MAB 2019 (Prilep, Criollo and Costello)

[MAB]

Hi everyone!
my name is Marco and I write from Italy (near Bologna, 44th parallel north) and excuse my bad English.

I'm an HTGT orphan, and I love Grow Blog because I can spend a few months with other home growers and always learn something. Among other things, there are many members here that I often find in my notes on tobacco cultivation, when they wrote on HTGT.

In the last two years, I have only cultivated Virginia Gold which is the tobacco I smoke every day, but I no longer had that enthusiasm of the early years, it seemed like a job without fun! So, this year I bought some variety seeds that I don't know and I hope to have fun. The seeds come from a professional dealer in Germany but seeing his photos of the varieties I bought, I'm pretty sure those seeds come from Skychaser.

This year I sowed very early (March 10th) because I would like to have a better second crop than usual and also have some free garden for winter vegetables.

Thus, this is the situation of my garden Sunday, May 5, after the first week of the Transplant:

Cuban Criollo 98
I have 7 Criollo plants in the garden:



Costello Negro
I have 43 plants of this strain which will then be the tobacco that I will smoke daily:





Prilep P66-9 / 7
I love oriental tobaccos, this strain seems to be one of the best and I'm really curious to see the unusual shape of its leaves live! I have 30 in the garden:



So, summing up, I transplanted 80 plants into my garden of about 36 square meters:



The first week after the transplant was very wet: it rained four days a week and consecutively in the last three days! This rain has saved me a lot of effort to water the plants but I'm also afraid that it will make them sick!

That's all for now, and criticism and advice or suggestions are always welcome!

Thanking the owners of this site for hospitality, see you at the next update!
Cheers
MAB (Marco American Blend)

 

[GreenDragon]

Welcome! Hope you have a successful grow this year

 

[deluxestogie]

I'm an HTGT orphan...

Welcome to FTT. Your tobacco seems to be doing well. The varieties you selected should be fun to explore. I'll look forward to following your grow log.

Bob

 

[Charly]

Welcome to FTT.
Your plants are looking healthy.
I am sure you will have fun playing with some new strains.

 

[Levi Gross]

Welcome to the forum!

 

[Alpine]

Benvenuto su FTT
Welcome to FTT

Pier

 

[leverhead]

Welcome! This is a fun bunch here.

 

[MAB]

Thanks for the welcome, guys!

@ Bob: here's a man I learned a lot from! My notes are full of your posts! So, here's a good chance to thank you! Many Thanks Bob!

@ Alpine: Ciao, when I was young I worked a year in Trento, I have a wonderful memory (ate very well and drank a lot ... LOL)

@ charly: thanks! And I remembered that I have to write to a friend who is a French domestic cultivator, I hope she signs up because she will have to make cigars this year and maybe she will need some advice.)

Except for two plants that have been eaten enough by snails, the plants seem to have passed transplant stress well, and despite the temperature changes (Sunday was only 11 ° C I think they are 51.8 F) I saw good progress, this is the Costello Negro after 9 days from transplantation:



Meanwhile, I'm noticing that the Costello remains quite attached to the ground, it reminds me of the YTB for now at least:



The Criollo and the Prilep have already taken off the stem a little:





Sorry for the poverty of the photos, I must surely find the way to improve them!

 

[CobGuy]

Looking great, Marco!

~Darin

 

[MAB]

Thanks Darin, it's very kind of you!

Update after the 2nd week of transplantation

Sunday 12 May ended the second week of the transplant but I could not get any image because it was raining. I took some pictures yesterday, after 4 days it rained every day (and I'm worried about too much water).
Thus, this is the situation 18 days after transplantation:

Costello:





The leaves seem to grow larger,



but the plant does not seem to grow in height:




Criollo and Prilep:





The fact is that we are having a cold and rainy month of May, the coldest month of May for the last 70 years! From the day of the transplant we had only 8 days with a temperature of at least 20°C. (68 F.) And with such low temperatures the plants grow slowly ... grrr

See you at the next update

 

[Charly]

Your plants are looking good.
Don't worry, as soon as the temperature will rise, they will grow like monsters !

 

[MAB]

Yes Charly, but when? Forecasts show cloudy and rain also next week! Grrr

Upgrade after 3rd Week in Garden

Sunday, May 19, the third week after the transplant ended and since I posted some photos a few days ago, I want to compare this season with a normal season:

Costello 2019 vs. Virginia Gold 2018

Already in this overview we see the difference!



