deluxestogie Grow Log 2017

[OldDinosaurWesH]

I have Java Besuki that I purchased thru an unnamed web site that you are probably familiar with. It performs well as a wrapper, but I didn't care for the flavor that much. I thought it added too much to the final flavor of the fill leaf, which was three year old Bolivia Criollo Dark.

Oh...and it's never too early to start thinking about next year!

Thanks.

Wes H.

 

[mwaller]

My home-grown leaf is sometimes crappy, usually excellent, and with certain varieties, better than anything on the market.
Bob

Which varieties fall in the latter category?

 

[deluxestogie]

Which varieties fall in the latter category?

That is more of a growing weather and curing weather factor. As is true of large, commercial leaf growers, some seasons are outstanding for particular varieties, and not as great for others.

For example, I've gotten some stunningly delicious, sweet and oily oscuro, wrapper-quality leaf from Comstock Spanish, but only in some seasons. Some years, my Vuelto Abajo is superb; other years it's just pretty damn good.

In every season, some varieties are excellent, but it might not be the same ones as the previous season.

Bob

 

[deluxestogie]

Those are my late-planted Havana 322. All but one of those is ready to stalk harvest. The failed okra in this bed was replaced by Havana 322 transplants on June 3, 2017. That droopy runt in the foreground was transplanted on 2 JULY, 2017. It's just beginning to show some bud development. The reason that it droops, and seems to favor a wider rather than longer leaf shape is that it was not grown here.

Oops! It's the one in the tiny Folger's Coffee tub, and it spent its entire outdoor existence on a step of my front porch. I hauled it to the bed for a size and shape comparison.

Back on the porch steps (in view of my redneck clutter of growing supplies--sorry, no refrigerator or stuffed chair on the porch), it feels more at home. In that location, it receives copious indirect light, but gets direct sun for only a few hours each day. The potting mix in the Folger's tub was supplemented with low-chlorine 10:10:10, but only at the time of transplant. It also was dosed with imidacloprid in the transplant water. Because of the tiny volume of the tub, it requires watering nearly every day. But I have to say that it doesn't look to shabby for a mostly shade-grown, very late (July 2, remember) transplant in a way too small pot. It actually promises to supply some nice cigar wrapper leaf. I am surprised at how well this is growing in such a tiny container (which I did not measure, but is certainly less than 1 gallon--less than 4 liters).

And finally, this is the wall of greenery that shades my redneck porch from the summer sun. There are 10 Genuine Cornfield Pole Bean plants, hanging from the bamboo horizontal that I affixed to the top of the wrought iron corner post of the porch, and strung with nylon cords staked into the corner growing bed. The 3 cord strands on the right in the photo bear the slowest of the bean plants, and is just now beginning to fill out. Every couple of weeks, I use a stepladder to trim the top, so that it does not climb onto the incoming power line.

Having gorged myself on string beans from the bush beans in the back garden bed, I've decided to allow the beans on the trellis to fully dry on the vines. I will then harvest dry beans from them.

Remarkably, the same hummingbird that used to visit the bright red blossoms of my Scarlet Runner beans that grew in this location 5 years ago still comes by a couple of times each day, to search for those long gone, red blossoms. He (I assume it's a he) sometimes comes within a few feet of my face, as I sit on the porch chair, churning my laptop, and stares at me for a few seconds. I can only imagine what he's thinking. ["How about planting something with red blossoms next year. I'm a patient bird, but you're pushing my limits."]

Bob

 

[Hasse SWE]

Oo Nice story there Bob, to make it. Complete you perhaps you could try to take a picture of that hummingbird.

 

[OldDinosaurWesH]

Bob:

When do you run out of growing season? Either by frost or lack of sunlight.

Most years we don't get a killing frost around here until late September or early October. Some years (last year being an example) we don't get a killing frost until November. One year in the 90's I still had greenery in my garden 'till a week before Thanksgiving.

