Fisherman's grow blog; Port Lavaca Texas ,Gulf coast

[Fisherman]

Hello folks,
I guess i need to post a few pics and plans and ideas to record the season for me and whomever might benefit from it.

I am roughing in the diary and will add pics asap thru editing.

I am first time grower and am planting virginia bright this year. I plan to grow about 200 plants and to air dry then flue cure. I am totally at mercy of what i read and the advice I get form fellow members. SO far the forum members have been great.

Any advice is really appreciated. I want to grow in the "rain gutter" system and use 5 gallon buckets and planters #7 and need info on soil and fertilizer mixs. I am renting so have to use the above ground methods. Should be a great learning experience.

Sincerely,
Mike.

 

[Fisherman]

Re: Fisherman's grow blog

I started my seeds on February 16th at 2200. I used the jiffy peat pots that come with inside and bottom tray. The peat pellets are surrounded in some sort of fine gauze or paper fabric and expand when wet. Keeping in mind I was learning about 2 days behind my growing and planting activities, there are some errors and lessons learned.

First, I used wet coffee grounds to help spread the 4 packs of seeds I purchased. The idea was to make a medium loaded with the tiny seeds to aid in equally dividing them. I took small plate and "salted" it with the seeds and then applied a small amount to each of the peat pellets now fully wet and expanded. My girlfriend tore her pellets open a little bit and since she had used them before I thought was good idea but left mine alone.

I read about float systems, heard warnings about damping off and totally confused, i added water to the bottom trays and misted from top and put cover on and added heat lamp to bring average temp to about 74.

Welll they sprouted in 72 hours!

I took off cover or actually raised it on one corner and should have added more water to trays.. I didnt and think that is one reason for the long delay that some say is natural after rapid germination. Also the coffee grounds started molding! Raising the cover more seemed to retard the mold and lost no plants at all. I did have a few pots we missed and 1 that was all yellow plants. It was moldy but after a few days and a huge by proportions, addition of a few grains of miracle grow, the plants colored nicely and all was well with them. So i think the coffee ground mold didnt hinder anything but mite not use them again in case they could promote damping off disease. I mite use the ash and seed mix suggested from a cuban video on youtube or even sand. Or see eye doctor and get jeweler's loupe and plant more precisely...

Any way they sprouted in 72 hours and lots of them as well.




NOTICE YELLOW CELL . THIS SEEMS TO BE DUE TO NO FERTILIZER IN THE PATICULAR PEAT CUP I BELEIVE INSTEAD OF THE COFFEE GROUND MOLD ISSUE.

 

[Fisherman]

Re: Fisherman's grow blog

ALMOST 2 WEEKS AND NOT A LOT OF CHANGE????

I removed the cover and have been misting with 1/4 strength miracle grow and adding little bottom water. Looking back I think i should have added a lil more bottom water or with solution and relyed less on top misting. The peat pot setup sort of drys quicker so danger of over watering is really less than in plastic grow systems..... When i did start adding water to bottom they seemed to pick yo a little steam.

They do look greener on regular pics tho thumbnails are showing more yellowish tones....

Also notice mold is gone or almost gone tho pots appear wet. Leaving covers off pretty well cured the mold issue.

And yes. sowed much to thickly. Which proves to be a problem later in the transplanting days.

 

[Fisherman]

Re: Fisherman's grow blog

3-2-13......5 days later!

Wow they are coming on now...... tho still tiny they are almost dubble from a week ago.

Evidence is showing that we really sowed crazy to much!

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[leverhead]

Re: Fisherman's grow blog

With the sunny weather we've been having, my last starts sprouted in 3-4 days.

"I plan to grow about 200 plants and to air dry then flue cure."

Flue-curing takes fresh picked "green" leaf going in and in 5-6 days has flue-cured leaf coming out. Or maybe I miss understand you. Are you going to air-cure some and flue-cure some? I don't know what to tell you about fertilizer rates in containers, too much nitrogen will make harder to yellow. Read the label on your fertilizer, if it has too much urea in it, it will kill your seedlings!

 

[Fisherman]

Re: Fisherman's grow blog

3-4-13=

seems like they are bigger yet. Have new leaves starting too.
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[Knucklehead]

Re: Fisherman's grow blog

looking good Fisherman! what varieties are you growing?