The height difference is impressive:



and so, also the development of the leaves



I would cry! lol

See you next week, in the hope that the best season!

 

[Charly]

Don't worry, it's only a matter of patience
And I am sure you are cheating !! You used a smaller lighter on the pictures on the right !

 

[deluxestogie]

 

[ciennepi]

Hi MAB. Welcome to the forum. I'm happy to be with other two italians to write about tobacco growing in Italy.

 

[MAB]

Thanks for the welcome Ciennepi, there is also another HTGT orphan, he is from Tuscany, I have to hear him to see if he has sown and maybe he will come here too!

@ bob: it looks like the Bic blue are tobacco lighters! ha ha, even last year at this time I had an equal one!


Update after 4th Week in Garden

Sunday, May 26, ended the fourth week after the transplant and this is the situation:

Garden A
(on the left, near the wall, a row of Criollo and all the rest is Costello)



Garden B
(on the right, near the wall, two rows of Prilep and all the rest is Costello)



This week it rained only two days (Monday and Wednesday) and I had as many as five consecutive days of sunshine, a sun almost always clouded over, but sun! Maximum temperatures fluctuated from 21 ° C. (70 F.) at 28 ° C. (82 F.) not really that hot, but enough to make the plants develop a bit.

Costello Negro
(I think this is the best plant)






Criollo:




Prilep




In the past years, usually after four weeks after the transplant the adjustment with the knee height ended ... maybe this does not apply to the Prilep which should have a final height of only 4 1/2 'feet (137 cm) but for Criollo and Costello, both with a final height of about 6 feet (183 cm), I think I'm back about two weeks! This is Virginia Gold last year after two weeks in Garden:




It would take a couple of weeks of real sun, but from the weather forecasts it seems that in the next two weeks it won't be like that! Grrr

See you at the next update
Marco

 

[alemelo]

I'm here as well!
This year, as I told privately to MAB, I just threw a bunch of my Virginia seeds in a row in my garden because I'm a pipe smoker and I have lots of Virginia and Bursa from the last three years which I'm slowly processing into twists. Weather hasn't been too good here in Tuscany and I could sow only in late May. I don't expect much.
In the last years I had excellent results with Virginia leaves up to 65 cm long and plants with a total height of nearly 220 cm.
The twists I'm rolling are these, take them as an appetizer for my next posts ;-)

 

[deluxestogie]

Welcome to the forum, @alemelo. Feel free to introduce yourself in the Introduce Yourself forum. We would all love to see a grow log, as well as the techniques you use to make your twists.

Bob

 

[MAB]

Hello everyone! Here the summer arrived and a lot of work: the normal one and the accumulated one of May that had always rained.
The good news is that the plants started to grow, this 5 weeks after transplanting:



The bad news is that I started watering them and I didn't remember it being so boring: I had never watered them since I transplanted, we had thought of the rain!

This is the situation after the 6th week of transplantation


Garden A: Criollo (the row of six plants below) and Costello.



Garden B: Costello, and in the following image Prilep:





All the plants have finished the knee height phase (the Prilep that should have a lower final height). I have never had a homogeneous cultivation but this year it is abnormal: some plants are even twice as tall as others! Then, I have five sick Costello, they struggle to grow and the basal leaves turn yellow crumpling:



And I realized this morning that some Criollo plants are already starting to show floral buds!

Now, the plants enter the rapid growth phase, so, last week, I for the first time hoed the soil under the plants to remove the weeds, remove the crust and then let the soil breathe.
Then I gave a pass of liquid fertilizer (NPK 5-5-5) to support the rapid growth. Well, 5-5-5 is such a low title that I'm pretty sure it's of little use, but I hope it at least gives an extra bit of nourishment in addition to my compost.

At last, I started to pick low leaves that started to deteriorate, it is early to harvest but I preferred to collect them rather than let them rot on the plant. I put them in a plastic bag a couple of days and they are almost all yellowed:



See you at the next update

 

[Moth]

I put them in a plastic bag a couple of days and they are almost all yellowed

Plastic bag? Good idea I think. I'm trying to colour cure the suckers from mine in a pile in a paper bag. They are not drying, however, not turning yellow either. I may move half to a plastic bag and see if that helps. Doesn't matter if they get ruined, not interested in smoking the suckers just trying out curing methods...