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Timor-Leste Grow Log

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Tutu

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Bad News

I'm afraid I got bad news. We had a horrible storm this afternoon. I think it was the worst I've ever seen. Besides all else, the tobacco was hit pretty hard. Most were blown down and needed the usual support after a storm like this. However, one plant's stem has snapped. Of course it had to be Liquiçá, of which I only have one specimen. Now the thing with Liquiçá is that it was probably blown down when it was fresh in the ground after I went away to Sumba. So it had a crooked stem. At the corner of the crooked stem, new roots had already started to form. I did the only thing I could think of and turned this whole thing into a new experiment.

New Experiment

Would it be possible to have a tobacco plant grow a new root system from scratch after the original root system has been snapped off. Of course, this new root system has already started to form, so I'm cheating a little bit. I've taken off the largest leafs from the plant. I figured that it'll have difficulty taking up water from the tiny roots that it now has and that won't be enough to supply all the leafs. I've kept only a few on. I've buried the remainder in the soil. I'm not taking any bets on it. I think it could go either way.

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Hasse SWE

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Yes they will make it, when you topping a plant you can put the topp in very wet solid and a new plants how have lower quality will start to grow..
 

Charly

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That's a bad news...
If those storms regularly hit your plants, you should perhaps build some kind of protection ? to avoid strong wind along this wall.

Poor little babies...
 

ChinaVoodoo

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That's sad. But yes, tobacco will come back for sure. Much faster than from seed. It might need more support though because you'll likely be growing out branches that will be getting much heavier than the joints were originally intended to support.
 

Tutu

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I came back home yesterday to find that all plants were still alive, including Liquiçá. It's struggling though, even in the shadow. The other four plants got hit with the TMV though. Especially the Besuki is showing tough signs. Two of the Ainaro are having problems, but the one in the green container on the far left seems to be doing okay. No signs of TMV just yet. I protect them from the wind with a few pieces of wood. We don't usually get any typhoons so the worst wind is probably behind us. Going to take off some of the lower leafs and think about what I am going to do with them. I might get rid of the Besuki, as I have a few other Besuki seedlings coming up for transplanting soon. I will probably keep the Ainaro's going for now. They seem to be doing quite alright in the container soil mix I've made.

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Hasse SWE

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But the problem was started with the"Amersfoort" tobacco variant, or have I been misunderstand that part?I see it like a big possibilities. You known that the "Amersfoort" variants you have can be one of the first variants that the Dutch was growing. And it's interesting but also a big risk. Alot of the oldest variants have very low (or. Not any) resistance against any"trouble"..So I think it all have started with it..
 

Tutu

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Yes you are right. One Amersfoort plant had this problem. Later on the mature Kasturi plant also showed signs of it with its soca (second growth). Then Papaya's Little Friend was transplanted to the old Amersfoort container. I had not yet realized that TMV was the problem with that first Amersfoort plant. Otherwise I would have used a different container for sure. For Ainaro I want to see how many leafs I can grow on the plants that are decent looking. So far it doesn't seem to affect them in a very destructive way. I will get rid of the Besuki plant though. I might as well toss the containers that I've been growing in too.
 

Leftynick

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I think the grow in container also increase the risk of infection because of the plant stressed about the spac.
 

Tutu

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It might indeed get more stressed in the container. On the other hand, I am confident that the potting mix I made for the Timor-Leste is much better than the previous soils I have used (for Amersfoort and Kasturi). Hopefully that will make a difference as well. Before the Liquiçá broke its stem, it had made home for a new inhabitant. Thought this was a nice little photo.

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Tutu

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Another thing I thought was interesting are these suckers. Well, the suckers themselves are nothing special. But because the main stem grows twisted (plant was blown down while I was away), the suckers are growing straight upward. And there's quite a few of them. I wonder what would happen if I were to cut of the main stem and let the plant grow from the suckers. Not something I'm going to do, but good food for thought...

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deluxestogie

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I've seen that a lot with partial blowdowns. The plant auxins move by gravity, so the auxins from the primary growth stem aren't reaching that upper surface of the horizontal stalk. I just snap them off.

Bob the Harsh
 

Hasse SWE

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Tutu: Alot of people her in Sweden do just that to bring more tobacco out of one season. You should get a new smaller plant if you save one of those sucker's. The tobacco will not have the same quality as the first"original" plant. Don't think it's good for cigar but you can make oral-snuff of it..But remember that you getting mor and better tobacco if you just grow a new plant.
 

