Companion planting has many benefits, but if you want your okra plants to flourish and produce abundant harvests, keep them ...

Okra also can be grown from seed; the germination rate is better if the seeds are soaked overnight. Baker Creek is a good source for heritage seeds.

Okra (Hibiscus esculentus) is a warm-weather crop whose seeds should be planted now. As a member of the Hibiscus genus, you might be expecting attractive flowers, and you will not be disappointed ...

Okra seedlings should emerge between seven and 10 days. After the seedlings have hardened some (about a week should do), thin the plants by clipping all but one plant in each cluster.

The seeds of okra, too, are edible in their early stages. As the pods turn woody, the seeds within also start to change colour, while becoming inedible and comparatively harder.

Okra thrives in the heat - both in the garden and in the kitchen. As the merciless summer sun beats down, okra plants produce pod after pod, giving home cooks pounds of produce to prepare or preserve.

Chris Smith, author of “The Whole Okra,” and the operator of Utopian Seed Project’s experimental farm near Asheville, North Carolina, wants to save the world with okra.