Chillards FTT Need For Seed Grow Outs 2014

[chillardbee]

Ive never heaerd of that new variety. You named it after the now infamouus knucklehead. Heh heh cool.

Knucks sent me those seeds amongst others. Somewhere along the line I lost the reams too and I still havrn't found it. McNair was one a couple varieties that air cured bright. Lemon bright, African red, lizard tail oronico, and dixie bright 27 were others.

 

[chillardbee]

What is your finished product to sell chillard? It sounds badass.

No selling allowed in Canada. The recipe is based on the japan tobacco international site of additives they use in the Export "A" premium blend (fine cut) which was my prefered store bought tobacco. I must admitt that I had recently bought a pouch of this tobacco and compared it to my tobacco from last year and mine is far tastier, smoother, with full flavour. the store bought baccy has something in it that is quite irritating to the throat. After treating it with the recipe I use, my tobacco is great. I'm going to try expereminting with some essential oils like valerian root, that inhances tobacco flavour.

 

[chillardbee]

Last night I was sifting seeds (did 20 varieties last night), When I folded the seed bag and felt an odd burning sensation. A bloody wasp was hidden in the upper corner of the bag and the bastard stung me on the palm of my hand. I don't mind bee stings but wasp are different especially when your not expecting it.

 

[deluxestogie]

Yikes! If he was inside the bag, then the insect barrier was keeping him from his lunch. I guess he has a thing for heart of palm.

Bob

 

[Knucklehead]

Tobacco is good for bee stings. Chew a leaf and hold it on the sting. Tequilla taken internally is great for pain. A fifth should take care of it.

 

[chillardbee]

These are just a couple of photos of the volunteers that has come from a few of the seed heads (I didn't top this year). as you can see, germination rates are pretty good. most of the garden is coming up with the newly germinated seeds. I wonder how many volunteers i'll havenext year? well, hopefully they'll do me a favour and sprout now so I don't have to deal with it next year.

 

[chillardbee]

awww, for pete's sakes, is my grow ever going to finish. Strolling through the patch and there are a lot of good looking upper leaf from the plants that I've already harvested seeds from. I can't pass that up. Then, there's the suckers and there looking awefully tempting too and I know that much of that will cure bright. But when the heck do I call it quits?

 

[ArizonaDave]

awww, for pete's sakes, is my grow ever going to finish. Strolling through the patch and there are a lot of good looking upper leaf from the plants that I've already harvested seeds from. I can't pass that up. Then, there's the suckers and there looking awefully tempting too and I know that much of that will cure bright. But when the heck do I call it quits?

Grow as weather allows....... I was reading a post by DeluxeStogie earlier, where he posted some info on Cameroon wrappers (on WLT Bezuki wrapper thread). I hit one of the links to a cigar magazine, and got lost reading (like many of us do).

Anyway, there was an article about Alaskans growing tobacco indoors. Maybe you could make it all year with some 5 gallon buckets and a grow light? That way you won't have to wait for Spring thaw!

 

[chillardbee]

I'm not worried abot the first frost or loosing any leaf thats out in the patch right now. The main harvest in already cured and put up. I told myself that I would resist the urge to go for a sucker crop but now that the suckers are here, I find myself thinking twice about it. After all, there's a potential for an extra 10lbs of tobacco I could get.

My honey room is in use again for pouring honey but in 2-3 days I'll be done that and then I'll harvest what ever I can thats left out in the patch.

 

[POGreen]

But when the heck do I call it quits?

I know that feeling too chillard , tough choice to make and especially now since when one's got that itch.......

 

[deluxestogie]

Ha! I was just out in the tobacco beds scratching my chin over some of the suckers. I'm already overcrowded with leaf, but gosh....

Bob

 

[DGBAMA]

I let suckers grow, not really caring the outcome or if they made a crop or not........ Just when I was thinking I was about done for the year, the suckers are actually ripening....... What to do......

 

[rainmax]

I'm walking up and down in the field for few days now and i can't decide whether live the suckers or clean the beds. The wether is nice; much more sun than whole summer and will probably stay for another two weeks they say.
I will go for wrapper sucker crop. Some material for training.

