JT's 2012 Container Tobacco Grow Log

[justintempler]

After admiring Daniel's success at growing tobacco in containers in Nevada and doing some further research, I've decided to grow my 2012 crop in containers.

Being a fan of Swedish snus I need to be able to grow Dark Air Cured tobacco which usually needs to be grown on a silt loam or silty clay loam soil. Even if I wanted to try my hand at Virginia Sun Cured I would still need a sandy loam soil. Here in central Florida, what I have to work with is a fine sand with almost no topsoil and zero clay. Even with soil amendments the resulting tobacco would more than likely be a very big disappointment. I've been looking for a viable method to grow my DAC, I considered possibly attempting to adapt a method to grow outdoors hydroponically in a sand culture and I think it's doable but the container method looks so more reliable and much simpler.

The plan is to use some form of sub-irrigated planter (http://www.insideurbangreen.org/diy-sub-irrigation/) and a custom prepared potting mix as my growing medium. The SIP method even has the advantage of my not having to worry about my plants drying out in the hot Florida summer sun if I get tied up during a heat wave. The watering isn't perfect but at least I won't have to babysit my plants and water them 2 or 3 times a day. My 2010 crop of DelGold was a royal pain in the ass.

Container soil and ground soil are two completely different animals. Using your local soil and using it in a container and expecting the same results will lead to guaranteed failure. Here is a link to a pdf file I found yesterday entitled "Container Soil Physics and Plant Growth" that explains why container soil needs to be completely different as opposed to growing the same plant in the ground. :
http://www.angelfire.com/ab6/hershey/bssoil.pdf

I've got a lot of research to do to flesh out my plan before I decide on the planter, soil mix and fertilizing method/formula. Luckily there seems to be a lot of people using SIPs to grow tobacco's cousin the tomato, so at least I'm not starting from scratch.

The idea is if I can work out a system to grow DAC here in Florida, that would also encourage other people to do similar grows in areas not native to the variety of tobacco that they want to grow and bring more people into the hobby.

Let the fun begin.

 

[Daniel]

I will be interested in seeing how the Irrigation method works for you. Both soil and containers where big expenses for us. Scrounge for all you can get, it does help. I agree with the soil issue and did fairly well making an educated guess at what to mix up. After my first year I think root space is my biggest handicap with 5 gallon buckets. Square rather than round containers would be a help to me as it uses space more completely.
Our problems last year where in this order.
1. getting proper watering under control. Tobacco does not require as much water as we suspected at first. It is still a lot of watering but we over did it in the beginning.
2. feeding well. those plants are bored all cooped up in that container and eat a lot. We fed weekly with miracle grow tomato fertilizer. I suggest both a better and less expensive food though. Maybe something that can be applied every month or so.
3. heat will effect the roots more in containers than it would in the soil. so protect the container from the sun as much as possible. not much of a problem once the plants get large. Heat is not usually as much of a problem for the plant as it is for the roots.

And yes above all have plenty of fun. Good luck.

 

[SmokesAhoy]

hey justin a used to garden in florida, and agree sugar sand is the worst. a method i used with great success however was using those cheap blue kiddie pools. fill it with pots, and water into the pool, allowing the plants to draw the water up from the bottom. they were like little oases' in my mad max looking "lawn."

a nice bonus to the drier weather in florida though is that i think with less water the plants produce more nicotine, the stuff i grew in vt was devoid of it so far from what i have tried. our planting seasons here seem to be 60% rainy days. good soil though heh.

 

[BigBonner]

You will need alot of space for Dark Air tobacco . The leaves get long and wide . They are alot bigger than Flue cured or Burley .

Instead of bucket why not do the flower bed and underline with plastic so the water and fertilizer doesn't all run out so quick .I know it would take alot of good soil to do this but it should last for years down the road .

 

[Jack in NB]

Re fertilizer - I've been using a home-made liquid after the first application of a granular to bring the soil up to medium or higher levels of P and K.

I've dissolved 34-0-0 or 46-0-0 (ammonium phosphate or Urea) into water to about a 10% solution (that would be 10-0-0) and storing it. At feeding time, I dilute to about 250 ppm of N and give each plant a couple of cupsful weekly (onto the roots, not leaves, because I've had a bit of burn) until first blossom show.

Takes a bit of math, and a bit of work, but it's WAY cheaper than the commercial soluble products.

At my feeding rate - which may be low, when compared to the package directions on Miracle Grow for instance - a couple of pounds of the granular does me for the season, for my hundred and twenty plants.

 

[justintempler]

You will need alot of space for Dark Air tobacco . The leaves get long and wide . They are alot bigger than Flue cured or Burley .

Instead of bucket why not do the flower bed and underline with plastic so the water and fertilizer doesn't all run out so quick .I know it would take alot of good soil to do this but it should last for years down the road .

