Wombat's 2026 Grow Log

[Wombat_smokes]

Today, I sorted and thrashed most of my loose Åhus leaves. One more batch to go. I also still have 4 stalk cured plants to process. I am sorting the Åhus as wrapper/binder, filler & snus (stems and leaves not worth smoking).

My first priming of One Sucker has cured to a light brown. The late season crop is doing very well.

 

[Wombat_smokes]

Today, I stalk cut the Düzce, Trabzon, and Yellow Pryor. All are hung to sun cure on the stalk.
Düzce

Trabzon


I also primed the Frog Eye Orinoco; removing all leaves below the crow's foot of suckers. Those are the last of the "original" stalk's leaves. Only the suckers remain, and I will harvest them when ripened.

My late season One Sucker and Small Stalk Black Mammoth are growing well.

One Sucker

Small Stalk Black Mammoth


The bad news: I'm finding black goo on the edge and tips of some leaves. Have any of you noticed this on your plants?

I'm hoping its oxidized oils/resins (like pine sap) or insect frass.

Otherwise, everything is good. The Semois, original One Sucker, Little Dutch, & original Small Stalk Black Mammoth are showing signs of rugose upper leaves. Stalk harvesting is near; however, I might need to prime some of them due to space.

 

[deluxestogie]

black goo on the edge and tips of some leaves

Might they have inadvertently brushed against a barbeque grill?

Bob

 

[Wombat_smokes]

No. My tobacco patch is almost 150 ft from a grill. I've seen small, black droplets of this on my Orinoco. Thinking it was mold, I pinched it of and moved on. Now I'm seeing long lines on leaf edges with moderate sun exposure.

 

[Wombat_smokes]

Here are a few more photos of samples I found while stacking my Frog Eye Orinoco this morning. I encountered these in the inner lamina as small circles, streaks, and dew drops.



The two most "harmless" theories are vascular pest feeding and excess water in the plant.

Pest Theory: Vascular pests feed on tissues that transport nutrients rich "sap/water" through the plant. Such pests include aphids. The black substance is a) oxidised honeydew, or b) sap excreted from the puncture made by insects.

Excess Water Theory: tomato fruits often split when they receive excess water after the fruit has ended its growth stage. Much like humans and stretch marks (scaring of the skin from cutaneous fat deposits formed faster than the skin can stretch). In this case, the sap leaks out of the small, capillary like structures when they rupture. This may have happened from our recent monsoon rains and/or leaving the extra watering to help my plants cope with the 100 degree summer weather. Temps have since begun to drop and I've reduced the water to bare minimum.

Why is it black? Oxidation. When we make Cavendish, snus, or perique; the nicotine, resins, and oils oxidise to a black color.

The worst possible theory: early fungal rot. The sap from the aforementioned theories provides a tasty soup for fungi to grow. Also, insect frass (poop) can mix with rain water or humidity trapped between leaves and cause the rot.

Given the presence of the black substance on leaf tips and edges that receive full sun, I am in favor of the excess water theory. However, out of caution, I removed most of the affected lamina.

Here is my pilon of Frog Eye Orinoco

 

[Wombat_smokes]

Another batch of Åhus sorted and threshed (stems removed)

 

[Wombat_smokes]

Last week Sunday, I primed a bit of Shargo. The leaves stacked tall and have colored nicely. I've been hanging mostly yellowed leaves on my new stringer system. I'm using 14 gauge galvanized utility wire. The wire is easily bent by hand, but despite the 75 pound working load; it is easily bent by the weight of the leaves.

Last time, I strung the Shargo tight - leaves touching leaves - to retain moisture and prevent drying green. This time, I'm leaving 0.5 inch spaces to let the excess moisture out. So far, my leaves are continuing to color nicely. In the background are the Frog Eye Orinoco.

I also stripped my stalk cut, sun curing plants - Yellow Pryor, Düzce and Trabzon - Last Sunday. The rains we had that weekend gave me free water to handle high case leaves. I put these in my brown paper grocery bags. Some leaves were still in need of stem drying, but I chose to let them air dry in the bags. A quick check shows they have not grown mold and are now bone dry.

 

[Wombat_smokes]

Last week, I harvested all of my Little Dutch and another bushel of Frog Eye Orinoco. Cool weather is on the way - upper 60's; low40's - so I'm eager to get all plants harvested before a killing frost gets here.
Frog Eye Orinoco

Little Dutch

The Little Dutch is not as mature as I thought, and is taking longer than my Brightleaf to color. I turn the pile every morning and had to toss 2 tiny leaves that were drying green. I've made 1 new stringer and have a stringer of my 1st priming. If I get only these leaves, I will be content to I have a successful sampler.

