Wruk53 2021 fall/winter grow log

[wruk53]

Happy new year! Made some yeast rolls this morning to go with the traditional pork dishes later.
Monday will be 4 weeks from topping the Shirazi and Trab2. I might prime the Trab2 on Monday, it seems to be ripening faster than the Shirazi.
Rustica is looking okay.

 

[wruk53]

I decided to wait a little longer before priming. Next Monday will be 5 weeks from topping. I want them to be ripe this time, I suspect my low nicotine issues from last year may be from priming too early. We'll see.
Some of the rustica leaves are beginning to yellow. Not going to yield much though. They smell like wet dog to me.

 

[Alpine]

Wet HUNTING dog to be exact… it’s the correct smell of rusticas while growing and curing, and it gets worst (believe me!) during the first two weeks of kilning. But after a month in the kiln they will develop a subtle floral (violet I dare to say) smell.
I believe that who has been able and patient enough to wait for complete ripeness of rusticas will keep growing it every year.
Most growers think that since rusticas develop their flower head in less than a month, they will be ready to harvest in a month and a half. Wrong! Rustica leaves do turn yellow when ripe, but it takes longer than N. tabacum.

pier

 

[wruk53]

Picked several of the ripest leaves from the bottom of the Trab2. Today is 5 weeks from topping. I will probably do a proper priming next week at the six week mark for Trab2 and the Shirazi.

 

[deluxestogie]

Around the year 1400, there was an Byzantine Emperor of Trapisond (now called Trabzon). You may earn the honorary title of Emperor of Trabzon.

Bob

 

[wruk53]

I primed my Trabzon 2 and Shirazi a few days ago. I took 3 or 4 leaves from each plant and wilted/yellowed them in a box for 2 days then strung them on hangers. I would like to stalk harvest them, but unfortunately, the weather forecast for the rest of the month shows mostly low humidity. So, for now, I'll have to stick with priming and yellowing in a box.
The rustica looks ok except they have a lot of white spots on the leaves, I don't know if this is normal or not.
A lot of the pods on the bagged plant are turning brown.

Frank

 

[wruk53]

Some random pics of what's going on now.

I primed the Trab2 pretty hard a few days ago, yellowed them in a box and hung them this morning.

Rustica is ripening nicely. One pic is right after picking and the other is after color curing. They're not pretty, but hopefully they'll be potent.

I think I'll prime the Shirazi this afternoon. It was drizzling rain this morning, but the sun is out now.

The last photo in the garage is leaves drying from the first priming of the Shirazi and Trab2.

 

[wruk53]

Late yesterday afternoon we started getting frost warnings for the area. So, I started worrying and decided to harvest all my Shirazi and Trabzon2 rather than risk losing my crop. Today is 7 weeks from topping anyway, so they are at least mature, if not ripe. Most of the tips were yellowing already, even the top leaves. Sure enough, we had a pretty good frost this morning. So far, the Rustica doesn't look any worse from the frost, but, it hasn't really warmed up much yet. I clipped some of the most mature pods from the bagged plant and discarded the rest.
I got all the leaves boxed up for yellowing this morning.

 

[wruk53]

We have a chance of a freeze for the next two nights, so I moved all my leaf from the lanai to the garage. It's all been color cured and some of it is dry. There are approximately 600 leaves of various sizes.

When I color cured the last batch of this crop, I had so many leaves to process that I decided to just pile them instead of layering them between paper. It worked out well but, it was noticeably warmer in the middle of the pile after 24 hours and probably would have started to decompose soon. With the single layers between newspaper, I've left them as much as 3 days without ill effects. Moral of the story, when piling, be sure to break the pile down daily and inspect.

 

[wruk53]

This is what I wound up with from my winter crop. Those are 2.5 gallon bags, the leaf has been frog legged and brought into low case for storage/aging. I estimate the yield was just under 2 ounces per plant.
That's it for this blog, so long!