FrostD’s 2023 Grow Blog

[deluxestogie]

The hard part of sewing is remembering how to thread the top of the machine, and to fill and route the bobbin thread. It doesn't need heavy thread.

With polyethylene mesh fabric, I would suggest a straight stitch at about 8 stitches per inch, with the tag extending into the bag. Only one line of stitches. Then turn inside out. If you overstitch it, the PE fabric may break. If it stretches on the plant, it may break—so make it a generous size.

Bob

 

[FrostD]

The hard part of sewing is remembering how to thread the top of the machine, and to fill and route the bobbin thread. It doesn't need heavy thread.

With polyethylene mesh fabric, I would suggest a straight stitch at about 8 stitches per inch, with the tag extending into the bag. Only one line of stitches. Then turn inside out. If you overstitch it, the PE fabric may break. If it stretches on the plant, it may break—so make it a generous size.

Bob

Got it! Thanks Bob! Fingers crossed on my sewing skills! I was planning on going with 30” tall x 48” wide and then folding it over to make the bag and stitch it up. With an end size of 30” tall x 24” wide as per your picture in “Grow Your Own Cigars”.

 

[FrostD]

Ok… let’s just say… seeing is definitely not my forte. Managed to see this thing up. Had to stitch a second line since some of the first line came undone. Also, I sewed a line when there wasn’t any thread being fed through. If anyone has links to pre made bags for this sort of thing, I may just buy bags. To collect seed or just not collect seed at all. I also may just be frustrated from my first attempt at making a bag. Lol. Threads sticking out inside the bag but at this point, don’t care. It’s in the inside. Also stitched the opening section back about an inch to an inch and a 1/2 to try to make it cleaner. Dimensions are 22” ish long x 22 1/2” ish long. Let’s see if I can’t mess up bagging this blasted plant before I scrap seed collecting altogether and just keep buying seeds. Which I probably won’t do until I use up all this blasted material. Ugh. I know things take time and repetition. I spent all night last night looking up specific videos for my lady’s sewing machine since she forgot how to use it. Fingers crossed folks.

 

[FrostD]

Before:


After:


Edit: I said screw it on the tag since I have no clue how to stitch the sun of a gun to stay without it coming out. Have labels on each pot. At this point assuming I’ll add a tag when or if this thing will produce seeds.

 

[Knucklehead]

If anyone has links to pre made bags for this sort of thing, I may just buy bags.

I use 5 gal paint strainer bags. Mine don't have the elastic, if the elastic is fiddly, I think you could just trim it off.

https://www.amazon.com/uxcell-Strainer-Elastic-Opening-Buckets/dp/B09LCKQP71/ref=sr_1_3?crid=1MLNXCG3JDC9D&keywords=5+gal+paint+strainers&qid=1689903440&refinements=p_89%3Auxcell&rnid=2528832011&s=hi&sprefix=5+gal+paint%2Caps%2C2966&sr=1-3

edit: you can also get them at Ace, Lowe's, Home Depot, or paint stores.

 

[deluxestogie]

Fingers crossed folks.

Your bag looks fine. Congratulations.

Bob

 

[Knucklehead]

Before:
View attachment 47198

If a flower does open before you are ready, just pull off the flower and the seed pod that is attached to the flower. It won't affect the other pods.

 

[FrostD]

If a flower does open before you are ready, just pull off the flower and the seed pod that is attached to the flower. It won't affect the other pods.

Good to know as well! Thank you @deluxestogie & @Knucklehead for the feedback and advice. I think I was just frustrated at my first attempt at making the bags. It’s a new day today! Onto the next one! Lol. “Practice makes perfect”!

 

[FrostD]

Pumped out 3 more bags today! Couldn’t give up so easily on them. Lol. All 3 are roughly 22”-24” long x 27”-28” wide. Double stitched ends to reinforce. Pretty sure these should work for the 3 other plants I plan on collecting seed this year. All said and done… really not too difficult. Most difficult part is cutting up the garden netting. Trying to stretch out an 8’ x 33’ net to fold in half and cut w/o getting tons of net strands all over is definitely an art! Ha ha ha

 

[deluxestogie]

You are now an honorary graduate of Home Economics. Next up...buy some unbleached muslin, and sew yourself a pullover, hippie shirt.

