msmith86 First grow log 2021

[msmith86]

Regarding the African Red, if you want a sucker crop, you keep the suckers removed and produce excellent main leaf. Then let one sucker grow at the bottom (won‘t matter if you prime or stalk cut) let that one sucker become a new stalk and new plant. You have a second crop without replacing with new seedlings. It may not be as large or flavorful as the first crop but it works if you don’t have seedlings ready and your season is rather short.

edit: in terms of maturity, Deluxestogie just posted photos of that very question:

Deluxestogie Grow Log 2021

collect the dead or dying caterpillars Interesting idea. But when I use BT, my total caterpillar detections wouldn't amount to more than a few hundredths of a gram for the entire season. Dead hornworms and BT residue in my blender? Bob

fairtradetobacco.com

Awesome, thanks for the quick reply. I have 7 African Red plants, so I guess I can let that one turn into a bush and try one sucker stalk lower on some others like you mentioned. Maximizing yield is what I want, just making sure I can get quality.

*I tried that on a few Rustica and they just shoot a flower head as soon as there's 4 leaves or so on the sucker stalk, which is why I topped all the suckers on those and let the few leaves grow from each sucker.

My VA Brightleaf is quickly maturing and I'm priming fully yellow leaves every few days. Will VA Brightleaf work the same way with the one sucker 2nd harvest concept? It's still July and we have warm days well into October here usually.

 

[Knucklehead]

Awesome, thanks for the quick reply. I have 7 African Red plants, so I guess I can let that one turn into a bush and try one sucker stalk lower on some others like you mentioned. Maximizing yield is what I want, just making sure I can get quality.

*I tried that on a few Rustica and they just shoot a flower head as soon as there's 4 leaves or so on the sucker stalk, which is why I topped all the suckers on those and let the few leaves grow from each sucker.

My VA Brightleaf is quickly maturing and I'm priming fully yellow leaves every few days. Will VA Brightleaf work the same way with the one sucker 2nd harvest concept? It's still July and we have warm days well into October here usually.

Yes. You can let the lowest sucker closest to the root grow into a new stalk and cut off the old stalk just above the new sucker. When it’s all said and done you will also want to pull up all the old roots and stalks and carry them away or burn them in a pile so pests and diseases won’t overwinter in the roots.

 

[msmith86]

Yes. You can let the lowest sucker closest to the root grow into a new stalk and cut off the old stalk just above the new sucker. When it’s all said and done you will also want to pull up all the old roots and stalks and carry them away or burn them in a pile so pests and diseases won’t overwinter in the roots.

I checked a low sucker on 2 African Red plants, both have 2 sets of leaves then a flower head being formed. That appears it won't work for a stalk if it will only shoot 6" to a flower head.

 

[msmith86]

Some African Red I had yellowing in a towel in the garage. These little ones are experimental sucker leaves I let grow on the top of one of the plants after priming the whole plant. Apparently they yellowed and colored fairly quick. They smell sweet but VERY strong, which is also strange because I thought AR is a Brightleaf burley type. So maybe it exceeded 100° on top of the garage freezer and kiln-cured those little ones? Very cool learning either way, because I still have no idea what I'm doing.

 

[Knucklehead]

Some African Red I had yellowing in a towel in the garage. These little ones are experimental sucker leaves I let grow on the top of one of the plants after priming the whole plant. Apparently they yellowed and colored fairly quick. They smell sweet but VERY strong, which is also strange because I thought AR is a Brightleaf burley type. So maybe it exceeded 100° on top of the garage freezer and kiln-cured those little ones? Very cool learning either way, because I still have no idea what I'm doing.

Some info regarding African Red from www.northwoodseeds.com. It is a bright leaf class which is a different class from burley. The top leaves are the stronger ones, the lower leaves are milder.

African Red

 

[skychaser]

African Red is a Bright Leaf tobacco. Bright leafs are also commonly referred to as "flu cured" tobaccos since that is the method in which most modern day Bright Leafs are cured and dried. Burley tobaccos are in an entirely different class. Burleys are much stronger in flavor and have more nicotine than Bright Leafs. Burleys are usually cut and hung as whole plants, or in strings to cure and dry.