I lived in Nashville, Tn for about 20 years and used to visit my brother in Muhlenberg County, Ky (right on the line between One Sucker and the Air Cured country) on a regular basis, so I've seen plenty of dark tobacco. I'm aware of what I'm getting myself into. I'm already planning on atleast 40 inch rows and 32 inch spacing. I think growing in buckets is actually superior to flower beds, it will help keep those lower droopy leaves up out of the sand for a much cleaner tobacco. My biggest concerns are heat and finding the correct media mix.

The SIP method is in plastic and the watering is bottom up, which already will eliminate much of the evaporation loss. Fertilizer won't be a problem with SIP. If i use that method I'll be using a good amount of homemade compost that I already have and fertilizer will be banded around the sides inside the containers while filling long before they receive the transplants.

To give you an idea of what's possible here's a pic of a lady that owns 28 Earthboxes and grows tomatoes.

Here's a couple pics from my 2010 crop of DelGold.

I found out they're pretty popular in Australia. The Australians don't call them SIPs they call them Wicking Beds or Wicking Barrels. They became a popular method for hobby gardeners there a couple years ago when they had the real bad droughts that caused severe restrictions on water usage.

 

[FmGrowit]

Those are some damn good looking plants. How much shade do your plants get during the day? Do you think the shade affects the thickness of the leave?

Your set-up looks like it would make some fine cigar wrappers.

 

[justintempler]

Actually I get almost no shade at all. The thickness (or thinness in this case) of the leaves I think is more of a result of the amount of water used to compensate for the very porous sandy soil that I'm cursed with here. If I was going to grow that same crop over again, I would invest in some drip irrigation which would have resulted in plants not quite as tall and with a bit more thickness. All things considered, being my first ever grow I was very happy with the results.

Now you see why without some kind of alternative growing method like, using container growing or hydroponics, trying to grow Kentucky Dark tobacco would be a loosing proposition here.

I know back in Florida's past shade tobacco was one of the crops grown for its wrapper leaf. Maybe in a year or two after I've mastered tobacco for snus. I'll try my hand at the cigar tobaccos.

 

[Chicken]

ive been doing some extensive research on drip irrigation,,,,

;;dripworks .com'' they sent me a free cataloug,,,,

and it isnt that expensive,, depending on the set-up you go with,,,

 

[deluxestogie]

Each spring, I buy bags and bags of Black Kow composted cow manure (0.5, 0.5, 0.5) to add to my tobacco beds (about 1 bag per 20 sq. ft. each year).

It's shipped all the way to Virginia from Oxford, Florida. http://www.blackkow.com/

(Across the road from me is a pasture full of cattle. Unfortunately, their poop is indiscriminately dropped across about 50 acres.)

The Black Kow is composted so well that it just smells like dirt. I've actually used it straight as a seed starting mix, as well as a potting mix.

Bob

 

[BigBonner]

Deluxe

Drop by and I will give you a truck load of fresh cow manure . I have a barn with about 200 + tons in it .I didn't clean my feed barn last spring because my manure spreader tore up . I will have to use my dump truck to clean it out before winter sets in . I have a couple of piles back on my hill that has composted to soil .

I may be better off piling it up and composting it .

 

[FmGrowit]

I was thinking the same thing...

Why not just amend your soil with some peat and compost? If you're doing a small grow, it could be done quite affordably. The peat and compost will work for holding water. You might even be able to mix in some bentonite clay pellets for extended moisture retention.

 

[dkh2]

Each spring, I buy bags and bags of Black Kow composted cow manure (0.5, 0.5, 0.5) to add to my tobacco beds (about 1 bag per 20 sq. ft. each year).

It's shipped all the way to Virginia from Oxford, Florida. http://www.blackkow.com/

(Across the road from me is a pasture full of cattle. Unfortunately, their poop is indiscriminately dropped across about 50 acres.)

The Black Kow is composted so well that it just smells like dirt. I've actually used it straight as a seed starting mix, as well as a potting mix.

Bob

The worm castings (Manure) the worms in my worm bin create, smells like dirt too.

 

[deluxestogie]

As you may know, the special attributes of Black Kow composted manure from Florida, which replicate the vaunted fertility of the annual Nile floods, was first discovered by the Israelites, after walking across the Red Sea, and stopping at the base of Mt. Sinai. (Maybe there was well composted Egyptian kow manure in the muck that they walked across. Who knows?) Their tobacco grew so beautifully, that they celebrated that fact by constructing a golden kow. Unfortunately, due to the incorrect color of the kow, it was soundly condemned. But today, now that we know it must be Black Kow, we can rest assured that our tobacco will be blessed with excellent growth, wonderful aroma and perfect burning qualities.

On a more mundane note, soil that has been supplemented with Black Kow composted manure, and no chemical fertilizers, is repeat with happy, indigenous earthworms (Lumbricus lumbricoides), who distribute their castings with joyous abandon throughout the soil. It's almost as though they belong there.

Bob