5-6-13:
Well. another tip for growers of tobacco..........................
Do not use insectidcidal soap either to often OR at reccomended levels on plants !
I sprayed mine on buds and a few looked like they were boiled spinach . Not the whole leaf but the top 35% at least.......... Haven't totally died yet but are just hanging there limp even at night.
I sprayed 2 times in week with 30% strength and then hit with full dose.
Package said [Safer Insecticidal soap] said not to spray more than 3 times in 2 weeks but what did they know? Good thing I didn't full blast all 3 times!
BTW the 30% did as good as the regular dosage. First was only green aphids not is brown also. Maybe is same group or species but only more advanced????
Got lots of lady bugs as well but they are patrolling the leaves and not the buds where I think most damage would be done.
Also most all the buckets are flowering.
So far the bags are not but tho they are same planting , they have 3 weeks less time after transplanting.
Have one bucket with 2 plants in it and they are some of the biggest pnes BUT have leaves 60% as big as rest of the plants.
Also, got my ph meter today. Results from inground test show I am ok in ph............... Our water is 7.2 and soils went from 6-5 to 7.1 which should not cause problem with nutrient intake. Problem could have been more the growing medium and fertilizer. Basically only the manure in the mix has any nutrient value and lacking both iron and magnesium for sure.
Also got 6 more varieties of seeds in today. The last bunch has been in tray for 3-4 days now and showing signs of germination.
Want to have some fun??? Get a jeweler's loupe and look at your seeds in germination tray! Everything looks weird. There is all sorts of huge logs and sheets of plywood and wet looking gel things etc
For sure screen your seed mixture..................... I think the Jiffy mix is better in that way as it is much finer textured. The Miracle grow just is to large for seedlings as small as tobacco IMO. Peices of peat take on a wet gel like appearance under the magnification too. I wish I could take a pic but I am thinking it would not work.
NOTE: Had a few of them gnats around seed trays and sprayed after checking if was safe with BT and no more gnats.
Plants are 3' at the bud and have full size leaves tho wind, my loving application of the iron spray, various cutworm attacks have taken their toll.
Still undecided about the gutter system.................................. if it keeps the soil to wet..................On that note tho the roots finally made it out the bottom of the grow cups and .................well that brings us to another "Do Not Do"
I was worried about ph causing the plants to suffer as I had heard that wood chips would cause acidity to rise.
First my mix =
1 part cow manure == which according to web is about 6-5 ph or nuetral at 7
1 part "composted forest products" == which is not compost and will test it in solution tommorow
1 part peat == which again according to web is about 4.5 ph
Well I decided to add more lime to the gutters...............
NOTE: DO NOT add lime and fertilizer at same time in solution. First lime will settle out and second it will cause other chemical actions that Lord knows what will do or are!
And despite this knowledge I proceeded to do just that , convinced my plants were in need. The result was the lime settled out in gutters. NOw the gutter system I have is always filled at most convenient end closest to water faucet and that end had less lime settling out........
When the leaves wilted from the soap , I went into overdrive trying to figure out what was wrong as I had also just filled the gutters with fresh stuff. This time with lime and fertilizer [miracle gro at 20% strength]
I tilted the buckets in the gutters over to see if roots were there and WOW they were.............. However.......... as I proceeded to far end of gutter, the roots were progressively burned and brown and last ones had only a few that were for sure burned............... The lime was settled out more on that end than the fill end BTW
Hard lesseon learned. The plants all chipped in and dropped a dime to my boss asking that more work be sent my way so that I had less time to devote to them I hear.........
At any rate I flushed system and will see if the roots grow back which I am sure they will.
And so the saga continues. I am seriously thinking to get a tiller and do a few rows to hide a few junk cars and beautify the place in the porcess but not sure I am up to the task of learning inground culture in gumbo muck and finishing education on container growing in same year..... Sure would love to have one of them TroyBilt tillers tho. Had one once and it was awesome
Will post some pics later.\
Mike