The Knucklehead way to Grow a Blog

[Knucklehead]

I finished harvesting my YTB. The TN90 will be ready for topping in a few more days. The grow out patch is doing great, every few days I'm bagging more plants.

I found worms in a couple of bud bags today. I'm about to go put the BT to them again. I'll unbag the ones I know have worms and give them a good spraying before rebagging. The flowers all look dead so there shouldn't be a problem. I'm not sure if this problem is related to the paint strainer bags? The mesh is tiny so I don't know how they are getting inside?

 

[DGBAMA]

I found a couple In oneof my bags too a close look at the bag i found a couple small holes. Guess the eggs were laid on the bag and the little sh!ts ate their way in. I

 

[Brown Thumb]

How are those bags working I just picked up a dozen of them are they big enough?

 

[Knucklehead]

How are those bags working I just picked up a dozen of them are they big enough?

They've been fine. A couple of varieties with huge bud heads have curled around inside and pretty much filled the bag but it didn't hurt the flowering. A few times I've had to clip the cable tie and move the bag up on the stalk as the bud head grew but that wasn't a problem.

 

[bonehead]

(The mesh is tiny so I don't know how they are getting inside) that sucks i am getting atacked with aphids and a very small worm or catipilar that i never saw before. just when i think i know what i am doing i get sucker punched (pun intended).holey crap if this was my livlyhood i wood be bankrupted if i couldn't figure out what was going on. i am not smart enough for my own good. i am farther in than over my head.

 

[Brown Thumb]

Cool, Thanks

 

[Jitterbugdude]

I've had this problem in the past. I have no idea how they can get in there but a few times a years I will mix up a small batch of Spinosad, untie each bag and liberally spray the seed pods. This works well for me as I do not typically ever get bud worm damage to my seeds anymore. It sucks in that it is one more process that I have added to caring for my baccy.

 

[Boboro]

I spray the bag.

 

[Knucklehead]

I spray the bag.

I spray the bag also. This is another reason I've been looking into Spinosad, it lasts twice as long as BT.

 

[Southern Planter]

What is BT?

 

[Knucklehead]

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bacillus_thuringiensis

It's used for worms and caterpillars. It's not a poison, but kills like a virus or bacteria or something. It doesn't kill honey bees or other beneficial insects, just worms that actually eat the leaf. Spinosad is very similar, but also kills on contact, and lasts twice as long as BT between sprayings. It can kill bees, but only when it's wet, it's perfectly safe to them once dried. Spray in the evening and there should be no problem.

 

[Southern Planter]

Searching back in my childhood memories, bees were healthier when we were still using DDT.

 

[Knucklehead]

My curing assembly line. So far I haven't needed to build my curing rack, that may change when I start harvesting the K326 and TN90. I'm yellowing/browning in the shop, then moving the leaf inside the house for final dry/stem drying. Small string of Olor in the foreground, it's taking forever to cure. It still has brown fronts and greenish backs, but is still pliable, so it will stay here until ready. Long string of YTB in the background and YTB spread out on the rack finishing browning before going inside the house for stem drying. It was getting too moist so I had to spread it out. About three leaves showed a little rot, I caught it just in time.



This is some TN90 lower leaf that is in the house now for stem drying with a ceiling fan running 24/7. My leaves are yellowing nicely but once they turn brown I have to take some steps to keep them from rotting or molding. This assembly line approach is what I'm having to do to work with my conditions.



My black truck/black bag kiln. I have several varieties separated into bud bags, placed inside the black garbage bag. After fully stem drying them, I leave them outside at night to raise the case, then put them in the bag in the sun. Strong grass smell coming from the bag. I just felt of them and they feel like they are now in high case, so I will take them out for awhile and let some moisture out and then put them back. I'm drying some seeds to the right of the black bag.

 

[Brown Thumb]

Looks good your YTB leaf looks nice a big also. You have too much moisture?
get a cheap dehumidifier of Craigslist.