 

[Fisherman]

Re: Fisherman's grow blog

Hey Leverhead! glad you dropped by!.... I want to flue cure but dont know how much harvest to expect and therefore what size kiln to build. I was told I could hang and dry then kiln to cure.... Dang plants grow quicker than my budget and learning ability! lol.
I dont want to build like 4 kilns so that process is not interupted with addition of "dabs" of new leaves being harvested is point.
PS I am following your grow blog closely. You are my self appointed mentor.

 

[Fisherman]

Re: Fisherman's grow blog

Only one variety so far... Virginia bright...... at least seeds will be pure and I will smoke it regardless Mite have enuff to blend next year.....

 

[Knucklehead]

Re: Fisherman's grow blog

Kilning and flue curing are two different processes. What you are planning to do is called kilning. It basically speed ages the leaf after air curing so you don't have to wait a year for it to naturally age. Be on the lookout for a free upright freezer that someone is throwing away to build your kiln from. You picked a good mentor. leverhead rocks.

 

[Knucklehead]

Re: Fisherman's grow blog

Only one variety so far... Virginia bright...... at least seeds will be pure and I will smoke it regardless Mite have enuff to blend next year.....

if you're a cigarette smoker, check out the cigarette sampler at Don's website www.wholeleaftobacco.com. Cigarettes are generally a blend of Burley, Virginia and Turkish. The sampler is a good way to work your way into processing whole leaf and get a blend figured out. Once you've tried Virginia by itself, you may want to buy Burley and turkish to blend with it. Don has great prices and has the best leaf available. If you're still buying packaged cigarettes, switching to whole leaf now will save you a ton of money.

 

[Fisherman]

Re: Fisherman's grow blog

3-5-13:
Repotting some.....

Ok here I am in deep learning curve. I see pics of super tiny transplants... I mean super tiny!!!!!!!!!!!! ANd with huge flowing taproots etc...

I gotta beleive what i see and read... One thing I am praying is true===== "Tobacco plants are hardy and can be transplanted bare root like a tomatoe".... OM man I hope that is true... BECAUSE...... my lil plants do not have the huge root that I see elswhere.

Today I did transplant 1 flat of 72 plants. I used some flats and trays form ebay and tho not as tall as the ones in my mentors grow blog and not as big a hole... I think will work.... One thing i noticed is that the trays have no way to control water level.... Due to small holes in bottom of plant flats, i am going to allow 1/4 inch to 1/2 inch of water to stand in tray. To accomplish this I will melt a hole in the bottom tray on all 4 sides or maybe 2 on one side to control overflow better and see how that works...
I used Jiffy seed mix which is peat and vermiculite and very fine textured. I picked biggest plants and regardless of root amount... they went into flat... Has been day now and no wilting at all from them and all leaves are off the ground but has been chilly in house ans cut heat lite off to help with potential wilting.

Again has been 24 hours and none wilted so far...

3-6-13:

Transplanted another flat and still have lots to go.. SHould get many more flats of 6 dozen before going into cull mode.

This 2nd flat is also Jiffy mix. I like how it works and after pre-soaking the flat it went a lot faster and smoother. It really seems like the rotts are bigger today!? ALso soaking the peet pellets before yanking tenderly the lil seedling results in even a lil dirt on roots.

I was going to try another flat BUT since Wallyworld was out of the Jiffy mix, I opted for miracle grow seedling mix..... Well boys , I gotta tell ya... even redwood trees are seedling once and I think the miracle grow people had them in mind when making this mix. It has ciggerette butt size twigs in it and vermiculite peices size of lizard eggs. I will wait till tommorow before doing any more. Maybe roots will get even larger.

I set up a workbench I just built to hold 2 4' dubble grow lite floresent fixtures and will adjust downward tommorow... Is to late tonight and expecting callout for work.

Wow I cant add anymore pics to blog! Says only 10 per post?









After editing I guess I had a glitch. I allowed me to upload again... Thanks Knucklehead

Notice difference in potting mix texture between the Jiffy [fine textured one] and the miracle grow one [the loggy sample]....

 

[Knucklehead]

Re: Fisherman's grow blog

That's 10 pictures per post. Not 10 pictures per thread.

 

[leverhead]

Re: Fisherman's grow blog

Hey Leverhead! glad you dropped by!.... I want to flue cure but dont know how much harvest to expect and therefore what size kiln to build. I was told I could hang and dry then kiln to cure.... Dang plants grow quicker than my budget and learning ability! lol.
I dont want to build like 4 kilns so that process is not interupted with addition of "dabs" of new leaves being harvested is point.
PS I am following your grow blog closely. You are my self appointed mentor.

