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IOLA tobacco Garden

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USHOG

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Just finished planting all of my seedlings into the garden 750 total.
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I am trying something new for me this year for fertilizers. I have stocked and fed fish in my ponds every year since I was old enough to drive and I love watching them grow and eat. I also keep several large fish tanks inside my house and 2 years ago I started using my fish to feed small gardens indoors with huge success. My daughters love this and have learned to eat many more types of vegetables since we started aquaponics. All of my kids have a small aquaponics system in their rooms and they get to pick what they grow. I will post pictures another time of their systems if anyone is interested. So this year I am playing on a slightly bigger scale. 8000 gallon tank with 500 fish to feed my garden and if this works as I think it will, next year I am going to just use one of the ponds as my tank. I just didn't want to make that kind of investment without a smaller trial version.

You can see the food feeding the food for the bass. It is to fun to watch the bass eat the goldfish. Total cost this year to put all of this together was less than 300. I had everything laying around in the barns other than a few fittings, a tarp to seal the leaks and pieces of pipe. I caught most of the fish from my ponds last fall and raised them indoors in 3 large tanks to get them all to eat pelleted food. I also feed 2 pounds of goldfish a week.

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Knucklehead

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Growin' tobacco Texas Style!! That's a huge crop, best of luck with it. I also like your fish system.
 

rustycase

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Nice setup!
$300 for the year seems like a wise investment.
I went down the cereal aisle at the market the other day and felt like I'd need a bank loan to get out of it !
Most everything in the produce section was from mexico, or chile, or other distant places where they must have lots of water.
I dunno what's gonna happen this year, as the drought gets worse.
Sure thing I won't be doing any aquaculture here.
Really enjoy the pics you have posted!
rc
 

bonehead

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i thought a 275 gallon tote with the top 6" cut off and turned upside down for the plant bed was big for aquaponics. i grew a little over 175+ plants and my regular vegetables last year and i thought that was big. you must have a lot of energy or get help from someone. i don't mean to pry but how is your young daughter doing? i would to hear more about your fish farm adventures. when my son was in college he grew tilapia at school and that got me interested in that kind of stuff. good luck with all of your adventures.
 

BarG

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Heh heh, Thats different. I went from 750 to 75 plants. I don't sell, just smoke and share and I already have trouble storing quantitys, although I am working on some good ageing here. My oldest cigar leaf is 3 yrs and going. It is hard to keep bugs out and not ruin wrapper leaf.
My best advice for storing cigar leaf to age is comepletly dry all the way stem and everybit before storage and rehydrate in a sealed vapor proof .In a box or other means still dry completely and keep in a very low case environment to discourage tobacco bugs. They will attack the top of stem first[The most moisture if not dry] and move from there. I notice that in hands that weren't comepletly dried and brought back before tying.

Thats a very impressive garden you have going!

Either you can sell yours or you can store it.
 
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bonehead

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Nice setup!

I went down the cereal aisle at the market the other day and felt like I'd need a bank loan to get out of it !
Most everything in the produce section was from mexico, or chile, or other distant places where they must have lots of water.
I dunno what's gonna happen this year, as the drought gets worse.
Sure thing I won't be doing any aquaculture here.
Really enjoy the pics you have posted!
rc
i have small aquaponic and hydroponic setups and the water goes pretty far because you use the plants for the filter and use the same water for a long time and just top it off.
 

rustycase

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I shall watch your thread closely.
EVERYONE here in kalifornia is interested in making their water go as far as possible.
Except my better half.
rc
 

Chicken

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i think your the first to put your plants in the ground...

im letting mine get bigger, before dropping them.

i have them at different stages of growth.. so they will be about 300 going out first.. followed by what ever i have room for, im sure my numbers will be close to yours..

i have so many strains going.. i need to update my journal.. what i started out growing is basically scrapped... 75% of the strains i originally dropped didnt germinate [ old seed i guess ]...

but thanks to deluxestogie, and the f.t.t. seed-bank. i got a crop going now, its just small compared to the first startings.
 

USHOG

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Rose started back to school last week and everything seems to be going good.
I have no problem storing the tobacco leaf and have no interest in selling any of it. I do like the trading idea. I started all of my seedlings January 15 gave them 3 hair cuts to stimulate root growth and now they are in the sun. At the moment I am adding several filters to the irrigation system to help keep the lines cleaner. As for help in the garden I do not get much. I have a few friends that will come by and help but 99% is me. Not that much work at all. I have made my crops pretty simple to run. Auto watering, admire for aphids, harvest before worms and grasshoppers arrive, and a couple of things for controlling suckers. Harvesting is the only real time consuming thing I do, but at that time I am so excited about the years harvest that work is fun.
 

Brown Thumb

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That is one Awesome setup you got going. The plants look nice also.
Have a enjoyable season.
BT
 

USHOG

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The tobacco seedlings took 10 weeks of indoor care and they are now loving the sun. Only had to replace 1 seedling so far, so if mother nature will allow I should have a descent harvest. I am having trouble with the green algae in my tank but I assume as I get the strawberries going it should help to use up some excess nitrogen and the foam floating will block out most of the sun light.
 

Chicken

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it want be long now.. and ill be dropping mine in the ground,

this past weekend my buddy finally showed up with the JOHN DEERE,,, my spot is tilled now,,,,

just gotts do some touching up to the spot,, [ pull some grass,,,,maybe run my tiller over it.. ]

im gonna wait perhaps, 3 more weeks,, or less. before dropping mine,
 

USHOG

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Very cool. I wish I had a tractor but I just tilled the dirt then rowed it up with a hoe. It is very good exercise for me.
 

Chicken

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That tractor made " mince-meat"...of my plot...if you ever get access to a tractor..I'd suggest you let him runover your spot,
 

USHOG

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My neighbor came out 3 years ago when I expanded the garden and he used a tiller behind the tractor to break up the new ground and it worked great, but for the last 2 years we have had to much rain for a tractor to get into that area, Plus I don't mind a little work.
 

USHOG

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Its been 10 days in the ground and they all look great. I will post a few pictures tomorrow. It took some time adjusting the pressure for the irrigation, and the pump works great at 5 psi without flooding the rows. The algae is slowly going away I can now see the fish at several feet down. This year was perfect timing on getting them into the ground. The weather has been partly sunny and around 80. So the seedlings are not even wilting during the sunny times. No bugs as of yet
 

ArizonaDave

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Its been 10 days in the ground and they all look great. I will post a few pictures tomorrow. It took some time adjusting the pressure for the irrigation, and the pump works great at 5 psi without flooding the rows. The algae is slowly going away I can now see the fish at several feet down. This year was perfect timing on getting them into the ground. The weather has been partly sunny and around 80. So the seedlings are not even wilting during the sunny times. No bugs as of yet

That's probably the BEST setup I've seen yet! Fantastic!
 

USHOG

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Golden Leaf Orinoco fermenting
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My shop press in good use
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I just finished planting all the veggies and 1 oak tree in the tray
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I had to add a air break to the bell siphon to help it release. Works great and is water height adjustable
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I used the water from the pump to flood the tray
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The silver river in the window is growing fast now

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ancient tobacco
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Orientals are also doing good if I can just keep the dogs out of them I think the will do ok
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They all have adjusted and are doing good
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Silver River
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