Fisherman's grow blog; Port Lavaca Texas ,Gulf coast

[deluxestogie]

Fisherman,
Your plants do look nice. Since you have a number of varieties, as well as quite a few of each--all growing in 5 gallon buckets, it would be valuable information for you to measure the average height (from dirt to crowfoot), and the length and width of the 10th leaf. If you could do this for each of your varieties, it will provide a useful comparison to the same varieties grown in the ground.

My own very limited comparison suggests a reduction of about 1/3 in the leaf surface area and the plant height, when bucket grown.

Bob

 

[Fisherman]

so you have some type of "wick" from the bottom of each bucket hanging into the gutter full of water?

Yes and no..................

All the buckets have a 3" grow cup from hydroponics supply house in them but a few I also added a 2-3" wick of rags to the cup in case the soil wasnt working to good. Rag runs in this case to top of bucket to moniter if it worked or not. Also a wick helps drain a bucket better than using a layer of rocks for instance to a container. The soil or grow cup is in exxence a wick but the rag I was hoping would let water travel higher and drain quicker. Problem now is that the roots are all the way thru the cups and in the water which is ok BUT the drying out of the troughs and the high ph of lime sediment killed them back a few times. Addition of the float will I guess tell if the tobacco plant will thrive in what I hope is just an extension of the float tray system of its childhood

So far this grow I have not filled the gutters up more than a few days at a time because of the various problems over the cause of the leaf yellowing etc and the possiblility of it being over watered.
Also the year so far weather wise has been cool front after cool front, hot radient temp days etc. And rain for a change

The few days lately have been really hot and the gutters go thru the water so I need to set up the float switch and keep the level higher. The roots have made it to the bucket bottom and with the aquisition of the ph meter i can now mopniter and correct the gutter water ph.

On that subject..... I know I added to much lime to the buckets for sure as even the watering of a few buckets topside causes both a discoloration in clean gutter water as well as ph to increase. And towards the alkaline side.

 

[Fisherman]

Fisherman,
Your plants do look nice. Since you have a number of varieties, as well as quite a few of each--all growing in 5 gallon buckets, it would be valuable information for you to measure the average height (from dirt to crowfoot), and the length and width of the 10th leaf. If you could do this for each of your varieties, it will provide a useful comparison to the same varieties grown in the ground.

My own very limited comparison suggests a reduction of about 1/3 in the leaf surface area and the plant height, when bucket grown.

Bob

I will do that Mr Bob......... I got 10 leaves but not much over .... And on that subject... What actually is the type leaf to count. I see they seem to be getting narrower towards the bloom stalk base. Will some of these leaves broaden out or should not be counted? I have pinched the blooms themselves and not any surrounding leaves so I dont know if they qualify as being fully topped or not.

PS: Not sure where crow foot is and also I had 2 buckets with 2 plants in them.. They definetly are same height as rest but the leaves are also 1/2 that of the rest of the plants. Less thick leaves also.

 

[deluxestogie]

If your plants are properly suckered, then the crowfoot is the point at which the stalk separates into 3 branches. The two bottom "seed" leaves are not counted in the leaf count, but everything else, up to the crowfoot, is counted. So topped plants will, of course have a lower leaf count than untopped plants, but the count puts the leaf size into perspective. If you top low, your leaves will be larger than if you top high, or don't top at all.

Those puny top leaves, although often troublesome to color-cure, may produce some of the most flavorful leaf that you grow.

Bob

 

[BarG]

Fisherman, I went out this mornin and found ladybugs on everyplant , but no eggs. I'm swarmin with them.

 

[Fisherman]

[video]http://www.learnnc.org/lp/multimedia/14223[/video]

Cool video of old fashioned harvest. Seems that in the field they had lots more ragged leaves than what the lady was stringing tho

Ever hear of "Piercing"?

http://nsdl.niscair.res.in/bitstream/123456789/516/1/TOBACCO+-+FORMATTED.pdf

Page 17 from Indian Farm phamplet that is not to old judging by pics and format.

 

[Fisherman]

http://www.google.com/url?sa=t&rct=...X0Ww7B0_XIbDdePrw&sig2=OE8saAf1zJCW_XUTdrERqA

Great link if you can open a powerpoint file.... Lotsa pics. harvesting thru selling including curing.

WOW. PureLeaf made page 6 on google search for When to harvest bright leaf tobacco"
http://pureleaf.co.uk/flue-cured/23-red-virginia-flue-cured-bright-leaf.html

http://www.learnnc.org/lp/editions/ncc-tbs/945
Weird how tobacco fits into our history. Is a fascinating look at life in the depression and the economy of the day.

http://www.learnnc.org/lp/editions/ncc-tbs/2.0
Some cool facts too... And sorry for getting off subject of growing in this grow blog area but I wam hunting pics of ready to harvest bright leaf so I can do some of mine I think are ready.

 

[Knucklehead]

Thanks for the links Fisherman. I think you'er the first in this hemisphere to make it to harvest. Congratulations. You've introduced quite a few innovative methods this year, I'm glad to see they are paying off for you.

 

[Fisherman]

Thanks Mr Knucklehead,

First I want to thank all the fellas here

It wont be a great harvest but it was and will be fun . I surprised myself too concidering the job I have which forces me to work from exhaustion to exhaustion and the hitting the ground running speed that my new hobby has me going at. I was scuffling like a FEMA team after a storm. Brainstorm that is to get something going.

