What did you grow in 2012 and how did you like it

[Knucklehead]

Seed selection time is here. It may be helpful for members to hear of the 2012 grow list of other members and how each variety grew, cured and tasted. Would you grow it again? I'm not looking for a grow blog just a list of the seed you grew and your impessions. Thank you for your time.


Wow - 600 posts. That must be an all time record. What do I win?

 

[Markw]

Hi AKH
Let this be the first reply. For me growing in the UK in a very wet and windy year I grew the following.

VG . This grew well with average size leaf,The yield of low case tobacco leaf was about 100g per plant smoke ok

MCY This had about the same yield as the VG and grew to the same height stronger than the VG

Bursa Good plant tall strong plants with a good yield about 80g per plant

BSS Much shorter than the Bursa with smaller leaf about half the yield of the Bursa

Silk Leaf Not a big plant but with thinner pointed leafs a good looking plant lots of suckering on this one Good Smoking some top leaf is very harsh as it it young.

TN 90 Good plant big leaf size better yield per plant than MCY little suckering to be done on this one.stronger smoke than the MCY very harsh but is now getting better now some leaves are very smooth

OTTO/HY Very tall large cropping plant the tallest plant I grew this year after topping lots of flower heads to keep topping still to smoke

Havana LP Not a tall Plant but with large thick heavy Leaves Color cured OK but took some time with our conditions the leaf has a lovely cigar smell still to try

Silver River.This has been the best plant I grew this year Loads of long large leaves very little suckering and some plants grew very well in the shade 210g of low case tobacco per plant. Takes a long time for seed to mature I am still pulling seed pods
from the one I have growing inside under glass looking forward at trying this one

As for taste Silk Leaf taste nice , MCY is nice and smooth I am still sampling them as the leaf starts to mature and will make up my mind what to grow next year. remember our weather has been crap this year I would like to see how they would grow if we had a good summer.

Markw

 

[Knucklehead]

Nice selection Mark. The Bursa and Ottoman make good stand alone tobacco and smoke good after curing without kilning. (According to posts on here.) Both are on my grow list for this year. Let me know how you like them. Was your grow for pipe, cigars, cigarettes or all three?

 

[Boboro]

Virg. gold Silk leif Golden seal sp. Yellow orinco Yellowtwist bud. The Virg. gold and silk leif are both good bacca but a little on the mild side. Ive grown the Virg. 3 years and the silk leif 2. The rest I ant tryed yet. I need to do that soon but I dont know if I will grow the Burlys this year I have a lot of them. But if one of them stands out I will.

 

[Knucklehead]

Yellow Twist Bud is another good stand alone that smokes good after curing and before kilning. It's on my list for this year. Let me know how you like the YTB.

 

[Boboro]

Top of my std list is to put a few leaves of all the new stuff in the curin chamber. Im gonna start callin it that insted of kiln.

 

[Knucklehead]

When we get the flue curing problem licked we will need to call that a curing chamber because flue curing actually cures. I think the kiln should be called an aging chamber since the leaf going into it is already cured but not aged. It cuts the aging down from at least a year to about a month. Just my opinion. Try some YTB before going into the aging chamber and let me know how it smokes. lol

 

[SmokesAhoy]

I think the word kiln has already caught on to much to change it without causing confusion.

 

[Knucklehead]

We're just being Rebels. We've been trying to rekindle a revolt since the War of Northern Aggression ended in a tie.

BTW I read your grow blog but never did figure out what you grew. I saw GRIN numbers but no name. What was it and how did you like it?

 

[Chicken]

things i wont be growing again,

dark virginia,- smaall crop but leaves may be nice for pipe smoking
vavilov- hated this plant,' another speciality snuff, chewing bacca/ pipe plant,??? small crop small leaves,
ergo- hardly no crop.


what i did like

..silver-river
y.t.b.
ottoman
bursa
14l8 burley
tn-90 burley
lizard tail

im a cigg. smoker, and like plant that has a big yield,

i do have a bad-ass,,, kiln, and store in big gallon size mason jars,

i had a lot more room in my kiln, than i had bacca,

i wasted a lot of space, on crap plants,

this thread is good, you should do a lot of research on what your going to grow,

sometimes experimenting will cost you '' yield''

and thats what we are all after, a good YIELD,.

