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market-farming - Re: [Market-farming] Okra and Japanese beetles

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  • From: "David Tannen" <david AT centerville.net>
  • To: "Market Farming" <market-farming AT lists.ibiblio.org>
  • Subject: Re: [Market-farming] Okra and Japanese beetles
  • Date: Tue, 8 Aug 2006 07:46:05 -0500

I had terrible infestations of Japanese beetles last year and the year before. Hardly see any of them this year. All the older farmers told me that nothing bothers okra, so I was surprised they were eating my okra last year. Fortunately, they did little damage to the okra as they much preferred my beans. I hope you find the the same to be true for your okra.

However, I did have an unusual experience with my saved okra seed. None of it germinated! I let the pods dry on the plants, chopped down the plants and stored the entire plants in the shed. In the spring I removed the seeds from the pods, planted and irrigated. I also planted and irrigated two rows of seed purchased from the feed store. The store bought seed germinated, but not a single plant came up from the saved seed. Not one! I replanted store bought seed and it germinted normally. I didn't think anymore about it until I had a conversation with a gentleman at the local barber shop. His neighbor had the exact same experience.

Now my paranoia is kicking in. Could it be that the "terminator gene" has been added to the okra seed that is being distributed around here? Anybody else have this happen?

David

----- Original Message ---- From: "Ken Bezilla" <kenbez AT hotmail.com>
To: <market-farming AT lists.ibiblio.org>
Sent: Monday, August 07, 2006 8:18 PM
Subject: [Market-farming] Okra and Japanese beetles


It's my first year growing veggies here in Virginia, and my first time for
dealing with Japanese beetles. They're munching some on our okra -- some
light damage to the leaves, but also a bit of munching on some of the older
pods (annoying, since we're growing the okra as a seed crop).

Should we worry about the Japanese beetles? Are we breeding an okra-loving
strain of beetles, and should we destroy them before they destroy all okra
as we know it?





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