It's not pipe tobacco yet, but my first experiment with flue curing seems to have turned out well

[Controlled Chaos]

Just an old chest freezer, Govee thermometer/hygrometer, Inkbird digital temperature controller, small fan, and a crock pot. Followed the flue curing graph found here as best I could while still maintaining the rest of my life.

One of my plants got black shank, probably from a big rainstorm we had that caused the buckets sitting in totes to sit in a few inches of water for a couple days before I noticed they needed to be emptied out. It started leaning so badly that even after tying it up it would lean because the base would shift around so much so I took the bottom leaves and hung the top half of the plant in my basement. The leaves are now hanging nearby the top half of the plant and once they can be handled without crumbling they'll go into a jar to be forgotten about for a few months, but not before trying a little sample of course. I'm excited to start harvesting leaves on the other plant which is still doing very well.

Big thanks to everyone here for all the knowledge. Next year I'll try to do a grow log so I can hopefully share some of my own experiments and results.

 

[Controlled Chaos]

Life, uhh, finds a way. The plant that was chopped early has decided to give it another try before the growing season comes to an end and it's now got two "main" stalks making it difficult to tell what's a leaf and what's a sucker. I'm just going to leave it to see what kind of weird shrub it grows into. Here's a picture of the other plant too that's looking a little droopy from a hot day and needing a little water

 

[Skafidr]

Bucket inside a bucket, is this to guard against slugs?

 

[Controlled Chaos]

Bucket inside a bucket, is this to guard against slugs?

No, it was a way to keep the dirt from draining and drying too quickly in the summer heat since the mixture I made up is probably better suited for indoor potted plants. This way if I forgot to water the plants for a day or two they wouldn't be wilted down to just a stalk because I could leave a little bit of water in the tote and not worry about it sitting there being stagnant, causing root rot or other problems.

The tradeoff is needing to check the totes after significant rainfall, which I failed to do in time. A couple weeks after we got days of rain followed by insane heat is when the tiny black splotch on the stalk became noticeable. By the time I remembered to check the plants after the rain they had been sitting in totes half full of rainwater for two days in 90°F weather but luckily this was the only casualty. My other plant is still doing well and finally looking ripe enough to pick. The plant that grew out of the chopped stalk is still going strong too, looking better than it did before

 

[deluxestogie]

If you drill a single hole in the side of the bucket, about 2" above the bottom, then excess rain can drain from it on its own. [Idea stolen from @Knucklehead's grow bags nested in kiddie pools.]

Bob

 

[Controlled Chaos]

If you drill a single hole in the side of the bucket, about 2" above the bottom, then excess rain can drain from it on its own. [Idea stolen from @Knucklehead's grow bags nested in kiddie pools.]

Bob

Somehow I missed this notification. Now that you mention it I remember reading that thread but once I got things going outside I completely forgot. Next year everything is going right into the ground so no worries about drowning the buckets, though I do want to try Knucklehead's idea