An unusual harvest was collected by specialists from the laboratory of biological research and the seed bank in the Botanical Garden of the Turkmen Agricultural University named after S. A. Niyazov.
Here, on the open ground, the fruits of an exotic plant for our country called Okra have ripened. A vegetable of the mallow family, native to Africa, India and the Middle East, also known as gombo, ocher or ladyfingers.
According to the scientists of the Botanical Garden, now the new culture is undergoing phenological observations, which allow determining the resistance of the plant to the natural and climatic features of Turkmenistan.
“This annual crop is very demanding on heat, it prefers open spaces and regular watering,” says Gulzara Bazarova, head of the biological research laboratory at S.A. Niyazov TSHU. – It grows best in non-saline fertile soils. At home, in tropical countries, okra is grown to obtain finger-shaped fruit-boxes, which are eaten boiled or fried for 3-6 days, in salads, it can also be preserved. But ripe seeds are an excellent substitute for coffee.
At the laboratory-experimental site of the botanical garden, the new crop has been tested for the second year. Thanks to the sunny weather this summer, the fruits of okra gave excellent shoots. And today, the employees of the garden predict with confidence that the new culture will be able to fully acclimatize on Turkmen soils in a sharply continental climate.
In addition to enriching the biodiversity of the Ashgabat Botanical Garden and replenishing its collection with new exotic plants, botanists are considering the possibility of transferring okra seeds to domestic farmers.
Source: Turkmenistan: the Golden Age Online Newspaper