I am hoping for a sucker crop and will try the 2 methods for that but really think the ground sucker will be the best but gotta try at least 2 more

Also before the next seedlings are ready, I still have to plant the 50 more plants in the solo cups. I planted one last week to replace a bell pepper that failed and it doubled in size and color in a week but is way to early to see if it will bolt super quick or not.

The roots are growing back thru the grow cups in the bucket bottoms and now I wont killem again with that lime sediment so maybe after topping I will get more growth.

The few leaves I picked are not molding but look like crap. tattered and spotty but brown anyway.. Mite have to "perique" em then flavor the hail outa them.

I guess the next thing we southerners are gonna face is the heat wave that is sure to follow and maybe even a hurricane. We are long over due here. Growing in the containers mite help in the event of a near miss too. Just lay them over to get them outa the high wind and hope no one's roof falls on them.

Thanks for the kind words tho. I was a video game junkie until I started here and now I got a life heh heh.

Mike

PS dang shrimp season opens today and me with no boat registered, no doors and trawl and steering. grrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrr And my lil canine partner had his eye removed yesterday and finally is eating and coming out of the anestisia.......... Sure woulda hated loosing his lil gripy ass but I think he will pull thru.

 

[Fisherman]

5-10-13:
Sowed 12 varieties from different dealers today. Got maybe 4 more in mail and 1 left here to sow later as they arrive.
Mowhawk= large seeds
Turkish Izmir = 2nd variety of this strain
Turkish Samsun
Burley Original
Kelly Burley
Cherry Red
African Red
Little Dutch
Conneticut Broadleaf
*One Sucker
Golden Burley
Catterton

So far on sowing #2 all but the BALIKESIR show good germination.


5-15-13:

Used sifted miracle grow this sowing and I didnt keep as wet as I did with unscreened miracle gro and result I would say is "Keep it pretty juicy" like most pics here show. The sifted stuff seems like it loses more moisture due to the finer texture to me.

The larger seeds sprouted first this sowing with Mohawk, African Red and Kelly Burley leading the pack with all others showing not a lotta nothing. Also I got my first sprouts that showed their roots. With the larger mix [unscreened] it seems that maybe more seed lose could have occured due to some falling into the cracks of the mix but the ones that made it never showed their roots. On the bright side the screened mix allowed me to move already 3 Mohawks as they sprouted like they were on paper towel during the lite off period. Maybe the rest will sprout with lite on and not show any root. Was easy to move the lil fellas tho.

 

[BarG]

Fisherman, next year you'll get the same fine crop with less labor.

 

[Fisherman]

Wooottttt!

Got my injector and my pasta machine motor! You dont need the whole pasta machine after all. Just the angelhair attachment and the motor which new is like $80 together and works good. No idea how it will hold up tho.

So far burley alone is a lil harsh but ok. Lemon is mild with not a lotta smoke and turkish the same. Lemon and turkish a lil damp tho.

NOTE: DO NOT PUT BERETTA TUBES IN MICROWAVE!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! they sparked and all sorts of flashing went on! Didnt see where they burned but the filter seemed a lil flacid after that.

Will do video later

Ciggerettes burn a lot longer than the marlboros too. I think I gonna like this.

First flower opened yesterday on plants. Got all but 3-4 pinched back and working on sucker programs now. Naturally they wanna sucker at the top now when early on it was all about the bottom grrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrr

 

[jekylnz]

Have you seen boboro s set up with the angel attachment straight it his mull box with his fan motor attached. .it looks like it does the trick..its in his album photos

 

[Fisherman]

No but will look for sure. It seems good way to shred for sure. Will no rite now.
http://fairtradetobacco.com/album.php?albumid=41&attachmentid=3295
Most excellent!

 

[jekylnz]

It also helps to ruff up the cutting wheels withsome corse sand paper to help pull in dryer leaf..otherwise it seems to have to be in the right case (not to dry or to wet) it will clump up to wet..just run sand paper back and forth horizontal as you slowly turn the handle (if you have one) scribing lines across. .it will help it pull way better

 

[Fisherman]

Yeah I had read that and until I scratched the rollers with an old knife , it wouldn't grab squat. SOmeone said use dremel but is holding good enuff with only that lite scratching. I ran a dollar bill thru it and it ....... well............. is now worth almost what it was before but smokable

 

[jekylnz]

All good then..it took me a while to find the post about it..dont the reacon theres coke all over your guys dollars..u might get a bit more out of smoking that bill than expected.lol

 

[Fisherman]

I got 8 more years then I gonna farm something for my glaucoma... along with most everything else. Meanwhile they test in my workplace. Not like we used to which involved smoking matter and a pac of zig zags.

 

[Fisherman]

5-18-13:
General update.



Went ahead and picked a few other than broken ones and damaged ones:




Junk ones , just checking to see if will mold. So far not molding and some drying.



First flower head I can not reach top of. I think I topped or suckered it to much tho??? It is in bucket so take away 16" and I could reach top tho



New sowing are doing great.



The Mohawk seems to be a vigarous grower. 1st to sprout and growing taller



Also all the mad rush to transplant when they are so small you need tweezers didn't pay out for this lil fella. He is smaller than his hatch mates and has been moved for 4 days now.....[ he is the bigger one in the seperate tray. the other 3 are not related but also moved right after sprouting and also show no signs of transplant growth spurt.



His original birthplace was the middle of the 5 tobacco trays. The end one is tomatoes.

 

[AmaxB]

Looking pretty good there Mr. Fisherman. Looks like some nice leaf hanging there and your sprouts are a going. Like you I used the Miracle Gro seed starter sifted to germinate seemed to work pretty good.
Keep On Trucking Man love seeing your pics is something to look forward to.