Also, I learned recently that hummingbirds can live for at least 11 years. This was confirmed by capturing a tagged bird 10 years after it had been tagged as a one-year-old. The weird stuff you can learn on the internet!

Wes



Photo taken Nov. 16, 2016 I frosted out on Nov.17.

 

[deluxestogie]

My "First Frost Date" is October 15, but it hasn't been that early for quite a few years now. Eleven years? That's interesting. I do wonder about their mortality rate, though. The Praying Mantis has been well documented to capture and eat hummingbirds. (And I used to see them in my Scarlet Runner vines. Maybe that's why.)

These are from when the Scarlet Runner beans were blossoming. The photos say 2013, so I was only off by 1.

Horizontal.

Vertical.

Oblique.

Perched.

Bob

 

[OldDinosaurWesH]

According to the article I read in Wikipedia, (You can take that for what it is worth) people who study that kind of thing say that hummingbirds are believed to live about 5 years.

Interesting Hummingbird / Bean photos. I have seen Black-Throated Hummingbirds sipping at my Tabacum Alata ornamental blooms. The blooms on the beans are also interesting. When I lived in Olympia, (the state capitol) there were a bunch of hippies living in a big house about a block away from where I lived. They grew some kind of a pole bean that had bright red blooms. Do you eat the scarlet runners as dry beans or as string beans?

(The only reason I know what a Black-Throated Hummingbird is that I read about it in my local newspaper.)

Wes H.

 

[deluxestogie]

Do you eat the scarlet runners as dry beans or as string beans?

If you pick the beans when they are under about 5" long, they can be eaten like string beans. When allowed to mature, the beans reach as long as 15", and are kind of chewy. They contain huge, black and purple mottled beans that can be stored as dry beans, then soaked and cooked. Their taste and general flavor are okay, but not all that great, unless you flavor them with meat. I consider Scarlet Runner to be a decorative climbing plant from which you can optionally collect a bunch of dry beans.

I think I collected about 1 quart of dried beans.

The Scarlet Emperor Bean is a fine, heavy producing variety.

It has smooth-textured, stringless 12-15 in. dark-green slightly fuzzy pods with beautiful purple and black mottled beans up to 1 in. long, having a sweeter, more savory, richer flavor than snap beans.

https://store.underwoodgardens.com/Scarlet-Emperor-Bean-Phaseolus-coccineus/productinfo/V1392

The vendor sees them in a more favorable (flavorable) light than has been my experience with them. But they are indeed beautiful.

Notice the inverted images of the tree within the hanging water drips.

Bob

 

[OldDinosaurWesH]

Bob:

Yes, the photos of the blooms look very showy. And the pink and black beans also are very showy. I have a rock that is similarly pink and black speckled. It's called Rhodonite. I see you are also interested in optics. A regular raconteur you are!

Wes H.

 

[deluxestogie]

I have a rock that is similarly pink and black speckled. It's called Rhodonite.

But does it use digital camo?

Bob

 

[OldDinosaurWesH]

Bob:

No. Clever beans. But I've seen a few gun stocks like that. Mostly being operated by females.

How did you get to be so knowledgeable on Agronomy?

Wes H.

 

[deluxestogie]

How did you get to be so knowledgeable on Agronomy?

Very slowly. Lots of reading. Lots of growing. My undergraduate degree in Biology included zero...count them...zero botany courses.

Bob

 

[OldDinosaurWesH]

Bob:

I went to a Pac 10 school (ranked #3 in the nation in agriculture @ that time) and got a degree in Agriculture with a specialty in Agronomy and Pest Management. I did take Botany, a year of Biology, a year of Chemistry, Geology, as well as a whole host of agricultural related courses. Soils, Plant Pathology, Entomology, etc.

We learned a lot about wheat and related field crops. This is part of the reason I ask questions about taxonomy, and minute details about blooms and the like. I was on the crop judging team in high school, and you have to look at very fine details in order to identify some of these plants. Especially some of those miserable grasses. It also helps if you know the basic botanical classifications. If you know what family it belongs to, specific identification gets a lot easier. (What kind of herbicide that will work also ties back into knowing the families.)