My 2nd priming of Shargo has turned out better. The high temps (90°F - 95°F) and humidity (30% - 40%) in my shed combined with no air space between the leaves REALLY led to serious barn rot. Lower temps (70°F - 78°F) with the same humidity (30% - 35%) and 1/4 - 1/2 inch of space has allowed good curing.

Two 24 inch stringers of Frog Eye Orinoco

I am disappointed that temperatures are no longer conducive for sun curing, but I am glad I won't loose leaf mass to wind.

Nearly all of the sun cured Düzce and Yellow Pryor have been stripped from their stalks. Some of the Yellow Pryor was showing signs of mold on the stems, so I frog-legged the leaves as I stripped them from the stalk. Trabzon is all stripped. My late season One Sucker and Small Stalk Black Mammoth are growing well. I bagged 2 One Sucker flower heads.

Small Stalk Black Mammoth & Izmir-Ege sucker

We'll see how well things mature with the drop in temps. I expect my remaining plants to all mature quickly as day light is now less than 12 hours.

 

[Wombat_smokes]

My pile of Frog Eye Orinoco is 66% yellowed and 33% of my Little Dutch is hanging. I am, however, out of space to dry my tobacco... so I made some room somewhere else!



This is my chicken feed storage shed - attached, but separated from my chicken coop. Because this is shed has NO ventilation, I only put " bone dry" leaf in. Frog Eye Orinoco, Shargo, and Little Dutch filled the three hangers I installed (48 inches long and spaced so leaves barely touch between rows).

 

[Wombat_smokes]

Most of my Frog Eye Orinoco is now hung. Little Dutch still has a good amount of green leaves. When I checked on my plants still to be harvested, I primed a small Semois that was ready to harvest. Two Orinoco leaves showed mold. One was salvaged (pull of the moldy bit, the other was too small to bother with. Temperatures have fallen to 65°F - 78°F in my shed, but the humidity remains in the low 30's. It's a dangerous time. Too cold for fast coloring, low enough humidity for leaves to dry green, and just right for mold to set in before a full cure is reached. Fingers crossed the hanging leaves reach full brown.

 

[Wombat_smokes]

First of all.... NEVER pick wet leaves! Rain, dew, frost.... you'll fight mold and maybe loose if they don't dry off properly.

This morning, I panic harvested half of my late season Onesucker. It is hap hazardly layed out to let the 35°F dew dry off as they wilt. I'll need to work hard at this since I didn't have enough space to lay them 1 layer thick, and I'm concerned they'd start drying green strung up. Most leaves are VERY rugose and starting to color change.

 

[bbfarmky]

First of all.... NEVER pick wet leaves! Rain, dew, frost.... you'll fight mold and maybe loose if they don't dry off properly.

This morning, I panic harvested half of my late season Onesucker. It is hap hazardly layed out to let the 35°F dew dry off as they wilt. I'll need to work hard at this since I didn't have enough space to lay them 1 layer thick, and I'm concerned they'd start drying green strung up. Most leaves are VERY rugose and starting to color change.
View attachment 61348

I wonder if laying them out on a table with a couple heat lamps hanging high above would cook off the dew without any damaging effects?

Might have to hang the lights way high to play with.

Not sure if that would be a brilliant idea or a moronic idea.

 

[StoneCarver]

I wonder if laying them out on a table with a couple heat lamps hanging high above would cook off the dew without any damaging effects?

Or if the table you laid the leaves on were a kotatsu.
I'm pretty sure the idea would be a moronic one if not stupidly silly as the tobacco would probably be dried to a crisp in the process before color curing.

I resorted to washing my leaves of tobacco before stringing up to color cure as they were totally covered with aphids. I didn't have any problems with mold. I strung up the leaves whilst the leaves were still dripping wet from being washed. The trick was to take the leaves out of my high humidity basement immediately once they were color cured and put them in a very dry room in the living space of my house.

 

[Wombat_smokes]

My One Sucker dried off as desired. The bottom two layers are still wet, but I was able to lay them out as one layer to finish drying.

The slight red tint in the light is a 200W heat lamp I'm using to keep my shed warm. I've been able to maintain temps in the 70's, but the humidity is stable in the 30's.

