Okra: Choppee vs. Heavy Hitter

GoDawgs · August 18, 2021

We ended up with 2.1" of much needed rain from what was left of TS Fred, After several days of cooler weather, today we're back to low 90's.

The snow peas have all popped up. Glad I took the newspaper off.

This is the okra bed with two Choppee on the near end and two Heavy Hitter on the far end. The Choppee just aren’t as big and leafy as last year’s monsters. All of the okra is looking kind of "thin". I’m still not sure there aren’t nematodes at work here.

This year someone gave me some seeds of Heavy Hitter, an okra supposedly with more fruiting branches than other okras with those branches starting very low on the plant. I’ve counted fruiting branches on both varieties and find no real difference between Heavy Hitter and Choppee. This is a Heavy Hitter:

This is the Choppee. I tried it for the first time last year and am finding I really like this okra whose slim velvety pods stay tender even at 8” long.

I’ve been keeping a count of the number of pods cut from both plants of both varieties. So far Choppee is in the lead 62-59. One of the two Choppee plants kind of stalled out at 8” tall and just sat there for at least two weeks before resuming growth so I imagine if it had kept pace with the other one it would have produced more pods to date.

There will probably not be the avalanche of okra picked from last year’s four plants of Choppee.

August 18, 2021	#1
GoDawgs Tomatovillian™ Join Date: Feb 2018 Location: Augusta area, Georgia, 8a/7b Posts: 1,685	Okra: Choppee vs. Heavy Hitter We ended up with 2.1" of much needed rain from what was left of TS Fred, After several days of cooler weather, today we're back to low 90's. The snow peas have all popped up. Glad I took the newspaper off. This is the okra bed with two Choppee on the near end and two Heavy Hitter on the far end. The Choppee just aren’t as big and leafy as last year’s monsters. All of the okra is looking kind of "thin". I’m still not sure there aren’t nematodes at work here. This year someone gave me some seeds of Heavy Hitter, an okra supposedly with more fruiting branches than other okras with those branches starting very low on the plant. I’ve counted fruiting branches on both varieties and find no real difference between Heavy Hitter and Choppee. This is a Heavy Hitter: This is the Choppee. I tried it for the first time last year and am finding I really like this okra whose slim velvety pods stay tender even at 8” long. I’ve been keeping a count of the number of pods cut from both plants of both varieties. So far Choppee is in the lead 62-59. One of the two Choppee plants kind of stalled out at 8” tall and just sat there for at least two weeks before resuming growth so I imagine if it had kept pace with the other one it would have produced more pods to date. There will probably not be the avalanche of okra picked from last year’s four plants of Choppee.