Highgrave's 2024 Grow Blog

[highgrave]

Built a hot house curing space from some 2x2's and some poly that a friend gave me; she is an aircraft mechanic and the poly wraps some of the material they use, and is waste.

I am storing it in a vertical position, but will set horizontally when in use.

I plan to move the orientals in here after they have yellowed in my bathroom, probably for about 7 hours per day if the weather cooperates.

July and August here are usually hot and dry. I think it will get plenty hot in there! I'll be having some fun with my infrared thermometer.

Not sure how long it will take to get them over the finish line, but I expect a few days at most. I will move them back into the bathroom at night during that phase, as it almost (lookin at you "heat dome") always gets cold here at night.



Plants are looking great, and more harvesting is coming soon. The tallest Orientals are 7 feet!

 

[Knucklehead]

The plants look great. If you get tired of watering each individual pot I recommend kiddie pools. Worked like a charm.

Knucklehead's 2023 Grow Blog

I plan to start seed 1 Feb for a planting date of 1st week of April. I will have 48 cells of Reams 158 flue cure variety. Four will be backups. My seedling mix is several years old and dry so I went down earlier and dumped a gallon of water in the bag to help premoisten the soil. I struggled...

fairtradetobacco.com

 

[highgrave]

Enjoyed reading your grow blog, Knucklehead! I like the bottom watering effect and the way your kiddie pool system conserves fertilizer too. I have had a fairly cool and wet grow so far; it has only just recently got hot, so watering has not been much of a chore. Even in this heat I am only watering every 2 or 3 days. I considered running out some irrigation, but am glad I didn't because I am only a couple more weeks from finishing my harvest; plus I have moved the pots around a fair bit to faciltate getting around the deck to inspect, water, remove suckers, etc.

I have a buch of ibc containers that I plan to convert into wicking beds. Check out all the Aussies on YouTube running them. My well starts running low in August and stays low until the end of September, so the wicking beds might help during that time. I also store water in ibc's to get me through the drought. I enjoy a steady supply of them through my work. Was planning on using them mainy for veggies, but I will probably try some tobacco in them too. Building these will be my Fall project.

I think I am even more excited about building some wicking beds after reading about your experience using the kiddie pools.

 

[highgrave]

Stalk harvested the first Little Yellow and One Sucker this morning. The One Sucker feels like leather now that it's limp, and the lamina had the appearance of crocodile hide when I harvested it. The Little Yellow is a bit thinner but still very thick and corrugated:

One Sucker:



Two, 7 hour turns in my hot house seems to be getting these Xanthy primings along, what do you think of the colour? I am going to treat them a third time tomorrow. Smell good:



The light in the bathroom isn't very bright. Here is another photo of them this morning, before they got their second turn. I soaked the towel down before dropping the cover. The temperature peaked around 145F, for about an hour.

 

[highgrave]

More photos of what I believe are mature or nearly mature dark airs, first three of these I will harvest tomorrow or the next day, and the other two need more days of sun; at least that's what this first timer thinks. Mother Nature is helping. Sun still up at 9pm.

 

[highgrave]

Got to smoke a bowl of my own home grown tobacco for the first time today! I tried a couple leaves of Xanthy that have been sun treated 3 times. Very relieved that it burns well! I was a bit nervous about the composition of my fertilizer.

I'm pleased. It is a mild, dry smoke with a hint of sweetness and a bit of a sandlewood/cedar overtone.

Onward!

 

[highgrave]

More photos of my curing arrangement.

The poly on my hot house has been developing some condensation as the afternoon temps fade, and I was worried that it might drip on the leaf, so I made a small poly cover for them. Seems to work.




I am controlling the humidity in the bathroom with a humidistat. To add humidity it runs a terrarium fogger, to subtract humidity it turns on a fan mounted out the window.

I also have a steam humidifier running continously, so the fogger is just topping up the the target humidity. I have a small oscillating fan in the bottom of the tub that points to the side of the tub, so that the air is scattered, and hopefully not focusing the air flow onto any area too much. So far so good. The Inkbird:



The humidity increasers:


The humidity decreaser:

 

[highgrave]

Bagged up some of the Xanthy and Krumovgrad primings, and a couple small stalk harvests that were topped intentionally (2) or by wind (1). Feels good!


This One Sucker just doesn't want its summer to end!


Neither does my cabbage.


My 4 Harrow Velves that were topped 4 weeks ago are looking nearly ready to harvest I think.


I noticed after a week and a half in my curing bathroom that the zinc plated wire I hung with was showing some corrosion. Wondering if I risk leaching into the plant material; am I worrying too much? Unused wire in top of frame, used in bottom.

