Kaneo
Well-Known Member
To introduce myself I'm from sunny Hawkes bay in New Zealand, i see a few other Kiwis on here growing tobacco and it is interesting to read your grow logs. i am a little further north than Invercargil but probably have a similar climate to the waiarapa.
I'm new to growing tobacco - first year for me and I'm sure I will need plenty of advice on the way, I have struggled to find many varietys available in NZ so I have only started Virginia gold. My main interest is in cigars and I have tried to order some different varaitys from "Coffin Nails" website that seems to be UK based but I have not recieved these yet
I have an area of 12 metres x 4 metres without encroaching on the wifes backyard to much so will try to use this to my best ability.
I have added a grow log that I started for myself if people are interested, any helpful comments appreciated. i hope the pictures Ive added work and are not to big for what is normally accepted on the website
03/09/2012
Spring has finally arrived in the Southern hemisphere so it’s time to get down to the business end of growing tobacco.
I purchased my Virginia gold seed on Trade me prior to this, seems to be the only variety available to me in New Zealand?
I started my tobacco growing by cleaning out two 100 litre AR620 Aquariums. I had these from when I was doing tropical fish.
I purchased 2 x seed trays, 1 x 10ltr Yates seed mix and a misting spray bottle from Mitre 10
The Yates seed mix was placed into the trays. I poured in two inches of water into each aquarium and rested the seed trays into the water. I misted the surface of each tray and sprinkled the tobacco seed, the trays were misted again and the fluorescent tubes turned on.
Note these are aquarium lights not pro growing lights or anything. I plan to have these on during the night to maintain warmth in the potting mix.
I plan to mist on a daily basis and will report back when the seedlings start to show through the soil.
09/09/2012
I originally had the left aquarium behind the right one to keep them both on the lino floor. The only problem with this was the aquarium closest to the window was blocking the sun for the second tank.
This has caused the seedlings in the left aquarium to start slower than the right. I have also started placing a blanket on top of the aquariums to hold in more heat, I have to be careful though as I don’t want to start a fire.
I think I could have got these seedlings going quicker by adding additional water to the tank and submersing an aquarium heater. The seed trays could have been placed on blocks due to the depth of the water.
The seedlings would have been closer to the lights and had a good constant warm temp through the night
I have taken a photo today of the right aquarium to show the germination.
The strike rate seems pretty good as this is just a small portion of one tray. I plan to thin out the weaker seedlings and aim to grow on 100 plants.
10/09/2012
I have decided to leave the lights off from now on, I am concerned that the distance the lights are away will cause the plants to become to leggy. I will leave the aquariums in full sunlight.
I have added another photo to show the change in size of the seedlings.
12/09/2012
I spent a couple of hours filling up hundred and fifty 250ml polystyrene cups with potting mix. This took about 40 litres of yate’s potting mix.
I have ended up putting the lights back on in the aquariums – had a real cold snap here with snow on the ranges.
I also picked up another couple of aquariums to place the cups into.
15/09/2012
Today I have thinned the seedlings down to about 200. I had also thinned them down on the 13[SUP]th[/SUP] and probably started with 600+ seedlings
02/10/2012
It has been awhile since I have noted down the tobaccos progress so I will add some more photos. I have the tobacco in several different aquariums, Warehouse propapgators and plastic storage containers.
I'm new to growing tobacco - first year for me and I'm sure I will need plenty of advice on the way, I have struggled to find many varietys available in NZ so I have only started Virginia gold. My main interest is in cigars and I have tried to order some different varaitys from "Coffin Nails" website that seems to be UK based but I have not recieved these yet
I have an area of 12 metres x 4 metres without encroaching on the wifes backyard to much so will try to use this to my best ability.
I have added a grow log that I started for myself if people are interested, any helpful comments appreciated. i hope the pictures Ive added work and are not to big for what is normally accepted on the website
03/09/2012
Spring has finally arrived in the Southern hemisphere so it’s time to get down to the business end of growing tobacco.
I purchased my Virginia gold seed on Trade me prior to this, seems to be the only variety available to me in New Zealand?
I started my tobacco growing by cleaning out two 100 litre AR620 Aquariums. I had these from when I was doing tropical fish.
I purchased 2 x seed trays, 1 x 10ltr Yates seed mix and a misting spray bottle from Mitre 10
The Yates seed mix was placed into the trays. I poured in two inches of water into each aquarium and rested the seed trays into the water. I misted the surface of each tray and sprinkled the tobacco seed, the trays were misted again and the fluorescent tubes turned on.
Note these are aquarium lights not pro growing lights or anything. I plan to have these on during the night to maintain warmth in the potting mix.
I plan to mist on a daily basis and will report back when the seedlings start to show through the soil.
09/09/2012
I originally had the left aquarium behind the right one to keep them both on the lino floor. The only problem with this was the aquarium closest to the window was blocking the sun for the second tank.
This has caused the seedlings in the left aquarium to start slower than the right. I have also started placing a blanket on top of the aquariums to hold in more heat, I have to be careful though as I don’t want to start a fire.
I think I could have got these seedlings going quicker by adding additional water to the tank and submersing an aquarium heater. The seed trays could have been placed on blocks due to the depth of the water.
The seedlings would have been closer to the lights and had a good constant warm temp through the night
I have taken a photo today of the right aquarium to show the germination.
The strike rate seems pretty good as this is just a small portion of one tray. I plan to thin out the weaker seedlings and aim to grow on 100 plants.
10/09/2012
I have decided to leave the lights off from now on, I am concerned that the distance the lights are away will cause the plants to become to leggy. I will leave the aquariums in full sunlight.
I have added another photo to show the change in size of the seedlings.
12/09/2012
I spent a couple of hours filling up hundred and fifty 250ml polystyrene cups with potting mix. This took about 40 litres of yate’s potting mix.
I have ended up putting the lights back on in the aquariums – had a real cold snap here with snow on the ranges.
I also picked up another couple of aquariums to place the cups into.
15/09/2012
Today I have thinned the seedlings down to about 200. I had also thinned them down on the 13[SUP]th[/SUP] and probably started with 600+ seedlings
02/10/2012
It has been awhile since I have noted down the tobaccos progress so I will add some more photos. I have the tobacco in several different aquariums, Warehouse propapgators and plastic storage containers.