The first year I planted okra in my central PA garden, it did great! 5-6' tall plants, lots of pods, healthy green leaves. Sadly, every single year since, for the past 10, I've not been able to get anything taller than 3-4' and only a single bagful of pods.

I know PA is a little north of where okra is supposed to grow, but my first year the okra grew so well, that I was feeding it to everyone. My family got very fond of it and I'd really like to see if I can grow it again. We've had a cool year this year, but even in very hot weather years, the plants do the same thing; older leaves brown from the margins in and die, falling off the plant from the bottom up. After a while the whole plant just stops growing and dies when it's about 3 or 4 feet tall. I've tried moving the plantings to different parts of the garden, lime, fertilizer, watering, not watering, mulching, not mulching - I've still never had anything like the crop I had the first year. I've never seen any bugs on the leaves or roots - and there doesn't seem to be any nematode infestations on the roots, though the leaves look just like those I've seen online on plants with nematode infestations.

I know okra is a heavy feeder and I suspect that the problem with my okra is soil nutrient based. I've amended it a LOT with bone meal, commercial fertilizers and lime, composted yard wastes and epsom salts and at this point everything EXCEPT the okra grows very well. This year, I planted okra in a patch of soil that was left fallow for many years and then was covered with plastic to bake last year prior to being tilled again this year.

The okra plants on the edge of the garden nearest the lawn are doing fine, but the plants in towards the center of the old garden are doing the same thing they have every year; browning from the leaf margins in and then curling up and dropping off. I've never fertilized this grass - like ever - and it's nothing but aged old road fill full of shale and barely grows grass. I would never have thought it to be nutrient rich, but for some reason, it's influence (or nutrients) are keeping these edge okra healthier than the ones further away from.

What nutrients do I need to have in especially good abundance to keep okra healthy? I did a soil test for my garden and it came back as a clayey loam with a pH of 5.6 prior to fertilizing. They didn't note any issues with the soil, though okra isn't something many in PA grow (it's a little cool, especially this year!).

I've taken a few pictures of the plants in question. This shot is of one of my failing okra plants.
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And this one is of the plants against the edge of the grass. These two photos were taken no more than 3 feet from each other.

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As you might be able to tell, the only ones that look really healthy with no chlorotic spots are the ones right up next to the grass.

If you have any ideas, or advice on what kind of fertilization you use for okra, or even what key mineral is the most vital for keeping okra happy, I'd love to hear them. Thanks!