2015 Knucklehead Grow Blog

[deluxestogie]

Nice output. Will each bag get its own locker?

I just unloaded my kiln two days ago. I considered taking a photo of the bounty, but was too lazy to do it. Happily, among other finished tobacco were all the tied hands of Swarr-Hibshman that had previously tested their luck in my ill-fated "Unheated Fermentation Box" fiasco.

Bob

 

[Brown Thumb]

Nice looking hands you got there.
I wish I had some time to tie a few up.

 

[AmaxB]

Sweet Kiln Knucklehead, someone stole my tobacco off the back porch last week, think I found it..

 

[Chicken]

Your hands of bacca look darn good what a excellent colour they have..

Glad to hear your seed collecting went good..i didnt get not one seed..and i was using paint straining bags...sealed good at the stalk..but something got in there..i had a small hole in each pod..and no seeds..

Looks like ill be requesting and buying some seed for next years grow.

 

[Jitterbugdude]

..i didnt get not one seed..and i was using paint straining bags...sealed good at the stalk..but something got in there..i had a small hole in each pod..and no seeds..

Before you attach your seed bag spray the seed head with BT or Spinosad.

 

[BlazedUp]

Very nice looking tobacco.

 

[Knucklehead]

I finally got enough rain over the past two days to allow me to do some tilling. I tilled and sowed clover and tillage radish (http://www.covercropsolutions.com/products/tillage-radish.php) in my tobacco patch as a cover crop. Then I put in three clover and turnip food plots for wildlife. I also tilled and sowed grass seed on the part of my yard that the drought killed. It took me about five hours but I'm now finished until spring.

 

[Knucklehead]

Cover crop planted. Last load in the kiln. Eight seed heads left to clean (two each of four varieties). I'm so close to done I can smell it.
This is how I feel right now:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cgpA1UCUQ-w

 

[AmaxB]

That's feelin good

 

[ProfessorPangloss]

I finally got enough rain over the past two days to allow me to do some tilling. I tilled and sowed clover and tillage radish (http://www.covercropsolutions.com/products/tillage-radish.php) in my tobacco patch as a cover crop. Then I put in three clover and turnip food plots for wildlife. I also tilled and sowed grass seed on the part of my yard that the drought killed. It took me about five hours but I'm now finished until spring.

I've been reading about this since someone first posted it on here and I'm wondering if it might be worth trying. I was going to try to do hairy vetch to fix more nitrogen because I learned (after I used wood chips as top mulch) that decaying wood robs nitrogen. I wonder if I could mix this with vetch and rye and then double-dig it all under in March to do spring crops. I hope you continue the grow blog to show us how this radish develops.

And hey, I read some Amazon reviews. People say the leaf is like turnip greens. If you've got a crock pot (duh), an onion, and a ham hock, you're in business.

 

[Jitterbugdude]

I planted hairy vetch about 15 years ago as a cover crop. I still have not been able to get rid of it.

 

[ProfessorPangloss]

When you till it under, does it seem to do the soil good? I read that you have to kill it early or else you get seeds and then you have it forever. *shrug*

 

[mountbaldy]

Nice grow Knucks!! Glad to hear you had a good season! Great looking leaf too!

+1 Jitterbugdude on the vetch...

ProfessorPangloss -- As for the vetch... Oh man... That stuff is like horse radish or other unmentionable things that don't go away, once you've got it, you've got it. And on the vetch front, I've noticed that stuff gives the chickens eggs an unpleasant off flavor. Plant something like peas or clover for nitro fixation. Clover can be mildly invasive but not like vetch! Good luck!

Cheers,

Joe

 

[Smokin Harley]

oh boy, I know first hand about horseradish not going away. I planted one root piece 2 years ago my cousin gave me. I had it grow to a bushel size in the first year then I expanded the garden to accommodate the tobacco crop. I moved it to the back corner of the garden , a place next to the compost bin where nothing else grows well. It likes that spot very well but there are about a dozen little volunteers coming up at the original site. I guess I'll have to dig it up very carefully or hit it with a vegetation and brush killer and hopefully get rid of it there.