Johnlee's grown log

[deluxestogie]

If you have an interest in blending English-style or Balkan-style pipe tobacco, then any of the Orientals have smaller leaves and a more columnar shape. The smallest (and the best, in my opinion) is Xanthi Yaka--a.k.a. Yenidje. It is lightly aromatic, and very mild. The Smyrna #9 is more productive. Samsun and Bafra are among the larger and more vigorous Orientals. I prefer the Bafra to the Samsun. Iranian Shirazi is about the same size as Bafra, but I had difficulty with it wanting to dry green. (Shirazi became the unwilling victim of my fire-curing chamber, and produced a delicious dark-fired, smoky pipe blender.)

Bob

 

[johnlee1933]

This is a shot of my new plot with the old plot ,my wheel barrow and the wood pile in the background. AS you can see my space is limited. I do have more space but it is too shady or too rocky. In the old plot you can see the EMT I used to support my CT Shade. That will get taken down and be modified for this years configuration unless you can tell me if any of the other stuff I'm planting also needs support.

I been banging my head on how to get just a few seeds into each compartment of my starting trays. I came up with this. It's a little piece of aluminum flashing that I bent, sealed (with CA) and punched the little hole with a sewing needle. I put about 1/4 teaspoon of seeds in it, slide them down over the hole and then gently tap with my finger. I have tried it over white paper and I can get 4 or 5 seeds per tap. Naturally you I can't see them when they fall on the soil so I'll just have to practice some more on the paper so I have a really good feel for how many come out. I expect this is of little use for you big guys but for us small planters it is quick, easy and cheap. I didn't make it out of plastic because of static electricity which I think would block the seeds in the hole.




This is my revised plot plan. (Bob, note that I did stagger those two rows you mentioned.) The legend shows what I plan to plant. Some circles are already filled with number 1's (for CT Shade) I haven't figured the rest of the layout yet. If anyone has suggestions please do (including how many of each variety. The arrow shows North and most of the sun comes from the South and west. (No full shade.)



Oh Yeah, now that I've learned how post pics, WATCH OUT !

John

 

[deluxestogie]

John,
I would suggest arranging them according to their height (which is always just a guess). MD tobacco comes in many varieties, ranging from CTBL size (~3.5-4') to above average (5'+). Little Dutch is likely to be your shortest, (at about 3')--south end, while the CT Shade would go at the north end. I also don't have any info on YTB. Perhaps others can fill in the gaps.

NORTH

CT Shade
YTB??
MD??
MCY
TN90
Comstock
CTBL
Little Dutch

SOUTH

Bob

 

[Jitterbugdude]

John,
. I also don't have any info on YTB. Perhaps others can fill in the gaps.

I seem to recall it was a short, squat plant, maybe 3 feet tall.

 

[johnlee1933]

Thanks to you both.

John

 

[BarG]

ytb [observations] at seed list

Heres the best I can do John.

http://www.ars-grin.gov/cgi-bin/npgs/acc/obs.pl?1447756

You'l need to convert the cm's to hf's [house flies] to get a good visual.

 

[deluxestogie]

BarG,
Thanks for that link. I was too lazy to track it down. So YTB is about 3.5' tall.

I've noticed that the plant length reported by ARS-GRIN "observations" may vary by as much as 20%, when multiple studies are cited. I believe that these researcher did not grow their test plants under typical conditions. Their reports of "yield" in grams (even if you correct for the apparently frequent misreporting that errs by a power of 10!) are notably low. Some varieties that I've grown produced 1/2 pound of cured leaf, where ARS-GRIN "observations" reported a yield of 1 ounce. What on earth were they doing?

Bob

P.S. I've worked with metric units since the 1960s, but they still don't quite paint a clear picture in my mind. A valuable website to bookmark is http://www.onlineconversion.com/.

 

[BarG]

Bob, I bookmarked the online conversion, it will come in handy. I still have no clue as to what the
TC agron 79TC agronomic LEX 79 ....OXF 79 refer to, I'm guessing thats The year and where the studys were done. Cant figure why results vary so much if thats the case. The other info will be helpful as a general guide to plant charachteristics I'm hoping. Thanks FmGrowit for posting.

 

[johnlee1933]

OK Guys,

Here is my updated plot plan with varieties completed. I tried to put the smaller plants to the west side so they won't shade their brothers too much. This pic isn't the best but I think you can make it out. The numbers in the circles match the key. Nothing is in the ground yet so if you want to suggest changes please feel free. I still plan to put about a dozen plants at satellite locations They will have full sun all day.



Here is a shot of my seedling tray, 98 holes. The little one beside it is tomatoes. It has a water tight tray under it and I water from the bottom up.