African Red ripens easily on the plant. The light green leaves will become a very light green to yellow in color when ripe. It cures quickly and easily on a string. AR usually produces a lot of leaf but it is fairly light weight, which also makes it easier to cure and dry than many other strains. Pile curing shouldn't be necessary. It is one of my favorites. There is no rush to pick it yet. You have plenty of season left for it to ripen up.

Break off those bottom suckers that are flowering and let a new one grow if you want to try to get another good stalk. Sometimes plants will throw off a ground sucker which will come up right from the base. Ground suckers can make second stalk that is almost as good as the main stalk. They are never quite as good as the main stalk but can still produce some good leaf.

 

[MadFarmer]

July 18 from June 27. That's a Bahia sucker.

 

[deluxestogie]

That's a Bahia sucker.

I saw on the Internet that one is born every minute.

Bob

 

[msmith86]

African Red is a Bright Leaf tobacco. Bright leafs are also commonly referred to as "flu cured" tobaccos since that is the method in which most modern day Bright Leafs are cured and dried. Burley tobaccos are in an entirely different class. Burleys are much stronger in flavor and have more nicotine than Bright Leafs. Burleys are usually cut and hung as whole plants, or in strings to cure and dry.

African Red ripens easily on the plant. The light green leaves will become a very light green to yellow in color when ripe. It cures quickly and easily on a string. AR usually produces a lot of leaf but it is fairly light weight, which also makes it easier to cure and dry than many other strains. Pile curing shouldn't be necessary. It is one of my favorites. There is no rush to pick it yet. You have plenty of season left for it to ripen up.

Break off those bottom suckers that are flowering and let a new one grow if you want to try to get another good stalk. Sometimes plants will throw off a ground sucker which will come up right from the base. Ground suckers can make second stalk that is almost as good as the main stalk. They are never quite as good as the main stalk but can still produce some good leaf.

You seem to be somewhat into the African Red. Would you recommend it for cigarettes after some kilning in the hot attic? Same with my VA Brightleaf and golden burley is the plan. I did notice the AR is very thin and doesn't weigh much.

I've been priming as the African Red leaves get bumpy gator skin pattern and start to yellow, especially vigilant because of the damage from crazy thunderstorms and hail we keep getting. Not to mention after I got rid of the few hornworms, the Jap beetles and earwigs kept munching away at night, and a few of my bigger ducks came up and ate several bottom leaves for some reason.
Also being my first year growing baccy, I'm watching everything very closely and taking notes. Certain areas of the garden (close to tomatoes) a few plants showed some shrinking/curling down on the top leaves like they were running out of calcium. The areas not effected were furthest away from tomatoes and peppers and can make better use of the egg shells, dandelion leaves, and sour milk I often put in the garden areas. I use pine flakes from the duck house as mulch, so nitrates, potassium, and others are not an issue.

Other issues so far were stunted growth from poor draining areas where the constant downpours left the roots too wet for too long. However, all plants in buckets have several holes in the bottom, so none of those have the wet issues at all. A few in buckets showed signs of calcium deficiency too, so all those were topped early to hopefully minimize the edge shrinking/curling.
I am enjoying watching the long red, PA-41, and Havana 263 grow so far. All have been topped recently except for a PA-41 I let flower and bagged with cotton cheesecloth.

I'll upload some more pictures this evening when things calm down some here.

 

[msmith86]

First pic is VA Brightleaf I primed and hung today behind some half-dried on the back line.
Second pic you can see the middle line hanging lower with mostly African Red and some 1st priming VA Brightleaf and golden burley. The closest line higher up is most of the Rustica I hung a month or so ago.

3rd pic is some African Red I primed this morning and getting ready to hang yet tonight.

I spend way too much time on these plants and leaves, but I'm hoping learning a bunch this year will make it easier next year.

 

[msmith86]

A PA-41 broadleaf with flower head, I removed the bottom leaves that were quickly going to yellow to brown. The smaller plant next to it is one of 6 backups I sprouted in June after hail wiped out all the broadleaf down back of my shop.
Second picture is what those leaves look like hanging in the shed.

