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KoceFF first grow blog 2021

koceff

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The leaves are drying green... The attic has no humidity and the windows are open all the time but it hasn't rained for a while now. I am looking for a hint on how to manipulate the humidity, spray them, put buckets of water underneath, wet towels around ... And if they do in fact dry green, can I still use them?
 

Knucklehead

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The leaves are drying green... The attic has no humidity and the windows are open all the time but it hasn't rained for a while now. I am looking for a hint on how to manipulate the humidity, spray them, put buckets of water underneath, wet towels around ... And if they do in fact dry green, can I still use them?

Is there any way to move them to the bathroom? It will be more humid.

You can use the cardboard box method to yellow the leaves. Stack them in a cardboard box with a layer of paper between each leaf. Restack each day until yellow. Once they are yellow you can hang them and let them brown. They need to stay alive long enough to yellow. If they dry green they are not good.
 

peterd

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Buckets with cotton towels bottoms on the water wicking the water up the towel then spread out into the air to give as much surface area to evaporation. It’s an old school method of humidifying a dry house in winter. Run a fan across the towel to increase the evaporation rate.

I used evaporative humidifiers made commercially and all they are is a paper wick and a fan. I never humidified above 45 percent with them as I was doing living environments but evaporative is the most efficient humidifier.
 

Knucklehead

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@Knucklehead there is no way i can use the bathroom or do the cardbox method. The reason i can not is that i have nearly 400 plants. I have at my disposal 2 attics and a fully shaded porch.

@Peterd’s suggestion is a good one. If you could curtain off that area with some plastic sheeting it might prevent having to control the environment in the entire attic.

From the photo post 75, it appears as if some of the leaves could be more closely spaced to slow down the moisture loss.

If you can use the plastic sheeting, you could mist water with a spray bottle onto the inside of the plastic sheeting, as well as lightly misting the leaf. That would be a short term solution but would more quickly raise the humidity.

Is your climate normally dry this time of year or is this a temporary weather situation?
 

Oldfella

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I don't know if it would work in an attic but if you follow @Knuckleheads suggestions with the plastic sheets then maybe a crock pot or two will work. In my kiln I'm going to use small humidifiers,but probably two small for your situation. Maybe a reptile enclosure humidifier. Just a couple more possibilities. But your best option is as @deluxestogie says, leave them on the plants longer, if your climate allows you to. Good luck with them.
Oldfella
 

deluxestogie

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They appear to be common caterpillars. Although spraying with BT (Bacillus thuringiensis) weekly will eliminate them, this far into the season, I would suggest you just find them and crush them--if there are not too many.

Bob

EDIT:
"A total of 2,638 Lepidoptera species have been identified. These are split between 68 families, with species numbers within these ranging from a single species to 528 species (the Noctuidae). 67 species have been provisionally assessed for IUCN Red List status within North Macedonia. One has been identified as endangered, with 15 being vulnerable and 24 being near threatened."

 

deluxestogie

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"Budworms" are a generic category of caterpillars (of a number of different species) that often damage the tops of tobacco plants. If you plan to bag the bud heads, then I would suggest spraying the bud head with permethrin or other minimally toxic insecticide just prior to bagging. Otherwise, budworms may eat your seed.

Bob
 

koceff

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@Oldfella Why time of the season is important for spraying? The ones that are affected easily have a month to go in the field. I don't know the english word for it but here it is called "karenca ( karren- tsa) " and it defines the period from spraying till you can consume the product and it's about a week or two at the most. The tobacco has a looot more then that till it touches the lighter.
 

Oldfella

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I mentioned the time of the season as I'm not sure when your last harvest time is. We in NZ are into Spring now and starting our seeds. The time of the season doesn't matter much when it comes to spraying, but if your close to harvest why waste spray. I never spray my crop, as I move around my plants I just squish any bugs and the eggs that usually found under the leaves. I also keep Chickens and they do a good job at bug removal. If you are baging the plants for seed do as @deluxestogie suggests and give them a good spray.
Oldfella
 

koceff

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The CT Broadleaf is completely primed. Honestly i doubt that i'll grow it next season. The leaves are irregular shape, twisted and the suckers grow like crazy but no bug damage. Now if the taste is good.... We'll see. The temperature is dropping here, about 10c night and 20c day. Is this ok for air curing outside on the porch? What is the lowest I can go gor air curing?
 

Cray Squirrel

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Потребни ви се најмалку 20 до 22 степени Целзиусови за да не се исуши зелената боја. Ја чувам мојата мала комора со пластика околу неа со сите мои лисја на 80 ° и пожолтувам и лекувам за само неколку дена. Ако ставите грејач што не е тенџере што создава влага истовремено со греење. Исто така, брзо ќе ги исушите. Имам само едноставна пластична рамка и брзо жолти лисја. Имам саксија која дава и топлина, влажност и добри резултати. Мислам дека ќе бидете разочарани ако не можете да ја зголемите температурата за листот да може да го метаболизира зелениот хлорофил.
Cliff
 

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deluxestogie

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Потребни ви се најмалку 20 до 22 степени Целзиусови за да не се исуши зелената боја. Ја чувам мојата мала комора со пластика околу неа со сите мои лисја на 80 ° и пожолтувам и лекувам за само неколку дена. Ако ставите грејач што не е тенџере што создава влага истовремено со греење. Исто така, брзо ќе ги исушите. Имам само едноставна пластична рамка и брзо жолти лисја. Имам саксија која дава и топлина, влажност и добри резултати. Мислам дека ќе бидете разочарани ако не можете да ја зголемите температурата за листот да може да го метаболизира зелениот хлорофил.
"You need at least 20 to 22 degrees Celsius to keep the green from drying out. I keep my little plastic chamber around it with all my leaves at 80 ° and turn yellow and heal in just a few days. If you put a heater that is not a pot that creates moisture at the same time as heating. You will also dry them quickly. I have only a simple plastic frame and fast yellow leaves. I have a pot that gives heat, humidity and good results. I think you will be disappointed if you can not raise the temperature so that the leaf can metabolize green chlorophyll."

Please post in English, so tired old Bob doesn't have to manually do the translation for everybody else. Thanks.

The temperature needs to remain above freezing, so long as the leaves have not color-cured. Since relative humidity is directly related to temperature, just make sure that the relative humidity remains above about 60-65% (3 day average), and the temp above 0°C (32°F). The lower the temp, the slower the metabolic changes, like clearing the chlorophyll.

Once the leaves have color-cured, then freezing will do no harm.

As for your porch, the relative humidity will, of course, depend on your outdoor, ambient relative humidity. If you can surround the leaves with a large, plastic bag or tent, while hanging, that can retain moisture, and reduce temperature swings.

Bob
 
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