LordPipestoke
Active Member
Being in the southern hemisphere, I am of course on a somewhat different seasonal schedule than most here.
Now, I'm aware that if I had actually followed that schedule to any reasonable extent, I should likely enough be harvesting rather than typing this. Here, March is the first month of autumn and this March being nearly over, is not lacking in kinship with your late September.
However, and I introduce this word knowing that its presence represents a substantial observation of its use, I started late. Very late indeed.
Due to having too much work and too little time, my plants (Virginia Gold from NTS) didn't go into the ground until late January. I know that's too late by any sensible measure but the alternative was to give up and I saw little merit in that. The plants went in and they have to some extent thrived and continue to do so but the main growth has only occurred in the past 3-4 weeks. They are about knee high now. Also, they're a bit closer together than what would be ideal.
I wouldn't expect any frost for at least a couple of months, if any at all. Some years we get a little frost, others we don't but I haven't experienced it any sooner than mid-late July. Daytime temperatures are likely to be in the range of 18-23c (64-73F) for the coming month, 16-20c (61-68F) in the month after that.
So, how bad is my outlook?
We're not talking a large crop by any standards at all. There are 16 Virginia plants and 3 Yenidje. This is my first year with plants in the ground after the year before finished with my seedlings all getting cooked at a stage where it was too late to start anything new. Plans for next year are a little more ambitious with hopes for about 50-60 plants.
I'm growing exclusively with pipe tobacco in mind.
Now, I'm aware that if I had actually followed that schedule to any reasonable extent, I should likely enough be harvesting rather than typing this. Here, March is the first month of autumn and this March being nearly over, is not lacking in kinship with your late September.
However, and I introduce this word knowing that its presence represents a substantial observation of its use, I started late. Very late indeed.
Due to having too much work and too little time, my plants (Virginia Gold from NTS) didn't go into the ground until late January. I know that's too late by any sensible measure but the alternative was to give up and I saw little merit in that. The plants went in and they have to some extent thrived and continue to do so but the main growth has only occurred in the past 3-4 weeks. They are about knee high now. Also, they're a bit closer together than what would be ideal.
I wouldn't expect any frost for at least a couple of months, if any at all. Some years we get a little frost, others we don't but I haven't experienced it any sooner than mid-late July. Daytime temperatures are likely to be in the range of 18-23c (64-73F) for the coming month, 16-20c (61-68F) in the month after that.
So, how bad is my outlook?
We're not talking a large crop by any standards at all. There are 16 Virginia plants and 3 Yenidje. This is my first year with plants in the ground after the year before finished with my seedlings all getting cooked at a stage where it was too late to start anything new. Plans for next year are a little more ambitious with hopes for about 50-60 plants.
I'm growing exclusively with pipe tobacco in mind.