No sun there in Florida?
Bob
Bob
wruk53 2021 spring crop
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wruk53
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Ha Ha. Took me a minute to figure out what you were getting at. Yes, that is one thing we do have a super abundance of, but I haven't rigged up any kind of apparatus yet for sun curing. Maybe I'll try to come up with something tomorrow.
I sun cure with the old metal clothes hangars. I’ve also sun cured using the mesh bud bags. I preferred the hangars.
The Knucklehead way to Grow a Blog
I do ciphers and gazintas like Jethro Clampett. Two gazinta four twice. Two gazinta six three times...
edit: I had so many hangars because I had so many different varieties. One hangar per variety. You can pack them tight if you need to.
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wruk53
Well-Known Member
A couple of things, first, I set up my new state of the art sun curing contraption. Two poles and a piece of rope. I will use clothespin coat hangers to hang on the rope. Second, I was looking at my ahus plants and noticed that the one plant that I let ratoon from the winter did not immediately go into flower like the ones started under grow lights and it so far has about 8 leaves on it compared to about 5 leaves on the others. Also, no sign of flowering yet. I'm thinking that this is due to the plant developing under the normal day length instead of being started with 16 hours of light, then being placed out doors to 12 or so hours of light. In one of the posts above, I stated I didn't think I would grow the ahus again, but now I think I will. I'll just start my seedlings with the same number hours of light as the normal length of day for the time of season. I'm even thinking of letting one sucker grow on the other ahus plants that I already topped and cut off the other parts to see if they develop more leaves before flowering. I'll have to give that some more thought though. Rainy season starts here in the next few months and you will normally have almost daily thunderstorms from June till about mid September. Not a good time to grow, harvest and cure.
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Oldfella
Well-Known Member
Here's a picture of my sun curing setup.
works great.
Oldfella
works great.Oldfella
wruk53
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koceff
Well-Known Member
Copy this " сушење тутун во прилеп " in google and go to images. It means drying tobacco in Prilep.
wruk53
Well-Known Member
Primed my Prilep today, 10 days from the first priming. The average size of the leaves is about 8X5 inches with nice alligator texture and very sticky. I boxed them up for yellowing, will string them up and hang outside in 3 or 4 days. The plants are still forming a lot of new leaves, with no signs of flowering yet. The forecast calls for T-storms the next 3 days, so I moved my first priming into the garage. They are almost dry now and colored up to a light tan color.
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Unlike most varieties, Prilep suckers are as good as the primary leaf. Here’s a couple of posts. For further reading enter Prilep suckers in the search box, top right.
fairtradetobacco.com
fairtradetobacco.com
fairtradetobacco.com
Diameter of a mature plant?
Okay, so I'm already thinking about next year's garden. I'm isolating at home 24/7 and planning the garden is something cheerful to do. I'll have about 50 x 40 sq ft area for tobacco. I know to plant the Orientals at the much closer spacing between plants and rows, and the others 3 feet apart...
Radagast Grow blog attempt 2020
Looks like it was a victim of BBDP (big black dog pee). As an owner of a lovable black lab, I am well versed in this phenomenon, to the detriment of my landscaping.
Photo of my tobacco - OldDinosaur
Bob: I was out back checking, and my Bolivia Criollo plants are definitely more compact than the photos you have attached. My tallest is about 5 1/2 feet, and has produced (including primings) 24 or 25 leaves. They are still growing and have yet to produce a bloom head. The leaves are also...
wruk53
Well-Known Member
I'm just now beginning to have some suckering and it's all on the base of the stalks. I don't plan on removing any of them, nor do I plan on topping. I'm planning on bagging a few flower heads when it's time. I was thinking of using paint strainer bags for this. I don't know, I seem to remember reading somewhere of someone using them. I'll have to look at how coarse the texture is on them.Unlike most varieties, Prilep suckers are as good as the primary leaf. Here’s a couple of posts. For further reading enter Prilep suckers in the search box, top right.
Diameter of a mature plant?
Okay, so I'm already thinking about next year's garden. I'm isolating at home 24/7 and planning the garden is something cheerful to do. I'll have about 50 x 40 sq ft area for tobacco. I know to plant the Orientals at the much closer spacing between plants and rows, and the others 3 feet apart...
Radagast Grow blog attempt 2020
Looks like it was a victim of BBDP (big black dog pee). As an owner of a lovable black lab, I am well versed in this phenomenon, to the detriment of my landscaping.
