Deluxestogie Grow Log 2023

[deluxestogie]

The temp is 88°F in the shade of my front porch. Very little breeze. An oscillating fan is running at high speed. Also at high speed, I race to eat a bowl of butter pecan ice cream (with Cool Whip) before it melts. For the moment, the RH has dipped to 70%. Huge, puffy gray clouds creep slowly across most of the sky, with the sun poking through here and there. Rain is expected in a few hours.

I am content to just sit at home, getting nothing done. My tobacco is happy, happy, happy.

Bob

 

[deluxestogie]

A little past noon today, while sitting on my front porch, I heard the sound of many hoofbeats galloping up my driveway. Then, one after another, a total of 7 bucks, with fuzzy antlers, ran past me, and out into the pasture. I hurried into the house, grabbed my camera, and snapped this one photo, before they all vanished over the fence line to their right.

Bob

 

[Laredo]

A little past noon today, while sitting on my front porch, I heard the sound of many hoofbeats galloping up my driveway. Then, one after another, a total of 7 bucks, with fuzzy antlers, ran past me, and out into the pasture. I hurried into the house, grabbed my camera, and snapped this one photo, before they all vanished over the fence line to their right.

Bob

Aha, right on.

I had a deer encounter at my house this morning. I live right in the city (small city) and have a river in the back yard, about 30 to 40 feet below my yard level. My neighbor a few houses down feeds the deer so we have 6 to 8 deer roaming around. They come right up to the house and eat the buds off of my tiger lilies.

This morning, probably around 7:30 ish, I was out on the back porch having a smoke and two little spotted fawns were chasing each other through the yards and wooded river bank. Their mom was watching them tear across 4 or 5 backyards before turning into the woods and racing back the other way. They did laps like this for about 2 minutes, before they disappeared. I should have tried to get a video of it. Hopefully they don’t eat my tobacco next year.

 

[deluxestogie]

Deer will occasionally nibble a tobacco plant...once. They quickly discover that it tastes awful. Over the years, I occasionally encounter deer damage to recently transplanted tobacco, when a deer strolls across a tobacco bed.

Bob

 

[deluxestogie]

This morning, before the sun turned my curing shed into an air-frier, I finally stripped the leaf from my 32 stalks of 2022, runted Corojo 99. In 2022, I planted 3 beds (44 plants total) of Corojo 99, but only one bed was properly weeded. I planted the other two beds "no-till", and the weeds and grass rapidly took over. This is an object lesson on the value of keeping tobacco well weeded.

In the image below, you see the entirety of the leaf produced by those 32 runted plants.

It might be useful as a pipe blending ingredient.

The next two photos from inside the shed show all the remaining leaf that has hung since 2022. I'm awaiting the arrival of some large, clear bags that I ordered.

Bob

 

[deluxestogie]

Bud Bags

This is the current status of my 4 bud bags. They will continue to fill, as the season progresses. Some plants simply fill the bag. Other plants fill the bag to near bursting. And occasionally the bag appears to be too large.

Below is my "small" bag for Orientals.

Bob

 

[deluxestogie]

My day today (with cigars interspersed ad lib):

1. blanch yesterday's green bean harvest; bag it; freeze it
2. make coffee and eat breakfast
3. water the potted porch veggies
4. reply to emails; check the forum
5. slice, bag and freeze yesterday's squash harvest
6. scrub yesterday's cucumber harvest
7. walk the tobacco, and look for new veggies to pick later
8. swap long-sleeve t-shirt for short sleeve
9. eat lunch while checking the forum
10. make another batch of cucumber lactate pickles (long wedges this time)
11. check the forum
12. transfer a label from a new bottle of pills in a flip-twist-squeeze-press lid bottle onto a standard screw-top bottle (for old fingers); transfer contents
13. eat ice cream
14. put away shipped groceries
15. retrieve junk mail from the mailbox
16. breakdown cardboard and put into car trunk
17. eat dinner
18. check the forum
19. sucker all the tobacco plants
20. swap back to a long-sleeve t-shirt
21. check the forum
22. water the potted porch veggies

Bob

 

[johnny108]

My day today (with cigars interspersed ad lib):

1. blanch yesterday's green bean harvest; bag it; freeze it
2. make coffee and eat breakfast
3. water the potted porch veggies
4. reply to emails; check the forum
5. slice, bag and freeze yesterday's squash harvest
6. scrub yesterday's cucumber harvest
7. walk the tobacco, and look for new veggies to pick later
8. swap long-sleeve t-shirt for short sleeve
9. eat lunch while checking the forum
10. make another batch of cucumber lactate pickles (long wedges this time)
11. check the forum
12. transfer a label from a new bottle of pills in a flip-twist-squeeze-press lid bottle onto a standard screw-top bottle (for old fingers); transfer contents
13. eat ice cream
14. put away shipped groceries
15. retrieve junk mail from the mailbox
16. breakdown cardboard and put into car trunk
17. eat dinner
18. check the forum
19. sucker all the tobacco plants
20. swap back to a long-sleeve t-shirt
21. check the forum
22. water the potted porch veggies

Bob

“Life in the fast lane, surely make you lose your mind”. - The Eagles

 

[deluxestogie]

Photo of Nothing:

My shed is empty

The 1/8-inch, braided nylon rope has stretched a little bit, over the decade+ that it has been up there, but seems as sturdy as ever. It is anchored by lag bolts screwed into the beams.

