Godwin Grow Blog 2022

[willgodwin]

Been procrastinating on starting this... But about 2 weeks in.
Bought my seeds from @skychaser.
For Finished, smoking Tobacco: Mohawk, Cuban Criollo, Corojo, Vuelta Abajo
For Flowering Tobacco: Affines, Jasmine, Clevelandii

I have a 12x16 plot in my back yard that will house my smoking tobacco, 16 or so plants.
The rest will be in 5 gallon buckets on my deck, in my garden, front yard and a bunch given away to friends once transplanted. Nice, big, connected cigar community in town. They think this kinda thing is pretty neat.

Sown(Sewn?) on March 2nd, switched back and forth between having lights on and off, since there is no indirect light where the plants are house. Ended up mostly having them off. 2 GE grow lights. Too expensive, but the Lowes, Home Depot and Walmarts around here simply did not have any standard shop light, everything was LED. I couldn't believe it...


March 3rd, sign of life which I translated the next day. This was Mohawk I believe. It's been way ahead of the others from the get-go. Also got some beautiful San Andres wrapper in the mail.





















March 8: Transplant Day, took a long time!



March 10, Mohawk leads the way.

 

[willgodwin]

March 16, things are moving along, they suck up water way way faster than expected. Gone through 3 gallons of distilled water.
Forgot to mention they are on heat mats also, they get too hot to run all the time, so I maybe have the mats plugged in 4-6 hours and that keeps the soil temp between 74-84 degrees, depending on when I remember to check it.


Gave some of these guys a haircut today, this is. a pic from yesterday, they are overshadowing each other already today.


I totally forgot to transplant my Vuelta Abajo... I just let it go, cause it looks pretty.


What was left of Clevelandii.... Got a little too over-zealous when sprinkling the seeds....

 

[Knucklehead]

Best of luck with your season!

 

[willgodwin]

Best of luck with your season!

Thank you!

 

[landrace]

I totally forgot to transplant my Vuelta Abajo... I just let it go, cause it looks pretty.
View attachment 40929

I've wondered if letting seeds go like this might be a way to select for more vigorous seedlings by letting them compete for longer before transplanting? I've seem videos of various level of commercial grows outside the US where seedlings are started very densely. Curious to see how they work out for you if you let them go longer.

 

[deluxestogie]

With tobacco seedlings, maintaining them densely simply stunts their growth. I have kept a number of my germination cups going for as long as 6+ months. The plants do continue to grow, but barely. Once any single seedling is moved to more spacious container, it suddenly bursts into growth. Although there are always a few conspicuously runty seedlings, the vast majority are similar and indistinguishable. The reason is that a pure variety of tobacco is homozygous for all its traits. The only variants are spontaneous mutations—which are most frequently disadvantageous. By contrast, heirloom and open-pollinated varieties of most plant species are loaded with differing gene pairs, and their heterozygosity can allow for selecting desired traits from among all the variants.

Bob

 

[landrace]

With tobacco seedlings, maintaining them densely simply stunts their growth. I have kept a number of my germination cups going for as long as 6+ months. The plants do continue to grow, but barely. Once any single seedling is moved to more spacious container, it suddenly bursts into growth. Although there are always a few conspicuously runty seedlings, the vast majority are similar and indistinguishable. The reason is that a pure variety of tobacco is homozygous for all its traits. The only variants are spontaneous mutations—which are most frequently disadvantageous. By contrast, heirloom and open-pollinated varieties of most plant species are loaded with differing gene pairs, and their heterozygosity can allow for selecting desired traits from among all the variants.

Bob

Very interesting. Thank you for your explanation. I didn't realize that the varieties so near to identical within their population.

 

[Oldfella]

Looks like your off to a great start. Good luck with your grow.
Oldfella

 

[willgodwin]

I think some of these are ready for a trim correct?
I remember reading in @deluxestogie book, when leaves started overshadowing their neighbors, it's a good time to give a haircut.

My light setup, running two different lights, one LED "Shop light" and two GE "grow lights" on either side.
The GE grow lights did not have enough coverage and could tell the seedlings were struggling, reach for the center of each lights.
Went. to Walmart and best I could find was 2 "Hyper Tough" LED (5000 Lumens). Well, they were too wide too be side-by side, and tilted awkwardly and the leaves were telling me instantly some were getting enough light, others were not simply by the angle of the lights.
So, came up with this hybrid and found the height they all like for each light. Woof!

 

[deluxestogie]

Yes. Clip 2/3 of each overlapping leaf. Don't be timid.

Bob

 

[willgodwin]

Yes. Clip 2/3 of each overlapping leaf. Don't be timid.

Bob

Thanks Bob!

 

[willgodwin]

Gave Tray 1 (Mohawk and Affinis) a haircut on Sunday.


It then proceeded to just explode with growth! Time for another trim!


Tray 2 (Corojo, Criollo, Jasmine, Little Cuba) is catching up all of a sudden.



Tray 3 seems to be doing fairly well too. (Corojo,Criollo)



I angled the lights this morning simply for the height difference of each tray, 1 being the tallest, 3 the shortest. I'm pretty sure I'll be able to tell if they like this or not by end of day or tomorrow.



I can see tiny droplets forming on some leaves. I assume it the wax or whatever the tobacco produces. My Dad told me recently about working his family's tobacco fields when he was a boy in North Carolina. Said they were incredibly sticky, did not seem like too fond of a memory haha, but it was cool to hear about.



I'll be trimming Tray 1 and some of tray 2 today.

 

[willgodwin]

Anyone know what the furriness is on Tobacco? I'm assuming they're like nerve endings collecting data around the surrounding environment and also trapping moisture and or light?


Also noticed some dark green splotches on the surface of the soil. Poked it and it crumbled apart and there was clean dry soil underneath. So I don't think it's anything to worry about but if someone knows what it is lemme know!

 

[deluxestogie]

Nice photography. Those hairs are trichomes. They exude plant alkaloids to discourage herbivores and insects. Plants do not have a nervous system, though they are a bit nervous about your motives for growing them.

The green is likely algae. It suggests the soil surface remained very damp for a while. Ignore.

Bob

 

[willgodwin]

Thanks Bob! Haha, my wife is nervous too!

 

[deluxestogie]

What a Plant Knows: A Field Guide to the... book by Daniel Chamovitz

www.thriftbooks.com

Short book, and a good read.

Bob

 

[landrace]

Seems like they are off to a strong start! How long before they go into the ground?

 

[willgodwin]

Seems like they are off to a strong start! How long before they go into the ground?

I believe when they are at least 6" tall. Got a ways to go!

 

[willgodwin]

What a Plant Knows: A Field Guide to the... book by Daniel Chamovitz

www.thriftbooks.com

Short book, and a good read.

Bob

Thanks! I like what I' reading about the book so far.

 

[willgodwin]

Growing pretty well so far. A couple issues may be arising.... I've cut back leaves in each tray 2-3 times now. Do I continue to do so every time a plant starts to encroach on it's neighbor? Time to separate into 3" pots per plant?


One variety wants to stay pretty low, very little stem growth. I raised the grow lights last night to possibly encourage some.


I have some yellowing of leaves. I noticed it after I poured a significant amount of water into the bottom of each tray since I would be out of town for a few days. Hoping overwatering could be the issue, or I need to cut back. Would love some insight!






This is the largest leaf currently, to give an idea of where these fellas are at.