ChuckP's 2013 Grow Log

[ChuckP]

Howdy Fisherman,

Very Funny about the 2nd crop! Yeah, our soil is very heavy red clay and usually by this time of year our soil looks and acts like red concrete. I took a Ph sample before and after and it only raised the Ph by a few tens of a point to 6.5.

Now all I need is a nice fence like yours to protect again the hurricanes and NorEasters! How tall are the two plants in your pics? The one looks to be about 7' foot?

 

[Fisherman]

The 2 late ones are about 6' 6" is all at bottom of flower bud that is starting. Their latest planted brothers are just now starting growth spurt. I havent watered in weeks but we had rain a week or so back. The grow bags are done for and I cut and hung remnants today. Gonna reuse dirt and try another planting but dont really like the bags much.

 

[ChuckP]

Quick Update:

Pulled some sand lugs from several plants and varieties yesterday. Also topped and pulled what seemed like a million runners - whats the term? (Having a senior moment ). And of course pulled weeds. Should have my 1st real priming within the next two weeks! Wahoo!!

Edit: D'oh! it's suckers!! Glad it was only a senor moment! I'm in real trouble when they become senior hours and days!!

 

[ChuckP]

No 3732 Update --

I've had my eye on a couple of sand lug leaves on my No. 3732 tobacco plants. Although I should point out that I didn't have high expectations for this variety. After washing and rinse several times and waiting for them to become bone dry. I crushed the leaves up and put them into the pipe for sampling. I was very surprised - I immediately got a flavor of what would describe to be like Magnum hops - Very citrusy with a hint of spice. Without giving my wife any hints or clues what to except I handed her the pipe and asked for her thoughts. She gave nearly the same response and said she tasted citrus.

I was going to get pictures of both the Long Red and No. 3732 today, but my iPod touch was dead. Will try tomorrow.

 

[ChuckP]

7-30 Update:

Bagged one of the No. 3732's yesterday. Picked the first crop and spent the week colour curing it by wrapping each variety in beach towels and letting sit in the sun. Each night you have to breakdown each pile and move the inner leaves to the outsides. This is a lot of work, but I really like the results especially for the wrappers. The binder and filler leaves and usually just let them hang to air dry and finish out to a brown or reddish colour.

 

[ChuckP]

08-17-2013: Primed the last of the viso yesterday on all plants. Got lots of good leaves from Havana 608 & Ottertail, Penn Red, Monte Calme Brun & Black Mammoth. Also primed the first seco leaves of the Long Red & No. 3732.

 

[Fisherman]

7-30 Update:

Bagged one of the No. 3732's yesterday. Picked the first crop and spent the week colour curing it by wrapping each variety in beach towels and letting sit in the sun. Each night you have to breakdown each pile and move the inner leaves to the outsides. This is a lot of work, but I really like the results especially for the wrappers. The binder and filler leaves and usually just let them hang to air dry and finish out to a brown or reddish colour.

Good idea to color cure Will try it myself. Thanks for info

 

[Chicken]

sounds like your off to a good start to making your own cigars

 

[Knucklehead]

Bag a couple of those Cuban Criollo 98 and Habano 2000 for us. They were among my wrapper varieties that frenched on me. They may recover, but just in case....

 

[ChuckP]

Good idea to color cure Will try it myself. Thanks for info

Howdy Fisherman!

Sorry it's been so long to reply to y'all, but I've been up to my eyeballs in work, family issues and taking care of the garden! Did you give the towel method a try? If so, what did you think? I have only been able to roll a couple of cigars at a time, but got a couple of winning combinations. I grew some of D/S Bobs monte calme brun and wanted to see what works well with it. So I blended equal parts of MCB and havana 608 as filler, wisconsin seedleaf as binder and black mammoth as the wrapper into a nice colorado maduro 6x60 trumpet shaped fino. It was a mild-medium smoke with a light floral smell and had the taste of flowers and almonds. I'm looking forward to trying the long red and No. 3732 wrappers with the other varieties.

Hope all is well!

 

[ChuckP]

sounds like your off to a good start to making your own cigars

Howdy Chicken,

I hoping to start getting a little more free time to roll some in the coming weeks. Now that I'm starting to prime the ligero leaves. This is by far the best crop I've had to date! It looks like you've had your hands full with a great crop too! Whats your favorite cigar blend?

Hope all is well!

 

[ChuckP]

Bag a couple of those Cuban Criollo 98 and Habano 2000 for us. They were among my wrapper varieties that frenched on me. They may recover, but just in case....

Howdy Knucks,

Sorry to hear that! Have they started to come back? Mine started out good, but after transplanting they bolted to flower and I topped all of them. I'm hoping they mature out with at least the bottom few rows having some nice leaves. I'll let a sucker or two go to flower and bag them up.

Let me know how things work out. Thanx, Chuck

 

[Knucklehead]

They started putting on normal looking leaves after the constant rain stopped. I'm hoping for seed.

 

[Chicken]

i dont grow for cigar's.

havent a clue as to what baccy makes them?????

''allthough, next year i do plan on growing some cigar varities, to blend with my normall cigg. bacca

 

[johnlee1933]

i dont grow for cigar's. havent a clue as to what baccy makes them?????
''allthough, next year i do plan on growing some cigar varities, to blend with my normall cigg. bacca

I think you might want to consider a few of the Havana/Habano persuasion. Typically they are not strong but have distinctive flavor. I'll send you another small sample to test in the next week or two.

John

 

[ChuckP]

Howdy Y'all!

I just got some of my grow-out varieties (Long Red & No. 3732) out of the kiln yesterday and decided to roll a half a dozen cigars. Since I have grown Long Red in the past I thought I would use a combination of Havana 608 & WLT's Dominican Seco and Ligero as the filler, Havana608 as the binder. Unfortunatly, I lost all self-control and light up the better looking No 3732 wrapped cigar, it was the same length and had a little fatter ring gauge.

It was like smoking an IPA beer with a distinctive peppery taste! No kidding! The top cigar is the other No. 3732, the others are wrapped with Long Red.

 

[Chicken]

them sticks look real good, how do they smoke,?

 

[Knucklehead]

Nice rolling job. I like the look of those wrappers. Let us know what you think of the components.

 

[ChuckP]

Howdy Y'all!

I'm calling it a season, outside of the six Long Red & two No. 3732, there ain't much to hope for anymore. The Criollo & Habano were my fault, I left them in the containers too long and the bolted. Darn Shame!

Chicken & Knucks - The Long Red wrapped ones were some of the best smoking I've ever had! Like I said above, I've had the Long Red before and it was ok. It must have been the blend, I believe I used Glessnor as the filler. Anyway, I think I was probably the combination of Don's Dominican seco & Havana 608 fillers that set it apart. I had brought a couple to work, since a couple of the guys are always asking about them and everyone said the smelled wonderful. The had a nice floral smell and taste to them with hints of leather and cedar. I'll be sad when I smoke the last of the Long Red wrappers.

 

[Knucklehead]

Cheer up Chuck, seed starting is about four months away and we get to watch tobacco growing on the NZ channel.