Lefty Poor Man Grow log

[Leftynick]

Smoked the small cigar this afternoon.

this is the zimmer and havana small cigar. I wrapped them in havana wrapper. The leaves is really good for wrapper. Thin and stretchy, easy to wrap. However the leaves almost had no smell compared to zimmer and samsun. The zimmer smelled somewhat woody in the good way.


i have trouble litting the cigar. The draw was quite hard but still smokable. I think the leaves have different moisture level thus making it hard to draw and lit. It is after rain so some of the leaves are on med case.

spend almost half of the cigar trying to get a better draw. However,

during the second half, it started to shine. This give me a better impression on the cigar. Woody, with some leather, and just a touch of nutty. Quite flavorful. The pleasure however were a short while because at 2/3 of the cigar, the draw was impossible again. I give up, and put down the cigar, and cut them in the middle. As i suspected, the leaves are too wet. I let them dry out a little then smoke them through my diy corn cob. It continue to shine, with woody and nut mingle on my tongue. Very pleasant.

 

[ArizonaDave]

Smoked the small cigar this afternoon.

during the second half, it started to shine. This give me a better impression on the cigar. Woody, with some leather, and just a touch of nutty. Quite flavorful. The pleasure however were a short while because at 2/3 of the cigar, the draw was impossible again. I give up, and put down the cigar, and cut them in the middle. As i suspected, the leaves are too wet. I let them dry out a little then smoke them through my diy corn cob. It continue to shine, with woody and nut mingle on my tongue. Very pleasant.

Yes, too wet. Try drying it on some paper towels, or a little bit of rice, I usually dry them on scrap tobacco. Also, if you have a straight stick, you can roll a cigar around it, let it dry around the stick. When dry, pull the small stick out. That works here during our rainy season. It will allow the stick to draw out moisture quicker.

 

[Leftynick]

Currently I put the bigger stick on my laptop to allow the heat from the laptop to dry it a bit. I will try to wrap them around paper towel to assist drawing out moisture. Thank you Arizona Dave.

 

[deluxestogie]

I think you will find that it is much easier to dry the leaf, then roll the cigar, than to roll with damp leaf and have to dry a rolled cigar.

High humidity is a challenge for me during some parts of my summer.

Bob

 

[Leftynick]

Some of the leaves are in dry case. Crunching sound but not disintegrate. But this is more like a panic rolling because of the mold, i rolled in order to smoke them before further mold develop. Haha. Guess just have to wait until raining season over.

 

[Hasse SWE]

I believe that the rain season will create a lot of problem for you. When I looking back at 2016 everything seems good, all tobacco have been drying excellent. Every year I found some mold on the some leaf's in my garage, but not this time..I can only hope 2017 will be half as good (it's not realistic to believe two good year will come with out a back steep).

 

[Tutu]

Your enthusiasm will get you there though. This first grow is good to get things started. The only way to learn is to try things and post them here. The straight stick suggestion from ArizonaDave is a nice one, I'll try it too!

 

[Leftynick]

Yeah. Lost almost half of my tiny crops really make me feel bad. But, my experience is very valuable for me. Next project will be better I hope. Thanks Tutu and Hasse swe

 

[ArizonaDave]

Yeah. Lost almost half of my tiny crops really make me feel bad. But, my experience is very valuable for me. Next project will be better I hope. Thanks Tutu and Hasse swe

Were you able to harvest seeds? I was just wondering. You seem to have an excellent effort to make something happen.

 

[Hasse SWE]

Yeah. Lost almost half of my tiny crops really make me feel bad. But, my experience is very valuable for me. Next project will be better I hope. Thanks Tutu and Hasse swe

We all make mistakes, happen every year in some way. So after a season I always see something I could have done better (or much easier).
FTT is pretty good in that way, you can see how other do and learn from them, pretty often people also cheering the mistake they have done..

 

[Leftynick]

Were you able to harvest seeds? I was just wondering. You seem to have an excellent effort to make something happen.

I get the chance to bag my best looking Samsun plant and it still flowering right now, but the havana bloomed while I was away. However, thanks to excellent community here, I am able to obtain some more seed variety to try.

My effort were driven by several factor such as I want to save every possible money that I can and the fact that I like to immerse myself with many diy project. Over the years, I have done many diy project to save cost, such as building my own electric guitars from scratch, recording my own music and experimenting with many cooking recipe. Guess a man gotta have to have hobby right?

 

[Hasse SWE]

I have done many diy project to save cost, such as building my own electric guitars from scratch, recording my own music and experimenting with many cooking recipe. Guess a man gotta have to have hobby right?

Yes, every one should have a hobby (or some hobbies)..
-That sounds interesting, I like to re-make recipes, or nope the last year's I haven't done"it", most because my children get pretty angry if everything ain't taste like it always done.

Making your own electronic guitar sounds like a interesting project...

 

[Leftynick]

My dad gave me a piece of hard wood he found during his working day and i turned that piece of wood into an electric guitar. After that, he cut off Durian tree on our backyard and I couldn't resist to make a guitar from the beautiful lumber. I make it because I always wanted a guitar but I am too cheap to buy one. Ended costing me more than buying one but it is worth it (I split the cost across the process of making the guitar, rather than spending much money on one buy).

I usually cook only for myself, so there's no problem with people commenting.

 

[Tutu]

Meaning you have two self-made guitars and one of them is from a durian tree? Sounds like I want to see a picture of it!

 

[Leftynick]

The one you see in my profile picture or avatar is the one I made from Durian tree. Here is the link on process of making the guitar.

https://www.facebook.com/pg/Projek-...87/photos/?tab=album&album_id=942291469121538

It's quite crude, because I made it without power tools.