 

[Knucklehead]

That's a good looking selection. I smoke cigarettes daily with the occasional cigar and I'm just starting to like a pipe. So far my list for this year looks like this:

Little Dutch
Glessnor
Vuelta Abajo
Comstock Spanish
Black Mammoth
Conn Shade
Yellow Twist Bud
Tn90
Virginia Gold
Bursa
Ottoman
Izmir
Perique

I'm going to try to pare this down by a couple varieties but I'm having a hard time deciding. I may hold off on Perique and Black Mammoth. Suggestions welcome.

 

[Knucklehead]

Chicken -- you need to go into the kilning business. Kiln for a percentage of leaf and you won't have to grow.

 

[skychaser]

Virginia Gold, TN 90 and Izmir. That's my wifes and my favorite cigarette blend.
I often substitute the VG with African Red or Costello because I want more kick. Or I add some Aztec to it.
Little Dutch is really good in a pipe.

 

[Chicken]

you got bursa and ottoman listed,

i.m.o. thier is no difference they both make the same yield, and look the same when growing,

 

[FmGrowit]

It might be the growing conditions, but I noticed a big difference in flavor between the two. Bursa has much more of a spice note to it while Ottoman is kind of bland (for an Oriental).

I was told the Ottoman was a semi-Oriental in that it was crossed with a Burley (I think). A tobacco broker told me this about 4 years ago, but I can not find any information on it. I can't seem to find any information on any Semi-Oriental varieties.

 

[Jitterbugdude]

It might be the growing conditions, but I noticed a big difference in flavor between the two. Bursa has much more of a spice note to it while Ottoman is kind of bland (for an Oriental).
.

This has been my experience too.

 

[Markw]

It might be the growing conditions, but I noticed a big difference in flavor between the two. Bursa has much more of a spice note to it while Ottoman is kind of bland (for an Oriental).

I was told the Ottoman was a semi-Oriental in that it was crossed with a Burley (I think). A tobacco broker told me this about 4 years ago, but I can not find any information on it. I can't seem to find any information on any Semi-Oriental varieties.

I would have to agree with you there Don. My Bursa has more of a twang an oriental taste. I don't know what to make of the Ottomam !!! And they both yield very well. I won't be planting the Ottoman next year as I have a lot of it to experiment with next year

Markw

 

[Knucklehead]

What's the best use for Ottoman if it has a bland taste? Kick it off my list and stick to Bursa?

 

[leverhead]

I might retry YTB in some good soil this year. I'm going to skip the Marylands altogether. For flue-curing stay apples and apples with Southern Beauty, not because I like it so much, I just don't want to change too much. I think it suckers too much, but it is a big plant and has a good yield. I do want to try small quantities of as many Turkish/Orientals and semi-Orientals as I can make space for. As a group, I think I need them to make cigarettes to suit me. No more "fast food" tobacco for me! If I'm going to smoke, I want it to be something I like for my own reasons. The BS Samsun and Ottoman were good to me this year, so they're keepers. It was my first year growing tobacco, I've got several more before I can hope for a smaller number of varieties. There's allot of things I want/need to learn, I've got a long growing season here that I want to turn to an advantage.

 

[POGreen]

Here comes the swede and says he grew some 30-40 plants of Nicotiana Rustica , did not ferment the leaves just hung them up to dry and after a number of weeks I grinded them in a meatgrinder and made snuff of it all.
I did like it very much and will grow them again this year , but a lot more than last year....
They grew pretty good .dispite the fact that they were grown in loam , this year it'll be sand and grassclippings for the most part of my seeds , a bit of an experiment...
To be the first time I grew any tobacco overall I'd say they yielded pretty good.

All the best from Sweden