PlantFiles: Okra
Abelmoschus esculentus 'Stewart's Zeebest'

Stwarts Zeebest is very productive with many stims so you can pick several pods from each plant. It works best to set the plants atleast 2' - 3' apart to give it room to spread out. I learned this by accident a few years ago. It's a lot like raising cotton. This way you don't have to have as many plants.

I am currently working with my State's Ag. University on seed increase of a new variety of okra that I've developed over the past 7 years. I call it "HEAVY HITTER" it's got over 50 branches and produces dozens of tender pods in succession (about 200-300 per plant, per season). Until today, I had never heard of Zee Best. From the photos I'm seeing of the Zee Best variety, my HEAVY HITTER has it beat hands down. I get about 1,100 pounds of okra from 4 rows, double planted, 150 feet long. That's about 1.83 pounds per foot, times 600 feet, enough for two grocery stores, a health food store, the Farmers' Market, and some left over for home use and canning pickled okra for several families...

I don't know how to post photos or I would.

I've grown a lot of okra varieties, including five different ones this year. I've been searching for a favorite that I'll want to grow year after year. I've found it - Stewart's Zeebest is "zeebest" I've ever grown!

The plants are wide and bushy with multiple branches that bear pods, so it's a lot more productive than other okra varieties. The pods are dark green, long, smooth, and skinny - and they grow quickly and stay tender even at 8" long. The flavor is very good.

I've got 10 plants in a 15' row, but in the future I'll allow at least 3' between "Zeebest" plants as they grow so wide. I'll stick with this okra variety from now on, I'm real happy with it.

Grew this alongside Bowling Red okra and it was about 4 times as productive and okra was slow to over-ripen. The okra wasn't terribly prickly. Overall - very pleased.