China Voodoo 2018 Air-cured and Rajangan

[ChinaVoodoo]

Beautiful weather this week. I put the corn and tomatoes out in the greenhouse yesterday. They did fine in the sun and overnight, so I moved the tobacco, peppers, and some of the other veggies. None of the cucumbers, melons, zucchini, etc.

I took BigB's advice from another grow log, that the yellowing leaves I've had may be due to (what's the condition...) it's been a long 13 HR work day.... Too wet, anyways. See, I never had problems like this before. I in previous years had my seedlings wide open to the room with the lights really close, but this year tried totally enclosed with reflective stuff, with the lights further up. Consequence, always wet. I probably won't do that again.



Natural light with fresh air is doing wonders for me--I work nightshift and winter ended last week--so it should do wonders for my plants as well.

 

[burge]

I have always told people when asked about our weather its like God Turn the thermostat on and off. Unbelievable that its 21 outside now at 8 26 Grass is green a week a go last Sunday there was 2 ft of snow

 

[greenmonster714]

Nice looking green house. I don't remember seeing that last year. That new?

 

[ChinaVoodoo]

Nice looking green house. I don't remember seeing that last year. That new?

Thank you, I built it in the middle of winter during a warm spell. I start so many plants, I need something like this. I had the panels kicking around, leftovers from the split of two friends, so it cost me very little to build.

 

[deluxestogie]

Thank you GM714 for asking about the greenhouse. At my age, I just assume that I must have forgotten having seen it last year. (Somebody built one with an auto-opening window, but that's not it.)

CV, what kind of plastic is the panel material? How do the panels latch?

Bob

 

[ChinaVoodoo]

The panels are double-walled polycarbonate. I liked working with it. Most of the cuts were done with a circular saw, although, you could use a knife, or shears too.

They are screwed on with roofing/siding screws. These screws have little rubber gaskets that prevent water from getting in the holes, and also prevents cracking while still maintaining a solid hold. You don't need pilot holes. The screws drill through without any cracking.


Between the panels and the frame is foam weather stripping.


The the doors are attached using cheap hinges. The screws are stainless machine screws that cost more than the hinges.


More weather stripping around the door frames.


The doors are held shut with a dowel. I'll just show you pictures, and you'll understand how it works.






And the left side door has a top and bottom section. The top section has the window opener on it, although in sunny days, it's not enough and one of the other doors needs to be opened.

 

[deluxestogie]

It all looks practical. At one point, I considered building a flue-cure chamber with multi-layer polycarbonate walls.

Bob

 

[ChinaVoodoo]

It all looks practical. At one point, I considered building a flue-cure chamber with multi-layer polycarbonate walls.

Bob

How about, just a window? You can't actually see through three panels all that well though. I suppose you can see color, and that's all you ultimately need.


My biggest issue, is that a lot of the things we grow have seasons so long, and germination temperatures so high--tomatoes, cucumbers, peppers, etc--that your only options are to buy started plants, or to start them early, yourself. There's also some plants you can hardly grow without a greenhouse, like eggplant. I find I'm starting so much that grow lights are impractical/expensive, and my rigged up shelter last year was a p.i.a. This greenhouse really is necessary.

 

[deluxestogie]

...a lot of the things we grow have seasons so long, and germination temperatures so high...

That is a primary reason why "traditional tobacco regions" were located where they were. The seed had to germinate in outdoor beds. So the growing season required a minimum of 5 months. Now we grow tobacco in Nepal, and even in Canada.

A decent cold frame can add about a month. Your greenhouse will be a joy for years to come. Go eggplant!

Bob

 

[ChinaVoodoo]

That is a primary reason why "traditional tobacco regions" were located where they were. The seed had to germinate in outdoor beds. So the growing season required a minimum of 5 months. Now we grow tobacco in Nepal, and even in Canada.

A decent cold frame can add about a month. Your greenhouse will be a joy for years to come. Go eggplant!

Bob

Nepal!! Do tell.

 

[deluxestogie]

One Nepal link: https://www.snpl.com.np/content/leaf-tobacco.html

Bob

 

[ChinaVoodoo]

That's very cool. I imagine most of their tobacco goes to cigarettes. It would be great if they did some specialty cigars or pipe tobacco. I was in the Himalayas in Sikkim, India a couple years ago, and it did occur to me that if you can grow tea, you could grow tobacco. A mystery to me is why altitude is a factor in quality for tea and coffee, but I haven't heard the same about tobacco. I wonder if altitude has an impact on the nature of the Nepalese tobacco.

 

[deluxestogie]

Kathmandu is at a relatively moderate elevation of about 4,600 feet.

Xanthi tobacco grown on the slopes (yaka) in the Rhodope mountains around the Greek town of Xanthi is considered to be of a higher quality than that grown near the ridge (djebel) of the mountain. Xanthi-Yaka and Xanthi-Djebel likely originated as the very same strain, but are now consider different varieties.

My Machu Picchu Havana produces pink blossoms, but when Stadelman collected it on the slopes of Huayna Picchu (over 8,000 feet elevation), he described it as "white blossom".

The issue is whether or not you can experimentally separate elevation differences (in pO[sub]2[/sub], total ambient pressure, the nature of average cloud cover, and level of solar radiance) from the climatic differences that usually accompany changes in elevation. I'm not sure if anyone has even tried to tease that apart.

I'm fairly certain there would be direct metabolic differences that result from extreme elevation.

Bob

 

[greenmonster714]

Well that looks great and relatively easy and low cost. Probably way more durable tthat the heavy plastic half moon tunnel greenhouses. Thanks for showing us around.

 

[ChinaVoodoo]

Working out of town on the weekend! Good thing they pay me, and good thing I grabbed an air cured Delhi leaf out of the shed for the drive.

 

[Charly]

Very nice leaf, how did you enjoy it ? Chew ? Smoke ?

 

[ChinaVoodoo]

Very nice leaf, how did you enjoy it ? Chew ? Smoke ?

Sorry about the late supply Charly. That tobacco definitely needs to be kilned. It was very high in nicotine and gave me hiccups.

 

[ChinaVoodoo]

Tobacco photos!

I think it's time for a haircut.




Oh, and here's some corn, cucumbers and peppers.

 

[ChinaVoodoo]

I decided to move the tobacco outside to continue the acclimating process, and spread them out a bit. (A little bit of wind and cooler temperatures).



KY17 right, Isleta Pueblo is the tall ones in the middle, and TN90LC is on the left.


Samporis on the right, with pointy leaves, Kasturi on the left with rounded leaves


Here's the Nostrano Gentile. I like the dark color. I'm not sure if it came through the photo.


Not pictured-Goose Creek (which is doing pretty good).

 

[deluxestogie]

So far as I know, Nostrano Gentile is the one and only surviving descendant of Nostrano del Brenta. They are lovely and unique plants. What I found most curious about it was that even the darkest leaf from the top of the plant seemed no stronger (and slightly sweeter) than lighter, lower leaf. It makes cigars rated PG.

Bob