This morning, the lavender was slightly munched, but apparently discarded. Patooee!
Bob
Bob
Deluxestogie Grow Log 2019
- Thread starter deluxestogie
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This is about 2 weeks after transplant. That's the two weeks during which a tobacco transplant just sits there and picks its nose. Their rapid growth should start about...tic...tic...tic...now! I expect a gratifying difference in next week's photo.
Bob
Program! Get Your Program!
You can't tell one patch of apparently bare dirt from another, without your program. But no need to squint. Here is a key.
My Latakia Herb Cloister is just behind the blackberries.
Bob
You can't tell one patch of apparently bare dirt from another, without your program. But no need to squint. Here is a key.
My Latakia Herb Cloister is just behind the blackberries.
Bob
Today, I went out with my wonderful $12 hand hoe and my kneeling pad. Every bit of trespassing weed or grass has now been banished from my tobacco beds.
A standing hoe is a little too rough on my back. And being closer to the ground allows me to undermine a weed or clump of grass, then remove it entirely, roots and all. This stainless-blade tool came from Lowe's. I think I bought it in 2011 or 2012. I liked it so much, that I immediately bought a second one just in case. That second one has been left untouched. This is a perfectly designed hand tool, without a boutique price. I also use it to put in my transplants.
The pad is a Z-Rest backpacker's sleeping pad (made by Therm-a-rest) that opens to the length of a sleeping bag. I've had this one for at least 15 years. When using it for a garden kneeling pad, I either keep it entirely folded (5" of cushion), or open it in half (2-1/2" of cushion). It's much nicer on the knees than purpose-designed garden kneeling pads.
Once the season progresses, I usually select one bed each day to weed, after walking the tobacco.
Bob
A standing hoe is a little too rough on my back. And being closer to the ground allows me to undermine a weed or clump of grass, then remove it entirely, roots and all. This stainless-blade tool came from Lowe's. I think I bought it in 2011 or 2012. I liked it so much, that I immediately bought a second one just in case. That second one has been left untouched. This is a perfectly designed hand tool, without a boutique price. I also use it to put in my transplants.
The pad is a Z-Rest backpacker's sleeping pad (made by Therm-a-rest) that opens to the length of a sleeping bag. I've had this one for at least 15 years. When using it for a garden kneeling pad, I either keep it entirely folded (5" of cushion), or open it in half (2-1/2" of cushion). It's much nicer on the knees than purpose-designed garden kneeling pads.
Once the season progresses, I usually select one bed each day to weed, after walking the tobacco.
Bob
GreenDragon
Well-Known Member
I have something similar, but slightly heavier for Texas soil. Love it.
I was going to wait a full week since the last photo, but the weather man says I will have unremitting rain for the next five days. I certainly need rain. But we will get rain yesterday, and we will get rain today, and...well, hardly a drop so far. The big rain that's expected is supposedly from the remnant of Invest 91, that never quite formed in the Gulf of Mexico. It's currently soaking the central Gulf states.
At least the tobacco plants are visible in this week's photo of the entire garden. You might notice that it all looks a bit dry.
Here is a shot of just one of the three Corojo 99 beds.
Lancaster Seedleaf seems to be growing well in the long bed beside the house foundation.
In my Latakia Herb Cloister, all three Thyme plantings have submitted their resignations. The marjoram is barely alive. The transplanted Oregano seems to be okay, and the robust lavender plant has been about 70% eaten by delighted, fellow earth dwellers.
The summer squash bed currently consists of 5 desolate, topped squash stalks. And my 12 Okra plants have dwindled to 6. Nobody seems to like the winter squash, so it's doing well. Even though my green beans are protected from the deer by armed border patrol agents, the bunnies still manage to sneak in and take their toll. But I'm okay with all of these vicissitudes of gardening.
I'll dig my garlic in a week or so. That should be bountiful. It's left pretty much alone, since it smells just like garlic.
