Amber's 2021 Grow Blog

[Amberbeth84]

My seeds have sprouted! Exciting day.

 

[Knucklehead]

I love your starts. Your methods are absolutely sheer genius. The way you start your seed, the 1020 trays, the soil, the way you label each cell, etc. all of it. Sheer genius. That’s the way I do it.

 

[Amberbeth84]

I love your starts. Your methods are absolutely sheer genius. The way you start your seed, the 1020 trays, the soil, the way you label each cell, etc. all of it. Sheer genius. That’s the way I do it.

What can I say? The last few months I've been on this forum I've been learning from the best.

 

[Amberbeth84]

My starts have developed their first true leaves (I see now what Bob meant about the cotelydons being as large as true leaves) so I decided to thin one of my trays today. Between the needs of a puppy and a toddler it took most of the afternoon, but I'm down to the one best looking specimen in each cell.



Here's a picture of the tray I still need to thin.

 

[Amberbeth84]

Well it's been a week and a half since I thinned and things are looking good.

The 100 bare root strawberries I planted in the garden are also starting to take off, too.

 

[Amberbeth84]

Hacking garden beds out of woods that have been neglected for 30 years is hard work. The first bed is tilled and another marked out. Hopefully I can get enough more done that all my seedlings will have a place to go in a few weeks.

To prepare the beds, I've been laying out a rough rectangle about 4 feet by 25 feet using twine and stakes. I mark the perimeter with spray paint, then remove the twine. Then using a scythe or grass whip I cut the ground cover down followed by raking the area clear of any detritus. After that I go over the surface with a propane weed burner. Next, I use a cutter mattock to till the top 6 inches or so, cutting out any large roots I find.

After cutting
After raking
After burning
After tilling
And a sampling of the roots I had to fight through

 

[Amberbeth84]

The forecast is looking good to plant out the week after next. Which is good, because my seedlings are getting big! I may give them a haircut today.



The chainsaw mill arrived and after a lot of setup, I've made my first leveling pass. It took a bit of finagling to cut with a 20 inch bar on a 25 inch tree, but I got it done.

 

[Spike_Indiana]

This last spring, my family bought five acres of overgrown woods with a house on it out in the middle of nowhere in south central Indiana around an hour from either Bloomington or Terre Haute. Our plan from the beginning has been to build a homestead here. It's gorgeous land, a one-hundred fifty foot hill from the road to the hilltop, all with wonderful southern exposure. The problem, as mentioned previously, is the woods. It's an unhealthy and un-managed ecosystem, overrun with impenetrable thickets of autumn olive and multiflora rose, stands of dead and dying sassafras everywhere you look, and almost no sunny patches to garden. So before I can grow, I have to clear.

It's hard work, but satisfying. Coming from Indianapolis, we came here with little in the way of the heavy equipment and power tools that would make the clearing go quickly and easily, so we've been picking up hand tools to do the job. Clearing the land has been slow but steady work. My hope is that thirty years of accumulated leaf litter, supplemented with slashing and burning the cleared vegetation, the compost from the garden and kitchen, and chicken and rabbit manure should hopefully make for some decent soil so by next fall all the hard work will pay off in spades.

At this point, my plan for tobacco growing is to sow the light cigarette and pipe tobacco blends from @skychaser along with some Yellow Bud Twist and Bursa for a faster curing product we can all smoke while the other tobaccos are allowed to age more slowly. I gardened in the city for the last three years, but this will be my first time growing tobacco. I'm incredibly excited to be doing this and I'm so glad I found this forum. You guys are all very welcoming and have built up a fantastic trove of information that I've been eagerly consuming for the last month as I look forward to being past the backbreaking labor of clearing.

I live 15 minutes south of Terre haute and I’m from cloverdale. What a small world!

 

[Amberbeth84]

I live 15 minutes south of Terre haute and I’m from cloverdale. What a small world!

Small world! We're practically neighbors!

 

[skychaser]

Very nice looking plants! I wouldn't clip them if they can go in the ground soon. They aren't chocking each other out yet.

Also, that's a very nice cut on your log for using a bar shorter than the log is wide. Looks nicer than most of mine do. I use a 24" bar on a Stihl 048. The saw can handle a 5' bar but when you go bigger the bars get really expensive. The 24" handles most everything I get a hold of. Does your mill have a feed for the saw? Post a pic of it. I'd like to see it. I built mine. No feed for the saw. You have to push it through. After a few cuts it starts to feel like work!

 

[Bot]

Amberbeth84, phew, you're really going for it. That looks like a whole lot of work. I admire your drive.

 

[Amberbeth84]

Does your mill have a feed for the saw? Post a pic of it. I'd like to see it.

It's a Granberg Alaskan mill with a PoulanPro 5020. The chainsaw was a freebie an in-law no longer needed and has just big enough an engine to mill with.

 

[Knucklehead]

It's a Granberg Alaskan mill with a PoulanPro 5020. The chainsaw was a freebie an in-law no longer needed and has just big enough an engine to mill with.
View attachment 36298View attachment 36299View attachment 36300View attachment 36301View attachment 36302

That is some pretty lumber.

 

[Amberbeth84]

The ground finally dried out enough to work, so I got 22 Prilep, 18 Harrow Velvet, and 12 Goose Creek Red planted today.



My spacing might be too close, but we'll see how it goes.

 

[ChinaVoodoo]

My spacing might be too close, but we'll see how it goes.

With Canadian bright tobacco according to my recollection, 18" spacing produces more tobacco per acre than 24, 36, & 42" spacing but the leaf size, and grade (price per pound) are decreased.

 

[Amberbeth84]

I've been absent from the site for a while. I've had my hands very full with building projects, milling, and a not so healthy dose of depression. As a result my garden has ended up being largely a bust this year. However, I primed my Harrow Velvet for the first time today and have it strung up in the barn to cure. Exciting day!

 

[Charly]

Glad you are back !

 

[Radagast]

I've been absent from the site for a while. I've had my hands very full with building projects, milling, and a not so healthy dose of depression. As a result my garden has ended up being largely a bust this year. However, I primed my Harrow Velvet for the first time today and have it strung up in the barn to cure. Exciting day!

You're in good company, I'm having a GARBAGE year in the garden, but it looks like you're cranking out some nice leaf! Harrow Velvet is amazing stuff congrats! And welcome back!

 

[Oldfella]

Great to see you again, hang in there and enjoy your Harrow velvet.
Oldfella

 

[Amberbeth84]

Things are color curing for me very nicely. I have to say I'm very impressed with the Harrow Velvet. I got impatient and took a leaf that had gone brown, tore it up and packed a pipe. It's already tastier than something like D&R Two Timer. I didn't expect that.

Here's a picture of the leaf after hanging for 4 days.