Tutu's Year 2017

[Tutu]

Hi Members,

I've thought of a way to join in with the regular northern hemisphere grow blog season. I get really excited seeing everyone starting their seeds and working up towards the same goals. I can grow all year 'round in Indonesia, which is nice, but it is difficult to see a beginning and end in what I am posting. I have started threads such as the Timor-Leste Grow Log and theSumba Grow Log. These were threads made after collecting tobacco on those remote islands. Those two threads will be dedicated to posting the end results of growing tobacco collected from both islands and to compare the results with others growing it. For instance, ChinaVoodoo is growing some Timor-Leste this year. There is also the Kasturi x Amersfoort experiment which is ongoing. It will be a long term thing. Hopefully for the next couple of years.

In this thread I will post on everything that I am growing in the year 2017. Some of that may be Timor-Leste, Sumba, or Kasturi x Amersfoort. There's also other varieties involved. I hope that it will be more of a regular grow blog, rather than five different threads with everything spread around. I'm sure it will be. So let me just hit it off with giving an overall update of where I am at. First a list with what is currently alive. Then I'll post some pictures to show in what stage plants are in.

03 Timor-Leste Ainaro
01 Timor-Leste Liquiçá
01 Timor
08 Besuki
01 Xhanti
04 Amersfoort
14 Kasturi x Amersfoort
01 Sacred Cornplanter

As you may know, I grow everything in pots. The place were I live has been build only recently and there is only a very thin layer of soil. Beneath that thin layer is only ruble. I also aim to master the art of making good potting soils. I've got some good results recently with mixing in cocopeat for about 40% of the mix. I mix in fertilizer to make up for the low nutrient content in cocopeat. Let's see some pictures first.









I have been away to Singapore for the past three weeks. When I came back, my Timor-Leste Ainaro plants were looking great. I was going to harvest some of the leafs but I was unpacking my bags first. With hindsight I am glad I took some photos. After being back home for about two hours, a typhoon hit us. The pots were blown over and the plants were badly damaged. There was little I could do so I harvested all the leafs and I chopped of the main stem. I'll have some soca grow from it and see where that leads me. This was the second typhoon in three months time.



Another Timor-Leste, this is Liquiçá. This is the plant that was snapped during the previous typhoon in the beginning of January. It had a few roots at the chin of its stem and I potted it, and it grew, albeit with smaller leafs. A shame, since it was noted by Bob that it had nice perpendicular veins. Before the typhoon on Saturday, I had just topped this plant. Now it stands a little skewed, but is still alive. I will soon harvest some more leafs.



Three of these could be spotted in the previous picture too. They are Besuki in black. The one in the back on the right is the odd one out. That one is not Besuki but Timor. Timor has been discussed fairly elaborate in the Timor-Leste thread as well. Deluxestogie has send me the seeds. These four plants were the soul survivors of my move to my new home back in September. Timor has been planted at the end of August 2016. It's been a while. In-between these four pots are ten seedlings. Three of them are Besuki that came from the What To Do thread. They were found after being abandoned. I had thrown away a few seedpods and one full seedpod had germinated. A row of seedlings was salvaged. Five of them remain, of which three are in this picture. The other seven plants in the middle of this shot are Kasturi x Amersfoort. I'm afraid that the only Amersfoort x Kasturi I had has passed away due to a large insect that decided it should inhabit the pot and get rid of the little plant.



The remainder. On the left are two more Besuki's from the What To Do situation. Then there is a Xhanti plant received from Hayou. The very tiny plant is a Sacred Cornplanter from a seed from Rainmax. In the middle shopping basket are seven Kasturi x Amersfoort seedlings. They were kept in a different place from the other ones we have seen earlier. This place was much cooler, and thus they've grown slower. In the right basket are four Amersfoort plants. They were sown at the same time and kept in the same place as the Kasturi x Amersfoort plant you could see in the previous picture. It seems as if the Kasturi x Amersfoort are much faster growers than the Amersfoort itself.

That's all for now. I will continue to fill this Grow Blog rather than spread everything out. I hope it will provide a better overview, both for myself and for others!

 

[Charly]

Hello Anton,

That's a good idea to make a grow blog similar to us in north hemisphere !
I wish you good luck with your weather (hope you won't get typhoon all the time...), and you will be happy to know that some seeds from you begun to grow in France : Amersfoort, Besuki and Kasturi

We'll keep in touch !

 

[greenmonster714]

I do enjoy seeing tobacco of all shapes an sizes grown around the world. Your plants look great. Two typhoons in three months is awful. We don't have to worry much about those destructive storms where I live but we do have to worry about tornadoes. I live on the Mississippi/Alabama border and between those two states they average over 80 tornadoes a year. In December we had one pass through our area within a 1/2 mile of our home. It destroyed quite a few homes in its path. We were very lucky. Thankfully we do have a storm shelter.

