Okra · Aleppo, Aleppo, Syria
When to plant okra in Aleppo
Main outdoor window
21 Mar - 11 Apr
The window this page is built around.
Timed from last spring frost
28 February
In Aleppo, on your chosen risk.
Ready to pick
1 Jul - 31 Oct
If you plant at the start of the window.
The average last frost. Half of all years are later than this.
Step by step in Aleppo
Each window is a range, not a single day. Earlier in the range buys you a longer season; later in it buys you a safer one.
Start indoors
31 Jan - 21 Feb
Four weeks before your last frost, under cover or on a windowsill.
Sow direct
21 Mar - 11 Apr
Three weeks after your last frost.
Plant out
21 Mar - 11 Apr
Three weeks after your last frost.
Harvest
1 Jul - 31 Oct
Okra through the year
Against the frost risk in Aleppo
Why these dates
Sow or plant out three weeks after the last frost, once soil is at 18C. Soaking the hard seed overnight noticeably improves germination.
Killed at 0C and checked below 15C, at which point the plant stops setting pods and sulks until warmth returns.
Seed packets and extension guides express timing as weeks either side of the last spring frost, because that is the only reference point that travels. Okra are timed from 4 weeks before that frost for an indoor start, with planting out 3 weeks after it, and this page simply resolves those offsets against the frost date computed for Aleppo.
The median frost-free season here is 284 days, against 55 to 70 days to maturity for this crop counted from sowing. That margin is what decides whether a late sowing is worth attempting.
Also in Aleppo
Other vegetables to time
Growing okra in Aleppo
When should I plant okra in Aleppo?
Aim for 21 Mar - 11 Apr in an average year. If you would rather not gamble on the weather, wait until 18 Apr - 9 May - by then frost has finished in nine years out of ten.
When will okra be ready to harvest in Aleppo?
Expect to start picking around 1 Jul - 31 Oct, based on 55 to 70 days to maturity from the planting date calculated for this location.
How much frost will okra tolerate?
Killed at 0C and checked below 15C, at which point the plant stops setting pods and sulks until warmth returns.