WillQuantrill
Well-Known Member
Right on, I'll give er a go. I had that classic Robert Duvall Beach scene from "Apocalypse Now" in my head but thought it's more prudent to save the weed burner for late fall.
WillQuantrill 2024: starting on time.
- Thread starter WillQuantrill
- Start date
Blackfly
Member
Tilling just cuts the rhizomes, essentially propagating more grass plants. When preparing new beds, I peel the sod off, then turn the soil with a fork to remove all of the rhizomes I can by hand. You will never get them all, but the small remainder can be controlled by running a hoe through the garden every week or two. Another thing I do is dig an edge around my plots to prevent rhizomes from growing in from the surrounding turf throughout the season. It looks like you're dealing with a lot of seed propagated crab grass in this case, I once again suggest using a hoe frequently.
WillQuantrill
Well-Known Member
Thanks for the help.
WillQuantrill
Well-Known Member
45 days from transplant, FATHER'S DAY HOE DOWN edition! Day 42, last Thursday, I topped off 2 Criollo and 1 Long Red. This is a reminder to myself as I wanna try the 5 week wait on priming. I drew up a chart on paper with topping date for each. So far suckers only on Criollo and not that bad. 2nd picture gives a good idea on height. Tallest Criollo I'd guess is about 52" this week. 3rd picture are my Long Red's that have bushed out well and started to get some more height. Beautiful plants so far. The only variety I would say has been underwhelming so far has been the Vallejano. 4th picture might give a good visual on their growth compared to the Long Red next to them. 3 have sprouted buds at this size so I don't expect much smokable leaf out of em.
SSBM are slowly gaining in height looking pretty decent. I have run a hoe and garden rake out here 3 times this week to get rid of weeds and grass. Dumb observation is it goes alot quicker when the soil has a little moisture. I'm kind of stubborn when it comes to watering so beginning of the week was between storm fronts pretty dry.
Happy Father's Day to yall. This year is extra special for myself as my second kid and first son, Waylon, is scheduled to arrive Tuesday morning. Gonna have to teach the babysitter how to pluck suckers as I'll be gone for atleast 3 days. Haha.
SSBM are slowly gaining in height looking pretty decent. I have run a hoe and garden rake out here 3 times this week to get rid of weeds and grass. Dumb observation is it goes alot quicker when the soil has a little moisture. I'm kind of stubborn when it comes to watering so beginning of the week was between storm fronts pretty dry.
Happy Father's Day to yall. This year is extra special for myself as my second kid and first son, Waylon, is scheduled to arrive Tuesday morning. Gonna have to teach the babysitter how to pluck suckers as I'll be gone for atleast 3 days. Haha.
WillQuantrill
Well-Known Member
Thank you for the compliment, if it makes you feel any better this is the first year I didn't have to put 5' stakes in the ground to tie my plants to so they don't uproot and fall over. Haha. I don't learn anything without failures and setbacks.
Huffen'Snuff
Well-Known Member
I just ordered some ky17 from NWTS, how do you like that variety?
WillQuantrill
Well-Known Member
Full transparency's sake, this is the first year I've grown Burley so I don't have any experience to compare to. But, it seems to be a pretty robust, low maintenance variety. As my Burley and SSBM will be used for smokeless I haven't paid as much care to those plants as my cigar leaf and it doesn't seem to matter. Pleasantly surprised at the size of leaf, it outpaces the SSBM by double.
Hoping to get that luck in a year or two!
Huffen'Snuff
Well-Known Member
I may try some in a pipe blend, but I'm trying to limit my smoking, I'm mainly interested in dry Scotch snuffs. I have a lot to learn about making nasal snuffs tho. I have been trying to collect high Nic varieties.
WillQuantrill
Well-Known Member
Day 52 from transplant, around 60% of my cigar leaf varieties have been topped. Criollo matured first, then Vallejano, Florida Sumatra with Long Red in last regarding flowering. Burley and Long Red are slowly gaining height having bushed out close to the ground up to this point. Second picture I was hoping to show the similarities in height with Criollo in the forefront and Florida Sumatra behind. This week the FS has gained the lead on plant height especially since 3 of the 4 have not been topped while 4/5 Criollo has been. 3rd picture shows height comparison of LR on the left to FS directly to the right. FS and LR have turned out wonderfully so far and will likely be "keeper" varieties in the coming years to grow again. Really impressed with LR production of lots of big leaf. Last picture is comparison of Vallejano on the left to LR on the right. Don't think I'll get any wrapper out of the Vallejano as the leaves are pretty thin, and the plant itself doesn't put out much leaf. Hopefully it smokes well and can be a unique filler.
Suckering has not been bad at all, I spend about 20 minutes inspecting and picking each night before the sun goes down.