 

[Knucklehead]

Patch pictures. My K326 that I topped recently. Waiting on more yellowing before I begin priming. These are about 130 days since transplant, the rain really delayed maturity. I thought I was either going to lose them or that they would begin budding at about 18" so I lucked out on these. They will be around 140 days old by the time I start priming. I'm getting tired of spraying the worms, aphids and pulling grass around these damn things. 140 -150 days is a lot of time spent in one doggone patch. Sheesh.



The TN90 Burley. Planted the same time as the K326 Virginia. It should be ready for topping in another week or so. They may live to be older than the K326. This ought to be some kind of record.



Lower grow out patch. The short plants were planted a few weeks later than the taller ones. I had to work around the almost daily rain at the time.



Lower grow out patch from the opposite end. I've begun priming some of the GRIN Orientals (right side front), which were the first plants transplanted into this patch. Trying my hand at some sun curing.

 

[Boboro]

You gonna need more room. that's some nice plants thar.

 

[Knucklehead]

This is either an interesting experiment or an exercise in futility. The soil in my wrapper grow out patch is hard as brick (red clay). The plants are not doing good at all as you can see. In an effort to produce seed, I'm moving my best plant of each variety to a location with better, looser soil and almost full sun. This is the original, pitiful looking patch.



This is the new home for the wrapper varieties. I hope there is still time for seed production. They are wilting during the day, standing tall and looking good at night. These were moved Thurs. and Friday? I still have six more to move, I took the weekend off for NASCAR and football. I moved them from an area that was mostly shade to an area that is mostly sun. The top five inches of dirt is brown top soil with red clay underneath. I separated the soil and I'm putting the topsoil around the roots and the clay on top. The top soil is nice and loose and should give the roots an easier time of growing. My poor pitiful root balls were about the size of my fist. (size XL gloves) Only one plant had a root ball the size of two fists. They should take off after recovery. I ran the drip lines and saturated the soil before pulling the plants up. They pulled up very easily and the only root damage I can see is the thin white "filament" looking root. The main roots look good. (what little there is of them)

 

[DGBAMA]

Glad they finally took off for ya!

If weather gets to be a threat for curing let me know I will come help with harvesting. And can kiln some for you. i

 

[Knucklehead]

My "pet" Samsun-Maden plant that came back from a single sucker after harvesting the first plant. It's looking good. This is my favorite single variety in a pipe.

At root level, you can see my attempt at sun curing some Djebel 174. I'm using bud bags as a sort of sun shade until full yellow, at which time I'll remove a couple layers of bud bag and allow the yellowed leaf to finish off with only one layer between leaf and sun. They are drawing moisture from the wet soil in the container. Another experiment that could go either way.



Another experiment. On the left is my "pet" Scantic wrapper variety. On the right my "pet" GC-2 wrapper variety.
The experiment: I've noticed that after removing the upper leaves and bagging a plant, the bud hits a growth spurt and shoots to the top of the bag in a matter of days. So, I'm removing the upper leaves a few days before I bag the plant, let it hit it's growth spurt first and then bagging the plant before it flowers. This seems to eliminate having to move the bag further up the stalk after the growth spurt. So far so good.



Question: Some of my Virginia K326 has some black stuff from a nearby Poplar tree on the leaf. Trash it or cure it and smoke it? I don't really need the leaf, as I'll have plenty of flue cure leaf from the 29 varieties I'm growing out for seed. It's pretty nasty looking.

 

[Knucklehead]

Glad they finally took off for ya!

If weather gets to be a threat for curing let me know I will come help with harvesting. And can kiln some for you. i

I have some really nice flue cure varieties you may want to kiln and sample to help you decide what to grow next year. Skychaser highly recommends the GL939 (his favorite I think), Reams 158 (beautiful plant, huge tightly spaced leaves, my favorite as far as looks goes) VA116, and 401 Cherry Red. My two favorites as far as just the way they grow and produce is the Dixie Bright and the Reams 158. So far the aphids and worms aren't too attracted to them. The McNair varieties are nice looking plants with huge leaves, but they seem to be critter magnets this year. I don't know if this varies year to year or not.

It's looking like mine will ripen after you are finished with yours, and spaced out nicely, so we might swing a deal. I can furnish the leaf and you kiln it on the halves.