2015 bonehead, first year grow blog fourth year grow

[bonehead]

i never wrote a grow blog before because i am kind of private. this year i planted yellow twisted bud,ct. shade,ct. broad leaf,black sea samsun,african red,big gem and silver river. it just snowed last night and this morning. it is later than usual for me to plant but this snow might never leave this year. my peppers and tomatoes are doing fine already so my heat mat was free. shoveling snow after spring arives sucks.

 

[DGBAMA]

Have fun with the snow.

Look forward to following along. I over reading the logs, seems there is something to learn from everyone.

 

[ArizonaDave]

i never wrote a grow blog before because i am kind of private. this year i planted yellow twisted bud,ct. shade,ct. broad leaf,black sea samsun,african red,big gem and silver river. it just snowed last night and this morning.

Sounds like it's going to be a great grow for you!

 

[Knucklehead]

Best of luck with your season!

 

[bonehead]

i have the plants growing in the room with the woodstove and i can't believe how fast everything is germinating. every variety has already come up. i always start them in the same room but it is usually warm enough so the wood stove is only going for a couple of hours in the am and a couple of hours in the pm. this year the stove has been running more and the plants came up faster than the last 3 years. tobacco seeds sure like the heat. i will have to keep a close eye on the soil moisture level now that i took the covers off so i don't get mold or have them dampen off. i think it will dry out quickly with the stove running so much.

 

[Brown Thumb]

Good Luck this yr.
I don't think they will dry out real Quick. The roots are in the center of the container.

 

[DGBAMA]

If you are bottom watering, once a week should be good. I can see my starting soil start to shrink away from the edges of the cells as it dries out, before the plants ever quilt. I know it's time to water when I see dirt shrinkage.

 

[CT Tobaccoman]

You're right on schedule for Connecticut, bonehead. Are you going to make a tent for your CT shade?

I worked growing CT shade 15 yrs., in the 1960s-1970s and again in the 2000s, and I was at the tobacco meeting in Feb. in East Windsor. Found out latest problems and chemicals for CT Valley. I'm glad to help if needed. CT Shade is hard to grow without a big infrastructure. It costs commercial growers a million bucks per hundred acres now. At least I know every step of the process. Do you know what CT Shade seed you have? I could maybe tell you about its resistance to various indigenous disease by what the seed is called.

BTW, we are almost neighbors. Though I grow on Cape Cod I have a place in East Hartford where I go once a month for a few days. That's my permanent home. Cape Cod is just a fling that will end. Next summer I'll be looking to "rent" some growing space in central Conn.

CT

 

[bonehead]

i got my seed from skychaser at http://northwoodseeds.com/Seed List2.htm . i always have good luck with his seed.

 

[bonehead]

i just transplanted my tomatoes into 5" pots and some tobacco into cell trays. i put all the plants under my 400 watt mh lights. once i transplant the peppers i will be done for a while. it is so much easier now that i have the plants on the flood tables in the basement. the plants will really take off now with all the light they are getting. the next three nights are going to be in the thirties and wet so i wont be playing in the mud anytime soon.

 

[bonehead]

i gave all my tobacco plants a haircut this morning. some of the leafs were the size of a silver dollar and covering up the plants next to them. i wan't to not have to transplant them again. i still have almost a month until i can put them in the outside garden and five gallon buckets.

 

[DonH]

i gave all my tobacco plants a haircut this morning. some of the leafs were the size of a silver dollar and covering up the plants next to them. i wan't to not have to transplant them again. i still have almost a month until i can put them in the outside garden and five gallon buckets.

If you keep giving them haircuts you shouldn't need to transplant them before putting them in the buckets.

 

[Swedroller]

If you keep giving them haircuts you shouldn't need to transplant them before putting them in the buckets.

Hi there
Hope everyones growing going fine. Her in Stockholm it´s quite cool still but i decided to put my plants in the ground anyway, they become little to big to keep inside. Some leafs were about 4 -10 inches and a bit hard to handle without breaking the leafs. What size of plant is normal when you guys transplant them outside?
I keep reading about this haircut of the plants, i´m not sure i´m really understand what you mean. Does it means you take some of the leafs away? If it´s so which leaf are you picking and what is the purpose, to make the plant smaller or stronger.