John

 

[SmokesAhoy]

the grin research harvested when 50% of the test study had formed a bud (maybe waited for it to open? not sure) so half the field was mature, half was not. we wait 2-6 weeks after each plant has flowered to harvest, and from what i have read here the plants start really packing on the weight after they get topped.

that is another reason why i think all their numbers are very low, while half the plants are technically mature, half of them are not, and none of them have gone any extra time. then they all get averaged out in the wash.

i have been using grin studies as a guideline, a percentage, of what to expect. if grinA says 2 ounces cured and grinB says 4, i would expect grinB to outperform A in that category, percentage wise.

BarG,
Thanks for that link. I was too lazy to track it down. So YTB is about 3.5' tall.

I've noticed that the plant length reported by ARS-GRIN "observations" may vary by as much as 20%, when multiple studies are cited. I believe that these researcher did not grow their test plants under typical conditions. Their reports of "yield" in grams (even if you correct for the apparently frequent misreporting that errs by a power of 10!) are notably low. Some varieties that I've grown produced 1/2 pound of cured leaf, where ARS-GRIN "observations" reported a yield of 1 ounce. What on earth were they doing?

Bob

P.S. I've worked with metric units since the 1960s, but they still don't quite paint a clear picture in my mind. A valuable website to bookmark is http://www.onlineconversion.com/.

 

[BarG]

the grin research harvested when 50% of the test study had formed a bud (maybe waited for it to open? not sure) so half the field was mature, half was not. we wait 2-6 weeks after each plant has flowered to harvest, and from what i have read here the plants start really packing on the weight after they get topped.

that is another reason why i think all their numbers are very low, while half the plants are technically mature, half of them are not, and none of them have gone any extra time. then they all get averaged out in the wash.

i have been using grin studies as a guideline, a percentage, of what to expect. if grinA says 2 ounces cured and grinB says 4, i would expect grinB to outperform A in that category, percentage wise.

It would surprise me to have any significant # of plants to develope and mature at the same rate in a small growers situation.. Based on my own experience for home gardening. I won't get into any specs but the facts are for a small grower , one row or area will produce at different rate , mature at dif. rate, and have significant difference in yield. Learn your hot spots.

 

[johnlee1933]

Here's my soil test results. Plot one is the old plot, 2 the new. Note that "P" and "K" are high in both plots while "N" is only medium.

This is where I plan to add some Nitrogen as urea or 30-0-2 fertalizer.

John

 

[BigBonner]

SmokesAhoy

Bud topping is best . This is when the flower cluster shows it head .I know it says 10 to 20% flower showing .But if a field of tobaco is growing too big . Above my chest it is time to top whether any flowers are showing or not . For commercial growers the tobacco can not over lap a whole lot in the rains of the barn . It causes house burn . H home grower can let plants get bigger if they want . But I will bet the leaves will be bigger and the weight would be a lot better than tobacco allowed to grow too mature .

Also each variety will grow differently . One will grow faster and mature quicker while one may seem to set and take longer to grow .

 

[johnlee1933]

Quick update. All the varieties I started have germinated and are growing except the TN-90.
Absolutely no activity there.

John

 

[BarG]

Are you going to cover your shade variety's John, If i can get a couple of my ct.shade to germinate I'm going to consider a cover for them. If not I may try a fl.sumatra or ct. broadleaf ? Any thoughts on that if youv'e done that recently. I'm gonna make a cage out of indian wire big enough dia. maybe stacked to get height, for a couple or three plant varietys and looking for suitable available type around the house mat. for to make cover.

 

[BigBonner]

Johnlee
Was the TN90 pelletized ? If so it may take them a while longer to germinate .

 

[johnlee1933]

Johnlee
Was the TN90 pelletized ? If so it may take them a while longer to germinate .

Yes it was. Little light tan flakes that didn't look like what I imagined pellets should. I planted them anyway. Belatedly it has occurred to me that they were round pellets that got crushed in the mail. At that time I didn't know what seed pellets were supposed to look like. In my recent trip I saw CT shade pellets and they were round and about 30 thousandths (.030) in diameter. Perhaps this was another one of my sacrifices to the USPS gods.

As may be, I have lots of stuff that did germinate so maybe TN-90 will be another years project or I will buy a little from you to see if it adds anything to my cigars that I like. I am just assuming it is too late for someone to send me more and get them started. Do you agree?

John (Where would the world be without john's handy? My guess is pretty uncomfortable and the hookers would go broke.)

 

[BigBonner]

They were probably crushed in the mail . Thedy should look just like the Ct Shade you described . The color of the pellets would have been the only difference . They should have still sprouted if the seeds wern't crushed to .

 

[johnlee1933]

Here's my lil' darlings. Today I will separate the multiples. The single empty cell is where I add water. The sticks have numbers on them so I can remenber which is which.

John

 

[SmokesAhoy]

I have fl sumatra and ct shade that has all been stored correctly and is close to 100% germ rate if the stuff circulating isn't germinating well. Probably too late for this season but we can replace the other stuff in the bank with this if so.