Here a picture of it. From left, durian tree, second hand bass guitar I bought, and hardwood guitar. I don't know what type of hardwood it is but my dad says it is Merbau (mirabow, Moluccan ironwood, Malacca teak?)

 

[Hasse SWE]

To be honest, so it sometimes becomes more expensive to do things yourself than to buy them. But it keeps the head more active if you do it yourself. It is also as you say that you can divide the price, but often you want to be ready and then it can be difficult to wait, if you don't have to (and then the price accelerate fast)..
They look very nice hope they sounds just as nice..

When it comes to cook food so it is ideal to try out when you are by yourself, when you have five kids and a wife so is it worse to get the food to suit all. A lot of a "I country's" problems (that I know). But if you have learned to cook so is something you can use throughout the life and then the kids (and a wife) gets spoiled is, well it's their own mistake, I Think..

 

[Tutu]

Doing things yourself can definitely be more expensive. But the funny thing is that in Malaysia I experienced that mostly with the topic you are now discussing, cooking food. It's so easy to get a good nasi goreng on the street somewhere for few ringgit but it was much more difficult to make a good one myself and spend less money. Unless you cook in a larger quantity and eat from it a few times and divide the costs over these days. Still difficult to get it break-even with eating out. It becomes easier if you cook every day and save some ingredients you may use another day, obviously, like belacan or peppers. Still, I found it amazing. Try eating out that cheap in Europe I tell you. Cooking yourself beats the cost time and time again.

Anyway, we're moving further and further away from the topic, which is Lefty's Grow Log, hehe. What do you plan on doing next with your current plants and what are you planning to plant later on?

 

[Leftynick]

To be honest, so it sometimes becomes more expensive to do things yourself than to buy them. But it keeps the head more active if you do it yourself. It is also as you say that you can divide the price, but often you want to be ready and then it can be difficult to wait, if you don't have to (and then the price accelerate fast)..
They look very nice hope they sounds just as nice..

When it comes to cook food so it is ideal to try out when you are by yourself, when you have five kids and a wife so is it worse to get the food to suit all. A lot of a "I country's" problems (that I know). But if you have learned to cook so is something you can use throughout the life and then the kids (and a wife) gets spoiled is, well it's their own mistake, I Think..

It sound just like i want them to be. But some of my friend who play music says that they indeed sound good. My wife love my cooking, and I can cook much more meal than her.

Doing things yourself can definitely be more expensive. But the funny thing is that in Malaysia I experienced that mostly with the topic you are now discussing, cooking food. It's so easy to get a good nasi goreng on the street somewhere for few ringgit but it was much more difficult to make a good one myself and spend less money. Unless you cook in a larger quantity and eat from it a few times and divide the costs over these days. Still difficult to get it break-even with eating out. It becomes easier if you cook every day and save some ingredients you may use another day, obviously, like belacan or peppers. Still, I found it amazing. Try eating out that cheap in Europe I tell you. Cooking yourself beats the cost time and time again.

Anyway, we're moving further and further away from the topic, which is Lefty's Grow Log, hehe. What do you plan on doing next with your current plants and what are you planning to plant later on?

I cook because I like it. That being said, yes, i can eat much cheaper on stall than cooking for my own meal. But I dont really like to go out and eat.

My next project is my backyard garden. I already clear up the space, till the soil and planted test plant, 3 little dutch and 2 spanish zimmer on that place. Already started 2 new variety, Big Gem and Harrow Velvet because I am out of cigarette tobacco. My first intention of growing tobacco is for cigarette. I want to grow some besuki plant that you send but I am out of space.

I done some research on what to grow, and big gem and harrow velvet caught my interest. harrow velvet because of easiness to air cure, big gem because of the yield. i also sprinkle some kasturi seed you give me on some free ground on my backyard, hoping it would grow. I already set on 10 plant to plant on my backyard. As soon as I clear out my pot garden, I will refresh the soil and start some new variety on the pot. I am thinking virginia gold and TN90. This time I will only grow on 7 liter pot to get more harvest able leaves, rather than 5 leaves per plant and then stunted growth. How big is your pot for final transfer of the plant? I seen some big leaves on your grow.

After stocking up my cigarette tobacco, I will start cigar variety. Maybe I need to start new grow log after I finish my potted plant harvest?

 

[Leftynick]

smoked my other stick today. Have a very tempting smell when I open the paper towel. The stick already dried considerably and smoke properly. Halfway toward the end, only one side burning. I think it is because of my rolling skill. The taste is really good, it is spicy kind of taste. Definitely will grow again after this.

 

[Leftynick]

In light of discovery that my plant were indeed infected with TMV, i clear out every plant on my potted garden. I suspect every plant has been infected with the virus as each one of them were stunted and showing curly leaves. Even the small one. But not before harvesting every leaves. There has been aphid infestation going badly, and i suspect it is the main problem for infected plant. I also destroyed every pepper plant i has, and some vegetable that was also infected with the virus. However, my backyard garden that i already planted with little dutch were not touched as it doesnt show any sign of infection yet. However I found some aphid on the plant and I sprayed vigorously with dish soap, cooking oil and garlic concoction to kill and get rid the bug, discarding several leaves that in contact with soil. I know I supposed to burn all of infected plant but it is such a shame to not have any gain from my experiment. Will wash my hand thouroughly after handling current leaves before touching my plant after this. And I will also become more aggressive towards aphid after this, as I also just sow some okra and eggplant on my backyard garden. Wouldn't want the infection to spread.

I left one little dutch plant that doesnt show sign of infection yet on the pot to try the effectiveness of my home made bug spray.

i harvested the seed from my best samsun plant because it does not show any sign of infection and discarded the plant.

The havana plant also show no sign of infection so I concluded that the both of the seed i bought might have resistant to aphid and TMV.

Let just hope my big gem and harrow velvet plant that i just sow will show some resistant from both.