 

[chillardbee]

Well, I couldn't resist. I harvested some sucker leaf over the past few days. 8 full sticks of fluecured varieties, 4 sticks of burleys, and 3 sticks of orientals. I still have others to harvest but it'll wait to next week. In my estimation probably another 2 sticks of cigar varieties, 3 sticks of maryland, and 3 sticks of dark air and firecured varieties. THEN THATS IT, NO MORE AND GOOD BYE AND GOOD RIDDENCE TO 2014 GROW SEASON!!!!!! Sorry, just can't wait to be done, that's all.

 

[chillardbee]

So, just when you think your done...Nope. I had some late seeds on the plants. 11 Varieties that still needed harvesting. There were 4-5 varieties that I was unable to collect seed from because it just got too late and either they didn't bloom or they didn't mature fast enough. Last monday I put on the bush wacker blade on the weed wacker and leveled the patch and then through the week we've had lows of -2C with dry clear weather which has killed all the leaf. I still have to rake it all up.

I'm de-ribbing the harvest now. The virginias and burley is done and I'm working on the dark air now. I still have maryland and the larger leaf from the orientals to de-rib. I weighed the virginia bag of de-ribbed baccy and had 2 kilos (baccy was bone dry). All the baccy has already been kilned and toasted.

Something I'd like to add here. After toasting the baccy I spritzed it with water to bring it up to case and after 24 hours when it was in perfect case I had it in a garbage bag and sat a 44 pound pail of honey on it to press it for another 24 hours. a week later I smelled the inside of the pile and what a wonderful smell. The burley and dark air cured had notes of chocolate and nut, virginia and marylands had a sour/wine (sweated) yet sweet smell and the oriental has that note too but with an aroma all it's own.

 

[chillardbee]

As you all well know, I did a cluster grow this year where in a 1' X 2' I had about 5 - 12 plants growing. This is not bad when one is going for seed but If leaf is what your after I would recommend not doing a grow like this.

One of the things I've come to understand about growing this year is there is no substitute for adequate spacing. In the cluster growing, I got about the same amount of leaf as you would usually get per plant but the leaf is smaller, anywhere from 1/2 to 1/5 the size. Apart from a leaf thats not of the greatest quality, it takes 2 to 5 times the amount of time and effort to harvest and remove ribs.

Conclusion: In 1 plant vs 5-10 plants grown in cluster, within a 1' x 2' space, the 1 plant will win in both quality and quantity and especially if the 1 plant is better taken care of (watering, nutrition, ect).

Here's an example. This year I did a cluster grow of 143 varieties with an average of 7 plants per cluster with an average of 12 harvestable leaf from each plant. That means there was about 12,000 leaves to harvest (no wonder it took me 2 weeks to harvest) and de-ribbing then is just as time consuming. Where as 150 plants (with 2' in row spacing with rows 4' apart) with an average of 12 harvestable leaves would be 1800 leaf but if that leaf is 5 times bigger then the cluster grown plants, the volume will be just about as much but with only 1/6 the amount of work.

 

[Ben Brand]

Thanks for that info chillardbee, I've never done cluster planting. I do all my iirigation with dripper line 0,5M appart, it kind off forcing me not to do the cluster thing.
Ben

 

[chillardbee]

Since the baccy has all been shredded, I have five bags. One each of virginia, burley, oriental, maryland, and dark air. Each bag is averaging 3kg, which is not as good as last years grow. Anyway, I tried a different casing recipe on the maryland, which, by itself was already pretty good. I was shooting for something along the lines of a marlboro since I don't mind that taste so I mixed up a sauce, This sauce-

90g invert sugar
90g glycerine
9g potassium sorbate
2 tbsp sodium bicarbonate
2 tbsp cocoa powder
1 tbsp vanilla extract
2 drops anise oil
and all this mixed into 1 liter of water

I sprayed it lightly over the 3kg of maryland and it's still in the drying proccess. At first, the anise oil was overwelming but soon mellowed out. As it dries, I'm scooping the dried stuff into another pail and I tried smoking some of this and I have to say that it's some of the best flavour I've ever gotten. It's not the same as marlboro and not even close to my Export a green flavour but has a unique and pleasent flavour thats quite robust and full yet not harsh. I like it a lot.

I will eventually be blending all of these together but for each type I will likely try a different recipe. I'll keep you posted.