rstilljohn
Member
Hello my name is John (rstilljohn) and I am located in Frederick, Maryland, USA. I began in 2023 growing tobacco. 2023 I grew VA 116, Black Sea Samsun, Maryland 609, KY 8635 and TN Redleaf. Learned about spacing of plants by being too close and making weed control and pest control difficult. It was late season that I found Fair Trade Tobacco and further identified likely over fertilization seemingly causing most of the crop to finish late. Since I was air color curing in my garage the temperatures were beginning to drop in September as I was priming leaf that was aphid and white mealy bug infested. Carefully using a paint brush to clean the leaf before hanging became more work than I was willing to continue with. Even with all of the errors, I finally built my kiln in February 2025 and sorta haphazardly threw the mixed up color cured 2023 leaf in. Interestingly, even under the color curing conditions mentioned earlier it had done well. Then I let it in the kiln for 3 months (later reading that longer is not needed or better). Despite everything, it was terrific to shred and smoke. I missed the 2024 season due to family member health issues that spring. In 2025 as I was getting the kiln running for the 2023 leaf, I also started seeds to grow again. This time providing 4 feet between plants and 5 feet between rows and using straw to control the weeds I had a very successful 75 plant harvest. I really am not sure this is actually what I was supposed to do as an introduction, but hopefully it will do.
