Charly's grow blog 2020

[Charly]

New year, new grow blog !
(Yes, I know, I still need to finish my previous one... I promise : I will post a conclusion soon)

I choose 11 strains (hard task !), some new and some old. In the old ones, I choose some who grew nicely, and some who didn't (to see if I can do better this time).

The list :
- Dominican Olor (cigar)
- Piloto Cubano PR (cigar)
- Pennsylvania Broadleaf (cigar)
- La Palma (cigar)
- Lonnie's Havana (cigar)
- Besuki (cigar)
- Yellow Pryor (bright leaf)
- Kasturi Angsa (bright leaf)
- TN90 (burley)
- Little Crittenden (dark)
- Limonka (yellow rustica)

Yesterday, I sowed each strain in its own little plastic cup.
Now I have a few weeks to prepare the soil !





The recent news from all around the world are not very cheerful, but that will not prevent us from enjoying the beautiful things in life : I wich everyone a great year and some good tobacco !
Keep safe.

 

[tullius]

that will not prevent us from enjoying the beautiful things in life

True. I wish you good growth and an abundant crop!

 

[ChinaVoodoo]

What's Kasturi angsa, and why is it a bright leaf? What I mean is, is it different from the seed I got from Tutu?

 

[deluxestogie]

Java Sun Cured

I would like to dedicate a thread to Javanese sun cured varieties. I plan on collecting as many of these varieties while I am here on East Java. I will make them available to other forum members. In 2012 Bob dedicated a thread to Indonesian Tobacco in the Cigar Tobaccos section of this forum...

fairtradetobacco.com

Tutu collected Kasturi from several different areas. I recall that he sent me seed for two or three of them, but I don't recall which.

Bob

 

[ChinaVoodoo]

Java Sun Cured

I would like to dedicate a thread to Javanese sun cured varieties. I plan on collecting as many of these varieties while I am here on East Java. I will make them available to other forum members. In 2012 Bob dedicated a thread to Indonesian Tobacco in the Cigar Tobaccos section of this forum...

fairtradetobacco.com

Tutu collected Kasturi from several different areas. I recall that he sent me seed for two or three of them, but I don't recall which.

Bob

Just went through my seeds. Mine was Kasturi Jepun.

 

[deluxestogie]

The tobacco growers in Indonesia don't seem to make any great effort to obtain pure strain seed. So any particular variety from one community is likely a little different from the same variety grown in even a nearby community. The two location sub-typed Besuki varieties Tutu sent me from Indonesia were quite similar when I grew them, yet I documented specific differences.

Bob

 

[ciennepi]

Good luck Charly. The Yellow Pryor are the seeds that I sent you? How it did the past year about the PVY?

 

[Charly]

What's Kasturi angsa, and why is it a bright leaf? What I mean is, is it different from the seed I got from Tutu?

Anton sent me two different Kasturi (Angsa and Jepun), I classified it "bright leaf", but they might also be "oriental", who knows
The first time I grew Kasturi Angsa, the plants were small (they should be), but they were infected (by PVY or a type of mosaïc, I don't remember).
This time, I will change my cultivation method to see if they do better (the same with Besuki, sent by Anton too).

 

[Charly]

Good luck Charly. The Yellow Pryor are the seeds that I sent you? How it did the past year about the PVY?

Thanks !
The Yellow Pryor seeds are from you, they grew really fine last year, if I remember correctly there was only one infected plant on 15, so pretty good !
The Bucak did the same or I should say even better, since there was no infected plant at all !
I will certainly grow more Bucak next years, but I choose Yellow Pryor this time because I grew more Bucak last year.
I still have to smoke them to know them more, but from what I noticed, the Bucak seems more fragrant and dark, the Yellow Pryor seems more yellow in color and lemon in smell (more like a traditionnal flue cured variety).
Thanks again for the seeds

 

[ChinaVoodoo]

I believe the accepted nomenclature for Kasturi and Samporis is Java sun cured. No biggie. I was just confused.

 

[Charly]

You are right, since Tutu wrote about it this way, let's use this nomenclature
"Java sun cured" then.

 

[Charly]

At 20 days, my Kasturi Angsa does not show any sign of germination... Last time it took 14 days... I wonder if I give them enough water ?

The Besuki germinated in only 6 days.
Here is the Besuki at 20 days :


The holes are there because I already transplanted what I need in small pots.

 

[Petzi]

Salut Charly,

What a beautiful list of plants for this year! Good luck with your planting and the pvy won't be there this year.

On my side, I started my seedlings on April 1st. Those are mainly your seeds and those of Skychaser. Thank you very much once again. They are all released except the bright leaf variety "Frog Eye Orinoco". Do you know how long it takes for the cotyledons to appear?

 

[Charly]

@Petzi : You are welcome !
Good to see you have started your seeds !
The seeds of Frog Eye Orinoco took about 17-18 days to germinate when I grew some in 2018 (I don't give artificial heat or light to my seeds to speed them up, so they take their time ).

This year I have again some lazy strains :
- Lonnie's Havana : 19 days to germinate
- Kasturi Angsa : 21 days and still no sign of germination

I wish you good luck with your plants

 

[Charly]

Family picture (at 21 days) :




You can see the difference in growth speed between the rustica (Limonka, on the left) and the tabacum (Piloto Cubano, on the right)

 

[agil wintoko]

nice germination charly. . what the composition of media your used for seeding? .

limonka looks faster growth. . I was curious, how taste if the rustica strain was made for rajangan.

 

[Charly]

@agil wintoko : thank you, I simply use a basic potting soil. I have never tried to prepare a custom soil like some people here (with perlite, vermiculite...). But I will definitely try one day.

I never did rajangan with a rustica strain.
I only grew a rustica once, a few years ago : "Mapacho", and I did not liked it much.
But I might try with this Limonka (it's a "yellow rustica" strain), I am sure it can be "interesting"

 

[fimbrew]

The piloto cubano germ rate looks good. Did you get the from Skychaser or Bob? I got seeds from skychaser and the Red Izmir germinated like CrAZY. All the seeds germinated well bit I know that the Red Izmir seed was fresh because its new for him as is the Piloto Cubano ( I got some too but didn't germinate them yet). I have a bunch of great looking Red Izmir plants
that I have to figure out what to do with. With the extra time from "working at home" I'm expanding the bed and building a kiln.

 

[Charly]

If I remember correctly, all the seeds I received (and tried) from Skychaser and Bob had some very good germination rate.

The germination rate of the Yellow Pryor, Besuki, Pennsylvania BroadLeaf and TN90 was about the same as the Piloto Cubano, but you see more soil in their pot because I remove more soil when I transplanted the plants
The germination rate of the Dominican Olor and La Palma is quite good, but their speed and homogeneity is not at all the same.
The Little Crittenden is difficult : only a few sprout and not the same speed at all.
The Lonnie's Havana is just waking up.
Sadly, the Kasturi Angsa is not showing any germination sign at all (for now, at 23 days)

But wait ....

 

[Charly]

Episode IV : A NEW HOPE !

Take a look at this picture :



Am I dreaming ? Could this be is a sprout of Kasturi Angsa ?
My eyes (and my camera) do not allow me to be sure of anything, but I keep hope !