Okra is very sun and heat tolerant, takes full sun and 100F plus temps and is more likely to wilt from excessive rain or watering or cold temps than heat. It has never missed a beat here even in past years when the temps were over 110 F with 80% humidity and in full July/August sun. They just keep on blooming and growing. New transplants can be a bit different if set out without acclimation(sounds like you did that) and not watered in to seal the air pockets around the roots. No matter how well the pots were watered new plantings need to be well watered in after planting. I would not worry over much about okra except when the weather is cold and frosty. Good luck!
I have never grown winter melons or many Asian melons, but will after seeing the Winter melon soup recipe. I have been growing many heirloom melons for fifty years, some years commercially for income. They love and thrive on lots of compost is my number one take away. I put a heaped five gallon bucket of good compost in each hill. They do very well here grown in mounds under mulch fabrics and thrive in hot weather with adequate soil moisture. I am a bit envious of your moderate weather in Hawaii, as extremes are the norm here. In my lifetime temps between , well below 0 degrees F and 116 F for highs. In the typical January, we may have 72 degree days and 15 degree days. In July/August we may have several weeks were the temps are near or over 100F everyday and no rain. My largest melon patches are grown on a low place in a valley of my property, below a a large pond (next door)and that has a water table only two or three feet deep. I have found that they do well without irrigation there grown in the mound method in even the hottest and driest summers. I love to hear about your growing varieties unfamiliar to me here in West Tennessee and your experiences there in Hawaii. Best wishes for your gardens!
Summer is doing the same here!
Timing is everything! Figuring out the right time to start the seeds /transplants is key to winter gardening in a cold greenhouse or under row covers here. They have to be well started before the real cold weather arrives. You will figure it out and be successful! What you can grow successfully under cover that far north is the question. Some northern growers I know use row covers inside an unheated greenhouse or two layers of row covers in extreme weather all the way up in Vermont and Maine. I am not sure what they are successful with. I see collards, kales and even spinach and over wintering carrots mentioned sometimes. Your state AG. extension service should be able to help you with crop suggestions for your area. Very few seeds will germinate reliably in cold weather even in the fall before winter, so starts are the way to go on most unheated fall plantings, with some exceptions possibly.
