The Knucklehead way to Grow a Blog

[Knucklehead]

Here's my cigar wrapper spot that won't get used this year. (Thanks Uncle Bob for correcting my ignorance. I thought all cigar varieties went in the shade. DUH - read the posts dummy.)
Don's fixing me up with 50 years worth of filler and I'm waiting on him to get the new wrapper leaf situated so I can stock up on some wicked awesome wrapper leaf. Soon to be available at your friendly www.wholeleaftobacco.com dealership. This area runs north and south and gets a maximum of two hours of full sun during the day. Mottled sun the rest of the day.



Here's my main tobacco patch. I've rotated cover crops for the past 7 years here. This year grains and beans. Last year turnips and 5 years before that a perinnial clover. It runs east and west and with full sun all day in the summer. I've put alot of venison on the table from the hunting house on the left. I plan on two 100 ft. rows. I have two 100' rolls of landscape cloth and two 100' 1/2" drip lines. I'll space my 1/2 gph emitters 3 ft. apart and use that spacing to space my plants in the two rows. The drip will be in case of drought as we've been in a several year summer drought cycle here. My rows will be 8' apart so I can get the wheelchair through and turn around between rows if I forget something. (not unusual)



This picture was taken about 25 yards behind where I took the main patch picture. It is on top of the hill. I haven't grown anything here for the last two years. I had perinnial clover there the previous five before I realized if deer came out there they would be between my gun and my house. Bad idea. This is where I will plant my Turkish varieties. Full sun and won't hold water as much as the main patch. I'll plant them close together and neglect them pretty much.

 

[dR_wH0]

Very nice locations!!!!!!!!

 

[Knucklehead]

Here is the work horse of the first stage of the operation. The mighty John Deere. Old Mean Green the Magic Machine. I had it serviced a couple of months ago. She's rarin' to rip and tear.



This my single row cultivator I use to tear up the ground. My buddy is coming this evening to help me hook it up to Mean Green. I went to the cultivator because I had a disc harrow at one time that was so heavy the front end of the tractor got pretty light running around these mountains plowing hunting food plots. However, it wasn't heavy enough to dig. All it would do was scratch the ground. So I sold it and bought the cultivator. It's light enough I can muscle it around by myself but the design of the teeth pull itself into the ground no matter the soil. It will rip and tear 8" deep easy on the first pass. It's been perfect for what I use it for. It's also narrow and I have no trouble gettin around on four wheeler trails.



Here's the rock rake I use after the cultivator. It pulls out the rocks and roots. It also takes the dirt clods and just rolls them over and over in front of the rake until the clods break up. It levels the field and when finished the whole patch is just smooth, broken up top soil that is rock, root, and clod free. I have several feet of top soil. When I dug my pond there was six feet of the prettiest top soil you ever saw before I hit chirt 6 ft. down. I'm blessed with some great dirt.

 

[Knucklehead]

Here is the fire pit I promised someone I would post when I had the camera down at the pond. I made it from an 18 wheeler Budd wheel. It is a one piece wheel with lug nut mount plate welded to the inside rather than a two piece. I put legs on it and welded expanded metal over the brake cooling vent, lug holes and the open center. When that steel heats up it radiates heat like a furnace. An unexpected benefit to the design is that with so much air flow coming from underneath the smoke rises well above your head and you don't have to keep changing position. I have a disc harrow disc that I put under it to catch coals and cook potatoes, corn, onions and apples wrapped in tin foil in the coals. I also have a rotisserie I made to cook over the fire. Nearby is a park style grill cemented into the ground to complement the cooking over the fire. Steaks, venison, hamburgers, wild turkey, etc. It's the best fire pit I've ever used if I must say so myself.

 

[darren1979]

Beautyful setting, and sounds like you have all your base's covered. How many varieties you growing?

 

[johnlee1933]

Are you close enough to the pond to rig a pump for your drip lines? I envy you all your space.

 

[Knucklehead]

Ok here's my future tobacco grow area. To the far left of the picture I left a strip to plant tobacco at the base of the hill. Full summer sun. Most of the rest of the field I'm filling with pear trees, wild plum, persimmon, crap apple and Sawtooth Oak imported from China. The oak is a relative of the white oak family but grows faster and put on acorns in as little as 6 years. This will help the wildlife and eliminate a buttload of grass cutting.



