This flower is bigger than a bowl, and every part of it is a treasure: easy to grow, high-yielding, and with anti-cancer benefits
One day, my mom bought 3 flowers at the vegetable market for 5 yuan, and one of them was bigger than a bowl, with a diameter of more than 10 cm. I didn't know what they were for at first, but later at dinner, I saw they had turned into soup ingredients. Well, to be honest, it was pretty tasty.
It turns out this is an edible flower called golden flower okra (Abelmoschus manihot). If you have seen okra flowers blooming, you will notice that golden flower okra and okra flowers look very similar. In fact, golden flower okra also belongs to the Abelmoschus genus, and every part of this flower is a treasure. It has high nutritional value, and long-term consumption can fight cancer and even prolong youth. It is a rare flower.
Golden flower okra has a fresh, delicate fragrance when eaten. It can be used in soup, served cold with dressing, or stir-fried plain, and it can also be steeped in water as tea, helping to calm the mind and relax the body.
Growing golden flower okra is relatively easy. It is mainly propagated by seed. At temperatures above 22°C, seedlings emerge in about 10 days. Fresh flowers can be harvested starting in early June, and blooming can continue into October, so the flowering period is quite long.
It is not demanding about soil either. It is cold-tolerant and heat-tolerant, withstanding lows of -10°C and highs of 40°C. It has strong disease resistance and very high yields, with fresh flowers per mu at around 1000 kg. At temperatures above 20°C, it can be harvested in about 60 days. Golden flower okra can also be grown in pots, and besides being eaten, it can also be used for ornamental purposes.
Caring for golden flower okra should follow its habits. It likes a warm environment with plenty of sunlight. For pot cultivation, sandy loam with good drainage and good water and fertilizer retention is ideal. It likes moisture but fears waterlogging, and it is also quite drought-tolerant. During the growing period, liquid fertilizer can be applied 3 to 5 times. Its growth is very robust, and its adaptability is fairly strong.
If too many flowers bloom in one crop, we can also dry and store them. When we want to eat them, we can just take them out and cook with them, so there is no worry about not being able to finish them all at once. And by around September in autumn, golden flower okra can be kept for seed, so there is no need to buy seeds again the next year.