This week has been a whirlwind of sleep deprived hospital stays helping along the birth of my son so I got lucky the garden is in the "wait and see" pattern before priming begins. Very blessed as my wife and son are doing well with Waylon "fingers crossed" will be discharged from the NICU to come home tomorrow.
Suckering has not been bad at all, I spend about 20 minutes inspecting and picking each night before the sun goes down.
This week has been a whirlwind of sleep deprived hospital stays helping along the birth of my son so I got lucky the garden is in the "wait and see" pattern before priming begins. Very blessed as my wife and son are doing well with Waylon "fingers crossed" will be discharged from the NICU to come home tomorrow.
WillQuantrill
Well-Known Member
59 days from transplant and not a whole lot of new activity. SSBM, KY 17 and Long Red slowly gaining height. While the Criollo was the hard charger first month in the garden it has been surpassed by the Florida Sumatra which still has 2 plants yet to be topped. Don't wanna jinx it but suckering has not been that bad on any of the variants this year. My 4 bonus Gutter Burley plants, 1st picture, are doing fantastically! 2nd picture of my FS seed donor in full bloom. Pics 4&5 of the cigar leaf you can see the Long Red putting on weight. Maybe I'm a weirdo but sometimes I smell the more mature leaf to try and familiarize myself to different varieties. While green on the stock most have the typical "green" vegetation smell like grass but my Vallejano actually has a green pepper jalapeño smell. Be interesting to taste in smoke form.
I've devised myself a plan to air cure in my lawn mower shed (pictured) instead of the garage where I have in the past. After I knock down some cobwebs and install a fan it will allow me more room and be out of the way.
I've devised myself a plan to air cure in my lawn mower shed (pictured) instead of the garage where I have in the past. After I knock down some cobwebs and install a fan it will allow me more room and be out of the way.
WillQuantrill
Well-Known Member
Day 63, Independence Day update. Tuesday night a thunderstorm blew in, knocked several large limbs off my neighbors tree that landed next to my Florida Sumatra seed donor (pictured). The plant itself is slightly leaning but I lost no leaves. Same story in the garden. That's resilience! In addition a limb dropped in my backyard onto my power line and ripped the meter off my house. While this scenario is a pain in the ass itself, after 16 days in the Children's Hospital NICU the doctors discharge my son Wednesday which I was ecstatic about but hard to keep a pulse/oxygen monitor on him without electricity. I spent yesterday morning hiring an electrician, cleaning up debris, go to the hospital and load up come home and an hour and a half later the power company lineman finally go to my house on the outage list. As for the holiday my wife and I can rest at home and make homemade ice cream knowing this marathon is over. That's resilience! 
My newborn son gets his first taste of freedom. Haha.
My newborn son gets his first taste of freedom. Haha.
WillQuantrill
Well-Known Member
Day 66, the garden is humming along quite nicely. 2nd picture was taken because the Vallejano, 5 plants on the left, that I have been whining about all season seem to be making a late run as the leaves are notably larger in the last week. 2 thunderstorms in the last week with the accompanied rain seemed to give them a boost. Nice to see I may have some leaf to work with in this variety. Granted it is till dwarfed by the Long Red to the right, but interested to see how it smokes. Pictures 3&4 are the Gutter Burley I posted about a couple weeks ago. THE LEAVES ARE YUUUGE! I tried to include my arm for scale but I'll get real measurements at prime time! So dramatically sized and details pronounced it looks like it is a prehistoric period tobacco that Triceratops would be munching on. Flintstone Burley.
WillQuantrill
Well-Known Member
Day 73 Prime Time! Spent a couple hours this morning priming Seco, cleaning off dirt and debris and hanging. As you can see from the pictures Long Red will be the most productive this year in weight. Tinkering with my new air cure arrangement in the lawn mower shed I have been a little worried about the temperature swings up to 121* which burns off the RH down to 41%. After reading a few other Grow Blogs I bought a fancy temp/hygrometer that uploads through Bluetooth. I included the summary for the last 6 days and you will see what I mean. Pretty cool technology for a small homegrower, amazing what kind of technology is available these days. I rigged up a wicking humidifier today (old towel and large tub of water with oscillating fan) to see if it will make any meaningful difference in the heat of the day. SSBM and Gutter Burley are not ready for picking yet... maybe another week or two. I'll physically check the leaf in the evenings to make sure it doesn't turn Candela on me but it's nice to see a glimpse of how much yield I'll be anticipating.
Some sort of vents for cross-ventilation, would moderate the temp and humidity swings.
Bob
Bob
WillQuantrill
Well-Known Member
Thank you for the tip, I'm thinking I will install one of those attic vent grills around the peak of the far side behind the hanging leaf. The one advantage I took for granted on my previous setup in the garage was that the leaf hung in front of a window with a fan on the other side. I didn't realize at the time but it was effortless in regards to air curing.
WillQuantrill
Well-Known Member
Finally got a picture of my local Gutter Burley P1. It's YUUUGE!
