Do okra flowers need to be pollinated?
Okra plants have perfect flowers (both male and female parts on the same flower) and will readily self-pollinate.
HOW TO HAND POLLINATE OKRA | GARDEN TIP - YouTube
How to pollinate Okra flowers | ep. 3 - YouTube
Seeds are open-pollinated. Dwarf plants reach up to four feet and bear three-inch, pale green, spineless pods in about 50 days.
If your plant is dropping its flowers and no pods are forming, it is likely due to environmental problems. Okra needs full sun to produce well. If you are experiencing an especially dreary or rainy period, okra blossom drop may occur. Temperature fluctuations can also stress the plant and cause it to lose flowers.
Okra flowers have both male and female parts inside. They don't need honey bees to pollinate them. Bees do help with pollination by buzzing as they enter and leave a flower.
Some of okra's best garden companions are plants that, like okra, need plenty of water. This includes cucumbers, melons, eggplant, and sweet or hot peppers.
Okra flowers are also big and beautiful, meaning they attract pollinators. This can present a challenge for seed saving because okra will cross pollinate with other okra varieties over ½ a mile! If you are just growing one variety of okra and your near neighbors are not growing okra, then don't worry.
How to Hand Pollinate Your Vegetables for Higher Yields
When should you self-pollinate?
Self-pollination or cross pollination can be an advantage when the number of flowers is small or they are widely spaced. During self-pollination, the pollen grains are not transmitted from one flower to another. As a result, there is less wastage of pollen.
Weather too hot or temperatures are fluctuating. Temperatures greater than 95°F can cause flowers and buds to drop. Temperatures too cool can cause flower and bud drop.
Plants are pollinated manually to improve the crop yield when there aren't enough pollinators. Gardeners and farmers who save seed often pollinate plants by hand to prevent cross-pollination. Summer and winter squash varieties are often cross-pollinated by bees when grown less than half a mile from each other.
You might not appreciate being called “spineless,” but it's an attractive quality for okra plant varieties. The most popular of all the different okra plants is Clemson Spineless, one of the types of okra with very few spines on its pods and branches. Clemson Spineless plants grow to around 4 feet (1.2 m.) tall.
The first variety is the Jambalaya which is a hybrid that produces the most productive okra in the vegetable garden. Another excellent variety is known as Red Burgundy which produces deep red pods that remain tender when growing longer pod lengths.
Okra can grow from three to six feet tall. Choose a garden spot where its shade will not harm other sun loving plants. Sow the seeds one inch deep in rows that are three feet apart. The seeds generally germinate in two to 12 days.
FLOWER BUDS & POLLINATION
The flower buds of lady's finger starts to appear in the 3rd to 4th week after germination. The buds blooms so beautifully. Okra flowers are half-white or pale yellow with reddish core, so attractive. These okra flowers are “self – pollinating” and we need not pollinate manually.
Most cucumber varieties are monoecious with unisexual flowers—have separate male and female flowers within the same individual— and thus require animal pollination for reproduction. However, some varieties are mostly or totally gynoecious (produce only female flowers) and can produce fruit through parthenocarpy.
Cucumber pollination may be lacking in the garden where many varieties of vegetables are planted, as cucumbers aren't a favorite vegetable of pollinators. Without their pollination, you may get deformed cucumbers, slow growing cucumbers, or even no cucumber fruit at all.
Tomatoes don't cross-pollinate easily because they usually self-pollinate before the flowers open. However, if a bee arrives loaded with pollen from another variety, a cross or hybrid may occur.
