China Voodoo 2018 Air-cured and Rajangan

[deluxestogie]

...how perdurably linked our affects are...

Ouch! That was a reminder of painful scars that I bear from having to stand up in Latin class, and cite the syntactical points of some random word in Caesar's Gaelic Wars.

Is "perdurably" actually a word in English? I can't recall having ever heard or read that word over the past seven decades.

Despite my spell checker's gag reflex, it really is a word in English.

Well, with a category 4 hurricane slamming into the southeastern US by the end of the week, I'll be sure to bring my cycles of hope and despair indoors, so they don't become projectiles.

Bob

 

[skychaser]

..."Unless you've lived in Manitoba, Saskatchewan, Alberta, or Montana, I don't think you can understand just how perdurably linked our affects are to the cycles of hope, & despair caused by the weather. :..

I understand all too well. I've been on a picking frenzy the last 2 days. Sept 11th is our first average frost and it looks like it is coming right on schedule.

 

[ChinaVoodoo]

..."Unless you've lived in Manitoba, Saskatchewan, Alberta, or Montana, I don't think you can understand just how perdurably linked our affects are to the cycles of hope, & despair caused by the weather. :..

I understand all too well. I've been on a picking frenzy the last 2 days. Sept 11th is our first average frost and it looks like it is coming right on schedule.

That surprises me. As your grow is incredibly larger than mine, I don't envy you at all. All this time I thought you were in NW Washington. As I used to live in the Okanagan, and have hitch hiked and driven around your neighborhood, I get it. You've got some altitude.

 

[skychaser]

Not so much the altitude here. I'm only at 1800 feet. It's the micro climate of the prairie we live on which is surrounded by hills and mountains on 3 sides. The cold air settles in here at night and we regularly get 45 - 50f temp swings from days highs to nights lows. It's nice in summer, hot sunny days with cool nights, but it makes for a short growing season. We average 110 frost free days.

 

[ciennepi]

Without taking responsibility, the past year I can see that until 3 - 4 degree below zero, the leafs of my tobacco were not damaged from the frost. These surprised me too. May be due to RU of the air?

 

[ChinaVoodoo]

Without taking responsibility, the past year I can see that until 3 - 4 degree below zero, the leafs of my tobacco were not damaged from the frost. These surprised me too. May be due to RU of the air?

The fact that plant cells are solutions, rather than pure water is the reason why they don't necessarily freeze at 0°C. Some plants have special chemicals that depress the freezing point really far. Some conifers and brassicas for example.

I looked into this. A study determined that the freezing point of tobacco is -2°C. Also, tobacco can recover/repair damage from frost as far down as -4°C, but if this happens, the tobacco has a new freezing point of -1°C. And it has a seriously decreased ability to repair itself from more than one freeze.

 

[ciennepi]

All clear now,

 

[deluxestogie]

Just to make it a little less clear again...(sorry!)
If you set up a 6 foot vertical stake in your growing area, and place a separate thermometer at each foot, they may vary by several degrees. If you set up 10 of these, scattered throughout your growing area, each one may register different values.

Many "standard" meteorologic models of temperature are at 2 meters above ground. But with tens of thousands of personal weather stations at homes and farms now transmitting their data via Internet to weather services, like Weather Underground, there is likely not a "standard" height at which the data is being accumulated. If these stations also transmit their elevation above ground, along with their measurements, then machine learning algorithms can meaningfully sort it all out.

In the pre-dawn chill of winter, the temperature that I personally measure may be 8°F below that of my nearest weather station.

My point is that while the weather report may be useful for deciding on wearing a nylon jacket or a fleece jacket, you can't rely on it for granular detail within your garden.

Bob

 

[ChinaVoodoo]

I feel like you've explained this before, and I don't understand exactly why. I believe it, certainly. If I could stay home from work every night and watch the thermometer in my back yard, I'm sure I could have a precise idea of whether to pick it or not. If so, I would wait until -2°C before picking, because research has shown that standing tobacco plants can handle it without damage (based on actual temperatures, not weather station temperatures). Seeing as I have to go to work, all I can do is be conservative and trust the folks at the weather station three blocks from my house, and pick it when they say -2° because, like you say, -2° there could mean anywhere from -5° to +1° in my garden.

 

[ChinaVoodoo]

Anyways, the forecast is starting to look worse, two nights at -3°, followed by -2, single digit highs, and no sun.

I should probably stalk cure if I have the space, hey?

 

[deluxestogie]

Stalk-curing is only for lazy growers. Yup! I would stalk-cut them.

Bob

 

[ciennepi]

Another option could be pile curing. I have see that ever green and immature leafs yellow wonderful pile curing in a cardboard box covered with a cloth that hold the humidity.

 

[ChinaVoodoo]

Another option could be pile curing. I have see that ever green and immature leafs yellow wonderful pile curing in a cardboard box covered with a cloth that hold the humidity.

I have a purpose built curing shed, though. I should probably use it. And half my counter space in the garage is being used for piling Samporis and Kasturi. What I might do is prime the bottoms where there is clear yellowing and stalk cure the top half to give it that extra time to ripen. Maybe drop it from 90°F to 80°F.

 

[greenmonster714]

This thread is awesome. Gotta say it one more time. You do some cool stuff CV. Very enjoyable read and some great pics along with your witty humor. Thanks KS for sharing all this.

 

[greenmonster714]

This thread is awesome. Gotta say it one more time. You do some cool stuff CV. Very enjoyable read and some great pics along with your witty humor. Thanks KS for sharing all this.

Guess I should really work on the proofreading thing KS..lol

 

[ChinaVoodoo]

Guess I should really work on the proofreading thing KS..lol

Haha. I wasn't sure if you had only half deleted an accidental all-caps THANKS, or CV autocorrected to KS, or you were blowing me a kiss.

 

[ChinaVoodoo]

Look at this behavior.



Can you imagine if my wife was a tobacco grower?

 

[deluxestogie]

Suggest to her that she bring the water to a boil briefly, before soaking them overnight. (My mother used to marvel that her soaking beans would sprout overnight.) Or was she malting them?

Bob

 

[ChinaVoodoo]

Suggest to her that she bring the water to a boil briefly, before soaking them overnight. (My mother used to marvel that her soaking beans would sprout overnight.) Or was she malting them?

Bob

Yes, she sprouts them. I'm really not sure if there is legitimate science behind doing it, but that's what the yoga masters and chiropractic "doctors" say to do.

 

[ChinaVoodoo]

I stalk hung the Goose Creek Red and Nostrano Gentile tonight. 7 Nostrano, (there were a lot of losses), and 16 GCR.

The shed is nearly at capacity!

Edit: Leaving for work via the alley, I realized that I still have some Isleta Pueblo to harvest.