Since your ground soil is not so good have you ever considered raised bed gardens? With those you wouldn't have to worry about your pots being blown away. Just a thought. Your plants do look pretty awesome. Wish I could grow year round here. Its good to see ya throw up this thread and join in on the fun. Good luck.

 

[DistillingJim]

Anton, do you prefer cigars, pipes or cigarettes?

 

[Tutu]

To be honest I got into growing tobacco plants because I work in the tobacco business. Seemed to be a great way for me to learn a thing or two about the plants. By now it has gotten far beyond that in terms of interest. I don't smoke pipe or cigarettes, but I do enjoy the occasional cigar. Everything I'm growing I'm either sun curing or dark air curing and fermenting in piles of a few tons of Besuki leafs. I intend to bring it with me to the Netherlands, which is where I'm from. I visit the Netherlands once a year and bring the finished tobacco to a friend who does smoke cigarettes, and a fair amount of marijuana with it. Coming May I'll bring it there and shred it, for him to get a nice stock of tobacco to roll with. I'll sure give it a smoking shot as well. Many people seem tend to seek a specific taste for their blend. I just want it to taste different from anything else, but for it to still be regarded as a decent smoke. For now I got a little pile of Amersfoort leafs that came from the first three plants I ever grew, which were sun cured. They have been fermenting for about a month now. There's also a small pile of Kasturi Tinggi leafs in the same fermentation pile. They came from a single plant and were also sun cured. I'm piling up Ainaro and Liquiçá leafs from the Timor-Leste grow, which will also go into a fermentation pile. Those have been dark air cured.

Yes, the typhoons do pose a challenge. The thing is, everyone around here says it has never occurred before. So I'm hoping there won't be any others. Not while I'm growing tobacco. Raised beds wouldn't be a bad idea to make up for the thin layer of soil, but on the other hand I doubt whether it is really going to protect the plants from the force of a typhoon.

Although I am looking forward to harvesting some Besuki and Timor, I am anxious to see whether I will be able to retain seed from the Kasturi x Amersfoort before I'm leaving at mid-May. Being able to grow those plants and get seeds is key to get a good season turnover to be able to establish a stable variety in a few years time. It would be a shame if I were to leaf without getting any seed, having to start all over again. I'm growing the other Amersfoort plants in case I need to back-cross. I'm afraid that these little fellows will turn out too much as Kasturi Tinggi plants. We'll see in the near future though. For now I can't tell the difference among them, they all seem the same to me so far.

 

[Tutu]

I've destroyed the two smallest Besuki plants. I had them in three stages and the third was just going to be a few too many. I hope to be able to harvest everything that grows now before I leave to the Netherlands, for which the date has been set to June 1st. I will be back in Indonesia on July 1st. The idea is to get a new set of plants going that will be ready to be transplanted at the beginning of July. I will start new seeds with intervals of about two weeks to see what works best. I've just got the first few going. That might seem a bit early but I am fairly confident I can have them grow at moderate speed under the right conditions. They are:

Wanokaka Sumba
Umalulu Sumba
Rindi Sumba
Loli Sumba
Nostrano del Brenta
Ternopolski 7
Piloto Puerto Rico
Tabije
Hyang Cho

 

[Charly]

A lot of exotic strains ! Great !
I will follow your experiments with pleasure !
I wish you good luck with your crops, it would be sad if you can't harvest what you planted...

 

[ChinaVoodoo]

I've destroyed the two smallest Besuki plants. I had them in three stages and the third was just going to be a few too many. I hope to be able to harvest everything that grows now before I leave to the Netherlands, for which the date has been set to June 1st. I will be back in Indonesia on July 1st. The idea is to get a new set of plants going that will be ready to be transplanted at the beginning of July. I will start new seeds with intervals of about two weeks to see what works best. I've just got the first few going. That might seem a bit early but I am fairly confident I can have them grow at moderate speed under the right conditions. They are:

Wanokaka Sumba
Umalulu Sumba
Rindi Sumba
Loli Sumba
Nostrano del Brenta
Ternopolski 7
Piloto Puerto Rico
Tabije
Hyang Cho

So many tobaccos you could grow. It's difficult to decide. BUT, I hate to throw a wrench in there. I think you should consider growing Costello Negro-that's if I sent you seed for it. Since we last conversed, I've come to realize it's the best tasting of the flue cured tobaccos I grew last year. It's really good. And great pics in your other thread. I'd love to go to work in a factory like that, and you're looking slick, man.

 

[Charly]

This is not the first time I read some good review about Costello Negro, I will have to try it too... (Arghghhh another one to add to my 2018 list)
Did you flue cure your Costello Negro ? or did you air cure it ?

