10 Companion Plants for Okra (With Pictures)

Companion planting can improve the flavor and give you a bumper harvest from your crops. It can also support you struggle pests and diseases that might assault your crops in the garden. Okra is among the crops that gain a lot from companion planting.

Okra can be a prolific plant that can overtake your vegetable yard. So, you have to be intentional about where you plant it. Do not worry about that just yet. The ideal companion crops for okra will relieve your mind and concerns, so get planting!

What Is Okra?

This edible plant belongs to the mallow household. It generates fruits that search like small inflated pods with pointed ideas. The pods are inexperienced when youthful but flip yellow or white when they ripen and soften. The plant can increase up to four feet tall, generating large leaves at the base that kind a rosette form all around the stem. Normally, the stems are green but can also be purple or crimson. It relies upon on the okra assortment you are increasing.

The fruit inside each and every pod contains several seeds surrounded by a mucilaginous gel. It is a thickening agent in soups and stews worldwide (especially in Africa). Apart from its culinary uses, okra also has medicinal homes. Traditional healers throughout Africa have utilized okra for hundreds of years to take care of various ailments.

The Top 10 Companion Plants for Okra

1. Sunflower

Sunflower is an annual plant developed for its edible seeds and eye-catching bouquets. It grows effectively with okra, attracting pollinators such as bees and butterflies. It boosts the likelihood of effective pollination in okra bouquets. The plant’s tall growth also protects okra from the wind.

The best way to plant sunflowers alongside okra is together the edges or border of your okra backyard garden.

2. Radish

Radish is in the Brassicaceae household. They’re an exceptional companion plant for okra because they help split up the soil for better drainage. Radishes also avert root illnesses.

When planted alongside okra, as they support suppress weeds and improve soil top quality. When you harvest the radishes, include them to your compost pile. They will break down organic issue and return vitamins to the soil. Okra wants these nutrients to prosper.

3. Cucumber

Cucumbers are another warm-weather conditions vegetable that can increase together with okra. The two plants require equivalent increasing situations. One particular of the best issues about developing them together is that they require small maintenance. They also do not need to have much fertilizing or watering when recognized in your garden.

However, take notice to plant them too close to every single other. Cucumbers need to have complete sunshine, and the okra plants may possibly shade them. It is very best to plant them six inches aside.

4. Pepper

Pairing peppers with other vegetation is difficult. It is due to the fact they require a whole lot of nitrogen. But they’re superb companion vegetation for okra. They deter pests like beetles, aphids, and stink bugs.

They can also discourage cabbage worms that feed on young okra foliage. Only plant pepper shut to okra if your okra plants are infested with cabbage worms.

You will need to have to plant pepper seeds along with your okra seeds. Besides, you can transplant pepper seedlings into the very same region as your okra seedlings when they are about 4 inches tall.

5. Eggplants

Eggplants are 1 of the best veggies to grow. They thrive in sizzling weather conditions and generate numerous fruits per plant. You can harvest eggplants when tiny or go away them to experienced into large fruits.

Eggplants do far better when planted near to okra. They trade nutrients with every other.

So, situation them subsequent to each and every other on the backyard mattress fairly than spreading them out above a number of rows. Planting these two crops together will help them thrive far better than if you plant them on your own.

6. Basil

Basil is an effortless-to-develop herb that you can plant around any other plant. It has numerous makes use of, including producing pesto sauce and adding taste to salads. You can also use it as a garnish on dishes like spaghetti sauce or soups.

It’s a very good companion plant for okra. It will repel pests such as whiteflies, aphids, and beetles, with its powerful aroma. This aroma also appeals to useful insects that maintain pests absent from your vegetables. Okra, in flip, can develop tall, offering shade to basils in the course of sizzling weather conditions.

7. Melons

The melon vines hold the ground moist about your okra crops. Okra vegetation becoming tall, will offer shade to melon vines in return. Make sure melons are not shaded from the morning daylight. The best way to do this is to plant melons on the japanese aspect of okra.

When planting melons with okra, there need to be enough spacing at minimum three feet apart. It is since melons require a good deal of water and sunlight and can compete for these essential progress situations if you plant them as well shut to every single other. The vines as well need area to develop. So, make certain you give them sufficient place.

8. Peas

Peas are legume vegetation that correct nitrogen in the soil and increase the soil framework. They convert nitrogen from the air into a kind other plants can use. Okra also employs this nitrogen to develop. The flowers of peas also draw in pollinators. Peas really do not contend for nutrition or h2o with okra, and they really do not take up a great deal of space in the garden.

To begin with, plant peas in the yard. Later, plant your okra plants. This way, the okra seedlings won’t overcrowd your peas. Aside from, you are going to harvest peas just before your okra matures to take up a lot more room in your backyard.

9. Lettuce

Lettuce is another straightforward-to-grow vegetable. It does effectively along with okra crops because the two prefer hotter temperatures. You can even harvest them concurrently by selecting lettuce leaves off as essential. Then, let okra pods to mature on the vine until they are prepared for harvest.

Lettuce aids manage weeds at the foundation of your okra crops. In return, okra shades lettuce from the sizzling sunshine. Okra can reach a height of up to six feet.

Lettuce is quick-growing and can be harvested inside a few months or much less.

10. Calendula

Calendula (pot marigold) is a perennial flower with many culinary uses and medicinal rewards. You can develop it as an annual or biennial depending on your weather zone. It is a gorgeous flower you can use as a companion plant for okra.

It has vibrant yellow bouquets that attract useful insects like hoverflies and lacewings. These insects maintain pests absent from your vegetable backyard garden. They also support in the pollination of your crops.

Okra and calendula also share numerous increasing demands. So, they will do well when planted together in your yard or yard.

The 3 Worst Companion Plants for Okra

You’ve gone by means of some of the greatest companion crops and picked a few to go with okra plants in your backyard garden. Let’s look at a number of plants you should maintain off your okra yard.

1. Squash

Okra is a near relative of squash, so they share a lot of widespread pests. These pests may possibly spread to your okra if not managed. Squash also attracts nematodes. Nematodes are harmful to okra.

2. Sweet potatoes

They increase effectively in heat climates. Their vines keep down the weeds in in between rows of plants, but they’re not advantageous to okra as they also appeal to nematodes (tiny insects) damaging to okra. Nematodes in the soil can assist several garden crops, but not okra.

3. Onions and garlic

The worst companion crops for okra incorporate garlic and onions, which are users of the Allium family members. They’re connected to leeks and chives. These crops will make your okra crops style bitter if planted close to them. The best way to stay away from this is planting your okra absent from any Allium species.

The Benefits of Companion Planting

Conclusion

If you want to grow okra, you have to use companion crops that will enhance its capabilities. Okra plants are amiable and need to have little care. They also depend on other foodstuff sources to prosper and reward their gardeners with an ample harvest of tasty pods.

These 10 vegetation described can increase and enrich the okra plant’s expansion. They’ll also safeguard the plant from damaging insects and plant illnesses.

Featured Impression Credit history: Elouis73, Pixabay