In a natural setting (woodlands, hills, creeks, structures), tactics are more valuable than speed. [Clausewitz, Napoleon, Wellington, Zulu warriors]
Deluxestogie Grow Log 2022
- Thread starter deluxestogie
- Start date
GreenDragon
Well-Known Member
When I was in high school, my older brother and his friends were heavily into paintball. One weekend they decided to let the poor little brother play with them. We went out into the woods and divided into teams. I was "gifted" with a single action little pistol while everyone else had the fancy semi-auto rifles. Realizing I was being set up for failure, I buried myself in a pile of leaves near our flag and waited.
I tagged my brother in both games we played.
I was never asked to play again
You are envisioning a single, stationary, nearby target being perfectly targeted with 25 balls. A huge waste of paint. Instead, picture a small group of rapidly moving targets traversing a forest road, and a fractional burst of balls fired in a tight circle toward the group.
Bob
Bob
Today, I cut the seed heads of Machu Picchu Havana, Prilep 66-9/7, Ainaro and a couple of Corojo 99. They will hang indoors (in my enclosed back porch) until indoor humidity is consistently quite low (meaning about a month or two from now).
With a little bit of quick math, all of those varieties developed brown seed pods, ready to cut, between 6 to 8 weeks after maturity (50% of plants with at least 1 blossom). If we assume two months post transplant as an average maturity, then browned pods require about 3½ to 5½ months of non-freezing weather post transplant. It's certainly possible to cheat on that a little bit, by bringing in the seed pods when they first show signs of browning, but the subsequent germination rate of the seeds may suffer.
Bob
With a little bit of quick math, all of those varieties developed brown seed pods, ready to cut, between 6 to 8 weeks after maturity (50% of plants with at least 1 blossom). If we assume two months post transplant as an average maturity, then browned pods require about 3½ to 5½ months of non-freezing weather post transplant. It's certainly possible to cheat on that a little bit, by bringing in the seed pods when they first show signs of browning, but the subsequent germination rate of the seeds may suffer.
Bob
The wire is a 10" section of 17 gauge aluminum fence wire. It wraps snugly around the stalk below the tie on the inverted bag.
Bob
Bob
The self-primed leaves usually don't go very far. I gather them, and add them to the basked inside the shed.
Bob
I stalk-cut my remaining Prilep 66-9/7 today. The hanging stalks from two weeks ago were moved to the back row. The back gets direct sunlight in the morning, and the front row gets direct sunlight all afternoon. The weather forecast guarantees sunny days (up to about 80°), cool and humid nights, and zero rain for the next week.
I still have Corojo 99 upper leaf and Ainaro upper leaf to prime over the next few days.
Bob
My conditions for sun-curing and shed-curing for the next 10 days:
Bob
Bob
Yesterday evening, the forecast predicted "15 mph" winds for the following day. I thought about all my sun-curing leaf, hanging out on the line, and the fact that the wind forecast is always the average wind velocity. Hmmm. Before it got dark, I hauled it all into the shed, and hung it.
This morning, when I awakened, the wind was strong and gusty. Leaves from the big maple were being blown 50 yards away, before they settled to the ground. Small branches were snapping, and dropping. I estimate the gusts were 35-40 mph. My sun-curing tobacco would have been ripped away, and blown into the next county, had it remained overnight on the line.
The day is bright and sunny, but my aching joints say that a weather front is passing, dropping the barometric pressure rapidly. The wooden wind chimes on my porch have been clinking and clunking non-stop. Tomorrow, I'll look at the sheltering tobacco, and decide which of the strings and stalks might actually benefit from a little more sun-curing. With the dropping humidity, I'm guessing that the first group of Prilep 66-9/7 will be ready to stay in the shed, and maybe even the string of Ainaro. I still have one string of Ainaro (top leaf) left to prime.
Bob
This morning, when I awakened, the wind was strong and gusty. Leaves from the big maple were being blown 50 yards away, before they settled to the ground. Small branches were snapping, and dropping. I estimate the gusts were 35-40 mph. My sun-curing tobacco would have been ripped away, and blown into the next county, had it remained overnight on the line.