I don't know about mentor, I don't know enough to be one! If you follow me too closely you'll end up making the same mistakes as I will, this will be only my second year growing tobacco. When you pick ripe leaf, you'll want to let it yellow before it drys. If you dry it too quickly, it will dry green. If you do that outside and out of the sun where you live, I don't think you'll have that problem. With the South wind along the coast, you'll probably end up fighting mold. Neither drying green or mold is a good thing. Kilning is not flue-curing! Kilning is a way to artificially "age" otherwise cured leaf. Flue-curing is a batch process that takes pretty uniformly ripe leaves as a load and then yellows and finally drys the leaves under controlled conditions of temperature and humidity.

Last year I started out with seeds and wanted seedlings, I read everything I could find on the subject and ended up doing only a fair job of it. Then it was on to growing tobacco, I read everything I could find and only did a fair job of that. I ended up with too much nitrogen and had a hard time yellowing my tobacco. I had my row spacing too narrow and broke allot of leaves trying to spray for worms and picking off suckers. All that rain we got last July nearly finished me off. If you take growing tobacco as a challenge, you'll be ahead of it. There's allot of places to mess up before harvest, then comes curing. I think everybody has unique issues with curing to solve, you're only 100 miles away and I think we'll have different problems. Buckle up, this is fun!

 

[FmGrowit]

Re: Fisherman's grow blog

Your boat post was moved to it's own thread

http://fairtradetobacco.com/showthread.php?2136-My-other-project

 

[Fisherman]

Re: Fisherman's grow blog

I don't know about mentor, I don't know enough to be one! If you follow me too closely you'll end up making the same mistakes as I will,

Hi again Leverhead,

I have few answers but am dam good at asking questions.......

I got one now..... How long after transplanting wlll a little plant that wont make it show signs of wilting and die??????
My first flat isnt growing but isnt dying or wilting yet and has been 48 hours at 70-74 deg. F....

I had a few today in 3rd flat using miracle grow seedling mix for redwoods that when pulled to move... came with little or no roots. I dropped them in the water in the tray bottom just to see if they may "hydroponically " survive they havent wilted since yesterday so I figured WTH>

 

[FmGrowit]

Re: Fisherman's grow blog

Hi Fisherman,

I'm not Leverhead, but seedlings will show little to no progress for about the first 30 days and if you look at them more than once a day, they don't grow at all.

The root problem is one of two things. Urea in the starting mix or the mix is two wet (or both).

Check your starting mix bag for carbamide or CO(NH2)2. If this is listed as an ingredient, your seedlings will either die or just not grow. Urea will kill the roots, but the stalk will try to suck up as much moisture as it can, so the seedling will actually look heathy...until you attempt to transplant it and find there are NO roots.

 

[Fisherman]

Re: Fisherman's grow blog

Or Lord!
Thanks for info boss... I made a short video of some and they few had many roots to speak of.... I think Im ok with urea but the wet I may be guilty of...The Jiffy mix had none. I need to re-rig my heat lamp in new planter also... is holding in 70's .. I well know the not growing while watching! It was looking at the pics that i realized they were starting to move. They are 3 weeks old saturday or 20 days old today.
I cut slots in the bottom trays but in order for it to wick I had to totally wet and soak them.... I am draining as we speak thru slots on some and will cuit others tommorow after im sure the miracle grow seedling mix will remain wet and not go back to waterproof peat and twigs.. actually video is long and boring and isnt worth posting on youtube even but it does show roots and lack of roots and opinions on some
Many thanks,
Mike

 

[leverhead]

Re: Fisherman's grow blog

Listen to FMGrowit! Be careful what fertilizer you use on seedlings! Starting good plants isn't that hard, messing them up isn't very hard to do either. There' been allot of hard lessons learned and shared here. You've got a long growing season, If these starts don't make it start some more.

 

[Chicken]

Re: Fisherman's grow blog

looks like your doing fine for this being your first grow,

and good job you did on seperating them, they look perfect,

i'd suggest you grow more than just one strain, your gonna want at least 3 more types of bacca to mix with that bright-leaf,for the perfect cigg,

perhaps a burley, and a turkish blend, '' id suggest bursa or ottoman'' [ for the turkish ]

very good for cigg blending,