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First time grower from Massachusetts

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DonH

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Hi all! First time grower in north central Massachusetts. What an absorbing hobby! I’ve been reading like mad on the forum and enjoying every minute of it. This hobby combines other ones I enjoy. I’ve always liked gardening, fermenting things and complex flavors that change over time (I’ve made a lot of wine and beer), so with this I get all three.

I decided to grow last fall, and spent a ton of time reading on the this and another forum (how were we ever able to do anything before the Internet?) and got excited about it, but got absorbed with work this spring and then realized it was already May before I ordered seed. So I got some seed (Virginia, Kelly Burley, and Shirazi) and started them, thinking it can’t really take a full 6-8 weeks to get them going. Well, yes it does. So I looked into ordering plants and ordered some from BigBonner. Great product and service as always, and I was off and running on June 4, not much later than the usual Memorial Day as the absolute latest last frost day in my part of the country, only problem being that this was an especially warm winter and spring so they could have gone in much earlier.

I planted 19 Virginia Bright Leaf, 17 Burley, and 9 Smyrna #9 (a Turkish/Oriental variety). I got 35 of them in the ground right away. I didn’t have room for more, so I put 25 in small pots. That day was called away on a 3-day business trip at the last minute, so I was anxious about the plants. But the weather was favorable for transplanting, four days of gentle rain so they weren’t shocked by sun and heat at transplant time. When I got back home, the plants were alive but not looking too good. But everyone says to wait three weeks for the roots to get established. The plants I got were pretty large since it was late in the season and I planted them at the same depth they arrived in (in other words, not putting the stem part where there were no leaves or yellowed leaves underground). I have heard different takes on which way is best.

I decided to create another garden plot for the extras, which involved manually digging up turf in an uncultivated part in the back of my property, adding composted cow manure, lime, and fertilizer. I was able to put 12 more plants in the new plot, putting them in deeper. Due to the time spent preparing the plot, these plants went in 10 days later on June 14.

But the plants in both plots were still looking weak: yellow leaves except for new growth, small leaves, not much growth. Some of that is normal, tobacco plants take a while, up to three weeks, to get established while they are growing roots, but then when the hot weather comes in July, they take off. But this seemed worse than it should be after they had been in the ground for a week, so I sprayed them with liquid fertilizer and put some in the ground around the plants. That helped a bit. I put the regular dry fertilizer in the soil a little late, although in the first plot, I had put in lots of compost in the fall (including composted chicken manure from our chickens) and ashes from our wood-burning stove over the winter. But they still looked weaker than I thought they should (I know, I know, leave them alone) so I got a nice electronic PH tester and found out in the original plot that I had put compost and ashes in the PH was 7. Which I was surprised by since the soil is traditionally acid where I live, white pines and blueberries grow wild in the woods around the property. So I fertilized them with liquid fertilizer for acid loving plants and that brought the PH down a bit to about 6.8 in the old plot and 6.5 in the new one.

I used BT for worms and have had no problems and so far no problems with slugs. On June 9, I was going out of town for a day and I wanted to spray the plants with a soap/pepper solution, but I did it in the middle of a sunny day. Big mistake, the leaves got scalded by the sun. That weakened them considerably, especially the Burley. I had boiled the pepper solution for a while in case the peppers were carrying Tobacco Mosaic Virus, so I was worried that I might have spread that by not boiling enough. It turns out, though, that the new leaves were fine.

I also still having problems with yellowish leaves. I read that that might be due to Magnesium deficiency, so I sprayed them with a solution of a couple of tablespoons of Epsom Salts in a gallon of water and the plants responded immediately. So the next day I watered them with the Epsom Salts solution and the leaves are now a nice dark green. Again, the lesson was to get a full soil test first!

We had a real heat wave last week with temperatures reaching 97F two days in a row. That burned some of the leaf buds, especially on the Burley but otherwise it was good for the plants. The Virginias are now doing really well, but the larger leaves are 8 inches long and they and the Smyrnas are adding leaves fast. The Burleys are recovering in the first plot where they have been in the ground for 20 days. I still have six or so plants left in small pots that are doing well that I can use for replacements for the ones that fail in the garden.

I also saved one seedling of the Shirazi seeds I planted, thinking I will put it in a 5-gallon container, and I will be getting Azteca Rustica seeds that I will try to grow a few of in containers this year since they mature quicker.

I also ordered different lots of whole leaf to tide me over until I get a crop and to benchmark what my results should be if everything goes well. Amazing. Thanks to fmgrowit and BigBonner for their fine leaves and service! I had been smoking tubes injected with Kentucky Select Organic Virginia, but was getting tired of just Virginia. Blending that with Burley and Oriental has been amazing. I am smoking much more because they taste so great. I look forward to trying other varieties.