Tutu

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I am starting to understand the characteristics of Ainaro and Liquiçá better every day. It is a pitty that the Liquiçá was as good as dead and is now only growing short leafs. The ones that were harvested when it was blown down are curing to a beautiful connecticut-like light brown colour. I would really have liked to have more of these leafs in my possession. These could have been wrappers. As for Ainaro, they look much more like the leaf that would make it to a rajangan cut in Indonesia. The soil mix I am using seems to be paying off as well, as the leaf size is much larger than that of Amersfoort and Kasturi which I was growing previously without the cocopeat component in the soil. One of three Ainaro's is TMV-free, the other two have only slight problems. The Liquiçá has no problems either.

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Charly

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You seem to have big leaves !
The plants I had in pots last year gave me really small leaves compared to the plants in full ground...
Do you fertilize often ?
 

Tutu

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The first grow I had was also in pots and they were small too. That first time I had only used normal potting soil.
This time I use cocopeat, which is coconut fibre. Even though I think there's not a lot of nutrients in it, it is much lighter than normal potting soil. This will make it more easy for the roots to penetrate the pot. If you use only normal soil, it will become to condensed after a while. Mixing it with cocopeat seems to make a difference. I fertilize only once, which is when I make the potting mix. When I fill the pot, for the lower two-thirds of the pot I use about 60-40 of normal soil vs. cocopeat and mix in NPK 12-6-9 and 8-5-10. For the top part I use relatively a bit more cocopeat, about 40-60 normal soil-cocopeat and use NPK 6-4-8. So far it seems to be a mixture that Ainaro likes. Will be making a similar mix for the upcoming three Besuki and one Timor plant (seed from deluxestogie).
 

Leftynick

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The first grow I had was also in pots and they were small too. That first time I had only used normal potting soil.
This time I use cocopeat, which is coconut fibre. Even though I think there's not a lot of nutrients in it, it is much lighter than normal potting soil. This will make it more easy for the roots to penetrate the pot. If you use only normal soil, it will become to condensed after a while. Mixing it with cocopeat seems to make a difference. I fertilize only once, which is when I make the potting mix. When I fill the pot, for the lower two-thirds of the pot I use about 60-40 of normal soil vs. cocopeat and mix in NPK 12-6-9 and 8-5-10. For the top part I use relatively a bit more cocopeat, about 40-60 normal soil-cocopeat and use NPK 6-4-8. So far it seems to be a mixture that Ainaro likes. Will be making a similar mix for the upcoming three Besuki and one Timor plant (seed from deluxestogie).

Ahh, cocopeat. My gardening friend also recommend the same thing. My step brother also use cocopeat for his drip irrigation chili garden. Your are right about not having any nutrient in it. But mixing NPK in the soil before planting is something I never heard before. I always thought fertilizer were applied on the soil after planting. It has the same idea with mixing manure on soil before planting. Thank you.
 

greenmonster714

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What an interesting thread. I envy your travels. As a young man I traveled a bit in Central America (Panama, Costa Rica). Spent three years down there in the military. I only wish I had been interested in tobacco like I am now. Looking forward to seeing your progress.
 

Tutu

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Thanks for the nice words. I've given it some thought and I want to reserve this thread to discuss the end results of Viqueque, Ainaro, and Liquiçá growths. That means I would rather discuss the differences among the plants in terms of its leafs, curing, smoking, everything. This, instead of making it too much of a personal grow log and showing all the stages of seedling to mature plant. The same for the Sumba thread. That means I'll leave it here for now and will come back when I can say more about the curing qualities of the different tobacco's. I am currently giving them an semi-dark air cured treatment. There was a bit of mold on Liquiçá which I washed of re-cured it. The Ainaro is a more darker brown than the Liquiçá, but there are green spots remaining on the leaf. I would be very interested in ChinaVoodoo posting his findings after his 2017 growth of these plants. Maybe later this year he can post some pictures of mature plants, and cured leaf. Regardless of him discussing it in his own grow blog as well. Anyone else who is growing Timor-Leste or Sumba plants in the future is invited to do the same thing.
 

Tutu

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Not only to show the leaf size that can be attained by a pot-growth but also to show the interesting difference between the leaf grown in the shade of a hut in the mountains of Timor-Leste and the leaf grown in full sun on Java in a pot in my backyard. Quite a striking difference if you go back to the original Ainaro pictures. Also, the leaf has a very long petiole before there is any lamina. This is very different from the Liquiçá. Also the angle of the veins to the midrib is different, which was already noticed by Bob.

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