The day is bright and sunny, but my aching joints say that a weather front is passing, dropping the barometric pressure rapidly. The wooden wind chimes on my porch have been clinking and clunking non-stop. Tomorrow, I'll look at the sheltering tobacco, and decide which of the strings and stalks might actually benefit from a little more sun-curing. With the dropping humidity, I'm guessing that the first group of Prilep 66-9/7 will be ready to stay in the shed, and maybe even the string of Ainaro. I still have one string of Ainaro (top leaf) left to prime.
Bob
This is the last of my Ainaro upper leaf. These may or may not color-cure before the first frost (average 15 OCT). I left a few leaves on the stalks in the garden bed, deciding that they were just too immature, and had zero chance of adequately curing.
Bob
My overnight low temp was supposed to be 41°F. The image shows my shed temperature.
Two analog thermometers outdoors are reading 34°F. My average first frost date is 15 October.
Bob
Two analog thermometers outdoors are reading 34°F. My average first frost date is 15 October.
Bob
Homegrowngoodnes
Well-Known Member
The cold front that pushed southward is likely what made hurricane ian turn east...
Thursday (9/29), my power was out for about 7 hours. At least one cell tower within range was still functioning, so I could at least report the outage. Yesterday (9/30), a transformer exploded about 100 yards south of me at around 8 pm. All the homes south of me went dark, but my power stayed on. High winds and rain all night. Unfortunately, my Internet connection went dead when the transformer exploded, and was restored only about 30 minutes ago (10/1). No significant flooding. Hurricane Ian was just a pussy cat in its old age.
The power outage map for my part of Virginia:
Even with the relatively minor storm impact here, a lot of folks are working hard to repair all those outages. If my Internet provider offered an outage map, I'm sure it would look similar.
Bob
The power outage map for my part of Virginia:
Even with the relatively minor storm impact here, a lot of folks are working hard to repair all those outages. If my Internet provider offered an outage map, I'm sure it would look similar.
Bob
Homegrowngoodnes
Well-Known Member
Im jealous...we didnt even get rain!
Not to worry. The NHC is following another disturbance that seems to be following a similar path into the Caribbean.
Bob
Bob
It was an accident. Grandma made me do it.
I was visiting an office supply website that also sells bulk cartons of break room snack items. I was planning to purchase a carton of assorted Lance sandwich crackers as Halloween handouts. I seldom have many kids show up at the door on Halloween, and don't want to have a bunch of tempting candy left over. So I look for passable handouts that aren't candy.
36 packs of cookies. 7 pounds of crap. I have always loved Grandma's cookies—two big cookies per pack. The website flashed the Grandma's signal, and I was trapped. Grandma's cookies also make good reading. The vanilla sandwich cookie packages say, "Servings per container: 3". Right. Open the little package of vanilla sandwich cookies, and eat only 1/3 of it. This makes the mandated nutrition label seem less horrifying. Likewise, the big cookie packs (two cookies per pack) say that it's two servings. Shame on Grandma. [In my defense, I also purchased the carton of Lance sandwich crackers.]
In other news, today is my last day to harvest any stray, remaining tobacco leaves, before a hard frost tonight. There are still about a dozen runty Corojo 99 top leaves that I will bring indoors, and maybe a handful of Ainaro top leaves. All seed heads have been cut, and brought indoors to dry. There are some truly beautiful sucker stalks of Machu Picchu Havana, but when I checked them yesterday, not a single leaf showed signs of maturity. They just won't cure if I cut them.
Bye-bye, 2022 growing season.
Bob
My oldest brother stopped by this afternoon with a butt load of power tools, and the steel support frame from a crate in which an Indian motorcycle was shipped.
Crate support frame, positioned at steps
The goal was to create a railing for my front porch steps. Sawing, drilling, grinding, screwing, welding, pounding, more grinding, then a quick coat of flat black paint.
Done in 3½ hours.
Bob
Crate support frame, positioned at steps
The goal was to create a railing for my front porch steps. Sawing, drilling, grinding, screwing, welding, pounding, more grinding, then a quick coat of flat black paint.
Done in 3½ hours.
Bob
Homegrowngoodnes
Well-Known Member
Now i am tempted to visit on halloween! Grandmas cookies n a cigar u say?
