2014 Knucklehead Grow Blog

[Mad Oshea]

We had a slow, steady, soaking rain all night last night so this evening I put out the slug pellets. I hope to nail them before they nail me. The fertilizer was melted and soaked in with virtually no run off, the whole rain just soaked into the ground, it was perfect. Now I'm ready for some sunshine!

I guess paypal went through on Your rain order. They must hate Us here. No rain and none to look forward to. It will be the ol garden hose for use. Try some ashes around Your plants. I hear slugs hate it, they get on it and it sticks to them. It cuts them up and dries them out. Now I don't know how well it is after a rain.?

I love it when My ferts. soak in and not run down the way. I don't mind spraying the leaf with more topo.

 

[Knucklehead]

Here's a comparison between my patch and the plants I transplanted into pots. All were transplanted about a month ago. As you can see, the potted plants are running away from the patch plants. I'm not sure if it's the lack of rain or a nutrient issue. After taking the photos, I put down a lot of fertilizer on the patch plants and have begun to irrigate the patch. Hopefully I'll see some movement in about a week. I'll update some photos then.





These photos show some of my Burleys, the Burley varieties are faring worse than any of the other varieties.

 

[grgfinney]

What have you been feeding those potted plants Knucks? One other thing l see is maybe it is because they don't have to contend with grass for water and nutrients

 

[Knucklehead]

What have you been feeding those potted plants Knucks? One other thing l see is maybe it is because they don't have to contend with grass for water and nutrients

Whatever fertilizer was in the new potting soil. Those are 4-5 gal. pots. They hit the ground and took off. My patch plants hit the ground and must have gotten a concussion. They've just been sitting there looking all confused.

I'm planning on tilling between the rows as soon as the patch dries out after this soaking. Then I'll hoe what's left in the rows. There wasn't much grass either until I watered a couple of days ago. The tobacco didn't start to green up so I shot some fertilizer to them and will water for the next couple of days. Half a patch a day.

 

[Mad Oshea]

What ever It is, I see the grass and green around every thing. It isn't a contend for ferts. It maybe over ferts? Try none for a bit and see if that works befor You burn them. I say stop the ferts at this time and add water to see. Won't hurt. A week will tell. Let the Lord give You a show in a week. Then go from there.

 

[POGreen]

You might try '' the stick trick'' as Mad calls it.
Grab a hold of a 1'' or so round or square stick and make/drill ''new'' holes beside the plants about 1 feet or more deep.
Try to imagine yourself the ideal spot for fertz to land on this spot below the plant , roughly a 45 deg angle from the top soil and down under the plant.
Buy a few sacks of pelleted chickenshit and fill the holes with it.
Thats the stick trick ( Mad Name)and its made pretty quick I'd say to give your plants a good boooost.
If not chickenshit , use somethin else of your own choice.

You can click the pic if you want to and then click again on it.
I used this stick last year with great success.

 

[DGBAMA]

I see a combination of soil and ferts. Potting soil is much softer than dirt, let's roots establish faster. The field plants that are yellow and small also have less grass growing, likely spots of that fill dirt you told me about lacking nutrients.

 

[deluxestogie]

All of your plants look excellent. Many white-stem burleys start off slow and yellowish. Once they take off, they should leap into the air. I would be inclined to just let them grow.

The Hacienda del Cura is del curioso. It appears to be a "Spanish" type of leaf, but with an upcurved margin (like Izmir Ozbas). I'll be del curious if my Hacienda del Cura looks the same.

And the Besuki...nice fat leaf.

My experience has been that the pot grown plants reach a size limit (due to lack of lateral root space) long before the field grown plants begin to slow, ultimately reaching about 2/3 the height and leaf size of the field grown plants.

Bob

 

[Knucklehead]

Well, shoot, Bob. I hope I didn't overfertilize. I put out some 12-8-8 high zinc fertilizer I had left over from fertilizing all the pecan trees around here. It contained no urea. It started raining this afternoon and has rained all evening. I'll know in a few days. Dang lazy tobacco plants.

You picked out two of my favorite plants this year. I really like the way the Hacienda del Cura and Bezuki are growing. I like plants that grow compact with closely spaced leaves. My Swarr filler and Reams 158 flue cure had those growth habits last year and were my favorites. They make for very visually appealing plants and have a great yield for their size.

 

[DGBAMA]

I'm with Bob. That potted bezuki should be your pet for the summer.

 

[Boboro]

That's a lot of names to keep up with. I think they take off soon. The potted plants mite not get as much sun and starten out it can slow em down. when they get use to it they leave the potted ones behind.

 

[BarG]

You don't look short on fertilizer judging by surrounding growth. Nice patch. give em some time and see how they take off. My full sun this year acted simililar in that they were slow to take off.I can't find any granular fertilizer in these parts suitable for tobacco, so I have been using liquid fert distributed thru hose sprayer.

 

[Knucklehead]

I tilled between the rows today. I'll go down once the patch is in shade and try out my new stirrup hoe between plants.

 

[Brown Thumb]

They all look Good. You took on one hell of a task with all those different varitys.
I thought my Harrow velvet looked yellow and GrFinny said it was suppose to look that way.
I would be totally confused doing what you are doing.
Two Brown Thumbs And a Toe Up for You.
BT

 

[Knucklehead]

Patch after tilling the grass under.



Went over the first row with the stirrup hoe. I guess I'll do one row per evening. I picked up about 16 gallons of rocks just out of the section to the left of the first row. My rocks are growing great. I really like the stirrup hoe, it's a back saver compared to pulling weeds by hand.



It rained a good bit night before last but my patch is already dry. I guess my soil amendments are doing better than I originally thought. The patch is draining very well.

 

[Indianamac]

Patch after tilling the grass under.



Went over the first row with the stirrup hoe. I guess I'll do one row per evening. I picked up about 16 gallons of rocks just out of the section to the left of the first row. My rocks are growing great. I really like the stirrup hoe, it's a back saver compared to pulling weeds by hand.



It rained a good bit night before last but my patch is already dry. I guess my soil amendments are doing better than I originally thought. The patch is draining very well.

Great look'n patch!! Hope that ain't a tobacco eat'n dog.....

 

[grgfinney]

That's a baccy guard dog looks like the weeding and rain helped we finally got some rain just as I was going to have the wife water going light on watering this year hopefully no frenching this year

 

[POGreen]

Plants are looking up Knuck !

 

[janetta007]

Looks great. I need one of those stirrup hoe's.

 

[BarG]

Heh heh heh, Your trying make our patchs look puny aint ya. I like the space between the rows, I could grow my corn there. That front row looks like a real produder. Middle row maybe third row to far out of the pic. If you have noticed this year my pics are of individual plants.