Market Farming

["David Tannen" <david AT centerville.net>]

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?