buds forming early

[buck]

I'm growing some Virginia, Burly and Broadleaf and it's been 4 weeks since I transplanted them into 5G containers and now I'm seeing signs of budding on all of them.
Same soil mix, fert and water for all. The plants themselves are beauties with big healthy leaves but only 2ft tall. I never grew Virginia or Burly but have grown Broadleaf before and using the seeds from my last grow, that plant was a 5+ footer.
I'm not sure why this is happening when there are at least 6 weeks plus left in the growing season.

Pic of my plants taken a few days ago , I'll take more recent ones tomorrow and closer shot of the buds.

 

[ChinaVoodoo]

I'm not sure I see buds, being that far away in the photo.

I would theorize that the budding is a response to stress of some kind.

The solution, this early in the season is to remove the bud, then leave the highest sucker intact, letting it form the new stalk.

 

[deluxestogie]

If the mother of the seed was grown within the confines of a bucket, then you may be witnessing epigenetic adaptation to such a growth environment. My inclination would be to do nothing (not top) now. You really don't care how much stalk you produce.

Bob

 

[buck]

Here's a side view of the plants to show height. The other two pics are from two different plants showing the start of the buds and this is happening on all 7 plants (virginia, Burly, BroadLeaf).
As for stress, not sure what would have affected them. I pretty much left them alone, watered twice , once at transplant time and the other time with nutes last week. The weather has not been extreme but has been variable, not so sunny over the last few days and some scattered showers (which is why I only had to water twice). Plants never showed any sign of wilting due to lack/excess water or any signs of stress, some black winged aphids (dead) but that's normal for me to see.
I planted and let them be for the most part until I started seeing some suckers growing last week, was surprised to see them that early in the grow.

Anyway, I got some decent sized leaves out of this and I'll leave them alone until they show signs of flowering and top them at that time. I'll water when needed.
Soil is Promix mixed with about 1/3 composted cow manure, a trace of Epson salts, bone meal all prepared a month before transplant to let everything marry.
Soil PH is between 5-6 but I'll double check the PH since I haven't done that since transplant.

 

[buck]

I forgot to mention that I do have one diseased plant, not sure what it is suffering from but others show no signs , this was very early in the grow so considered it a one off.

 

[deluxestogie]

I'll guess that the disease is TMV, though I'm not fully convinced. I would still leave them alone, rather than do blood letting and enemas.

Bob

 

[buck]

My plants got bigger but not as tall as I was expecting, but looking good with large leaves.
As mentioned this is my first time growing Burly and Virginia so I have a few questions.
When should I stop fertilizing, Should I top them now or wait a bit longer ?
Should I stalk cure or prime as I do with Cigar varieties ?
From what I read the leaves should be yellowish before priming for both Virginia and Burly ?

Thanks

 

[Knucklehead]

BigBonner topping burley video

https://www.google.com/url?sa=t&rct=j&q=&esrc=s&source=web&cd=&ved=2ahUKEwixyuyf1tDqAhXKX80KHYR0AAYQwqsBMAB6BAgLEAQ&url=https%3A%2F%2Fwww.youtube.com%2Fwatch%3Fv%3DfKyJc9ywMFM&usg=AOvVaw0vWSknSIpawfZmtb5f2JwD

I know not to fertilize later in the season as it can ruin the combustibility of the leaf. I don’t remember the cut off date.
Stalk cure or prime, it’s up to you. Depends on where you cure, how much room you have to work with, is one way easier for you or work with your schedule better?
I prime when ripe, here’s a couple of pictures
ripe leaf

Ripe tobacco leaf

Probably the best available example of a "Ripe" tobacco leaf. This picture is all over the internet and I can't find who to give credit to. This is a Bright Leaf plant which is a Flue cured type. The leaf is allowed to get what I call "ripe ripe" due to the manner in which it is cured. For...

fairtradetobacco.com

 

[plantdude]

Just out of curiosity, what varieties are you growing and roughly when did you germinate the seed?

Also, is it the compressed moisture control pro mix?

 

[buck]

Just out of curiosity, what varieties are you growing and roughly when did you germinate the seed?

Also, is it the compressed moisture control pro mix?

Seeds germinated beginning of May and transplanted outdoors first second week of June.
Promix regular garden soil and I just threw in a small shovel of cow manure a spoon of Epson salts, a cup or bonemeal (prepped 30 or so days before)

 

[buck]

Seeds germinated beginning of May and transplanted outdoors first second week of June.
Promix regular garden soil and I just threw in a small shovel of cow manure a spoon of Epson salts, a cup or bonemeal (prepped 30 or so days before)

< Edit >
forgot to mention, varieties, Virginia gl 939, Gold Seal Burly and Broadleaf (cigar), one YTB but it is soo small , in the garden right now in a bad spot but I suspect it'll catch up.

 

[plantdude]

< Edit >
forgot to mention, varieties, Virginia gl 939, Gold Seal Burly and Broadleaf (cigar), one YTB but it is soo small , in the garden right now in a bad spot but I suspect it'll catch up.

Thanks, just chasing a wild thought about photoperiod but I don't think it's there... I had some earlier March/April germinated seedlings that were planted in the moisture control pro mix plus a little compost in pots. Most have bolted and are trying to flower now, a lot of them are in smaller pots than 5 G though and were grown in more shade than they should have been so that could be stress rather than the soil though. I planted some more seeds around mid May and the few I haven't stuck in the ground yet seem to be behaving normal in straight pro mix so far.

