PressuredLeaf's indoor grow blog

[PressuredLeaf]

So,

After having so much fun playing with the excellent leaf from WLT, I thought I would try and grow some of my own. The problem is, I live in apartment with no place to grow outdoors. Well as it turns out I already have a nice indoor grow tent where I keep my tropical plants during the winter. It dawned on me that I could easily grow a few small plants with the extra space. After pondering it for a while I decided I wanted to grow something small with multiple uses. I settled on little dutch since it could be used in both cigars and pipes, and seems to be a smaller plant.

14 days ago my seeds arrived in the mail. I placed a 50:50 mixture of perlite and peat moss in the oven at 180 for an hr to sanitize. Next I added 1g of wood ash to raise the pH a little, and moistened the mix with a mychorrhizal inoculation. The mix was packed into an old Tupperware with holes punched in the bottom, and the tinniest pinch of seeds was sprinkled over the top. A second Tupperware was placed over the top of the mix to keep the humidity up, and the tray was placed in the grow tent on a heating mat. The current light cycle is 16 on and 8 off with a total light output of about 8k lumens in the tent. Here we are today: about 15 or so little sprouts. Once they get bigger I am going to pick six seedlings and move them to 1 gallon grow bags. Also, I will bring out the big guns once they get some size to them- a 22k lumen led light fixture ( I plan to keep the ppfd between 250-400 ummol/m2/s).

I will update this as I go along

.

 

[deluxestogie]

Good luck with your grow.

Bob

 

[docpierce]

Very interesting project. I started my 2019 crop under a 600W HP sodium lamp then moved them outdoors. Tobacco seemed to like that light spectrum. Excess moisture was a concern- that isnt as much of a problem as when plants are raised out of doors. Fans help will help.
Why not go all the way and use hydro- rockwool etc?

 

[PressuredLeaf]

Very interesting project. I started my 2019 crop under a 600W HP sodium lamp then moved them outdoors. Tobacco seemed to like that light spectrum. Excess moisture was a concern- that isnt as much of a problem as when plants are raised out of doors. Fans help will help.
Why not go all the way and use hydro- rockwool etc?

The LED light should be pretty ideal for vegetative growth, lots of blue and red light. Moisture is a big concern for me, I lost over half of my potted tropicals to root rot from too much H2O. When the big light gets installed I will attach the vent fan to a controller set to "cool" at 85f. I know from last year the big light can turn the tent pretty toasty very quickly without circulation.

Hydro sounds fun, and would give a great deal of control over the plants. However, I suffer from chronic and debilitating laziness and already had everything needed for a 'soil' grow. Maybe next round i'll try hydro?

 

[PressuredLeaf]

So the plants have been growing well, so I decided to transplant some to their new homes. For the medium I used about 60% coco coir, 10% biochar, and 30% peat moss with a handful of wood ashes for Ca and micros. The transplants were watered in with dH2O and a mycorrhizal innoculant containg both endo and ecto myco as well as beneficial bacteria. I am going to wait a few days for them to recover from the transplant, then turn on the big light.

 

[PressuredLeaf]

So, I told myself there was only room for 6 plants MAX. Buuuut, after being away for a week, and checking on the progress I couldn’t bear to throw out such healthy little plants.



Very healthy roots, i blame the mycorrhizae.

 

[burge]

How did the indoor grow work ?

 

[PressuredLeaf]

How did the indoor grow work ?

So far so good, the plants are healthy and the growth rate is increasing.

They got their first feeding with a 1/2 strength full spectrum hydroponic nutrient.

 

[burge]

i am following to see if it works I could only maybe grow 6 plants at most i do virginia if i were to try

 

[PressuredLeaf]

i am following to see if it works I could only maybe grow 6 plants at most i do virginia if i were to try

I’ll keep updating things as I go. I thought about doing VA too. I think the trickiest part is selecting varieties that don’t grow too tall, that’s why I started with little Dutch.

 

[burge]

Sounds like the plan i had asked earlier on virginia and it would I think have to be outside.

 

[PressuredLeaf]

Was gone for one week for work. Came back to some happy plants.

 

[Nathan Esq]

I'm trying the same thing but outdoors. 7 gal bags, Coco coir with cal/mag added, perlite, instead of hydro nutes I'm using miracle grow for tomatoes and will add cal/mag. Should be starting seeds soon. I'm in FL and way past the last frost date.

 

[PressuredLeaf]

I'm trying the same thing but outdoors. 7 gal bags, Coco coir with cal/mag added, perlite, instead of hydro nutes I'm using miracle grow for tomatoes and will add cal/mag. Should be starting seeds soon. I'm in FL and way past the last frost date.

I’m only using 1 gal bags, your plants will probably be very happy with 7. I’m only using the hydro nutes because I have them, and they are full spectrum.

Which variety are you planning on growing ?

 

[Nathan Esq]

Cuban criollo 98 from sustainable
Long red from victory seeds
"Havana" from victory seeds
And 2 tomatoe plants so it wont be a total failure. LoL

 

[deluxestogie]

Nathan, you can start your own grow log in the Grow Blogs forum. We'd love to see some pics when you get started.

Bob

 

[Nathan Esq]

Will do. I'm not looking forward to the kilning, but I have plenty of time before that's necessary.

 

[Jb00]

A while ago, I grew heritage Virginia, burley, and Black Sea Samsun. In my youth (17 years oId) I neglected them, I went weeks without watering, but they survived and continued growing. I was able to smoke some. without proper curing it was flavorless. Anyways, tobacco if cared for will grow grow beautifully indoors. I abused my plants and they grew nonetheless. Just my two cents.

 

[PressuredLeaf]

So, was gone again for work, and back home today. Man these plants are taking off! I did notice some of the leaves that were stuck together had moisture in between them, so I will be turning on the vent fan once a day for an hour to reduce moisture and humidity. Wet leaves in a warm environment seems like an invitation for trouble!

One leaf did show some mild yellowing towards the edges, nutrient deficiency? Also the leaves are very very sticky, is that normal?

 

[GreenDragon]

I think the color is more from shading by neighboring plants / leaves sticking together. They are way too close together for this stage. Probably need to bite the bullet and remove some. Sticky leaves are normal.