J.P.'s 2014 Grow Blog

[Jpcouling]

OK so for my second time growing tobacco, I am going to step up the amount of plants considerably. This year I will be growing these varieties and approximately how much:

African red ( 5 )Sherazi ( 10 )
Virginia gold ( 20 )
Virginia bright leaf ( 20 )
Burley ( 20 )
Yellow twist bud ( 5 )
Yellow Orinoco ( 5 )
Brown thumb's rustica ( 5 )

Hopi rustica ( 10 )
Thuoc Lao ( 5? ) Mystery variety

Small stemmed black mammoth ( 5 )
Pedro's Cuban ( 5 ) From Daggawalla, not an actual name

Red Russian ( 10 )
Dogon African ( 10 )From Daggawalla, not an actual name

Sylvestris ( 2 )
Xhanti yaka ( 10 )

Ottoman ( 5 )

Total: Approx. 150 plants

I intend to use this tobacco for personal consumption and sell the whole leaf to my friends and locals in the community.

Where I am growing: Unused farm land my buddy's family owns. Has not been utilized in 40 years so the soil is pretty damn rich! I am expecting to plant in rows or patches, maybe a bit of both. The Turkish will be placed closer together and the other varieties will be put at traditional distancing ( 12 - 24 inches right?) Besides maybe supplementing with some rich compost, I don't intend on using much else in the way of ferts. We are growing all the other vegetables and grains with organic principals so I am not going to play too much with the tobacco if the soil is rich already.

Is this a decent amount of plants? I am not a heavy smoker ( few cigs a day or a pipe or two) and the rest I can sell or let it age until it is sold. Please weigh in on whatever you see as problematic, I know the term "organic" can be tricky sometimes but I see tobacco as pretty happy with good ol' rotten stuff and bat sh*t!

 

[DonH]

Personally, I like to space them farther apart, at least 36 inches, but commercial growers plant closer to optimize production. It's a lot easier to work with them if they aren't so close together. 150 plants will give you a lot of tobacco if you're a light smoker, so you will have some margin of error for curing problems and have a lot to age.

 

[DonH]

Also, you should be fine fertilizing only with manure if the field has been fallow for a long time. Especially in that rich deep topsoil of southeastern Michigan. I miss that. "Topsoil" here in Massachusetts is 8-10 inches of sand and rocks!

 

[DGBAMA]

I would double or better your oriental / xanthi. They are low yield, 2oz or less per plant generally and take up little space.

 

[grgfinney]

You probably want 3 ft between plants and 3 ft min between rows so you dont have issues with breakage when weeding and suckering,turkish and orientals need a little less room than burleys and flue cured varieties

 

[Jpcouling]

Shout to Greg Finney for hooking me up with Burley, African Red, BT's Rustica, Virginia Gold, and Yellow Orinico!

 

[Jpcouling]

OK just started Virginia Gold and Burley two days ago, and I will plant the other stuff pretty soon! Fun stuff!!!

 

[Knucklehead]

Good luck with your season Jp. Which Burley variety are you growing?

 

[Jpcouling]

Good luck with your season Jp. Which Burley variety are you growing?

Thanks! I am not certain, greg Finney gave it to me. Perhaps he knows the variety I'll also have YTB growing as well.

 

[Knucklehead]

YTB is a nice mild Burley that needs little aging. You'll really like it. Try to find out your other Burley variety if you can with future seed swapping in mind. It will definitely help others that may already have it, or have been wanting it. I'm not trying to offend anybody, but it would be hard to trade some Java Bezuki seed for an unknown Burley. (Just messing with you, I'd give you any seed you need but you get the idea) We want to keep the non commercial varieties from extinction, but we should also keep the original varietal name with the plant for the generations that follow.

If you have room, the Oriental variety Izmir-Ozbas is a must have for cigarettes in my humble opinion. I've never smoked Xanthi Yaka so it may be a good substitute, I just don't know.

Looking forward to following your Blog. Some day, these will be the "good old days".

 

[springheal]

Jpcouling, this season I planted 100 plants and with that number I have 3 years plus worth of smoking. I am neither a heavy or light smoker, average I guess.

Here in N.Z. we are not allowed to sell or give it away at all. We can grow up to 15kg's for personal use only and nobody would smoke that amount in a year.. Dry weight or wet weight I dunno!! I work on the dry weight. I had a person ask me if I wanted to sell any. I said it's not tobacco, it's a special type of Chinese cabbage---he he and he believed me.

Knucks, I have next season already planned and I will be planting plenty of ytb.

 

[grgfinney]

I bought the seed from someone here in mi i dont know what strain it is so i just call it a common or mi burley

 

[Jpcouling]

I bought the seed from someone here in mi i dont know what strain it is so i just call it a common or mi burley

It's all good! I will not pass it up but I know for identification I won't be sending it around. Maybe you can find out what it is from who you got it from?

 

[grgfinney]

From a guy in port huron sells on ebay it grows and smokes well that was a couple years ago before i found this site but it is acclimated to our soil

 

[Jpcouling]

From a guy in port huron sells on ebay it grows and smokes well that was a couple years ago before i found this site but it is acclimated to our soil

Awesome thanks greg

 

[Chicken]

if you plan on selling some of it,,,, i'd grow as much as possible ... 400+ or more,,,

i wish i had the room... i'd grow a lot of plants,,,, and sure enough sell most of it,

 

[Jpcouling]

Yeah I don't have that much space chicken, wish I did! Both the burley and virginia have begun to show life! Probably start all the others tomorrow

 

[Jpcouling]

Ok burley and virginia gold are sprouting! just planted all the other stuff yesterday. Check out the aquaponics and adjustable growing station we built

 

[DGBAMA]

That's a lot of trays. Nice setup.

 

[Jpcouling]

Yep but we aren't only growing tobacco so lot of other stuff to fill them up. Peppers, beans, sprouts, leafy greens, strawberries, ornamentals, squash, etc.