 

[ChinaVoodoo]

This is not the first time I read some good review about Costello Negro, I will have to try it too... (Arghghhh another one to add to my 2018 list)
Did you flue cure your Costello Negro ? or did you air cure it ?

I flue cured most of it. The way the climate is here means that with most varieties, the entire plant doesn't have time to ripen before it gets freezing in autumn. As a result, I air cured the last pick of upper leaves. Tobaccos I've found that have time to completely ripen are the Eastern European flue cured varieties I've grown: Ternopolski 7, Ostrolist 6, and Symbol 4.

My opinion is based on the fact I smoke a pipe primarily.

 

[Tutu]

Yes, you did send it. I'm taking a week, or two week interval before I will sow new seeds and the Costello Negro will be included. I might sun cure it in the end though. But we'll see. I will probably also plant some Viqueque again, and maybe Samporis. Got myself some time to think about it!

 

[Tutu]

In the meantime I'm passionate about having soca from the Ainaro. The curing leafs are big and light brown, and some of what has been cured for a while smells really good. I'm curious if I could get a few thicker, smaller sized second grow leafs. I have three stalks and I am suckering every day, keeping one sucker alive per plant. Two plants were previously infected with TMV but Ainaro seems quite strong against it. The third plant that was free from TMV is growing the most promising soca. Note that these are three pictures of three different stalks!

 

[Tutu]

The end of the working week is always a good time to look at things and see what needs to be done. The Wanokaka and the Tabije have started to germinate. I've also planted ten West Indian Locust seeds. They're not found in Asia, but there's a few specimen in Singapore, taken there in 1875. Found a tree and took with me some pods. Ontopic, on the outside of the house things look as follows:



The first three are the Ainaro stalks. I've decided to take the first and the third out, later tonight. They are infected with TMV and they don't grow very well. The middle one is not infected and grows quite nice. It has an extreme amount of gum. The three that follow in line are Besuki. The third plant has decided to start flowering already. The leaf size is not very impressive just yet. Then the last in line is Timor, seed from Bob. I'm afraid it might be TMV infected as well. Tomorrow I will transplant seven KxA and three more Besuki's into containers.

 

[Tutu]

In an attempt to rid my garden from the TMV virus I got rid of all the Ainaro soca's as well as the Liquiçá plant that remained. Bob's Timor was harvested and the plant discarded. All leafs are getting a nice cure. The potting soil was dumped with the chicken, they loved it. That left me with three Besuki which I have decided to top. One of these plants already started flowering. Besuki is usually not topped around here, but you've got to try things for the first time. One Besuki plant was blown down while I was in Surabaya for the weekend.

Whereas I was curing all my previous tobacco at my house, I decided that I will need more space. Soon I will also have the KxA plants to deal with. I harvested the first few leafs of Besuki and took them to a farmer in the South who has a very nice curing barn. That will be the future location where most of the curing takes place. I'll take some pictures of the barn later on. For now, pictures of the older Besuki plants. Then a picture of 6 KxA, as the seventh sadly passed away, and three more younger Besuki's in the back row. Also a picture of the garden as a whole.

 

[deluxestogie]

The scene in that last photo deserves a comfy chair.

Bob

 

[Charly]

Your plants look healthy ! big leaves ! I wish you to get rid of the TVM definitly

 

[greenmonster714]

They look great Tutu. Nice n green n big leaves. Can't ask for anything better from a container grow. Yeah, the TVM thing. Damn shame that happens. I never knew how many different disorders/diseases there were for the tobacco plant until I got a app for my phone that covers that stuff. I hope you can get rid of or find a way to control that.

 

[Leftynick]

Nice grow Tutu. Keep up the good work.

 

[Tutu]

Although I would very much like to put a chair in this garden I haven't had the time, nor the right weather since last picture was taken. Also, I've not been caring enough for my little seedlings. There's still some Hyang Cho, Tabije, Wonakaka and a single Loli seed alive, but I don't think they will make it. I might be away from home a little longer into July so I'm unsure at the moment whether I can get these to adulthood.

On a more positive note, I retrieved my two bunches of leafs from the fermentation pile today. They have been fermenting well over three months. Temperature was stable around 47 degrees celcius for the majority of the days. They came out smelling wonderful. I was especially impressed with the Kasturi. The Amersfoort is a little on the papery side. All the cercospora is not pleasing on the eye either. The Kasturi on the other hand does not look like it was sun cured at all, even though it was. There's still a lot of life in these leafs. They smell wonderful and I like their colour. This is definitely something I'll be growing again. It's going to be interesting how the hybrid of the two is going to come out. At least we have a little precedent here, of its parents. They're also the first two bunches I've ever grown myself and gotten through fermentation.

 

[ChinaVoodoo]

That looks great.