I started pricing material to build a dock. I almost had a stroke. Several thousand dollars. The solution I came up with was the $300.00 pontoon boat you see in the picture (far left). No seats, no motor, no carpet, but it made a perfect floating dock that goes up and down with the water level. The aluminum canopy is great shade and the intact railings were perfect for kids to safely fish from. I got really lucky on that one. The bream stay under it for shade. The bass cruise by looking for bream.

 

[Knucklehead]

Are you close enough to the pond to rig a pump for your drip lines? I envy you all your space.

I have a small one inch Honda pump but it's rated for free flow. Back pressure that would be created by drip lines would kill the pump. I'm going to wait until I run a water line down the hill. I could put in another meter but they charge a minimun fee whether your using water or not. Crooked varmints. Then the times of year you need water they slap a water ban on you.

I own ten acres of my own and my father lives beside me with 6 more. The really nice part is my hunting lease joins my personal property and I have 4700 acres to play with there. The first two plots are actually on my lease, but close enough to the house to easily run water and shoot tobacco thieves.

 

[Knucklehead]

Beautyful setting, and sounds like you have all your base's covered. How many varieties you growing?

Did I forget varieties. Geez some grow blog. I'm growing for sure Virginia Gold, TN 90, Izmir for my cigarette blend. I'm also growing Bursa and YTB and several varieties of two or three plants each to enlarge my personal seed bank. I was gifted several seeds over the past several months and I feel an obligation to pay forward that generosity. FTT at it's finest.

 

[Knucklehead]

Very nice locations!!!!!!!!

Thank you kindly, sir.

 

[leverhead]

Real pretty! It'll be prettier yet when the summer and tobacco come along.

 

[Knucklehead]

Real pretty! It'll be prettier yet when the summer and tobacco come along.

Thank you. I'm dying to see how well the fish like hornworms. LOL The pond is spring fed and cold even in the heart of summer. I get out the floats and put my cigarettes in a baggie and just drift around. If you're ever out this way bring your inner tube and fishing pole.

 

[johnlee1933]

I have a small one inch Honda pump but it's rated for free flow. Back pressure that would be created by drip lines would kill the pump. I'm going to wait until I run a water line down the hill. I could put in another meter but they charge a minimun fee whether your using water or not. Crooked varmints. Then the times of year you need water they slap a water ban on you.

Could you run the free flow pump to the high side of the plot and go with free irrigation?

 

[Knucklehead]

Could you run the free flow pump to the high side of the plot and go with free irrigation?

I could use it to fill a water tank and use low pressure emitters. The low pressure emitters will work with gravity flow. What I plan to do next year is buy some inexpensive 3/4" drip line from DripWorks with hose fittings and run water down hill from my house to the 1/2" drip lines. Just hook up a water hose from the faucet to the 3/4" drip line and turn on the water. The pump and water holding tank would be alot more work than what I want to do. It would be like fly rod fishing versus bobber fishing.

 

[Jitterbugdude]

That's some beautiful acerage. I'll grow all of your tobacco for you if you let me retire to a corner of your property!!

 

[Knucklehead]

That's some beautiful acerage. I'll grow all of your tobacco for you if you let me retire to a corner of your property!!

Deal. Just let me make sure I can get a manufacturers permit and find a source for all that seed.

 

[leverhead]

If the slope isn't too much, run water down the furrows. It worked well enough for me last year that I took out my drip lines. Then I got a flood.

 

[AmaxB]

Beautiful You come in the night and stole my dream, I'm still dreaming. Always wanted a piece of ground with a pond so I could tie flies than see if they would work. Looks like some good spot for your tobacco and your tractor plus implements gave me an idea for my baby tractor (cub cadet). Maybe I could put chains on it and rig something to break my ground while it is soft

 

[Boboro]

Nice place and agreat garden spot. I dont thik my lawnmower would pull all my crap up that hill.

 

[Knucklehead]

You ought to see the hill between the house and the pond. I tried going up it with my four wheel drive 4 wheeler and was laying on the handlebars to keep the front end down and I finally froze and ended up backing all the way back down. I'll have to be drunk to try that again. It gets steeper at the top.