As an example, I recently had a botanical conundrum. I spotted a tree that was very different than anything I'd ever seen before. Now that was a challenge! I could tell from its' leaves that it was a legume. It definitely wasn't a Locust, (Common around here) but has some similarities, looking more like the compound stems of the Acacia. I took some research on the internet, but I found it. Partly because the foliage looked a lot like an Acacia. It was Albizia julibrissin, the Mimosa, or Persian Silk Tree. The mimosa is a different branch of the legume family more closely related to the Acacia than the Locusts.

About the only thing I knew about tobacco is that it is a solanacea, related to the potato, pepper, etc. So if you get tired of all my impertinent questions please bear with me.



Photo 1, Honey Locust w/ disgusting pods. I have a big one in my front yard. These are Dioecious Trees, and my dad planted the female downwind of the male. It's about 60 years old & produces a ton or so of these pods every year.

Photo 2, Foliage of the Acacia

Photo 3, foliage, bloom, and fruiting bodies (pods), of the Mimosa.

 

[deluxestogie]

The Joys of a Meteor Watch

An average of 82 meteors per hour. That's what they were predicting for tonight's Perseid Meteor Shower. I dowsed all my exposed skin with 40% DEET, lit up the remaining half of a cigar, then took up a trekking pole for assistance in balancing in the darkness.

Of course, there was the predictable patchy clouds and low haze. And the waning gibbous moon would rise at 11:18 pm, blotting out everything. So I headed out at about 9:15.

I slowly walked down my gravel driveway, searching for a spot that blocked the greatest number of insecurity lights mounted on neighbors' houses. It's amazing how bright those lights are when viewed from over 100 yards away. I fumed at mankind's rejection of night time. I circled through the front yard, and finally ended up in the lawn chair that sits at the top of my garden, with silhouettes of my remaining tobacco plants arrayed below me.

There was a break in the clouds to the North. I positioned my FTT ball cap sideways, so that its bill blocked the bright light situated above the now-abandoned goat pen in the neighbor's yard to my left, leaned my head back, and stared vaguely into the hazy sky. A few stars twinkled. At one point, I could see all of Cassiopeia, but only briefly.

Whenever I heard the sounds of automobile tires on the road, I closed my eyes, and held my forearm to my face. For millennia, humankind would cease its scurrying when night fell. How's a codger supposed to see any meteors if cars keep driving by--one every 5 or 10 minutes?

I focused again at the sky. Flash! Flash! Fireflies were out and about, repeatedly snatching my attention. Then came the bats. Two of them buzzed me again and again. Fluttering, dark shadows that swooped and lofted, totally silent. More fireflies. I began to laugh out loud. It wasn't just decadent humanity that conspired to impede my astronomical observations. It was Mother Nature as well. More cars, more fireflies, more bats. I laughed some more.

The carbon dioxide from my breath attracted mosquitoes, but when they came up close to my strategically applied DEET, they must have become confused. Hence the swooping bats.

I puffed my half-cigar. The red glow was now noticeably bright. And when I looked up, I saw that the wafting cigar smoke would briefly obscure a star or two. Drat. And now, clouds were moving in.

For inexplicable reasons, I found all this to be delightfully funny. When my invisible cigar began to burn my fingers, I tossed it into the wet grass, and gave up. No meteor shower. Not even one meteor. But I enjoyed just sitting out there in the darkness, assaulted by distractions from man and beast and bug (and cigar).

I went inside to roll another cigar. I felt more open to whatever came to hand. Just sitting still in the darkness, surrounded by nature, has a way of softening ones demands. I found a single, tattered and neglected WLT PA Oscuro leaf--the last leaf in a buried bag. That would be my wrapper. Below it, in the box of long ignored bags of less than ideal leaf, I came across Metacomet. (It's a wrapper variety, but we're not being picky tonight.) Perfect for a post-meteor filler. I selected some ratty Bolivia Criollo Black for flavor and strength. Binder be damned. I didn't even clean all the dried dirt from some of the filler leaves.

