How to Rotate Okra

Rotate your okra crop to keep it disease-free.

Okra is an easy to grow warm season vegetable and a common home garden crop. However, to grow okra successfully, you must rotate it every year. Okra is susceptible to soil-borne diseases and pests, especially nematodes. An okra plant may survive the nibbling of a small population of nematodes. But, season after season, as the nematodes feed and reproduce, they will soon grow to large enough numbers to wipe out the crop. To prevent this from happening, rotate the crop to take away their food source and keep the population down.

Things You'll Need

• Hand tiller

Instructions

1. Dig the okra plants up, roots and all, after the growing season is over.

2. Till and turn the soil to a depth of 8 inches.

3. Plant the okra on different soil next season. Make the new plot as far away from the former plot as possible.

4. Leave the former okra plot fallow. Or, plant it with another plant that is resistant to nematodes, like tomatoes, potatoes, soybeans or certain species of grass. Do not plant the area with a plant that is susceptible to nematodes. like squash, sweet potatoes, or any members of the mallow family, such as jute or hibiscus.

5. Move the okra plants every season. Allow each okra bed to remain okra-free for at least four years before planting okra or any other nematode-susceptible plant there again.

Tips & Warnings

• If your okra crop falls prey to a soil-borne disease, it is important to correctly identify the culprit. Then, as you rotate your garden, you can replant the okra's former bed with a new plant that is resistant to that particular pathogen.

References

• North Dakota State University; Okra Production; Douglas C. Sanders; January 2001
• National Center for Biotechnology Information; Nematode Pathogenesis and Resistance in Plants; Valerie Moroz Williamson, et al.; October 1996
• "African Journal of Horticultural Science'; Poor Hosts of Root Knot Nematodes and Their Application as Rotation Crops in Okra Production
• "The Garden Primer"; Barbara Damrosch; 2003