Ville

 

[deluxestogie]

Clipping the leaves is briefly explained here, with photo: http://fairtradetobacco.com/threads/3838-Trey-s-2014-Grow?p=71423#post71423

Bob

 

[Knucklehead]

Hi there
Hope everyones growing going fine. Her in Stockholm it´s quite cool still but i decided to put my plants in the ground anyway, they become little to big to keep inside. Some leafs were about 4 -10 inches and a bit hard to handle without breaking the leafs. What size of plant is normal when you guys transplant them outside?
I keep reading about this haircut of the plants, i´m not sure i´m really understand what you mean. Does it means you take some of the leafs away? If it´s so which leaf are you picking and what is the purpose, to make the plant smaller or stronger.

Ville

We trim the leaves that are crowding each other or shading smaller plants. Cut 1/3 to 2/3 of each large leaf with scissors. It allows sunlight to shorter/smaller plants, prevents overcrowding, and triggers a defense mechanism in the seedlings that strengthens the root and stem. When the seedlings are ready for transplant into your patch, many of those leaves can be snipped completely off (2-3 trimmed leaves per seedling), allowing you to plant the seedling deeper. The remaining leaves that have been given haircuts will end up as mud lugs and will usually be torn and tattered by contact with the ground as the plant grows to maturity. Mud lugs are normally thin, low in nicotine and flavor, and damaged by weather or ground contact. Some people save them to smoke, some people do not.

 

[ArizonaDave]

We trim the leaves that are crowding each other or shading smaller plants. Cut 1/3 to 2/3 of each large leaf with scissors. It allows sunlight to shorter/smaller plants, prevents overcrowding, and triggers a defense mechanism in the seedlings that strengthens the root and stem. When the seedlings are ready for transplant into your patch, many of those leaves can be snipped completely off (2-3 trimmed leaves per seedling), allowing you to plant the seedling deeper. The remaining leaves that have been given haircuts will end up as mud lugs and will usually be torn and tattered by contact with the ground as the plant grows to maturity. Mud lugs are normally thin, low in nicotine and flavor, and damaged by weather or ground contact. Some people save them to smoke, some people do not.

I've always had good luck with this method, because the whole plant seems to thicken up fast after trimming, and never find the clipped leaves above dirt anyway. I don't save them. The other leaves are more flavorful anyway.

 

[Swedroller]

We trim the leaves that are crowding each other or shading smaller plants. Cut 1/3 to 2/3 of each large leaf with scissors. It allows sunlight to shorter/smaller plants, prevents overcrowding, and triggers a defense mechanism in the seedlings that strengthens the root and stem. When the seedlings are ready for transplant into your patch, many of those leaves can be snipped completely off (2-3 trimmed leaves per seedling), allowing you to plant the seedling deeper. The remaining leaves that have been given haircuts will end up as mud lugs and will usually be torn and tattered by contact with the ground as the plant grows to maturity. Mud lugs are normally thin, low in nicotine and flavor, and damaged by weather or ground contact. Some people save them to smoke, some people do not.

Well that might explain why my plants seem to be a little weak. About mud lugs i´v a live experience today, after some hard rain and wind it looks like someone have worked the patch with a broom and left me a lot of dirty, broken leafs with a lot of hole. I hope it will do the same as a haircut and make them stronger.
That old thread was very interesting reading, think i have to dig in deeper in this huge bank of knowledge.
Thanks guys
Ville

 

[bonehead]

i finally got my tobacco,peppers and tomatoes transplanted in the garden and buckets. i am picking peas and swisschard already. my squash and pole beens are starting to come up. if i didn't have to clean up the yard and cut the lawn i could take a break. i have no weeds or bugs to destroy yet so that is good.

 

[Chicken]

Glad to hear...you eased up a little on the privacy side and decided to share your grow...

If you share some pictures.and decide to wear a paper bag....or a stocing over your face..

We will understand...

 

[bonehead]

one of my african reds got cut off just above the ground last night or this morning. i dug up the roots and found a cutworm so i squished it and replanted a new plant. i hope that will be the only one but i have enough backup plants to deal with more carnage.