1st grow in containers: Little Dutch & Ahus

[gardengnome]

Hello everyone! First, I want to thank all the contributors on this site for the immense knowledge provided and support for the growing community. Here is my progress so far...

1st week in April: Seeds planted
Late April: Thinned transplants to individual cups
Mid May: Transplanted to large pots
Present: Plants are still growing with some flower buds!

The Ahus was started about 1 week before the Little Dutch. I used a mixture of potting soils that I had available (miracle grow potting mix, nature care organic mix, vigaro mix, and some topsoil). I very lightly used some miracle grow all purpose plant food as fertilizer (not ideal but its what I had available). The indoor plants seem more spindly than the outdoor ones but have no damage from bugs. I'm not sure what has been eating the outdoor plants, but saw a lot of slugs on them so I put out some slug killer. I have seen bugs similar to squash bug/stink bugs and have a picture of one attached. Regardless they are still growing well. Overall size is about 2ft tall for the indoor Ahus which is expected given the growing conditions and containers. Indoor plants get full morning sun into afternoon. Outdoor weather is finally warming up and stable. Watered fairly often but not too much. I plan on letting at least one or two of each type flower to get more seed and top the rest. Keep you posted soon. Happy growing!

 

[Knucklehead]

Lovely grow. Thank you for sharing.

 

[CobGuy]

Looking good … congrats!

~Darin

 

[gardengnome]

Grow update: Ahus flowers are blooming and beautiful! Topped a couple plants, bagged others with paint strainer material. Little dutch flower head starting to emerge on some plants. Should bloom in a week or so.

 

[gardengnome]

Grow update continued: I have started to harvest some leaf/experiment with curing. Been using the box method to yellow before hanging to fully air cure. The Ahus plants have produced a ton of seed pods which I have also been picking (little dutch not far behind). The cured leaf in the pic are little dutch that were all yellow on the plant. They have since fully cured to a nice brown and have a nice aroma to them. Aphids are the devil.... soapy water, vinegar, etc. they still keep coming back. To be continued... Happy growing!

 

[deluxestogie]

Nice work.

Bob

 

[Oldfella]

[/QUOTE]
Nice looking plants. You've done a great job with your
"" Pot"" plants. Hope they taste as good as they look. Like the last pic nicely presented hand of tobacco.
Oldfella

 

[gardengnome]

Update: Leaf is still curing/yellowing and seeds harvested. Tried an experiment with the pressure cooker to make some cavendish using some lower quality leaf that was not kilned. Brought into case over a pot of boiling water then stuffed the jars. I wanted to try adding something different and added a small amount of cognac and water to the jars just enough to get the leaf wet. Did about 5.5 hr at 15psi. Little dutch turned out almost black, ahus only darkened some. Initial smell upon opening was very pleasant and raisin like. Dried them to low case and all seemed well. The remaining leaf has been moved to my mini greenhouse/improvised kiln as they were drying out too fast in the house. I have been able to get around 70% humidity and temps in the low 100s pretty regular now. So here is my issue...I took a lighter to a small sample of the cavendish and was confused at the smell as it seemed extremely strong and like I was burning leaves from the yard with a hint of toasted tobacco. Is this due to the fact the leaf was basically mud lugs/not kilned first/cognac/time in the pressure pot or does it simply need to rest a while? I plan on trying again with the aged leaf and guess this is one of those learning experiences!

 

[deluxestogie]

I'm not sure what I'm looking at. Are you stewing the leaf in a pot of water?

Bob

 

[gardengnome]

Sorry for the unclear pic. I let the dry leaf sit over steam for a few minutes so that it would be able to be stuffed into jars without crumbling (it was crispy dry).

 

[Radagast]

Pressure Canner Cavendish v2.0

I wanted to try this technique because I was concerned I was losing desirable elements of the tobacco with the other steaming techniques I had tried. More importantly, I was reading about the maillard reaction and discovered in a more in depth discussion of it that this reaction is possible to...

fairtradetobacco.com

I just finished making my first batch of Cavendish, also with young (poorly cured) leaf too. Fun huh!?
Anyhoo, read this thread. It contains the fine tuning of p.c. time done by China Voodoo. At 5+ hours his Cavendish was also not combustible, so that is most likely your problem. Shoot for 3.5 to 4 next time.