When working with wet leaves, the most important thing is to provide the leaves a way to dry out. Do not let wet leaves touch together as much as possible. Stalk curing is the most risky in this situation as the leaves will droop and stick together. I cleaned out my chicken brooder coop (where I raise new chicks) so I could hang Tofta, Düzce, Semois, & early planted One Sucker. This plants had a decent dew still on them even though I harvested around 11 AM. I new I was taking a big risk, but decided to hope for the best. I'm using two 200W heat lamps to keep temps warm enough to leather these stalks cure. So far so good, but I can't look between the leaves since I left no space to walk between the rows of plants.
The One Sucker is laid out on an old gate made with 1/4 inch hardware cloth (metal mesh), so there is some ventilation under the leaves.


In the feild, I still have a late crop of Herzegovina Flor & Small Stalk Black Mammoth. I also have a sucker crop of Anatolian, , Trabzon, Frog Eye Orinoco, Trabzon #2, and Shargo. I'm not too concerned with the sucker crops, but the extra volume of product would be nice; especially since the Anatolian has leaves 10 times bigger than the primary crop.

 

[Wombat_smokes]

Yesterday, I made a rather poor choice..... I harvested all of the Small Stalk Black Mammoth. This is not a poor choice due to ripeness of the leaf, but I am VERY short on space to pile-cure my remaining plants.

I made this decision because cold weather is creeping up on me. I saw nighttime lows of 34°F. While I'm confident my tobacco would survive, I don't want 34°F to be an unexpected 32°F.

I primed all leaf positions except for the last two. We'll see how they fair. I stacked the large, thick leaves into 3 piles.



After 24 hours wilting, I was able to combine into two piles. 1 pile of "greens" (mature, rugose leaves starting to lighten/yellow) and 1 small pile of "yellow" (from 2 small plants that weren't growing as strong as the rest).

 

[Wombat_smokes]

The One Sucker and Small Stalk Black Mammoth are curing well. The SSBM is showing signs of coloring on almost all leaves while I'm seperating yellowed One Sucker from leaves that are still color curing.

I checked on my stringers of Shargo. Mold is starting on the mid ribs. They're strung too close together and need to be spread out. A project that will have to wait for tomorrow as I need to make more wire stringers to give them space. Thick leaves known to take extra time to dry down MUST have planty of air space between them.

 

[Wombat_smokes]

Shargo, a Burley - Oriental hybrid, mold rescue: Stringer No. 1

I am fortunate that I caught this infestation early. All mold was limited to the stems with minor lamina infection. All leaves were treated with a 75% solution of Hydrogen Peroxide. I also wipes down the metal stringer with 70% Isopropyl Alcohol.

Before we proceed with details of the operation, remember, YOU DID NOTHING WRONG to cause any contamination of your tobacco. Mold naturally occurs in nature. Just like wine making yeasts grow wild on grapes and the yeast & bacteria that make sourdough are ever present in our homes, the mold spore are already in/on your tobacco. Your only error - bad storage with too much moisture.

Now, on with the details...

My Shargo was in various stages of coloring and drying. Some stems were still yellow, some were drying nicely, and some were at the moist, mushy brown stage before drying out.

Nearly all of the leaves had the base of their stems dried out. This causes stem drying to slow down as the moisture can't wick up the stem for evaporation. The leaves are in a state of dehydration not unlike a large chunk of pork shoulder in a smoker - the eternity it takes for you roast to go from 165°F to 200°F.

Only 19 out of 58 leaves were actively showing fruiting bodies of mold - the fuzzy part we can observe. A 33% infection rate.


I topped up my half full, normal 50% Peroxide solution with fresh 2% Peroxide; yeilding ~75% solution. I sprayed the tops first and let the peroxide do its thing. While I waited, I restrung the 39 good leaves with 1/2 in space between each leaf.

Where there is fizz, ther is mold. I then wiped down the stems & affected lamina with a paper towel moistened with the peroxide solution. Note: the above leaf is NOT green, my red heat lamp altered the color balance.

To help the treated leaves come back down to low case, I left them layed out on the screen. I did not have time to wipe down the underside of the leaves, but I did spray them. I'll wipe them down when I can get back to it.

As an observation, there is a "safe" & undafe midrib state. A vibrant yellow stem (and lamina) is less likely to mold. After browning, stems and lamina are most at risk of molding in the presence of moisture. Remember: low case will not mold, medium case could mold under the right conditions, and high case or above will mold; so stay vigilant as you dry down your leaves.

Healthy yellow midrib


At risk, brown, mushy stem - browned, but not dried


A sample of NOT mold. These are the tiny hairs on you tobacco leaves

 

[Wombat_smokes]

By the by.... my 34°F morning low yielded a decent, light frost.