Hello, Everyone. I'm from NY and am growing tobacco Very, Very late in the year. I planted my plants (Tennessee 49) on about August 1st. This may not be the place to post my question, but I couldn't find anywhere that seemed appropriate.
I'm disabled from RSD (severe chronic pain)... I've been wanting a garden for years, but haven't been able to make/build one due to my disability/pain. This year in late July my father helped me build a slightly raised garden and filled it with topsoil. About that time (just before) I planted the seeds in starter mix and then on July 27th and again a week later I planted the seedlings in the garden (I planted the second set of seedlings a week later, because I had extras and I didn't think they would grow to full size. I thought they would be very small, so I added several plants in between the spaced out ones to double the amount)...
Anyways, It's November 15th now and the leaves on my plants have barely turned yellow, so I can't harvest them. I'm not sure what to do. We've already had frost on the ground at-least 2 days now, but they're just not ready to harvest. I've harvested about 2 leaves per plant so far, but nearly all of the leaves are still very green and the seed pods haven't matured enough to harvest either.
I want to harvest the leaves after they turn yellow, so I don't have to cure them for 1-5 years or to have to do a crap load of work quick curing them (not able to with my disability). I picked a couple green leaves so far and they've very harsh, but the leaves that were yellow or browning when picked were extremely smooth. By far the smoothest tobacco I've ever smoked. I really want all or most of the tobacco to be yellow or brown, so it's smooth, but wouldn't mind a couple green leaves in the mix, so the cigarettes aren't too smooth.
Does anyone have any ideas on what I can do to make them turn yellow faster (immediately)?
It's getting very cold here and I'll be very lucky if I get a week or two before it starts getting below freezing constantly and/or before it starts snowing. I'm already very lucky that the plants haven't died from the cold already.
(sorry so long)
I really thought that they'd grow to be very short and that they would mature within a month with it being so late in the season. I had no idea that they'd grow to full size (if not taller) or that they'd still be almost perfectly full and green this late in the year.
Does anyone know if my tobacco will still be smoke-able if the leaves get frozen before I pick them?
(oh yeah, does flowering have anything to do with the leaves turning yellow? I don't have a lot of plants, so the bees didn't bother pollinating them. I had to pollinate them myself, but didn't do all of them, so some have flowers, some have seed pods and some have neither. Some never flowered at all. I'd really hate to waste any of the tobacco I've sacrificed so much to grow.)
Thank you everyone for any replies. I would really appreciate any info or advice you guys could give me. I'll try to take some pictures today and post them on here as soon as possible.
I'm disabled from RSD (severe chronic pain)... I've been wanting a garden for years, but haven't been able to make/build one due to my disability/pain. This year in late July my father helped me build a slightly raised garden and filled it with topsoil. About that time (just before) I planted the seeds in starter mix and then on July 27th and again a week later I planted the seedlings in the garden (I planted the second set of seedlings a week later, because I had extras and I didn't think they would grow to full size. I thought they would be very small, so I added several plants in between the spaced out ones to double the amount)...
Anyways, It's November 15th now and the leaves on my plants have barely turned yellow, so I can't harvest them. I'm not sure what to do. We've already had frost on the ground at-least 2 days now, but they're just not ready to harvest. I've harvested about 2 leaves per plant so far, but nearly all of the leaves are still very green and the seed pods haven't matured enough to harvest either.
I want to harvest the leaves after they turn yellow, so I don't have to cure them for 1-5 years or to have to do a crap load of work quick curing them (not able to with my disability). I picked a couple green leaves so far and they've very harsh, but the leaves that were yellow or browning when picked were extremely smooth. By far the smoothest tobacco I've ever smoked. I really want all or most of the tobacco to be yellow or brown, so it's smooth, but wouldn't mind a couple green leaves in the mix, so the cigarettes aren't too smooth.
Does anyone have any ideas on what I can do to make them turn yellow faster (immediately)?
It's getting very cold here and I'll be very lucky if I get a week or two before it starts getting below freezing constantly and/or before it starts snowing. I'm already very lucky that the plants haven't died from the cold already.
(sorry so long)
I really thought that they'd grow to be very short and that they would mature within a month with it being so late in the season. I had no idea that they'd grow to full size (if not taller) or that they'd still be almost perfectly full and green this late in the year.
Does anyone know if my tobacco will still be smoke-able if the leaves get frozen before I pick them?
(oh yeah, does flowering have anything to do with the leaves turning yellow? I don't have a lot of plants, so the bees didn't bother pollinating them. I had to pollinate them myself, but didn't do all of them, so some have flowers, some have seed pods and some have neither. Some never flowered at all. I'd really hate to waste any of the tobacco I've sacrificed so much to grow.)
Thank you everyone for any replies. I would really appreciate any info or advice you guys could give me. I'll try to take some pictures today and post them on here as soon as possible.
