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Sweet Oronoko

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deluxestogie

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Tonight I started batch 8 of Sweet Oronoko (last of the seed) and batch 8 of Big White Burley KY16 (still have enough for maybe 1 more trial). Each trial (1 through 8 for each of these two varieties) continues, which means that I've avoided significant mold growth so far. The earliest were started on 3/26/12. Subsequent batches were started at irregular intervals thereafter. Each pair of batches utilized a different approach.

Tonights batches were set up with soil in a cup, thoroughly moistened, seed sprinkled liberally onto the surface, then misted once with GA-3. These will be exposed to light while covered, then handled like any of my other variety starts.

I'll keep all of them going until they mold over, or reach two months duration (which I believe entitles a batch to a suitably executed death certificate and a dignified burial). So, at the moment, along with my 41 other varieties in various stages of propagation, I'm sharing my house with 16 starts that seem unlikely to return the love any time soon.

Bob
 

FmGrowit

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Thanks for trying Bob. You've been much more diligent than I have been. Maybe I should put some in the freezer until next year and give it another try.
 

deluxestogie

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Maybe I should put some in the freezer until next year and give it another try.
That might be worth a try. You could also hydrate some overnight, then put those into the freezer as well.

There's this little guy in red, standing on my left shoulder, chuckling. He says those puppies are toast. Should I trust him?

Bob
 
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I think I know where the spelling Oronoko came from.

Several years ago I worked for the Tobacco Division, AMS, USDA. I was assigned the task of compiling a list of all state tobacco committees in the nation. The information I received from one Maryland committee referred to Oronoko tobacco.

When white settlers came to what would become Maryland the Native Americans there referred to their tobacco as Oronoko. Evidently the name eventually came to refer to a particular type.

The USDA official types of air-cured tobacco are: 31 - Burley, 32 - Maryland, 35 - One Sucker, 36 - Green River and 37 - Virginia Sun-Cured. Notice that there are no Type 33 or 34 tobaccos. I do know that Type 33 was a Maryland tobacco of some kind, but know nothing about Type 34. Type 33 or 34 could have been Oronoko, but it is no longer grown.
 

Jitterbugdude

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Orinoco or Oronoko tobacco (both spellings have been used historically) came to us via John Rolfe. Prior to Rolfe the only tobacco to be had was the Rustica that the Indians grew and the Spanish controlled Tabaccum. Rolfe was able to smuggle seed from the Orinoco River Valley and planted in the Virginia colony at Jamestown.
 

JessicaNicot

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Can anyone tell me what language this is?

this looks like something i'd read for work. I don't know how you found it, but its a study trying to parse out the underlying genetics of seed dormancy so I don't think that will help you out very much on the "how to break dormancy" end.

I wouldn't consider what you find yourself with to be "dormancy" but more of a viability issue. the seed has likely just expired and nothing will revive it, not that you'll likely lose anything (but time or money) by trying...
 

JessicaNicot

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Orinoco or Oronoko tobacco (both spellings have been used historically) came to us via John Rolfe. Prior to Rolfe the only tobacco to be had was the Rustica that the Indians grew and the Spanish controlled Tabaccum. Rolfe was able to smuggle seed from the Orinoco River Valley and planted in the Virginia colony at Jamestown.

this is very good and precisely why the correct spelling is ORINOCO because that is the region from which flue-cured (light/bright leaf) tobacco was derived. people back in the day may have been literate, but that doesn't mean they could spell (trust me, I have hand written letters from the 1930s that amply prove this point) or that someone was there to tell them how to correctly spell a word they had heard for the first time (such as Orinoco).
 

TheOtherOne

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I heard about a date seed thousands of years old that was brought back in Israel with gibberellic acid.

Worth a try at least, but too much may cause them to climb and crash as seedlings.
 

deluxestogie

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This is an old thread. Not as old as that Orinoco seed, but still...

Tobacco seed that is viable after 40 years is a stunning success. It's often a challenge with 10 year old seed that has been properly stored. The old Orinoco was simply not viable. Thousand year old tobacco seed that germinates is fiction.

Bob
 

ArizonaDave

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This is an old thread. Not as old as that Orinoco seed, but still...

Tobacco seed that is viable after 40 years is a stunning success. It's often a challenge with 10 year old seed that has been properly stored. The old Orinoco was simply not viable. Thousand year old tobacco seed that germinates is fiction.

Bob

It might work if the seed was frozen though?
 
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