I came to smoking late in life, having just smoked for a couple of years over twenty years ago. I started smoking again for health reasons (mental health! ;) ) wanting to try pure (if possible organic) tobacco, knowing the bad health effects of commercial cigs, especially with the FSC law. Once I was on a trip and my bags got delayed a day and I ran out of RYO cigs, so I bought a pack of American Spirit organics, thinking I would see how bad the FSC stuff was. It was horrible, I immediately got that sore throat, coated feeling everyone talks about. Since starting smoking the pure RYO stuff, I never got sore throats, colds, coughs or headaches like I got years ago from the commercial cigs. So I ended up ripping up the American Spirits and re-rolling them.
 

Rayshields

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Welcome DonH,
You have already had quite a ride on the tobacco express...As you already know, there are a bunch of helpful people on this forum. Good luck on your grow. Always remember that there is nothing worse than success on your first attempt.

Ray

p.s. You say you like to ferment stuff...are you familiar with Kefir grains?
 

DonH

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Welcome DonH,
You have already had quite a ride on the tobacco express...As you already know, there are a bunch of helpful people on this forum. Good luck on your grow. Always remember that there is nothing worse than success on your first attempt.

Ray

p.s. You say you like to ferment stuff...are you familiar with Kefir grains?

Yeah, I've made a few batches of coconut milk kefir. I also would like to try making Kombucha this summer. Stuff's too expensive to buy that often.
 

Jitterbugdude

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Don't ferment your kefir in the same room you do your Kombucha. The spores will do funky things. I gave a friend some Kefir grains and he did OK with them for about a year... until he put his Kombucha next to them.
 

johnlee1933

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Welcome DonH ! I don't know how far north in MA you are but you must know a lot of tobacco in grown in the southern part of your state primarily CT broadleaf and shade. You seem to have done y our homework carefully. That always contributes to success. Good luck and again Welcome.

John
 

driftinmark

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welcome DonH,
good luck with your plants!!
I too used to smoke kentucky select organic, in the small bags it was perfect, but I ordered a few 5 lb bags and the consistency was just not there......
but still a great tobacco.....
then i got into some oriental and virginia also , and am smoking more because of the taste too, lol......
but its different with what I smoke now, if feels cleaner and better for some reason....I actually enjoy it now instead of just puffing away.......huge difference
anyway welcome aboard, there are many smart people here to help with what ever you need....
 

johnlee1933

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welcome DonH,
good luck with your plants!!
I too used to smoke kentucky select organic, in the small bags it was perfect, but I ordered a few 5 lb bags and the consistency was just not there......
but still a great tobacco......

Mark, have you tried adjusting the humidity (case). I found playing with that helped me a lot in rolling cigars.

John
 

Chicken

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welcome friend,,,

im syre with the help. of myself and others on this site, you wont need to '' buy anymore seeds''

just request them
 

driftinmark

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Mark, have you tried adjusting the humidity (case). I found playing with that helped me a lot in rolling cigars.

John

Hi John,

I didnt know about humidity at first, but after awhile I read something that said use only distilled water and thats what i used to prevent it from drying out so fast, but I think alot of people started using this particular tobacco and maybe they wernt prepared for it as the site I was buying it from was often sold out.....
when it became available again, the flavor had changed in my opinion......I still have some left and its good with a good oriental, but thats for another thread, lol

thanks
mark
 

DonH

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Don't ferment your kefir in the same room you do your Kombucha. The spores will do funky things. I gave a friend some Kefir grains and he did OK with them for about a year... until he put his Kombucha next to them.

That's good to know, thanks!
 

DonH

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Welcome DonH ! I don't know how far north in MA you are but you must know a lot of tobacco in grown in the southern part of your state primarily CT broadleaf and shade. You seem to have done y our homework carefully. That always contributes to success. Good luck and again Welcome.

John

I'm pretty far north, right on the New Hampshire border. I would like to go see the Connecticut fields sometime. A guy I work with is from Chicopee and had a job as a kid cutting tobacco.
 

DonH

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welcome friend,,,

im syre with the help. of myself and others on this site, you wont need to '' buy anymore seeds''

just request them

Thanks, Chicken, that's great. I am already thinking about next year's crop. I definitely want to plant more varieties next year.
 

Chicken

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well, just make sure you request your seeds, and have them in hand by january,,,,dont wait to long to ask for them, and miss the beginning of the season, because you waited too long on asking for seeds,
 
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