Wruk53 2022 grow log

[deluxestogie]

If you look at the photos on the Northwood Seeds site, "Trabzon" and "Trabzon 2" appear to be the same petiolate, Samsun-like Oriental tobacco. Trabzon 2 bears no resemblance to bright leaf, which is a group of descendants of Orinoco, and always display a sessile leaf attachment to the stalk. I assume the two Trabzon varieties originally came from @polygon55. I would say they are the very same or nearly the same variety, both Orientals, and both with moderate nicotine levels.

My impression of the Trabzon that I have grown and sun-cured is that it is the most robust (flavor, nicotine, aroma) Oriental of the couple of dozen Oriental varieties I have grown or sampled. That might account for its being a decent stand-alone cigarette ingredient.

Bob

 

[wruk53]

Some random pics. Today is 18 weeks from germination and about 4-5 weeks from topping.
The leaf hanging on the porch are the first priming. The LD were a little more difficult to color cure. I may have primed them a little too early. I'm not a cigar guy, but they look as though they would make a good wrapper.
The 2 stalks hanging in the sun are T2, they were kind of sick looking, so I thought I would just put them directly in the sun and see how they cured. They are coloring up nicely so far.
The papayas are growing well, my dog broke one of them while he was chasing chickens out of the yard.
SSBM seed pods are starting to ripen.
The LD and SSBM will need another week or so before priming again. I think I'll let the T2 go for a few weeks and stalk harvest and sun cure them.
The frozen firebushes have made a good recovery and should flower soon.

 

[wruk53]

Continued from above.

 

[deluxestogie]

The tobacco looks wonderful (mind-boggling in April). Little Dutch was a common cigar wrapper for stogies. Marsh-Wheeling Deluxe Stogies "natural" wrappers were Little Dutch, until the early 2000s. The narrower leaf width and steep vein angle sometimes limit their wrapper use to cigars less than 40 ring.

Bob

 

[Kooky]

Perhaps try feeding them. I'm on my second batch after failing in FL. The first batch had leaves that yellowed quickly. This time after they got marginally bigger I decided to give them a foliar spray (this is controversial in method but worst case water washes it off into the soil thus their roots anyway). They're nice and green, at least the West Indies varietal. I have no experience with the ~7 other varietals as I either killed them or they are too small after resowing.

 

[wruk53]

Had 2.9 inches of rain yesterday and 1.25 today. Two weeks ago, we had 4 inches in 2 days also. I'm getting pretty antsy, there was a report of hail nearby. So, you know where this is leading, I'm probably going to prime the SSBM and LD tomorrow and I may go ahead and stalk harvest the Trabzon2. Looks like the 10 day forecast is favorable for color curing on the porch.

A few notes on the T2: When the leaves ripen, they turn more of a whitish color, rather than yellow and they do not develop the rugosity that other varieties do. The T2 that I harvested from the winter crop has been aging a few months and, to me, smells exactly like aged Prilep 66-9/7. It color cures very easily and varies from yellow, pale brown to medium brown and reddish colors. It does tend to sucker a lot more than other varieties I have grown.

The bottom SSBM leaves are turning yellow and are very stiff and thick. Probably will take 2 to 4 leaves from each plant.

The Little Dutch were the first to flower, but are slower to ripen than the other 2 varieties. Will probably take a least a few leaves from each plant tomorrow.

 

[Knucklehead]

What type of fertilizer do you use and what kind of container do you use for fertilizing the grow bags? I have a thirty gallon tank with garden hose fittings I'm thinking of rigging up to gravity feed with Miracle Grow.

 

[wruk53]

What type of fertilizer do you use and what kind of container do you use for fertilizing the grow bags? I have a thirty gallon tank with garden hose fittings I'm thinking of rigging up to gravity feed with Miracle Grow.

I'm currently using "Hydroponic Special" manufactured by Southern Ag. mixed with calcium nitrate and epsom salts. 4 parts hydroponic special, one part calcium nitrate and one part epsom salts. I eyeball about 2 tbsp of hydro special into a 5 gallon bucket and about a teaspoon each of the other ingredients, fill the bucket with water, mix well and pour about 8 ounces into each container every morning. If the day has been hot and dry, I'll give the plants a shot of well water in the late afternoon. Miracle Grow for tomatoes can be used in place of the hydro special, but it is much more expensive and will still need to be supplemented with the calcium nitrate and epsom salts. These instructions are for good sized plants, naturally you would need less amount of the solution for smaller plants. Keep in mind, that I'm using cypress mulch for my media. If you are using soil of some sort that already has nutrients in it, you may overfertilize using this mix daily.
I know it sounds like a kind of fiddly way of doing things, but it only takes me 15 or 20 minutes a day to water/feed 50/70 plants. I'm retired and have plenty of time to fart around and tend the plants daily. It would be difficult to automate this process if you are unable to tend them daily. All this is done by me, by hand, no automation.

