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Nicotiana alata

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ChinaVoodoo

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I'm growing three Nicotiana alata plants this year as ornamentals. Of course, I'll try to cure them, but I'm not expecting much. The largest specimen was started indoors in winter with not much attention payed to it. The small ones were started outside in early June.

The big one is just beginning to flower. There are lots of suckers. The leaves are much larger than I expected, up to 12" x 7" so far. They are thick and glossy. The ground suckers are long and narrow. There are tiny hairs on the leaf. The casing in the one photo is 30-06, and the brick in the other is just a standard brick, for reference.

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Alpine

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What strain of alata are you growing ChinaV? I would try jasmine next year, if it really smells so good... By the way, thank you for your advice on symbol4, it is by far the best strain this year
Pier
 

ChinaVoodoo

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What strain of alata are you growing ChinaV? I would try jasmine next year, if it really smells so good... By the way, thank you for your advice on symbol4, it is by far the best strain this year
Pier

Great to hear, Alpine. This is the N.alata (jasmine) from Northwood Seeds. I'll let you know how it smells for me once the flowers open.
 

ChinaVoodoo

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http://m.pcp.oxfordjournals.org/content/41/7/831.abstract

I was reading tobacco science which is beyond my lay person's education level which suggests to me that jasmonate, a chemical produced by Nicotiana alata flowers, signals an increase in nicotine levels in Nicotiana species. Now, in the study I think they treated roots with jasmonate, but other information i read indicated that jasmonate is used for interplant communication to signal insect predation. There are specific studies on how Manduca sexta damage caused this production.

Will the presence of a couple flowering alata plants increase the nicotine of my tabacum plants?
 

Hasse SWE

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I don't believe the level of nicotine in your N.Tabacum will be changed because of of your you also growing N.Alata. You can get the level higher if you topping the plants and not give the plant much water.
 

deluxestogie

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...jasmonate, a chemical produced by Nicotiana alata flowers, signals an increase in nicotine levels in Nicotiana species. Now, in the study I think they treated roots with jasmonate, but other information i read indicated that jasmonate is used for interplant communication to signal insect predation. There are specific studies on how Manduca sexta damage caused this production.

Will the presence of a couple flowering alata plants increase the nicotine of my tabacum plants?
This is an interesting subject. As I understand it, plants produce and emit jasmonate when they are physically injured, regardless of the mechanism. When you smell a freshly mowed lawn, much of that aroma is jasmonate. I suspect that clipping transplant leaves does the same thing.

Given the millions of tiny insect injuries caused to uncountable plants every minute of every day, the response to jasmonate must be quite limited in relation to distance from the source of it--maybe inches or feet. This would be a matter of its concentration, and its rapid dilution in air.

There is some evidence that herbivore insects respond to high jasmonate by going elsewhere. Likewise, the geographic range of this avoidance effect must be limited.

It may be that N. alata reduces insect predation on its immediate neighbors.

Bob
 

ChinaVoodoo

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The plant is growing well. It's keeping ahead of my orientals. The flowers are gorgeous and becoming more numerous every day as more suckers and flower heads continue to form.

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They smell really good, exactly like some other flower, but i can't say which. I can't detect jasmine though. I don't mind that. It's a nice plant all together.
 

ChinaVoodoo

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The moment I've been waiting for. Smoking Nicotiana alata! Aur cured. Kilned 5 weeks.

IMG_20170210_024351686_BURST001.jpg

It's sweet. Tastes like tobacco. To compare to ones I've smoked, like an oriental-Hungarian mix, ie. 3/4 yenidge, 1/4 kumanovo, maybe. Bit of a burn at the back of the throat. I don't know what's in it, but I can't feel any new tumors.
 

Tutu

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This is nice! What about the nicotine level? How did you smoke it? How did you blend it? How many kilned leafs have you got?
 

ChinaVoodoo

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This is nice! What about the nicotine level? How did you smoke it? How did you blend it? How many kilned leafs have you got?

I'm guessing I got about 30 to 50 g off of one plant. The leaves are rather fragile. It looks like threshed leaf, 2-4". I smoked it unblended in my pipe. That was the first time I smoked it. I think I'll wait a couple months before trying it again as it just came out of the kiln yesterday. I only grew the one plant.

I let it, and the Orientals in the front yard flower and sucker all they wanted to because it was meant to be subterfuge for the neighbours. (Ooh, look at all the nice pretty flowers.)

I bet leaf quality would improve if you treated it like other tobaccos, but that's hard because they are very pretty and smell wonderful. The sidewalk in front of my house in the evenings filled the air, just from one plant.

I didn't notice nicotine. I'm fairly tolerant though, so I wouldn't say there is none.
 
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