At 8:54 this morning, I told my notebook computer to, yes, go ahead and update Windows 10 now. My system runs 12 GB of RAM. Background stuff consumes 2.6 GB of it. The Windows update process decided all the rest was free for the taking (just like the rabbits and the deer). So the above snapshot shows the Update process gobbling over 8.5 GB of RAM--for hours on end. It's now 2:30 pm, as I type this post into Notepad, since I've closed my anti-virus, and don't want to go on the Internet without it. (I'll post it when the update has finished, and I've restarted my anti-virus.) Yet the Windows Update has made it to only 93%--over 5-1/2 hours, and with 8.5 GB of RAM! I usually run updates when I'm about to go to bed, and never notice the time and computer resources consumed in the process.
How long did it take to update my Windows 10? 10-1/2 hours. Rain started at about 4 pm, and is going strong.
Bob
GreenDragon
Well-Known Member
Sorry to hear about your poor herbs in the Latakia Cloister. I think it’s safe to say that it’s been a challenging year so far for most everyone.
Also, your Windows’s update... we’ve all been there! “I’m sure it will only take an hour or so. Says it’ll run in the background ”
Also, your Windows’s update... we’ve all been there! “I’m sure it will only take an hour or so. Says it’ll run in the background ”
Those Microsoft folks have grown more clever over the decades. The update message says, "this may take a while". Ha!
With regard to the specific fire-curing materials for my Latakia, I'll be doing exactly what I'm sure they do in Cyprus. Whatever disposable weedy scraps that are available at the moment (excluding poison ivy) will be used in generating smoke. Gotta have smoke.
Seriously, in the past, when I've grown herbs, I didn't give even a passing thought to starting them indoors, then transplanting to the garden. I just bought some cheap herb seeds at the hardware store/ grocery store/ convenience store / garden center, and tossed some seed in the garden. I suspect that, like some veggies, some herbs really don't like to be transplanted. [I've never successfully transplanted chamomile, which sometimes grows wild in my gravel driveway. Even fairly large, mature chamomile plants just turn to mush when I transplant them to a pot.]
Bob
With regard to the specific fire-curing materials for my Latakia, I'll be doing exactly what I'm sure they do in Cyprus. Whatever disposable weedy scraps that are available at the moment (excluding poison ivy) will be used in generating smoke. Gotta have smoke.
Seriously, in the past, when I've grown herbs, I didn't give even a passing thought to starting them indoors, then transplanting to the garden. I just bought some cheap herb seeds at the hardware store/ grocery store/ convenience store / garden center, and tossed some seed in the garden. I suspect that, like some veggies, some herbs really don't like to be transplanted. [I've never successfully transplanted chamomile, which sometimes grows wild in my gravel driveway. Even fairly large, mature chamomile plants just turn to mush when I transplant them to a pot.]
Bob
By the beginning of May 2019, of my entire tobacco crop from 2018, the only variety that I had removed from my shed was Dücze. That's it. All the rest was still just hanging there in the shed. My plan was to clear it all out, and begin kilning batches of leaf at that time. But the temps in May were scorching, with remarkably low humidity. I simply couldn't handle any of it.
Now, it's too close to my planned absence for 10 days to begin a kiln run. But the rains have come. I checked the leaf daily, and was truly amazed at how many days of heavy rains were required to finally bring the leaf into case. Yesterday, I began bagging the strung leaf (only about 10 strings), and stripping stalks. This high case leaf would surely mold in the bags. I brought them into the kitchen, and left the first ones wide open, but they were clearly going to require many days to dry down. So last night, I placed the open bags into my kiln at max capacity, and cranked it up to 128°F using a bone dry Crockpot.
The aroma from the kiln bore no resemblance to what I usually smell with newly color-cured leaf. This stuff had clearly aged a lot in the shed. After temps of 128° overnight, it was all still in too high a case to come out. I'll leave it in there until tomorrow morning, hoping I can then just leave the bags open in the kitchen until they either fully dry, or can go into the kiln in early July for a full run. I'll fill the kiln again with shed leaf tomorrow.
I believe I have about two more kiln batches to dry down still hanging. I'll bag up all of that tomorrow, before the outdoor humidity drops in mid-week.
What is curious with the stalk-cured tobacco is that the stalks are now thoroughly moldy, but the leaf is not. This wasn't my experience in the years prior to using imidacloprid in the transplant water. Even clean stalks of leaf put into the shed would end up colonized with aphids. And the aphids would leave their honeydew on some of the leaf, and that leaf would be molded if the stalks became moldy. Now, I believe that the minimal, unnoticed aphids that went into the shed on seemingly clean plants has been dramatically reduced. After stripping a bit over half the tobacco, I have discarded a total of fewer than 10 leaves for mold.