Photo of my tobacco - OldDinosaur
Bob: I was out back checking, and my Bolivia Criollo plants are definitely more compact than the photos you have attached. My tallest is about 5 1/2 feet, and has produced (including primings) 24 or 25 leaves. They are still growing and have yet to produce a bloom head. The leaves are also...
Tobacco is not wind-pollinated, so really all you need to do is protect it from insects. Wedding veil, cheese cloth, paint strainer bags, etc. My preference is for Agribon AG-15, since I can purchase it is huge rolls, and sew bags of whatever size. For paint strainer bags, do buy the largest ones you can find. Some seed heads (though not those of Prilep) can totally fill a 15" x 24" bag.
Bob
Bob
wruk53
Well-Known Member
Update and a few new pics. The first pic is about 200 prilep leaves drying in the sun. They were yellowed in a box for 3-4 days prior to hanging. The third pic is ahus, the growth has been very uneven and some of the plants are extremely stunted. Fourth shows the prilep suckering at the base of the plants. Fifth, shows the first blooms appearing. The prilep is some kind of sticky! There are all kinds of tiny gnat sized insects that have become stuck and died all over the plants. I also found a stuck honey bee and a housefly.
This fall, I plan on growing mostly burley (Harrow Velvet), which is what I should have done with the spring crop, since I am a user of smokeless products. I plan on still growing at least a few prilep, they are such pretty plants and they do well in this environment. BTW, the first priming has dried and been placed in storage for aging. It really smells delicious already. Makes me want to buy a corncob pipe just to smell the smoke. I used to be a smoker, from the time I was about 12 until I was about 30. Then I started having pretty severe pain every time I inhaled cigarette smoke, so I switched to smokeless. I love the smell of cigar and pipe smoke, but it raises hell with my sinuses anymore.
This fall, I plan on growing mostly burley (Harrow Velvet), which is what I should have done with the spring crop, since I am a user of smokeless products. I plan on still growing at least a few prilep, they are such pretty plants and they do well in this environment. BTW, the first priming has dried and been placed in storage for aging. It really smells delicious already. Makes me want to buy a corncob pipe just to smell the smoke. I used to be a smoker, from the time I was about 12 until I was about 30. Then I started having pretty severe pain every time I inhaled cigarette smoke, so I switched to smokeless. I love the smell of cigar and pipe smoke, but it raises hell with my sinuses anymore.
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wruk53
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Primed about 200 leaves off my prilep today, put in box for yellowing. The first pic is my second priming after 4-5 days in the sun. The second one is after the third priming. I bagged one prilep flower head this morning with a five gallon paint strainer bag. My ahus are looking terrible, so much for it being an early strain, it was planted at the same time as the prilep and is not showing any signs of maturity and did not grow well to boot.
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My first comment about the second picture after the third priming (just sum them, then take the square root, to find the solution) is that Prilep is normally closely planted, so does well in surprisingly small pots. Ahus is expecting an actual field. I think the Ahus looks very good for potted. (My general impression is that full-size tobacco varieties grown in a pot grow to about 2/3 of their expected height, with leaves about 2/3 of their expected length. Oriental varieties seem to grow normally in a pot.)
Bob
Bob
wruk53
Well-Known Member
Could be that you're right, most likely you are, but I'm going to try it again this fall with some harrow velvet just to see if a different strain does better.
This is not Harrow Velvet, but is Havana 322 in the ground, vs in a pot.
When I grew Shirazi (said to be an Oriental, but really is a full-size variety from Shiraz, Iran) in a huge, 11 gallon pot, it similarly grew to about 2/3 the size of my in-ground Shirazi.
Bob
When I grew Shirazi (said to be an Oriental, but really is a full-size variety from Shiraz, Iran) in a huge, 11 gallon pot, it similarly grew to about 2/3 the size of my in-ground Shirazi.
Bob
wruk53
Well-Known Member
Thanks. That's good to know. I'll plan on planting many more plants to make up for the difference in size and yield.
wruk53
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wruk53
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I have two Prilep plants with open flowers on them, one has pink flowers, the other has lavender colored flowers. I've bagged both of them and if they both produce seeds, I'll try to do a small side by side grow to see if there are any differences. I don't know if this is common or not, just thought it was curious. Not the greatest pictures, but you can see the difference.
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wruk53
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False alarm, the one with pink flowers is now putting out lavender flowers.