Bob

 

[FrostD]

1 Day shy of week 19 from seed. Wagered from the garden hose this afternoon due to uncertainty of rain on the horizen. Rain came and definitely helped! Knocked down a few plants in solo cups, but oh well. Put them back up of course. Got to enjoy a buddies cigar this afternoon with some Cuban, Panamanian, and Jamaican rum. CT BL wrapper, Nicaraguan & Honduran binder & fillers. Decent stick. Not harsh at all and a decent retro that wasn’t nasally burning. Smooth all the way through. I assumed from all the Viso.


Garden pics:
More flowering sites are starting to come up on the Habano 2000 more so over the other varieties. “Cuban Criollo” has been an aphid magnet! Mixed some Castile soap with some tap water in a spray bottle and sprayed the red aphids on 1 plant at least once per day that was swarmed pretty good. Only other plant close by that had green aphids was another “Cuban Criollo”. Sprayed this one too with tap water and Castile soap mixed. Watered all plants earlier I
In Anticipation today and sprayed off any aphids on the 2 plants and the soap and water mix worked pretty good. It did end up raining lightly a couple times within the last couple hours which helped.











Potentially thinking about transplanting a couple in the solo cups into bigger pots once others have completed.

 

[FrostD]

Went out this evening to do some aphid spraying with mix of water & Castile soap in a spray bottle. I’ve been tending to do this at night, right around when the sun is going down and not intensely hitting the plant I plan on spraying. In the morning when I water (around 8:00-10:00ish AM CST), I rinse the dead aphids off. They’ve been coming more so on the top leaves. The CT Shade & CT Broadleaf seem to have some sort of aphid resistance. Haven’t found much, if any on them. Habano 2000 had a few. Criollo was attacked much harder.

Did some topping tonight as well on 2 more Habano 2000 plants. Some bottom leaf on some plants seem to be ready to prime or getting there. I keep debating on pulling some leaf off or stalk harvesting. Some of the tall plants I may not have clearance to hang as a whole plant. We will see when the time comes. Did pick up a clothes drying rack that I can put outside for some leaf or keep it in our sunroom for the time being for it to color cure.

Bagged Habano 2000 (I see at least 3 open flowers):




2x Habano 2000 flowering and topped a few minutes ago. Pretty flowers for sure! May let a plant go full flower, just to see for myself in person. Tried snapping flowers off with my finger tips. Ended up having to sterilize some scissors and cut off.

 

[FrostD]

In anticipation of rain that’s supposed to come early tomorrow morning, my lady helped me pull and tag up some “mud lugs” or bottom leaf that showed yellowing &/or ones I felt that wouldn’t be able to withstand a rain storm. Perhaps they may have, but I always try to error on the side of caution. Still have some leaf on some plants that are tattered or have some holes on them, but if they end up becoming victims of the storm…. I’ll just tear em off tomorrow. 26 leaves pulled. After the storm, will be bringing this new clothes drying rack outside to sun cure since it’s been so hot and humid as of late.

 

[Knucklehead]

In anticipation of rain that’s supposed to come early tomorrow morning, my lady helped me pull and tag up some “mud lugs” or bottom leaf that showed yellowing &/or ones I felt that wouldn’t be able to withstand a rain storm. Perhaps they may have, but I always try to error on the side of caution. Still have some leaf on some plants that are tattered or have some holes on them, but if they end up becoming victims of the storm…. I’ll just tear em off tomorrow. 26 leaves pulled. After the storm, will be bringing this new clothes drying rack outside to sun cure since it’s been so hot and humid as of late.

View attachment 47312
View attachment 47313

Cigar varieties are traditionally air cured. I'm not sure of the finished result if you sun cure them. I've never tried it. I would not only worry that they wouldn't taste like cigar leaf but they may also be more prone to sun burn.
Virginia varieties and Orientals can be air cured, sun cured, or flue cured. The others are traditionally air cured.
I'm currently sun curing a Virginia variety this year. Bob is sun curing his Xanthi Yaka orientals but is air curing his cigar varieties in his shed.
I'm experiencing high humidity also. My sun curing has slowed down and I have to bring the leaf inside at night. Humidity has been really shooting up at night. I also have spread the leaf further apart. A fan may also be necessary if humidity remains high.

 

[Knucklehead]

Bob just posted this in another thread:

Absolute noob question regarding color curing

Ok, so despite reading lots of posts about curing, color curing, yellowing, and the various curing methods and a number of various tobacco variety decriptions associated with the curing process they are particularly suited to, I guess I had sort of missed a crucial detail here, in that the...

fairtradetobacco.com

 

[deluxestogie]

Cigar varieties are traditionally air cured. I'm not sure of the finished result if you sun cure them.