A bigger issue has been the exceedingly long stalks of Piloto Cubano and Corojo 99. Their tip leaves (remember, they're hanging upside down) need only to gently tap the shed floor to pick up all manner of debris, which I then have to tediously wipe off, leaf by leaf. But after 10-ish months in the shed, stripping each leaf from the stalks is as easy plucking paper napkins from a dispenser.
The Corojo 99 (all now bagged) is truly beautiful leaf. I no longer spend the time sorting the stalk-harvested leaves into lower, mid and upper leaf. Just looking into a kilned bag of mixed leaf levels, I intuitively select those as I gather ingredients to roll a cigar.
Things are moving along. I'll have the shed emptied within a couple of day, have it all dried down before I depart, and begin kiln runs when I return.
Now, if I could only find the energy to clean the filthy shed floor.
Bob
Now, it's too close to my planned absence for 10 days to begin a kiln run. But the rains have come. I checked the leaf daily, and was truly amazed at how many days of heavy rains were required to finally bring the leaf into case. Yesterday, I began bagging the strung leaf (only about 10 strings), and stripping stalks. This high case leaf would surely mold in the bags. I brought them into the kitchen, and left the first ones wide open, but they were clearly going to require many days to dry down. So last night, I placed the open bags into my kiln at max capacity, and cranked it up to 128°F using a bone dry Crockpot.
The aroma from the kiln bore no resemblance to what I usually smell with newly color-cured leaf. This stuff had clearly aged a lot in the shed. After temps of 128° overnight, it was all still in too high a case to come out. I'll leave it in there until tomorrow morning, hoping I can then just leave the bags open in the kitchen until they either fully dry, or can go into the kiln in early July for a full run. I'll fill the kiln again with shed leaf tomorrow.
I believe I have about two more kiln batches to dry down still hanging. I'll bag up all of that tomorrow, before the outdoor humidity drops in mid-week.
What is curious with the stalk-cured tobacco is that the stalks are now thoroughly moldy, but the leaf is not. This wasn't my experience in the years prior to using imidacloprid in the transplant water. Even clean stalks of leaf put into the shed would end up colonized with aphids. And the aphids would leave their honeydew on some of the leaf, and that leaf would be molded if the stalks became moldy. Now, I believe that the minimal, unnoticed aphids that went into the shed on seemingly clean plants has been dramatically reduced. After stripping a bit over half the tobacco, I have discarded a total of fewer than 10 leaves for mold.
A bigger issue has been the exceedingly long stalks of Piloto Cubano and Corojo 99. Their tip leaves (remember, they're hanging upside down) need only to gently tap the shed floor to pick up all manner of debris, which I then have to tediously wipe off, leaf by leaf. But after 10-ish months in the shed, stripping each leaf from the stalks is as easy plucking paper napkins from a dispenser.
The Corojo 99 (all now bagged) is truly beautiful leaf. I no longer spend the time sorting the stalk-harvested leaves into lower, mid and upper leaf. Just looking into a kilned bag of mixed leaf levels, I intuitively select those as I gather ingredients to roll a cigar.
Things are moving along. I'll have the shed emptied within a couple of day, have it all dried down before I depart, and begin kiln runs when I return.
Now, if I could only find the energy to clean the filthy shed floor.
Bob
Yes. You make a very good point that I failed to mention. My results depend entirely on my specific shed, in my specific seasonal weather, and the variations of the seasonal weather from year to year.
My shed roof is metal, with no insulation. My shed has natural ventilation. I have a box fan on the floor, braced at a 45° angle, and pointed across the shed diagonally, and it runs 24 hours a day, every day of the year. In addition, I have a dual window fan that is temp controlled to switch on if the temp is above 70°F. So, in sunny weather, the shed temp rises more rapidly than ambient temps, and has increased ventilation above 70°F. Compared to a typical garage, for example, my shed temperatures cycle more rapidly, which in turn, cycles the humidity. And the constant box fan ventilation minimizes the risk of stagnant pockets of increased humidity.