 

[buck]

Thanks, just chasing a wild thought about photoperiod but I don't think it's there... I had some earlier March/April germinated seedlings that were planted in the moisture control pro mix plus a little compost in pots. Most have bolted and are trying to flower now, a lot of them are in smaller pots than 5 G though and were grown in more shade than they should have been so that could be stress rather than the soil though. I planted some more seeds around mid May and the few I haven't stuck in the ground yet seem to be behaving normal in straight pro mix so far.

I've grown in bucket many years using Miracle Grow, SeaSoil and some of my garden dirt but never had this happen before.
Granted this is the first time I'm growing burl and virginia strains but I am also growing the same strain of cigar tobbacco as last year and it is 1/3 the size.
The only thing different besides soil is the weather, very cloudy and rainy, not warm in June/July although weather is getting rather hot now.
I'm consistent in seeding times and planting outdoors so this didn't change.
I thought maybe the plants were stressed but I don't see what would stress them. Would a fast growth rate plus limited bucket size cause them to behave this way ?

Just throwing this out there but maybe the plants really liked the soil and just got root bound faster than previously and this stressed the plants out before they had time to just grow taller ?

I have one more plant not discussed yet, I think it's Virginia 939 GL it's in a larger container and I thought it was budding but is not yet , its much smaller than these , same soil so I'll see what happens to this one.

 

[ChinaVoodoo]

Every single of my Delhi 34 (flue cured) budded early. None of my East Indies tobaccos did. I think it's either the weather which was similar to yours, the fact that I was fertilizing my seedlings regularly before planting them in the ground, or the fact that I planted them a week later than the latest I've ever planted and they were in the 4" pots too long.

I followed my own advice, which I gave you earlier, and I've done before. Pick the buds, trim all but the highest sucker. I have at least two months left and I'd like to get a couple more sets of leaf.

 

[ChinaVoodoo]

Your theory about being root bound is one that I would give credence to. For me, the variety that budded early was much bigger than the others that did not.

 

[deluxestogie]

the weather, very cloudy and rainy, not warm in June/July

Bingo!

 

[Radagast]

I've had potted plants become root bound and flower early, in fact it's a technique employed by some gardeners. When you harvest them yank the root ball out and see if they go around in a tangled up messy circle around the inside of the container or if they taper off nicely just at the edge. My bet is that they're bound up.
Next year you can try exposing the outside roots to air, when they touch air the roots 'prune' themselves and branch off in other directions. In this way you can grow a much larger plant in a relatively small container. Drilling a bunch of holes around the top 6" of those bucket might be one way to employ this..
Here's a cool article on air pruning.

Julia Walker

depts.washington.edu

 

[plantdude]

I've had potted plants become root bound and flower early, in fact it's a technique employed by some gardeners. When you harvest them yank the root ball out and see if they go around in a tangled up messy circle around the inside of the container or if they taper off nicely just at the edge. My bet is that they're bound up.
Next year you can try exposing the outside roots to air, when they touch air the roots 'prune' themselves and branch off in other directions. In this way you can grow a much larger plant in a relatively small container. Drilling a bunch of holes around the top 6" of those bucket might be one way to employ this..
Here's a cool article on air pruning.

Julia Walker

depts.washington.edu

Just to throw my two cents in I've noticed tobacco growth in pots seems to slow down before they get very root bound. They seem a little more sensitive than a lot of plants to pot size. I've never tried the air pruning trick though.
I have grown plants in a four inch pot to maturity and collected seed multiple times earlier this year (they are getting tossed though since I didn't realize at the time I should have bagged them). The plants typically stay about 2 feet tall and don't yield much for leaf. It could be useful for a small indoor winter time seed increase (get about 5-10 mid sized seed pods). Always nice to have plants growing indoors in the winter

Bob's probably correct with his rainy weather assessment for early flowering. Other than the pro mix soil the wet and shady/cloudy conditions would apply to my plants as well.

 

[Radagast]

Just to throw my two cents in I've noticed tobacco growth in pots seems to slow down before they get very root bound. They seem a little more sensitive than a lot of plants to pot size. I've never tried the air pruning trick though.
I have grown plants in a four inch pot to maturity and collected seed multiple times earlier this year (they are getting tossed though since I didn't realize at the time I should have bagged them). The plants typically stay about 2 feet tall and don't yield much for leaf. It could be useful for a small indoor winter time seed increase (get about 5-10 mid sized seed pods). Always nice to have plants growing indoors in the winter

Bob's probably correct with his rainy weather assessment for early flowering. Other than the pro mix soil the wet and shady/cloudy conditions would apply to my plants as well.

Definitely go with what Bob said.
I should clarify that the plants in pots to which I was referring were not tobacco. I'm not an expert but I have to think the root binding is going to be similar with most any plant in a bucket.

 

[buck]

Definitely go with what Bob said.
I should clarify that the plants I have grown in pots, are and we're, not tobacco, this is my first season growing tobacco. I believe the root stuff is going to be similar with most any plant in a bucket.

Yeah I suppose so consistent sunny days in Vancouver don't kick in until the first week of June but this year has been the worst I've seen.
For instance , yesterday high of 24c sunny, today high of 18c as an example and cloudy ..