Photos of Something:

Weather fleck.

Weather fleck

I couldn't figure out how to get a photo of the weather fleck in my lungs, from breathing all the wildfire smoke. But for perspective, I coughed more on the smoky days (and the day after) than I did during the winter, smoking a pipe of pure tobacco in my study.

Bob

 

[deluxestogie]

First order of business today was to mark the base of the Xanthi-Yaka 18a plant that has been bagged. With this forest of stalks narrower than my little finger, I will be down on my knees, pruning shear in hand, cutting them down. This small, yellow flag will hopefully ward me away from cutting down the seed plant.

My Olor and Corojo 99 are both shorter than in years past, but still too tall to stalk-hang inside my height-challenged shed. Today, I primed the bottom 4 or 5 leaves from each stalk. Below, the Vuelta Abajo was not primed.

Now, my mower bed can sneak in beneath the tobacco and cut the overgown grass next time.

Below, you can see the difference in maturation between the bagged Tofta's leaves (not topped), compared to the topped Tofta's leaves.

This is about 100 leaves.

A little closer look at the Corojo 99.

The MD 609 below the porch is still growing reasonably well, but is probably two or three weeks behind the main bed of MD 609.

Bob

 

[deluxestogie]

My thinking on the timing of stalk-cutting all the Xanthi-Yaka 18a (36 plants), and hanging them for sun-curing:

If I harvest them Monday morning, then I may have roughly a week of mostly sunny, high temps, to get them going. On the hanging stalks, the leaves sun-cure sequentially, from the stalk base toward the tip. Each day, I remove any cured leaves, and toss them into a bushel basket in the shed. It usually takes about 3 weeks to cure all the way to the tip leaves. I'm expecting to get exactly one overstuffed, heaping bushel basketful.

Bob

 

[MadFarmer]

I have to wait until September for those highs!

 

[deluxestogie]

The Vuelta Abajo is ready to stalk-harvest, and stalk-cure in the shed.

Even the top leaf shows slight yellowing of the tips, plus pronounced thickening and rugosity.

Bob

 

[deluxestogie]

I had hoped to stalk cut the Vuelta Abajo this evening, and move them to the shed. But a 30 second rain sprinkle left them wet. Since the Xanthi-Yaka 18a would be hung outdoors, it would not matter if the leaf had water droplets here and there.

So I decided to test my strategy for hanging the thin stalks by cutting down one of the six rows of closely-spaced plants. All the stalks in one row were cut down, including root-sucker stalks. Bud heads were cut off. For each stalk, I punctured it within two or three inches of the thick end, using the pointed blade of my pruning shears, then passed my 17 gauge, aluminum wire through it. These were then carried to the clothesline to hang. It went smoothly enough.

The six transplants in that row yielded 11 stalks filled with lovely, suitably small leaves.

Hopefully, I'll complete the remaining five rows tomorrow morning.

Bob

 

[deluxestogie]

About 50 stalks and sucker stalks.

Only 80 full-size plants remaining to stalk-cut, carry to the shed, and hang for air-curing. Serious tools for serious plants:

Bob

 

[deluxestogie]

Bob

 

[deluxestogie]

Bob

 

[deluxestogie]

Dressed for a Blizzard

Yesterday, while walking the garden, I noticed a pear—just one pear—in one of my two pear trees. They had their blossoms killed by a late frost. So I carefully inspected all the branches in that pear tree. I walked around the second pear tree, looking for another miracle pear, and came within about two feet of a volleyball-size hornet's nest hanging from one of the branches less than five feet from the ground. That's basically where I squeeze beneath the branches with the lawn tractor.

I pondered the problem last night, and today decided that I'm just too old to be singlehandedly nuking a full-size hornet nest. (I can't run!) I searched the Internet for a nearby service that would take care of it for me. But they all appeared to be long-term contracts to protect every nook and cranny of my home. Boo!

I purchased the large can of RAID wasp and hornet spray. I waited for sunset today. I then tucked and banded the legs of my jeans, put on a heavy fleece jacket and a sock hat pulled down over my ears, wrapped my face in a thick, wool scarf, then topped it all with a wind-proof, nylon shell jacket with a hood. I switched my spectacles to the aviators that I use for mowing. Temp outside was still about 80°F. I hoofed out to the offending pear tree.

I found an ideal angle on the nest, stood about 15 feet away, then emptied the entire can. The lighting was dark enough that I couldn't see if any of the nest's inhabitants dropped to the grass beneath it. But not a one approached me.

Now that I've cooled down again (the magic of sweat and a fan), I have to wonder why I found the prospect of zapping the nest myself so stressful. Tomorrow, I'll have a closer look, and obtain a photo. [I probably fried a bunch of pear leaves with the chemicals.] Hopefully, nothing stirs.

Bob

 

[deluxestogie]

It has been about 12 hours since I sprayed the hornets nest. I could smell the chemicals from 10 feet away. I saw one hornet arrive at the nest, and enter its opening. A second hornet arrived, then immediately retreated to a nearby pear branch.

The can of hornet spray states that I should wait 24 hours, before checking the results. I suppose that the deeper reaches of the hive may need that long for the poison to penetrate all the layers of paper.

Bob

 

[GreenDragon]

That is an impressive nest! Be careful.