So, my shed-curing experience cannot be generalized to what any other growers should be doing. I'm just recounting what happens here.
Bob
On average how much tobacco do you get per year? I’m planning on growing some cigar leaf next year. Going to make a kiln and will be building another shed strictly for tobacco within the next few weeks here. I plan to try out 3 or 4 fillers and maybe 2 plants for wrapper.
I have never attempted to grow tobacco before but after following your grow logs you’ve inspired me to give it a shot. Any recommendations on what type of seed to plant? I know I’ll definitely be trying out corojo 99, criollo 98 and CT broadleaf and maybe Florida Sumatra. Not sure on that one though. I’m a fan off Sumatra but the little I’ve had from home growers wasn’t that great to me.
Randy, a single tobacco plant may yield 1/8 to 1/2 pound of cured leaf, depending on the variety, the dirt and the season. I grow roughly 100 to 200 plants per year. For a first grow, the quality of the leaf might be great, but will more likely serve as a measure of how much you learn about growing tobacco during that first season. For that reason, making it a relatively small grow will allow you to adapt your skills to the process, without overdoing it for a mediocre crop. So between 64 and 128 plants would be a comfortable place to start. [Those numbers come from multiples of my 16-plant beds.]
I would go with four to 8 varieties max, for that first grow. Look through the grow logs of various members for variety ideas. My particular corner of Earth seems friendly to growing Corojo 99, Olor, Piloto Cubano, Glessnor, Swarr-Hibshman, Little Dutch, Dutch (Ohio), PA Red, Long Red, FL Sumatra and most Orientals. In my hands, Criollo was not as successful, though I planted the original Cuban Criollo, rather than Criollo 98. I've grown over 100 different varieties, and each is discussed at length in the grow log of the year in which I grew them.
Bottom line: Don't grow too much your first year. Don't pick too many different varieties. And don't be too concerned about nuanced cigar blending in your selections. After about 3 seasons of experimentation, your strengths will become clearer.
Bob
I would go with four to 8 varieties max, for that first grow. Look through the grow logs of various members for variety ideas. My particular corner of Earth seems friendly to growing Corojo 99, Olor, Piloto Cubano, Glessnor, Swarr-Hibshman, Little Dutch, Dutch (Ohio), PA Red, Long Red, FL Sumatra and most Orientals. In my hands, Criollo was not as successful, though I planted the original Cuban Criollo, rather than Criollo 98. I've grown over 100 different varieties, and each is discussed at length in the grow log of the year in which I grew them.
Bottom line: Don't grow too much your first year. Don't pick too many different varieties. And don't be too concerned about nuanced cigar blending in your selections. After about 3 seasons of experimentation, your strengths will become clearer.
Bob
Thanks for the tips!!!
I thought today would be my last day at the strip club. I knew that the excellent, high humidity of the past few days would drop too low for stripping by about 9 am this morning. So I got up early, and was in the shed a little before 7 am. While stripping and bagging the very first variety, the leaf became noticeably noisier. I think it was the steady, dry breeze wafting through the shed. All I managed to bag was 10 Swarr-Hibshman and 2 dwarf, green Corojo 99 orphans.
Looking at the humidity curve in the weather graph:
my prospects for being able to finish up in the next week don't look promising. It usually takes more than a single overnight of high humidity to bring the leaf into case. But I have only 8 Criollo (Cuba) and 8 Olor left to do.
The tobacco is growing well. I'll post another pic in a few days.
Bob
Looking at the humidity curve in the weather graph:
my prospects for being able to finish up in the next week don't look promising. It usually takes more than a single overnight of high humidity to bring the leaf into case. But I have only 8 Criollo (Cuba) and 8 Olor left to do.
The tobacco is growing well. I'll post another pic in a few days.
Bob
One month out of the starting gate.
Bob
Pairings
What could be better than coffee and tobacco?
Bob
What could be better than coffee and tobacco?
Bob
Alpine
Moderator
Coffee, tobacco AND cognac! (Or whiskey, or bourbon, or Armagnac or...)
Pier
Pier
My poor body can only handle two toxins at a time. And I haven't seen an ethanol bottle large enough to hold sufficient dirt.
Bob
Bob
Sometimes, it's a challenge to decide what to do first.
Bob
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