 

[msmith86]

Ok guys, I need some advice from cigarette and pipe smokers on this one. Comparing later to my homegrown baccy will be fun I think. I want to come up with some cigarette blends for my wife and I both, and also pipe blends for myself and friends, so I ordered a variety of leaf from WLT this morning. I've been thinking on this, reading reviews, and searching for weeks for a shredder machine contraption. I don't order from LO very often but they seemingly have the same heavy duty hand crank machine as WLT with more features for cheaper. The next issue is the electric glorified paper shredders have no warranty and say crazy things like "don't shred more than a pound per week" but one is cheaper than the crank one. Also seemingly the same crank one on eBay and Amazon from a Polish company. Ugh. If I had hair I would be pulling it out.

What shredder will give me the most bang for the buck and longevity?

 

[msmith86]

I forgot to mention I like closer to a shag cut for cigarettes and pipe as far as loose tobacco goes. Most pipe blends I do currently is in pressed cakes and slice flakes from it. Best cut example would be like Stokkebye cigarette tobacco or GH dark bird's eye pipe tobacco. Close but acceptable example would be my wife's bulk cigarette tobacco blend in my hand in the picture here. Would my ideal cut be 0.8-1.0 mm? Also cross-cut for easier blending?

 

[deluxestogie]

Very nice selection of tobacco from WLT. There are some cigarette blends in the WLT Wiki. You can also do a FTT forum search for "cigarette" in the title only.

Can't help with mechanical shredders.

Bob

 

[Knucklehead]

Ok guys, I need some advice from cigarette and pipe smokers on this one. Comparing later to my homegrown baccy will be fun I think. I want to come up with some cigarette blends for my wife and I both, and also pipe blends for myself and friends, so I ordered a variety of leaf from WLT this morning. I've been thinking on this, reading reviews, and searching for weeks for a shredder machine contraption. I don't order from LO very often but they seemingly have the same heavy duty hand crank machine as WLT with more features for cheaper. The next issue is the electric glorified paper shredders have no warranty and say crazy things like "don't shred more than a pound per week" but one is cheaper than the crank one. Also seemingly the same crank one on eBay and Amazon from a Polish company. Ugh. If I had hair I would be pulling it out.

What shredder will give me the most bang for the buck and longevity?

I did a review on the new manual heavy duty shredder linked below. Then I bought another electric Powermatic shredder from WLT. The electric was unavailable for awhile when my first one quit working, so I bought the heavy duty shredder out of necessity. Then the Powermatic was available again so I bought my second one. This is my second Powermatic since around 2013? I bought this new one last year? (something like that, my memory is awful) The electric is my first choice and the heavy duty manual is my second choice. With the money saved by buying whole leaf and growing my own instead of buying commercial tobacco, I’m still saving tons. The electric saves time and effort.

2020 Heavy Duty Shredder from wholeleaftobacco.com

Since the demise of my electric Powermatic shredder I’ve been searching for a viable replacement. I found it today in my shipment from www.wholeleaftobacco.com. I went from the Powermatic to an old Teck 1 shredder from Germany that I’ve had for awhile in case of emergencies. Then I bought the...

fairtradetobacco.com

 

[Knucklehead]

Not sure if you’ve seen these pipe blend threads:

Blend Your Own Pipe Tobacco - Download the FREE Color Book

Blend Your Own Pipe Tobacco: 52 recipes with 52 color labels written by your very own deluxestogie front cover back cover Download link below. This new, 46 page, 8.5" X 11" full-color book is available for you to download for FREE from this page. As a convenience, it is also available to...

fairtradetobacco.com

Pure Tobacco Pipe Blends You Can Make

While some varieties of tobacco can be enjoyable when smoked straight in a pipe, the flavor horizon can be broadened by simple blending of contrasting varieties and cure-methods. My goal in this thread is to present some pipe blends that do not use casing of any kind. [Practically all...

fairtradetobacco.com

My cigarette blend (which is fairly strong but flavorful)
45% flue cured (sometimes homegrown sun cured Virginia, sometimes mix of flue cured and sun cured)
20% burley
20% Maryland
5% dark air
10% oriental

Sometimes for a stronger blend
40% flue cured (or sun cured or flue/sun cured mix)
20% burley
20% maryland
10% dark air
10% oriental

alot of guys just use flue cured, burley, oriental. some guys toast the burley.

 

[Knucklehead]

This works well for me. Others weigh or guesstimate.

