With funding from Southern SARE (Research & Education Grant) we trialed six varieties of okra along with 2 participating farmers.

We decided to restart the Ultracross Okra project without all the crazy okra cousins. Instead we planted 32 of Chris’ most favorite okra varieties and allowed them to inter cross.

We shared Whidby White Okra seed (genetic mixed up) with 250 people across the USA to help select the variety back to a pale podded variety! It was lots of fun and a great success.

We grew out okra seeds from the previous year’s large variety planting as the start of our Ultracross Okra aspirations. We quickly realized that there had been inter species crossing, with lots of interesting (and not always great) results.

We shared Whidby White Okra seed (genetic mixed up) with 250 people across the USA to help select the variety back to a pale podded variety! It was lots of fun and a great success.

We planted all the varieties of okra with the highest oilseed content from the USDA genebank. We made as many hand crosses between those varieties as we could to begin our ‘High Oilseed Okra breeding project’.

We also made a cross between Aunt Hettie’s Red and Puerto Rico Everblush, two of Chris’s favorite varieties.

USP was joined by Jordan Collins as our summer research assistant. Together we grew 100 varieties of okra, including some related species!

Chris Smith explored varietal diversity in okra, and in 2019 published The Whole Okra, which won a James Beard Award in 2020.