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Besuki

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Tutu

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Hi everyone,

Besuki has been a discussion point in a number threads on this forum, such as Bezuki vs Habano 2K, as well as Indonesian Tobacco - a discussion. It has also been talked about in grow logs, for instance in those of Deluxestogie, Smokin Harley, and knucklehead mentioned stashing up some Besuki seeds. I do not intend to repeat what has already been said about it, rather to build on it. And help you guys out, if needed.

Besuki is predominantly grown in the Jember regency on East Java. Besuki itself is a town in the north of East Java, whereas Jember is more to the south on this side of the island. For the past century, tobacco growing has moved further and further southward on East Java. Not only Besuki just is grown here commercially, but also Burley, White Burley, Kasturi and a few other varieties. Most of it is Besuki though. Some of it is sun grown, some of it shade grown (TBN).

Farmers in Jember who grow tobacco are supplied with seeds from government-owned companies. They are not allowed to collect their seeds at the end of the season and replant them the next. I highly doubt whether all farmers strictly obey to those rules, but that's beside the point. Farmers hardly ever top their Besuki. So the point is that thousands of perfectly fine seed pods are formed every season and discarded for no valid reason. This is a waste of good seed. So this is where I will step in.

I have collected a large number of seedpods from fine, healthy looking plants. These were plants grown in full sun. To be precise, the strain is Besuki H382. I am not sure where those of you who've grown Besuki got your seed. I know some of you got them from Tabakanbau. Then again, who knows where they got their seeds from. The seeds I have in my possession come straight from Besuki plants grown in Indonesia. The plants here easily get up to two meters high and the middle leaf positions produce quality wrapper leafs if properly cured and fermented.

I would be happy to send the seeds in ziplock bags to anyone who is interested. I'd also be happy to give some additional information on either the seeds or growing Besuki in general. I'm not implying that these seeds are necessary any better or different than the stuff you were growing already. I just thought it would be a nice addition to the forum, to be able to send some tobacco straight from another origin. I'm not looking for anything in return. Let me know if you are interested.

Below are a few photographs I took during the past few weeks.

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deluxestogie

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I would find it interesting to plant Besuki from Indonesia alongside "Java Besuki" from Tabakanbau. When I planted the latter, the leaves had a similar shape to those in your photos, but their coloration was strikingly different. Although mine appeared similar in appearance to a white-stem burley, they were distinctly not burley when cured and kilned.

Bob
 

Smokin Harley

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I would love to try some Besuki straight from the parental source. PM'ing you my address. and thank you very much.
 

Tutu

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For further comparison of the different seeds in circulation for Besuki, I've started growing two of them side by side. Thanks to deluxestogie, I can now grow Besuki from Tabakanbau next to the Besuki found here currently on East Java. Of course there's not much that can be said to compare just yet. However, I did notice that the the sprouts from Tabakanbau seemed to have much more bend little stems. I know tobacco does that often, but there were just a lot more in the Tabakanbau compared to those from Ambulu, a sub-district in the Jember regency. I might be slightly biased. We'll be able to tell later on how similar these plants really are, pictures don't lie.

Besuki Comparison.jpg
 

Tutu

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Sadly enough, most of the seedlings have not withstood the pressure of moving to their new home 18km east of their old. Although initially things seemed okay, many of them died later on. I can only speculate as to why this happened. Maybe it was the trip in the pick-up, maybe it was their initial set-up in the bathroom, or maybe it was their later installment in on the porch. One way or the other, only a few Besuki seedlings that came from seeds obtained in the fields South in the Jember regency are still alive. Those from Tabakanbau didn't make it. I'll try to get another set of Tabakanbau seeds going though. We'll see where things will go from there
 

Tutu

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Quite interesting, I found a map from about 1930 from the East Java area. You can see that there is a town called Besoeki (old Dutich spelling) in the North of Java. But from this map I learned that probably the Eastern part of East Java was called Besoeki, as a province name. Djember is on the map too. As you can see, we are amidst the area that was once called Besoeki. I suppose this is the reason for the tobacco being called Besuki. Thus, after the province, rather than the town. I am not yet sure how the two names of the town and province are connected.

Besoeki.jpg
 

Tutu

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For the follow-up I want to treat you to some more Besuki photo's I took early in the morning in one of the Northern Jember areas. Earlier pictures I posted are of South Jember.

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deluxestogie

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Wonderful photos. In one photo, I see that the Besuki, in full blossom, appears to be only shoulder-high, and that they apparently plant them with surprisingly close spacing. But in the final photo, the height is over the head of the orange-shirted person.

Bob
 

Tutu

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That's right. There's multiple things involved, to be fair. In certain times, and certain areas, there may be a higher demand for smaller, thicker leaf. The farmer may save some costs by using less fertiliser. He may also use closer spacing. Then there's always farmers that retain their seeds, and others don't. In the South, I expect more farmers to retain seeds. They often grow Besuki sub-strains with higher yields. In terms of quality, the shape, texture and smell of the Northern area tobacco is better, if you ask me. The North is also at the foot of a volcano, so the attitude is a bit higher. The soil is more jungle like and has been less cultivated
 

CaryNC

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Those plants get a lot taller than I thought. Some of the pictures show they do some priming and others appear they don't, that is if I am looking at them right.

I guess it is up to the individual or farm?
 

Tutu

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For Besuki it's all priming! Wouldn't recommend stalk harvesting. They always dark air cure the Besuki. If you want I can give you the best practise schedule we recommend to them.
 

Hasse SWE

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For Besuki it's all priming! Wouldn't recommend stalk harvesting. They always dark air cure the Besuki. If you want I can give you the best practise schedule we recommend to them.

It would actually have been a little interesting if you did, always interesting.
 

CaryNC

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For Besuki it's all priming! Wouldn't recommend stalk harvesting. They always dark air cure the Besuki. If you want I can give you the best practise schedule we recommend to them.

I would be curious to know what is recommended for that type. The schedule would be good just to see the process involved.
 

rainmax

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I like all the informations I can get from this strain. Thanks Tutu. Verry informative.
This year I had few plants of Besuki that I get from Knucklehead in 2014. I grow them in shade.
In few days it will go to kiln.
 

Tutu

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Basically, when it comes to priming, we recognize three different schedules, depending on weather conditions. They are Fast Growth, Medium Growth and Slow Growth. Obviously the number of days might be a bit different if you grow outside Indonesia. I'll talk about the Medium Growth time schedule. The Fast Growth schedule is each day minus 5 days, and the slow growth schedule is each day adding 5 days. There's 10 different primings. Typically, priming starts when 60% of the flowers have developed. The first 9 primings consist of 2 leafs, the last priming consists of 6 leafs. The priming days are given in number of days after the plant has been transplanted into the field. In the Medium Growth schedule, the priming days are 50, 53, 56, 60, 63, 66, 69, 75, 78, 81.
 
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