 

[wruk53]

I stalk harvested the Trab2 and primed the LD and SSBM on the first. The greenest of the primed leaves is LD, probably should have waited another week on them. The heat and humidity have been very high, so I believe everything will color okay. I'll probably stalk harvest the rest of my crop in a week or so.

Papayas are doing good.

I plan on starting seeds around June 1st for a fall crop. I'm undecided on what I want to grow. I'm leaning towards growing mostly SSBM as a base tobacco for snus.

 

[wruk53]

Another color curing series. After seven days of color curing on the Lanai, I moved these Trabzon2 to the garage and turned on a fan for faster drying. The humidity has been very high for the last 10 days or so, but it looks like we may be in for some dryer air for a stretch after today.

 

[wruk53]

All my Spring crop is either hanging or bagged already. The papayas are growing well.

It was smoking hot today, my wife's car thermometer registered 98 degrees at about 4PM. I don't know how accurate it is, but it was very hot, that I do know.

I will start seeds for the fall crop around June 1st. I think I'll grow SSBM and Bucak. Bucak is a bright leaf type developed in Turkey from Virginia stock. It was gifted to me in my last seed order and is greatly appreciated.

 

[wruk53]

I started seeds this morning in my new winstrip72 tray. It's a little bit of a PIA to fill the cells. First, I tried filling it with the dry mix. That didn't work at all, so I moistened the mix with better results. The cells in this tray have a very large opening in the bottom, so I'm a little worried about what might happen if I attempt to water from the bottom later on. The idea behind the large opening is to provide more air flow so your mix doesn't stay waterlogged and also air prunes the roots. My understanding is that the wedge shape of the cells causes the medium to pack tightly enough at the bottom, so that it will stay put. Hope so, I will see.

I used a mixture of peat, perlite and vermiculite for my seed starter. I sowed 48 cells of SSBM and 24 cells of Bucak. If everything goes well, I should be able to plant out around mid to late July.

 

[willgodwin]

Looks like a Neversink windstrip tray? I am gonna upgrade and get some of their tools next season for sure.

 

[wruk53]

We had 8.5 inches of rain since Thursday night from the tropical system. It's already soaked into the ground though. We were a little behind on our rainfall for the year.

2 of my papayas are almost 4 feet tall and the one my dog broke is about 2 feet.

My tobacco seeds are sprouting good. So far, I have sprouts in all of the Bucak cells and 30 of the SSBM cells. The Bucak germed on day 4. The SSBM on day 5.

 

[wruk53]

Tobacco seedlings at 2 weeks from germination. The 24 cells on the left are Bucak, the rest are SSBM. I only had one cell out of 72 that I had to put in a transplant. I don't know why the plants are growing slower in the middle of the tray. They look healthy, just smaller. I should have bought a solid tray to nest the cell tray in, this setup is sort of messy for growing in a cabinet. I have one on order, should be here next week.

The papayas are growing well, I expect them to start flowering in a month or so.

My firebushes are in full bloom. The hummingbirds made it back the last week of May. I've been seeing males and females feeding daily since.

 

[wruk53]

Traveled up to Georgia this past weekend to visit my dad, he turned 86 this month. I gave detailed instructions to my wife concerning the care of my seedlings. I even placed a container of water near the cabinet for her. When I got back, none of the water had been used and the plants were almost dead. I trimmed off all the worst damage, so they don't look too bad now. About one more day without water and they would have been toast. I tried to get a front and side mug shot of the offender, but she became unruly and refused to cooperate.

Two of my papayas are almost 5 feet tall and beginning to bloom. Might have some ripe fruit in a few months.

I've been prepping my containers the last few days. I'm hoping to plant out by July 15th if not sooner.

 

[wruk53]

Mowed the lawn today and set up my containers. It was some kind of hot! I'm getting too old for this crap, I'm 68, will be 69 in December. It was a four-day project for me to fill all the containers and set it up. it's so damn hot that I can only put in a few hours per day early in the morning. I believe I'll cut it back by about a third for future crops. I spaced the containers 20" apart, center to center, staggered. 24 containers on each section of weed barrier.

 

[deluxestogie]

That is quite a project. 72 containers! That will be stunning to look at in a couple of months. In Cuba's tobacco growing regions, they don't even begin to prepare the soil until mid-September, because of the summer heat and frequency of storms.

Bob

 

[wruk53]

Turned my winter shirazi into flour this morning, 640 grams. The leaf was kilned for 6 weeks, then dried crispy dry and ground up and sieved. I need to grow some more shirazi soon, it smells fantastic after kilning. I have some trabzon2 kilning now. My plan is to blend these 2 varieties for snus.

I've been placing my seedlings in full sun for several hours each day. I plan on transplanting them on the 11th.

Papayas are doing good, the tallest one is about 5 and a half feet now.

 

[wruk53]

Finally had an afternoon without thundershowers, so I decided to transplant my seedlings.