Help with small Plot

[andrewislord]

My girlfriend gave me a small plot to plant some tobacco in. It is 103" x 33". My question is how many plants can I fit in this space, and how far apart should I put them, etc.

It is Virginia Bright Leaf mostly with one Golden Burley. Whatever doesn't fit will go in 5 gallon pots.

Thanks.

 

[Rayshields]

Hey Andrewislord!
Welcome to the forum. You have been silent for too long. Lots of great technicians and professionals here, and some funny guys too. I will let someone with more experience answer your question. I am a first timer too.

 

[dkh2]

Man you can grow a lot of plants in a plot that size
At the minimum I would say at least 300 plants
You got enough room to put them 3 foot apart in both directions

 

[johnlee1933]

Welcome to the forum Andrewislord. If you'll go to your profile and add a general location like South Kansas or whatever the guys local to you can give specific help. And again, Welcome.

John

 

[andrewislord]

Almost forgot, maybe a picture will help?

Yeah, I don't usually post on forums, but I've probably read half the posts.

 

[johnlee1933]

Man you can grow a lot of plants in a plot that size
At the minimum I would say at least 300 plants
You got enough room to put them 3 foot apart in both directions

I got caught too. That's 100 inches X 33 inches.

John

 

[andrewislord]

As you can see it doesn't get constant light. It gets the most of any spot in the backyard though. It gets shade from about noon to 1:30. So I was worried rows might cause too much shade to other plants. The camera is facing mostly south.

My backyard doesn't get too much light in the same spot. It's not that big and I have high block walls and some other stuff. With other plants in pots, if I want them to get a lot of light I have to move them around every hour or two.

 

[jeapadrenaline]

In that plot i would plant two rows about 20" apart and 20-24" between plants in a row. Lay it out with sticks as markers to get an even spacing. My guess would be 10-12 plants, 5 per row possibly 6

 

[LeftyRighty]

plant them staggered also - more room for leaf on each plant, but get same number+ of plants.
they could be about 18-inch spacing. will work but difficult to reach between.
I did 18"/dbl row one year, tough to weed, look for hornworms, sucker, and the upper half of the plant will spread out from each other for more growing room.

 

[wazzappenning]

the staggered rows i tried to plan gave me less plants. is there a secret?

 

[andrewislord]

Really? I was guessing 4 or 5. That's good because I'm having a hard time trying to find a cheap way to fill 5 gallon pots.
Should I put the Golden Burley in the front, closest to the camera, with the Virginias behind it?

My next questions are about messing with the soil.

I dug down about 18 inches and sifted through it and got rid of all of the roots. So far I've filled it back in with the sifted dirt and about 75 pounds of sand. I have about 6-8 inches left to go. The dirt is mostly clay. I haven't had a test done or anything. The ph came out to 6.8 toward the back and 7.3 toward the front.
I have some steer manure(2 cubic feet) and 1 cubic foot of chicken manure. I also have about 20 gallons of recycled Fox Farm Oceans Forest with extra perlite to mix in. It is flushed of all nutrients though. Oh, and more sand.

I guess that's not really a question. But is this good or any little tips on that?


Oh, the plot was originally covered with baby tears and had some lilies planted in it.

 

[johnlee1933]

the staggered rows i tried to plan gave me less plants. is there a secret?

Nope, no secret. You will get one less plant. I went thru this same exercise this spring and decided the extra spacing was worth the one plant loss. Mine are still a bit crowded. You have the advantage of being able to reach each plant so it shouldn't be a problem. In Orange Cty you rarely/never have frost. With your long growing season I think the lack of full sun will be less of a problem.

A question and a warning -- What kind of soil do you have? I know lots of that area was once orange grove country. Be cautious of the water you use. Read the threads on chlorine in your water before you make a big investment in time and $$$'s. Good luck.

John

 

[andrewislord]

I've looked into the chlorine and yeah we have a lot of it. I was planning on just filling 5 gallon buckets and letting it sit out. This way I can ph it, too, as I have no way of correcting the soil ph right now. I'm trying to do this really cheap as I'm broke and just got the idea to do this in mid may, hence the late start.

I only have like 8 strong plants right now. I had 15 but a bunch wilted and died all of the sudden and my dog trampled one and my Shirazi is taking forever. I'll go count.

Originally I was just going to grow 3 varieties, one of each, all in 5 gallon buckets. Now I'm pissed I don't have 15.

 

[andrewislord]

I only have 5 real good ones. Two that don't look great but I think will work out. The tiny Shirazi I mentioned. And I'm pretty sure everything else is completely dead. I'm not sure what happened. I was thinking it was the soil. I started them in jiffy cubes. Hated them but I've been trying to play with them lately. I just don't like those. After they sprouted I put them in the recycled Fox Farm with a lot of extra perlite, as you guys emphasized drainage quite a bit. I didn't really like that. It was hard to bury a bare root in soil with that much perlite. But, they did alright in that for a maybe a week then looked like they needed nitrogen. I gave them a tiny bit and they bounced back. Then slowly some died out and some got big. I think I'll use seed starting soil next year.

It kind of looks like maybe I didn't harden them off carefully enough, too. So I don't know. I can post pictures though, or should that be a different thread?

And thanks for all the help. You guys are quick.

 

[Grundle]

I read a pretty sweet article on Chlorine and Chloramine removal today. I think it will be beneficial to a lot of us who only have access to city tap.

http://www.iuhoakland.com/Chloramine.pdf

 

[wazzappenning]

i had a few in my seedling tray that were flattened to the soil, wilted and dried out. they looked completely dead. i just kept watering them hoping for the best (what can i lose). one looks like it will be ok, the other still has the growth tip and a healthy looking stalk but no leaves(i cut the wilted dead one off hoping the plants energy would stop trying to save that leaf and try to save the stalk) well see what happens.

btw post the pics here as its related.

 

[andrewislord]

I don't see anything about chloramine in my water report. I didn't know it existed until a couple of days ago. It lists the average amount of chlorine as 1.0 ppm. But I don't really know how to read a lot of this, or if they put chloramine in it under a different name or something.

Is chlorine content in city tap water really high enough to ruin a crop?
For other important plants I brita filter it then bottle in clean Arizona tea bottles. They stay there until I'm ready to use it and then I bubble it with air stones for a day or two or three, depending when I need it.

Also, I was reading that steer manure has a lot of chlorine in it? And chicken manure is filled with arsenic? I'm not sure how much I'm going to worry about that yet. But I did buy the cheapest Steer Manure Blend and Chicken Manure that Home Depot had to offer.

 

[andrewislord]

Pictures:

Here they are on the 19th.



And here they are today a few hours ago.


What you described sounds like what happened here.

The tiny one you can barely see is the Sharazi. I really want that one to work out.

Also, the good ones I transplanted into bigger pots with fresh Fox Farms Oceans Forest with some extra perlite. I transplanted them two days ago. Which was hard to do. What do you grab on to? I ended up using a spoon. They were originally in little cactus pots from Home depot.

 

[Grundle]

Not every city adds chloramine to their tap water. I know where I live, they do, but it is quite possible that they just use chlorine where you are at. Much of the info in that article I posted will also apply to the removal of chlorine.

Nice pictures

 

[wazzappenning]

the yellow ones with dry looking soil, i would definitely add water to. i pulled the whole plug from my seedling tray and repotted it. the ones that were still in my starter tray, i used a teaspoon to dig them out. i tried to get a nice lump of soil with the roots in it, but most of them came out bare root. still, they are very happy now in cups.