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Newbie growing in pots. Any advice much appreciated.

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LivinInPiperHell

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G'day everyone.

I've germinated some burley seeds (Well, I think they're burley but I'll get to that) & got them to seedling size. As I didn't have many I pulled apart the coir seedling pot, teased the few roots apart & transplanted them into large pots. Most of them survived but the snails & slugs are loving them.

- Some plants don't like to have their roots disturbed as seedlings. Is the tobacco plant one of them or is it acceptable practice to tease seedlings apart?

- They've taken ages to get to seedling stage; around 9 weeks I think. They were germinated under a household CFL & kept under that for about 6-7 weeks before they were put on a windowsill.
Is that rate of growth about right?
Is there any way to accelerate growth to seedling stage?

- I've read that tobacco loves plenty of nutrient & water. As they're in pots they need to be watered regularly anyway so they don't dry out.
I'll be feeding with a liquid nutrient.
It's starting to warm up here & once the plants take off, keeping in mind that it'll be real hot, what feeding regime should I employ?
Once they're past the seedling stage, does tobacco prefer high nitrogen or should I start using the nutrient for fruiting plants that's low in nitrogen? (Something tells me that because it's leaf, higher nitrogen would be advised. But Idk, that's a guess)

- Several years ago I grew a couple of plants in pots. Then over the next couple of years a few plants popped up in the backyard soil. Well, it's clay actually with a layer of topsoil.
I'll run out of pots & medium before long as I've also germinated golden virginia, burley & latakia, I'll have no choice but to plant in the clay.
I've already laid down a thick layer of mulch on planting sites.
They're a long way from seedling stage, so what can I do to prepare the soil/clay in the meantime?

If anyone has advice re; growing in pots, or growing tobacco in general, it will be much appreciated. Thanks.
 

2Baccy

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I think a 6” or taller plant @ 6-8 weeks of age is achievable.
CFL lights should be used at about 100 watt per square foot and placed pretty close to plants maybe 1-4 inch’s. So more light will speed up the seedling stage. Or more sun.
Trim lower leaves after a while to encourage upwards growth.
Tobacco seems to tolerate the roots being disturbed in my experience.
If your growing in ready to use peat grow mix then don’t feed anything till the plant is as tall as the pot or shows a pale leaf or other problem.
Water them every time with fertilizer mixed at 1/4 the proper strength maybe half.
Run lots out the bottom of pot every time.
Or every second time just clear water, it won’t matter much.
Use any fertilizer you want suitable for general use.
You may have trouble keeping roots cool in pots.
If growing in the real ground in the garden I don’t know what to suggest? Get a soil sample done somewhere and add what it needs I guess.
The FAQ has loads of general information.

Disclaimer
This is only my opinion and I have been growing tobacco for less then a year.
 

LivinInPiperHell

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I think a 6” or taller plant @ 6-8 weeks of age is achievable.
CFL lights should be used at about 100 watt per square foot and placed pretty close to plants maybe 1-4 inch’s. So more light will speed up the seedling stage. Or more sun.
Trim lower leaves after a while to encourage upwards growth.
Tobacco seems to tolerate the roots being disturbed in my experience.
If your growing in ready to use peat grow mix then don’t feed anything till the plant is as tall as the pot or shows a pale leaf or other problem.
Water them every time with fertilizer mixed at 1/4 the proper strength maybe half.
Run lots out the bottom of pot every time.
Or every second time just clear water, it won’t matter much.
Use any fertilizer you want suitable for general use.
You may have trouble keeping roots cool in pots.
If growing in the real ground in the garden I don’t know what to suggest? Get a soil sample done somewhere and add what it needs I guess.
The FAQ has loads of general information.

Disclaimer
This is only my opinion and I have been growing tobacco for less then a year.

Thanks 2baccy.

It gets really hot here. The last few summers have been brutal. Last year was heat wave after heatwave with maximums hitting the high 40*C 's (The hottest day in recent years hit 49.4*C - that's 121*F )
Never realised until recently that it's the roots that one needs to protect from the heat as opposed to the plant itself.
It's amazing what plants will tolerate.

So I'm going to dig some holes once the plants have established so that I can stick the pot itself in the ground to try & protect the roots some.
The extreme heat is something that I'll face every year so I'll leave a couple of pots above ground just to see how well they cope.

These plants grow so slowly from seed that I'll be germinating next years plants at least 4 months in advance.
 

LivinInPiperHell

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If you're digging a hole, why not just remove the pot?

That does sound like the logical thing to do.
The main issue is that my soil is heavy clay. Despite extensive ag-pipe drainage, after a couple of days of heavy rain my backyard turns into a swimming pool. In that event, if my plants are buried in pots, I'll at least be able to move to higher ground.
 

deluxestogie

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If your "swimming pool" is no deeper than a few inches, you can take the approach that tobacco farmers use for soggy ground. Mound the soil for the row of plants so that at least 3 or 4 inches of soil will remain above the water. The transplants are placed along the flattened crest of the mound. You could just try that with a couple of plants.

Bob
 

LivinInPiperHell

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If your "swimming pool" is no deeper than a few inches, you can take the approach that tobacco farmers use for soggy ground. Mound the soil for the row of plants so that at least 3 or 4 inches of soil will remain above the water. The transplants are placed along the flattened crest of the mound. You could just try that with a couple of plants.

Bob
It's worth trying if I've got some spare seedlings.

These are taking forever to get to seedling stage & heatwave conditions aren't helping matters.
Don’t make the same mistake I believe I made last year.

http://fairtradetobacco.com/threads/poor-burning-vfc.8475/

Also I read somewhere that fabric pots evaporate water quicker and that helps to cool the soil, but it also means watering more often.
A layer of straw or perlite on the top of your pot may also reduce temps.

I've got a layer of perlite on top. It also helps stop the pot from drying out.

I've got 4 burley in pots at up to a foot tall now & they've been handling heatwave conditions surprisingly well.
Can't say the same for the germinated virginias.
 
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