Chillards FTT 2013 Grow Blog

[chillardbee]

So I thought I'd start my blog even though it's late. we're not quite half way through the season so I'll bring you up to par.

I'm a second year grower. Last year I grew 140 Del gold and they did good. So this year I ordered 12 more varieties and they are 1. White stem Orinoco, 2. Frog eye Orinoco, 3. White mammoth, 4. Big gem, 5. Bonanza, 6. Hickory pryor, 7. Gold dollar, 8. One sucker, 9. Virginia bright leaf, 10. Perique, 11. Gold burley, 12. Harrow velvet (burley), and the seed I save from the Del Gold last year makes 13.

I started them on germinating on march 31 in moist paper towels and they were germinated and trasfered to the soil about a week later. I had 20 trays with 48 cells each for a total of 960 plants. I sat the trays in cold frames with lights on a timer to go on over night to keep them warm. Through April, after they sprouted, I thinned them and reoccupied cells that didn't turn out and eventually hardened them off.

On may 21, I transplanted 500+ plants to the grond and eventually planted the other 400+ plants into the mountians (gurilla grow test). I've been watering faithfully everyday it's hot and fertilizing alternately with maricle grow 24-18-18 and an organic fertilizer 4-1-5.

Today is June 11 and it has been exactly 3 weeks since I transplanted into the ground here and 2weeks 1 day since planting in the mountians. The weather has been pretty good here too.

 

[Ashauler]

Welcome to the board, I look forward to following your blog here.

 

[johnlee1933]

Great synopsis. Thank you. I'll be interested to watch your grow. I only grow ~50 plants and 900 boggles my mind. Good luck and please keep us little guys up to speed.

 

[Knucklehead]

How are you doing your watering and fertilizing? Drip lines? It sounds like you may be over watering. Good luck with your season and welcome again to the forum.

 

[Fisherman]

welcome and we like pics BTW

 

[deluxestogie]

I'm looking forward to reading your grow log. If you'll use smallish, lower resolution photos, your blog page will remain easy to read. (Yup. The REALLY BIG ones on the other site make it frustrating to read the latest posts.) And I hope there will be follow-up photos of the ones you planted in the mountains.

Bob

 

[chillardbee]

I like pics too so here they are. These are just to recap what I've done so far:

1. Germination containers


2. Germination


3. Sprouts


4. Tray of 48 cells of seedlings


5. Inside the cold frame


6. Tray of plants in first week of May


7. 960 hardened offed plants


8. A tray of Gold dollar before transplanting


9. A tray of One sucker before transplanting


10. My transplanting tools makes the planting go quick


So these are pics from the start (march 31) to transplanting (May 28)

 

[johnlee1933]

Great pics! Nice job showing progress. Please keep us up to speed and good luck with the rest of your grow.

 

[chillardbee]

1. Perique bed.


2. A row of 12 different strains. Each section has 20 plants and there is an extra 2 section at the end of Virginia BL.


3. From forground we have Virginia BL, Del gold , and Gold dollar. 40 plants of each.


4. from left Harrow velvet burley (50), One sucker (20), and Gold burley (50).


5. Looking up Siwash valley were I have over 200 baccy planted


6. A landing where I have over 60 planted. It is also where I put bees for Fireweed honey flow.


7. Mountian road along the anderson main.


8. mountian planting.


9. Another mountian planting.


10. And yet another mountian planting.

 

[AmaxB]

Nice photos and interesting, your gold dollar has done much better than mine did. Think my seed was old. Do you leave them there outside in the cold frame?

 

[chillardbee]

A couple things:

In an effort to squeeze as many plants as I could onto our littl plot my row spacing is 2' and my in row spacing is only 1'. It's tight but I'll manage. I have the 12 new varieties in 'Variety row' and the Del gold is apart from that as seen in second group of pics photo 3. Of the varieties that I planted extra of were Virginia BL, Gold dollar, Perique, and both Burleys. I also spot plated through the veg garden (don't tell the wife).

In the mountians I planted over 400 plants and gave them all a shot of 1 cup of fertilizer to start. This is more of an experiement and if it works, bravo. I have them all planted along 9 miles of road and as much as I would like to even go up to see how they are doing today, it is a long way away and I won't be up there until I set up the bear fences for the bee hives around mid july.

 

[chillardbee]

Nice photos and interesting, your gold dollar has done much better than mine did. Think my seed was old. Do you leave them there outside in the cold frame?

As soon as I planted the germinated seed I sat them out in the cold frame (no other place to put them). It took 4 days for them to pop out. I removed the glass on hot days, kept them watered from the bottom, and with the occasional misting from the top.

 

[Knucklehead]

What an interesting grow. I'm looking forward to following this thread. The scenery is beautiful.

 

[DGBAMA]

Will be fun to see the results of the"set & forget" mountain grow.

 

[workhorse_01]

The mountain is about to change to a lighter shade of green. Good luck with your grow.

 

[chillardbee]

And So, time for the update and pic post,


The weather out look isn't bad. It's nice to have balance there it is. Even with the last one I posted for the first half of june we did eventually get some rain here and there but it was sparse and made it very muggy around here which the plants seem to love.


The perique bed.


Looking down variety lane.


Variety lane from the other end.


Virginia BL, Del Gold, and Gold dollar patch.


Burley patch with One sucker in the middle.


The baccy and garden in general.

Most of the plants are fairing well. I know some could be better but next year well be the better year.

 

[DGBAMA]

Very nice.

 

[Knucklehead]

Nice growth spurt. Your patch is looking very good.

 

[chillardbee]

Well, I noticed caterpillar damage on 2 plants and the cat pissed on and killed 3 plants but I guess with 500 plants I won't be able to hen pick the way I did last year with the 140.

 

[workhorse_01]

That's a lot of plants in a small space! Are you just going to stalk cut them?