Okra as a Summer Cover Crop: Deep Roots, Livestock Grazing & Parasite Control
Watch Keith Berns and Dale Strickler examine okra plants 60 days after planting in Green Cover's summer test plots. You'll see the massive taproot system, learn why livestock graze it heavily, and find out the soil temperature requirements that make or break okra establishment.
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0:00 Another crop that we've kind of pulled out of the vegetable world and are using for cover crops because we really like some of the benefits is okra. Okra is in the cotton family so it's
0:11 Very heat and drought tolerant, very deep rooted, which are all characteristics that make it a great addition to summer cover crop mixes. Dale, tell us a little bit more.
0:21 About okra. Look at that root there on that thing. I think this speaks volumes here. You know, it has a massive tap root, taproot able to penetrate.
0:32 Most hard pans of course like you said, different plant families in the mala family with cotton so it offers some different genetic diversity, completely different fallow than grasses.
0:45 Or legumes or most of our other cover crops, so it's really a great addition.
0:52 When we first started planting this thing said well it's got some nice.
0:56 Characteristics but it won't be any good for livestock grazing and we found just the we were wrong, we were wrong. Livestock actually loved this stuff.
1:07 And you know because it is southern cattle. Yeah, it's, and because it's related to cotton it does seem to have some comp, you know cotton has.
1:27 Parasites and another advantage in a grazing situation, Dale, that I've observed is the cattle don't actually eat the whole plant. They'll pick off the ochre fruit and this is a little too.
1:37 Immature yet it's starting to get ready to bloom but they'll eat the fruit and they'll eat the leaves but you get a little bit of rain and this is going to regrow new leaves and it's very.
1:47 Indeterminate it will keep putting fruit on all the way up till it freezes. Yeah, you get multiple flushes. Yeah, good high quality forage. So this is about 60 days of growth planted the end of May.
1:58 We're filming here the end of July, so about 60 days of growth. Okra needs warm temperatures though—you cannot get this planted in cooler soils. It's going to have to be 65 to 70 degrees soil temperatures for this to germinate. We've seen a lot of okra failures when people plant it too early and it just simply will not germinate, and then it gets behind and it can't get caught up.
2:20 It'll handle heat and drought where a lot of other plants won't.