Cigar varieties are not very tasty when sun-cured. White-stem burley varieties are ruined by sun-curing. So I agree, sun-curing is suitable only for bright leaf varieties and Orientals (and some "dark sun-cured" varieties from Timor-Leste).

Bob

 

[FrostD]

Thank you @Knucklehead & @deluxestogie ! I’ll make sure to keep them inside in the sun room or in the basement that I have wire setup for after they dry out to a yellow or brown color. After all is harvested, I’ll most likely keep in the basement anyways for the time being.

One question I have pondering, is if I decide to build a kiln, it would most likely be this winter if I do. I have so many other projects and blends to work on, that I’m not even sure it will be this year. However, has anyone tried kilning leave that’s color cured within the last year to 3 years or so? I just want to eventually make sure the leaf can be used at some point. My meekly harvest from last year I took down from hanging a couple weeks ago. Rehumidified to lay flat and lay in zip lock bags after they dried out a little bit to prevent mold. I have enough leaf from WLT to last me for quite some time, but eventually want to get to rolling some of my own. Just want to make sure it’s smokable. I’m assuming there is multiple factors involved and assume that a kiln is the best & fastest way to achieve this.

 

[deluxestogie]

You can kiln any leaf of any age, once it has fully color-cured. The past few years, my harvest tends to hang in the shed until early the following summer, before being stripped and stored. Then, at some arbitrary point, it goes into the kiln for 2 months. The kilning is simply accelerating the natural aging process from wherever it is prior to kilning into leaf that seems to have aged another year or two. I have some unkilned, stored leaf that I grew over 10 years ago. I will not bother to ever kiln it, since it is already well aged.

Building a kiln is a one weekend project. Buy the components on Friday, then have a functional kiln by Sunday evening.

Bob

 

[FrostD]

Had a little rain this morning before the sun came up, so held off on watering the garden. Looks like some gnarly weather coming soon & a bit later in the evening as well that’s going to be swinging through. Forecast calls for some strong storms, high winds, hail, and possibly a tornado. We will see if the weather people are right. I always feel like it’s flipping a coin with them.

Snapped some pics about an hour ago. Planning on leaving all my plants outside and may do some leaf priming this weekend.

A few topped Habano 2000


Perhaps some weather speck or sun scald:


Topped Criollo


Topped criollo & bags over a Criollo & Habano 2000. Also a CT Shade plant that’s taller than me, that I’m going to bag the bud head after the storms and once they dry up from the rain. Don’t mind the sad cucumber plants that are over heated. Too much heat here this week!





Rest of the Tobacco plants:





Solo cup babies growing nicely. However, wind loves to push them around and knock ‘em down.

Mud lugs/bottom leaves coming along

 

[FrostD]

Week 20 from seed today! Friday night we had a strong thunder, rain, hail & (potential) hail storm. Strong winds, tornado warning, and a flash flood warning! Was a righteous evening for sure! Only lost 4 leaves that came off plants. Tattered others still on plants, but also tipped over 60% of total plants (another good reason to use LARGE pots or 5 gallon buckets). Staked up 2 more plants that didn’t want to stay upright after the storm and added additional plant ties to others that are getting 6’+.

Today- primed some lower leaves that looked to be ready (I hope), started showing signs of yellowing or were a little tattered. Bagged a 3rd plant to collect seed from today which was the CT Shade (ripped off some small leaves at the top to get an adequate amount of space to wrap and tie bag around the bud head). Also have Habano 2000 & Criollo bagged. Just waiting on some CTBL plants to start flowering before putting up last bag. I already know which plant it’s going to be, which helps. Topped 2 more plants. Also, brought my clothes rack with primed leaf outside into the shade, since the humidity is higher outside than in my sunroom. Tried placing leaf on the rack closer together to try to prevent flash drying green, which I have a feeling some of the leaf I picked over the last week or so, may be very close to flash drying green. I’m considering placing a tub of water under the leaf, when I bring the drying rack into the sunroom for the evening to help increase humidity. Just ran out of paper clips for hanging leaf, so need to get some more &/or metal wire to string up leaf or use an unused metal clothes hanger to wire more up.

Pics:





Topped buds (1x Habano 2000 & 1x Criollo):


Habano 2000 bagged head. Tons of flowers! A couple fell off:


Drying rack: