Deluxestogie Grow Log 2019
- Thread starter deluxestogie
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Bob
ciennepi
Well-Known Member
Nice photo, nice garden and nice growing tobacco. I'm like how you take photo from the same point and show very well the growibg of the plants.
Thank you. Yes, the photo itself tells the story of the day: the weather, time of day, status of growth, state of soil hydration.
It does hide some details. Of the eight Little Yellow plants (small bed to left of the brambles), only five are thriving, two are quite slow, and one has done nearly nothing since transplant. Although it's nice to have some dark-air tobacco for pipe blending, I don't really need to be growing any, since I have an ample supply. The only other time I grew Little Yellow, I put in only four plants. They cured-out to a robust and curious "toasted nut" aroma. This year's planting of it was to determine if that is a unique characteristic of the variety, or just a quirk of that particular season's grow and cure. That earlier planting had issues with flea beetles, which have since been banished by imidacloprid. [I'll also cook-up some Little Yellow Cavendish this winter.]
Today is 22 JUN, yet I have seen not a single hornworm egg this season. I'll do my first spraying of BT this evening.
Bob
Brown Thumb
Well-Known Member
Looking good like always.
I wish I had your energy!
I wish I had your energy!
Whoah... Brown Thumb... where'd you come from? Haven't seen you in a coon's age.
Brown Thumb
Well-Known Member
?
ChinaVoodoo
Moderator
Racoons have an average lifespan of 2-3 years. I think he meant it hyperbolically.
GreenDragon
Well-Known Member
It's a common expression in the Southern States to a friend or relative meaning "I haven't seen you in a long time" 
Skipping over the dubious etymology of "coon's age"--sorry, but I grew up in Atlanta, and know better, I'll provide a much awaited preview of my wonderful trip.
This was taken by my brother, as we departed the exotic reaches of Birmingham, Alabama for the final day's journey back to Virginia. [Hidden by the car, a walking cane provides the cantilevered support for my jaunty posture. No plastic surgery, tanning booths or hair comb-overs. Just an old, tottering, bald guy, totally exhausted by a 9 day road trip.] At the health spa behind me, my 12 y/o grandson and his 10 y/o sister simultaneously agreed (in one another's presence no less) to the very same breakfast menu item! I ordered one French Toast with a "small" slice of country ham, divided the French toast and ham three ways, yet it was still too much food for each of the three of us. (The "barrel" in the name of the establishment refers to the general body shape of their regular customers.) Eat, drink and be merry.
It will take me a bit to sift through the ~150 or so photos, and post a few.
Bob
This was taken by my brother, as we departed the exotic reaches of Birmingham, Alabama for the final day's journey back to Virginia. [Hidden by the car, a walking cane provides the cantilevered support for my jaunty posture. No plastic surgery, tanning booths or hair comb-overs. Just an old, tottering, bald guy, totally exhausted by a 9 day road trip.] At the health spa behind me, my 12 y/o grandson and his 10 y/o sister simultaneously agreed (in one another's presence no less) to the very same breakfast menu item! I ordered one French Toast with a "small" slice of country ham, divided the French toast and ham three ways, yet it was still too much food for each of the three of us. (The "barrel" in the name of the establishment refers to the general body shape of their regular customers.) Eat, drink and be merry.
It will take me a bit to sift through the ~150 or so photos, and post a few.
Bob
ciennepi
Well-Known Member
Take your time and let us seen your wonderful trip.
GreenDragon
Well-Known Member
No matter how great a vacation is, there is something to be said for the warm peaceful feeling you get when you come home. And sleep in your own bed. And walk through your garden and check on all your babies of course.
Score 1 for jitterbugdude
My plan for managing hornworms while I was away for 9 days was to spray BT (Bacillus thuringiensis) just prior to my departure, and cross my fingers. Once I returned, I would resume my long practice of manually squishing hornworms and their eggs--a duty requiring walking the tobacco twice each day.
I purchased a 1 quart bottle of ready-to-use (RTU) BT spray. At the same time, just in case that wasn't enough to spray my 130 plants once, I also purchased a 16 ounce bottle of BT concentrate. I sprayed (hand-squeeze spray bottle) all the plants the evening before I left, and the 1 quart of RTU did the job, though empty when I finished.
When I got back, an inspection of the tobacco revealed a scattering of occasional pinholes suggestive of baby hornworm damage, but only a couple of tiny hornworms, and only a few eggs. Wow!
I asked JBD if that is what he typically sees when the BT is working. His answer was, yes. My plan had worked. But then he added that, like the anti-aphid chemical that I use, his use of BT had made tobacco pests a non-issue.
Today, I decided to give it one more spray. To my delight, I discovered that the BT concentrate was exactly 10 times as much BT spores as the RTU. Aha! Easy mixing. Since the spray bottle holds 32 ounces, I simply added 3.2 ounces to the bottle, and filled to 32 ounces with water. That was simpler than the "add x ounces per 5 gallon spray tank" instructions on the label.
I recalled how much my forearms ached after squeezing the pump handle of the hand-held spray bottle from full to empty the last time. One final trial and comparison today.
Hand spraying this morning required about 1/4 the time I usually spend walking the tobacco just once. I was careless with spraying. I'm too rickety to stoop and bend to thoroughly spray upper and lower surfaces of every leaf. The BT spores on the sun-exposed surface will likely breakdown (be deactivated by solar radiation) fairly quickly. But since hornworms don't just eat the bottom surface--they eat all the way through the lamina, and they won't wait for the sun to render the BT non-toxic, well...I expect a decent mortality rate despite my laziness. Time will tell.
The original quart spray bottle, plus the 5 refills afforded by the 16 ounces of concentrate gives me 6 sprayings total for my 130 plants this season. If this does a reasonable job of hornworm (and budworm!) control, then I will have dramatically reduced my tobacco labor for the season.
Thank you to jitterbugdude.
For any chemical haters out there, BT is absolutely safe for everything except caterpillars of all sorts. It's a bacterium (supplied in spore form), and is rated as "Organic" pest control.
Bob
My plan for managing hornworms while I was away for 9 days was to spray BT (Bacillus thuringiensis) just prior to my departure, and cross my fingers. Once I returned, I would resume my long practice of manually squishing hornworms and their eggs--a duty requiring walking the tobacco twice each day.
I purchased a 1 quart bottle of ready-to-use (RTU) BT spray. At the same time, just in case that wasn't enough to spray my 130 plants once, I also purchased a 16 ounce bottle of BT concentrate. I sprayed (hand-squeeze spray bottle) all the plants the evening before I left, and the 1 quart of RTU did the job, though empty when I finished.
When I got back, an inspection of the tobacco revealed a scattering of occasional pinholes suggestive of baby hornworm damage, but only a couple of tiny hornworms, and only a few eggs. Wow!
I asked JBD if that is what he typically sees when the BT is working. His answer was, yes. My plan had worked. But then he added that, like the anti-aphid chemical that I use, his use of BT had made tobacco pests a non-issue.
Today, I decided to give it one more spray. To my delight, I discovered that the BT concentrate was exactly 10 times as much BT spores as the RTU. Aha! Easy mixing. Since the spray bottle holds 32 ounces, I simply added 3.2 ounces to the bottle, and filled to 32 ounces with water. That was simpler than the "add x ounces per 5 gallon spray tank" instructions on the label.
I recalled how much my forearms ached after squeezing the pump handle of the hand-held spray bottle from full to empty the last time. One final trial and comparison today.
Hand spraying this morning required about 1/4 the time I usually spend walking the tobacco just once. I was careless with spraying. I'm too rickety to stoop and bend to thoroughly spray upper and lower surfaces of every leaf. The BT spores on the sun-exposed surface will likely breakdown (be deactivated by solar radiation) fairly quickly. But since hornworms don't just eat the bottom surface--they eat all the way through the lamina, and they won't wait for the sun to render the BT non-toxic, well...I expect a decent mortality rate despite my laziness. Time will tell.
The original quart spray bottle, plus the 5 refills afforded by the 16 ounces of concentrate gives me 6 sprayings total for my 130 plants this season. If this does a reasonable job of hornworm (and budworm!) control, then I will have dramatically reduced my tobacco labor for the season.
Thank you to jitterbugdude.
For any chemical haters out there, BT is absolutely safe for everything except caterpillars of all sorts. It's a bacterium (supplied in spore form), and is rated as "Organic" pest control.
Bob
Moth
Well-Known Member
I'm getting pinhole damage and have found a few caterpillars. Luckily we don't get the Hornworms here, although, we get issues with tomato caterpillars (Lacanobia oleracea) and I've seen brassica beds stripped bare in a day, courtesy of the Cabbage Moth (Mamestra brassicae)
Thanks for the tip
Thanks for the tip
GreenDragon
Well-Known Member
I used it successfully myself this year after a very early invasion of hornworms. One application has, so far, prevented a re-infestation. It’s also great to use on corn to prevent the nasty surprise of shucking a beautiful ear of home grown corn only to find a huge creepy nasty caterpillar hiding inside and has eaten most of the corn already.
Brown Thumb
Well-Known Member
I just oil my corn with A spray bottle like bobs and it keeps the protein out.
ChinaVoodoo
Moderator
I will be stealing this saying for my novel.
The beauty of using the BT is that, regardless of whether it works or not, I won't feel guilty about not walking the tobacco twice a day. At least...not the degree of guilt one might experience, say after having stolen a clever saying from a trusting forum member.
Bob
Bob
I finally finished mowing this morning. I could drop it down to only about 4 inches, since mowing was way overdue. But at least it will quell the scorn of my neighbors for now.
The one bit of grass that has gotten totally out of hand is alongside the house, where I planted my Lancaster Seedleaf. I'll have to just live with that, until I can muster more energy for pulling it.
Trabzon
Despite being closely spaced (25 of them in a 5' x 6' bed, which computes to a mere 1.2 sq. ft. per plant) the leaf of my Trabzon is reaching 12" in length. Plant heights are remaining in the 3' range. Time for some real measurements.
Later this afternoon, I'll pluck that one, lovely, open blossom, and then bag that plant.
Bob
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