It turned out to be one of those delicious, but random cigars that will never happen again--like seeing a particular meteor.

Bob

 

[Charly]

What a lovely night !
I think that life is easier when you have a good smoke It helps seeing things with a more compliant mind.
Thanks for your beautifull story, which brought smile to me too.

P.S. beautifull pictures of hummingbirds and flowers !

 

[BigBonner]

We sit on our front porch every night and sometimes time goes by quickly and it gets late . We were watching for the meteor shower that night and did not see any . The moon was bright and we had no clouds at all .
We can see the sky really good as I have lots of big trees in my yard to cut out all those lights even the cars lights are blocked out to where you can barely see them . Just a big wide hole that you can see up to the stars .
Neighbors have asked why I don't cut my trees to where we can see the road and people can see my house . We just tell them that we like people not being able to see my house and I can't see all those lights .

But in the winter time those lights shine through the leafless trees . One neighbor a quarter mile down the road has a light on the side of his house that shine toward my house . I swear it is a high powered spot light of some kind and is very annoying . At times I would like to knock it out .

Bats swoop down by us at times but they mean no harm .

 

[deluxestogie]

I think that life is easier when you have a good smoke.

We sit on our front porch every night.... Just a big wide hole that you can see up to the stars.

People speak of "urban blight" as the occurrence of abandoned homes and businesses within the core of an otherwise "healthy" city. By contrast, I consider urban blight as more of a mentality. I'll call it "urban mentality blight." Urban blight, for short.

The root of the matter is that "civilized" comes from the Latin, civitas, which simply means "city." We think that being civilized means that we must live and think in the context of a city. While it's not surprising that suburbs carry on the practices of their adjacent cities, such as street lights and night-long illumination of the exterior of a home, I'm more puzzled by adoption of needless "city" characteristics in otherwise tranquil and beautiful rural areas. Are relatively isolated farm homes really "safer" with lights blazing all night long? Who sold us on this notion?

...an increase in crime rates appears with an increase in population density, but only up to 500 ppl/sq.mi...

http://blog.nycdatascience.com/stud...r-higher-population-densities-increase-crime/

In areas below a population density of 500 people per square mile(!), the more isolated you are, the lower the crime rate.

In 1973, I took a nighttime commercial flight from St. Louis to San Francisco. Across 2000 miles of our continent, only cities and towns stood out in the night. Everywhere else was asleep and invisible from 33,000 feet. Even California was mostly dark, until we approached the "string of pearls" illumination of the San Francisco Bay area, and its long, brightly lit bridges that stretched over the black waters of the bay. The rural people of America were just as civilized then as today, but accepted the natural order of night and day.

By the time I flew from Roanoke to Oakland one night in 1999 (25 years later), it was a different picture. You could actually delineate the boundaries of planted fields in the heartland. They were the non-lighted areas. Nearly every humble habitation from Virginia to California maintained nighttime lighting. Bright lighting. Urban blight.

Take note of Puerto Rico.

Now, we are truly civilized.

Bob

 

[OldDinosaurWesH]

Bob:

An Agronomist and a philosopher! I though I was the Old Dinosaur!

Keep up the good work.

Wes H.


My indoor hobby, I have regenerated this Amaryllis bulb every year since I bought it in...2002. I had to kill a few of these before I figured out how to regenerate them. I don't know how long these live, but it is on my front porch for its annual regrow and is looking good. Hopefully more beautiful blooms next spring.

 

[deluxestogie]

My indoor hobby, I have regenerated this Amaryllis bulb every year since I bought it in...2002.

Very nice.

I've perpetuated some potted tobacco plants for up to 3 seasons, then watched them explode into full-size beasts when belatedly placed into the ground, for their last hurrah.

My only other humble success has been a potted chrysanthemum that I've sheltered indoors every winter for the past few years, then returned to my front steps each spring. Some years it's bloomy, other years mostly leafage.

Bob