Shredding/Blending by Volume

I shred for cigarettes by volume rather than by weight. I use a metric ruler to mark off the levels for each variety in the blend. I use 10cm for two reasons, 10cm of shredded tobacco in the plastic tub provided with the Powermatic Shredder yields right at 1 pound of shredded tobacco. Second...

fairtradetobacco.com

 

[msmith86]

Not sure if you’ve seen these pipe blend threads:

Blend Your Own Pipe Tobacco - Download the FREE Color Book

Blend Your Own Pipe Tobacco: 52 recipes with 52 color labels written by your very own deluxestogie front cover back cover Download link below. This new, 46 page, 8.5" X 11" full-color book is available for you to download for FREE from this page. As a convenience, it is also available to...

fairtradetobacco.com

Pure Tobacco Pipe Blends You Can Make

While some varieties of tobacco can be enjoyable when smoked straight in a pipe, the flavor horizon can be broadened by simple blending of contrasting varieties and cure-methods. My goal in this thread is to present some pipe blends that do not use casing of any kind. [Practically all...

fairtradetobacco.com

My cigarette blend (which is fairly strong but flavorful)
45% flue cured (sometimes homegrown sun cured Virginia, sometimes mix of flue cured and sun cured)
20% burley
20% Maryland
5% dark air
10% oriental

Sometimes for a stronger blend
40% flue cured (or sun cured or flue/sun cured mix)
20% burley
20% maryland
10% dark air
10% oriental

alot of guys just use flue cured, burley, oriental. some guys toast the burley.

Thanks for the info. I've been reading through a lot of those threads for a few months now when I have time. I've been doing a few favorite pipe blends for a while now, and I use a digital kitchen scale that goes to 0.1 oz so it's fairly accurate. Then I press into cakes.
I'm figuring on doing all my shredding into separate containers of each tobacco to make blending easier to try small batches for cigarettes.
Hopefully then after kilning and some age I can make something with what I've grown. I read some people say they love African Red for strength in their cigarette blend, so that's an interesting nic increase in place of Burley too.
I've been a nicotine junkie for 20 years, so strong nic is usually ideal anyway, lol. My goal is to really get away from buying The Good Stuff and others cigarette tobacco, it still has tons of recon and chemicals in it like mass produced cigarettes do. My favorites that taste pure are the Stokkebye cigarette tobacco pouches. Danish Export is mild but it's a really smooth VA blend that's nice on occasion. Different blend recipes for different occasions will be nice to be able to do processing my own. It's fairly exciting.

 

[Knucklehead]

Thanks for the info. I've been reading through a lot of those threads for a few months now when I have time. I've been doing a few favorite pipe blends for a while now, and I use a digital kitchen scale that goes to 0.1 oz so it's fairly accurate. Then I press into cakes.
I'm figuring on doing all my shredding into separate containers of each tobacco to make blending easier to try small batches for cigarettes.
Hopefully then after kilning and some age I can make something with what I've grown. I read some people say they love African Red for strength in their cigarette blend, so that's an interesting nic increase in place of Burley too.
I've been a nicotine junkie for 20 years, so strong nic is usually ideal anyway, lol. My goal is to really get away from buying The Good Stuff and others cigarette tobacco, it still has tons of recon and chemicals in it like mass produced cigarettes do. My favorites that taste pure are the Stokkebye cigarette tobacco pouches. Danish Export is mild but it's a really smooth VA blend that's nice on occasion. Different blend recipes for different occasions will be nice to be able to do processing my own. It's fairly exciting.

Be sure to take notes during your trial and error experiments. It’s very frustrating to find your perfect blend and then have to trial and error your way back to finding it again once you‘ve run out of it.

 

[msmith86]

Quick update, still crazy busy around here.

One of my buddies I gave a bunch of plants to in June sent me these pictures today. He has very rich soil and hasn't had to do anything with them so far, and they look great except some calcium deficiency showing on the top leaves of a few. He doesn't remember which two varieties I gave him so I'm trying to figure out what they are. I think I gave him Havana 263 and long red. I'm thinking the big one is Havana, as mine also have a few top leaves curled the same. I'll have to go over there soon and look at them in person.

I also hung some more primings of golden burley and African Red last night, so I will have to add another line soon. The line with space is VA Brightleaf only, so I'm not mixing on that line.