods a few days after flower petals have fallen, or pods will become tough and stringy.
Where these dates come from: the North Florida column of the UF/IFAS Extension Florida Vegetable Gardening Guide (SP 103/VH021), which defines North Florida as everything above State Road 40. Walton County is well inside it, and the Central and South Florida columns of the same table give different months. The guide is written for home and market gardens, so its spacing and days-to-harvest figures are a starting point for a field planting rather than a commercial schedule, and days to harvest varies by variety.
Common problems
- Root-knot nematode
- Aphids
- Stink bugs
- Fusarium wilt
- Corn earworm