China Voodoo's 2016 grow blog

[ChinaVoodoo]

China say :

March 6. Planting day. 24 Costello Negro, 24 Helena, 24 Ternopolski-7, 24 Canik, 18 Lattaquie-92, 30 Yenidje. Total 144.

ChinaVooDoo, you think of 100 % of seedings, of 144 sowed(scattered), of 144 grown-up plants?


What surfaces of fields these 144 plants are going to represent?

I've planted an average of 4 seeds per cell, and i will choose the best performer from each cell, and cull the rest, so i guarantee I'll be planting the full 144. Last year out of 198, I didn't lose any at any point in the season.

 

[ChinaVoodoo]

What surfaces of fields these 144 plants are going to represent?

It's going to look something like this. The flue cured will be along the north fence from the west up to the middle of the front yard (east). The orientals will be the eastern portion of the north perimeter, the east perimeter, and the south line beside the house. The north and east lines will be 6' wide, and the south will be one meter wide. I'm planting the flue cured 2' apart, in two rows that are three feet from eachother. The orientals will be 8" apart with rows 16" apart.

 

[ChinaVoodoo]

I got terrible germination and need to reseed. Two weeks have gone by and maybe 10% of the seeds have sprouted. I think it's because of the heat mat. I turned it down after the first couple days because I felt 100 F was too hot. There's no actual thermostat on it. I hooked it up to a timer switch, and it's on 15 minutes every hour instead of full time. It's been at 75F ever since. Not off to a great start.

 

[DGBAMA]

Are your Trays covered? If not the seed dries easily and will not germinate properly.

 

[ProfessorPangloss]

You could make a float tray by drilling holes in a Styrofoam block and float it in a Tupper ware bin. Then you could move the sprouts with toothpicks into your cells. You could put the heat mat under the water and get more consistent heat and moisture. The seed will definitely sprout in this setup.

 

[ChinaVoodoo]

Are your Trays covered? If not the seed dries easily and will not germinate properly.

They are not covered. I had them covered previous years without a problem. The guy at the garden store advised against it. I think he was wrong.

 

[ChinaVoodoo]

You could make a float tray by drilling holes in a Styrofoam block and float it in a Tupper ware bin. Then you could move the sprouts with toothpicks into your cells. You could put the heat mat under the water and get more consistent heat and moisture. The seed will definitely sprout in this setup.

I think that's too much work, Sir. I'm almost there. Just need to try again and keep it moist.

 

[ChinaVoodoo]

Update.

I suspected there wasn't enough moisture on my seeds, so i started increasing it a couple days ago. Things have started to improve. In the last twelve hours, the sprout count has likely doubled. I have about half of the total number of plants that I'm hoping for. However, the Ternopolski 7 have not sprouted at all yet. I will probably plant some extra seed tonight just in case, but I may be fine. Just needed to increase the moisture.

 

[DGBAMA]

Good to hear.

 

[ChinaVoodoo]

There are tiny little crystals on my kilned Kumanovo. What is it? I posted a video because you see the sparkles better as it moves. Go high resolution.

 

[ChinaVoodoo]

I'm really worried about my plants. I'm going on vacation and took my plants too a friend's house. He had the lights about a foot away from his tobacco plants. They were tiny and the leaves were covered in maggots, and there were fruit flies or something like them all over. He was drowning them. (his excuse was the heated floor, even though the day we planted them we discussed putting insulation under the plants)

I know they're his plants, but I'm kinda pissed because he obviously hasn't listened to a word I've said or paid attention to my setup the last three years.

He wasn't home. I corrected his lighting situation, put insulation under the plants and drained all the water out. It had a strong ammonia smell.

What to do about the flies? He sprays the leaves with water every day as well. If he stops that, and given the lights are within an inch now, instead of a foot, do you think the flies will go away? Or do I need to advise him on chemicals of some kind. I don't want the infection to spread to my plants.

These were mine in the hallway before heading over to his place.

 

[Gavroche]

The flies lay, before the flies there are verses ... terrible, it is necessary to handle everything! Once his plants full of verses, the flies will lay somewhere else and thus on yours! ...

http://www.commentfaiton.com/fiche/...es-de-terreau-avec-un-insecticide-fait-maison

les mouches pondent, avant les mouches il y a les vers... terrible, il faut tout traiter! une fois ses plantes pleines de vers, les mouches pondront ailleurs et donc sur les vôtres !...

 

[deluxestogie]

...do I need to advise him on chemicals of some kind. I don't want the infection to spread to my plants.

Tiny plants that become infested with insects while still indoors are likely to be seriously stunted (delayed in reaching transplant size). I would suggest a single spraying of permethrin.

Bob

 

[ChinaVoodoo]

A friend mentioned concern that I hadn't updated my blog. I've been working 60hrs a week and just haven't had time.

When I got back from Puerto Rico, my friend hadn't killed my plants and they hadn't gotten infested with midges so it's all good. I can't speak for his tobacco though.

Puerto Rico was great. At a local shop, I met some gentlemen who have started their own cigar company. They are currently rolling imported tobacco, but have also started a farm to eventually produce American grown cigars. They were very hospitable guys. I happened to have some of my Frog Eye Orinoco on hand so I gave it to them. It was a real thrill to see a cigar rolling master roll cigarillos out of my homegrown. They gave me some of their piloto Cubano seed. I look forward to growing some next year.

When I got back, since I had just moved, there was a lot of work to do. I had two gigantic spruce trees removed, my nephew and I built some garden boxes for my veggies. My father in law brought the bobcat and we removed sod and mulch etc, for the tobacco, sea buckthorn, blueberries, grapes, potatoes and peas. I had ten yards of garden soil delivered. You get the picture.

My plants could have been bigger, but the roots look pretty good. It's rained way, way more than normal over the last few weeks, but now that it's cleared, things should take off. I can't complain about the rain because there was a 475,000 hectare fire in Alberta over the last month. Anyways, here's some photos.





I have 6 Ternopolski, 10 Ostrolist, 25 Helena, 24 Costello Negro, 30 Canik, 35 Yenidge, 10 Lattaquie 92, and 1 Nicotiana alata.

I planted the orientals in 12" rows with 12" spacing.

 

[ChinaVoodoo]

The fresh garden soil tested as having high nitrogen, so i only fertilized the ground underneath it which tested as very low. I used a product available here called Sea Soil compost. It's 2% nitrogen. I applied at a rate of 300g N / 100 square feet. The fresh soil tested as 7.0pH, while the soil underneath was 6.5. I added aluminum sulphate as well, but the excessive rain may have already washed it out. I'll do some more testing in a week or two.

 

[Chicken]

id throw some soil around the base of those plants....theres a lot of stem to the first leaf,

 

[ChinaVoodoo]

Will do. Some of them are already buried quite deep. Half of the seedlings were grown under t12 bulbs and even though they were touching the bulbs, ended up being all stretched out. It looks particularly bad because after a heavy rain, I picked more leaves off that I figured would just be a burden to the plants.

 

[ChinaVoodoo]

My plants sat almost dormant for a couple weeks, but the next two weeks are going to be nice, up in the mid 70s. And the beauty of being so far north is the long 17 hour days. Check out the 4:45am sky. We're in for some prime growing the next month.


Costello Negro in the foreground and closely planted Canik, yenidge and Lattaquie in the background.

 

[ChinaVoodoo]

Photo update :








Helena


Ostrolist(front), Ternopolski(back)

 

[ProfessorPangloss]

Soil setbacks to the contrary, you're killing it. Those are beautiful plants and you can enjoy the knowledge that you're building a lifetime worth of excellent soil.