 

[PressuredLeaf]

Bagged up some of the Xanthy and Krumovgrad primings, and a couple small stalk harvests that were topped intentionally (2) or by wind (1). Feels good!
View attachment 52035

This One Sucker just doesn't want its summer to end!
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Neither does my cabbage.
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My 4 Harrow Velves that were topped 4 weeks ago are looking nearly ready to harvest I think.
View attachment 52032

I noticed after a week and a half in my curing bathroom that the zinc plated wire I hung with was showing some corrosion. Wondering if I risk leaching into the plant material; am I worrying too much? Unused wire in top of frame, used in bottom.
View attachment 52031

Nice construction work!

Zinc corrodes into zinc hydroxide/carbonate/oxide from moisture, air, and time. None of those are very water soluble, so I wouldn’t worry too much -especially if the wire is going through the to be discarded midrib. Though if you see obvious deposits of the whitish yellow zinc salts on your leaf, I wouldn’t smoke it.

Zinc is also often used in multivitamins and stand alone vitamins at up to 50mg per dose. It can make you nauseous if consumed on an empty stomach. It’s fine to ingest in controlled doses, but not to smoke.

 

[highgrave]

Thanks for the kind words PressuredLeaf, and for this explanation of the corrosion process of the coating. I will keep an eye for deposits at the bases of the leaf I primed, but I will be stalk harvesting pretty much everything else, so hanging through a hole I drill in the stalk. Worries assuaged.

 

[highgrave]

My earliest entrants to my curing space went in almost two weeks ago. Here are some photos of the progress.

Harrow Velvet Primings T+13days



One Sucker T+7


Little Yellow T+8



Top racks are almost filled. Still have a buch of Orientals and 4 Burleys to harvest.




My last One Sucker is going to finish over a week behind the others. Soon. The Harrow Velvets are getting very mature; I am waiting for the top leaves to get fully mottled yellow and then I will stalk hang them.




Bug patrol.

 

[WillQuantrill]

Got to smoke a bowl of my own home grown tobacco for the first time today! I tried a couple leaves of Xanthy that have been sun treated 3 times. Very relieved that it burns well! I was a bit nervous about the composition of my fertilizer.

I'm pleased. It is a mild, dry smoke with a hint of sweetness and a bit of a sandlewood/cedar overtone.

Onward!

Smoking your own leaf for the first time is always a memorable experience for good or bad. Haha. Nice job seeing it through to a finished product.

 

[highgrave]

Thanks for the encouragement friend.

 

[highgrave]

Today I harvested the last of my crop, consisting of mostly Xanthy, a couple Krumovgrad, and a very late maturing One Sucker.

The curing space seems to be working well, although I am enslaved by 3 times daily top ups to the humidifier. I think some of the early air curing entrants are nearly done. Time to start thinking about the kiln.

 

[Knucklehead]

Today I harvested the last of my crop, consisting of mostly Xanthy, a couple Krumovgrad, and a very late maturing One Sucker.

The curing space seems to be working well, although I am enslaved by 3 times daily top ups to the humidifier. I think some of the early air curing entrants are nearly done. Time to start thinking about the kiln.
View attachment 52352
View attachment 52353
View attachment 52354
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View attachment 52356

Pretty leaf and seems to be curing well.

 

[highgrave]

I am looking for some opinions on my color curing progress. These have been curing for 4 to 5 weeks.

Little Yellow:


One Sucker:


Harrow Velvet:


When the mid ribs have gone brown all the way to the stalk, I will call it cured. Correct?

 

[Knucklehead]

I am looking for some opinions on my color curing progress. These have been curing for 4 to 5 weeks.

Little Yellow:
View attachment 52643

One Sucker:
View attachment 52645

Harrow Velvet:
View attachment 52644

When the mid ribs have gone brown all the way to the stalk, I will call it cured. Correct?

When the midribs are crispy, crunchy dry it is cured. The midribs hold moisture longer than the lamina and can mold if they don't dry out completely. You will need to rehydrate the leaf to be able to handle them after drying.

 

[highgrave]

Ok, got it. Thanks again Knucklehead!

 

[Olmstead]

@highgrave – This is my first year really sinking my teeth into tobacco growing (in years past it was just a novelty). Your grow log is awesome! Stuff like this is really helpful for me trying to figure things out and it's giving me some great ideas. Thanks for sharing it! Also, I can attest to what @Knucklehead said about wanting your midribs to be crispy. I haven't grown my own, but I've gotten tons of helpful info from an old retired tobacco farmer here in MA. From what I understand, the midribs are basically like your litmus test as to whether your leaves are truly done drying, as they contain the most moisture—and as Knucklehead said—they are the last bit to give up their moisture. It's very important to get it all out since mold can be a major issue with all types of tobacco (and in all stages of processing after initial harvest).

Keep the awesome pictures coming; great stuff!

 

[Old Gasman]

I only grow a small amount so when my leaves reach the stage of your last photo I simply cut the midrib out with scissors and stack the leaves into a box, probably not practical with a large crop.