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The Knucklehead way to Grow a Blog

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Knucklehead

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..."Did you like the taste of the Reams?"..

Yeah, it was pretty light and mild. Typical air cured bright leaf taste. Very good for a cigarette blend.

My Dixie Bright 27 is 7' tall now and 3/4 in bloom. Really nice looking plants. I grew it last year too. Reams 158 is shorter and broader. It blooms a week or 10 days earlier than Dixie Bright if I recall.

Gold Leaf 939 is becoming my favorite bright leaf Virginian type. I grew it last year and was pretty impressed by it. This years plants are fantastic looking. It has very uniform growth, is a heavy producer and turns a golden yellow as it ripens. Every plant in the row came into bloom in a week at 65 days average. They are all right at 6' now to the top of the flower and just starting to ripen. It also stands up well to heavy wind and rain. Last weekend we had big thunder storms. Lots of rain, wind and a lightning show like I never saw before. The next morning we had about 400 plants down. Spent half the day standing them back up. But not one of the Gold Leafs went down. I'd like to try the GL747 and see how they compare.

Sorry. I wrote it down wrong. I have GL 939, GL 737, and GL 973. I don't have GL 747 and there may not be such a thing, I hit the wrong button. I'll save you a taste of the GL 737 and 973.
 

Knucklehead

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I wood get rid of the ground cover to. Stir up the ground around them. They mite be smotherin from rain packed dirt.

This seed grow out patch is the only one without compacted soil. It's much better dirt. I can still dig in it with my hands. The wrapper patch is on the mountain where my house is. It's all red clay. When we dug my basement, we didn't come out of it, red clay all the way down. The first patch ended up being one of the spots we pulled waste dirt out of the bottom of the pond when we were digging it to fill in low places. It's creek gravel, gray clay and dirt. I lost track of where we put some of the waste dirt. The rest of the area is really nice top soil 6' deep. The lower grow out patch is in the good dirt. I'm still going to add amendments to it this fall and till it all in and plant crimson clover. The other patches will be abandoned for tobacco. I have another large patch on my hunting lease right behind the house I haven't used yet. It has good dirt that drains well. I thought they were going to do some logging there this year but they didn't. It's amazing at the variety of dirt I have just 100 yards apart. My side of the hill is red clay, right over the ridge is a light colored fluffy kind of soil with excellent drainage. At the bottom of the hill around the pond is nice bottom land topsoil (except where we filled with waste dirt from the pond).
 

Knucklehead

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Overcast all day. Many of the wilted plants have perked up quite a bit. The others show signs of recovery. Oh, happy day.
 

Knucklehead

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It's proof that plants are smarter than people.

Bob

HA! I'm as smart as a plant then. I wrap my arms around my head when a jet skims the tree tops. There's a red and white F-18 comes over every day, sometimes twice, he thinks it's funny. Some crazy white guy laughing at me. I looked up the color scheme, he's from the US Navy Test Pilot School.
 

skychaser

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GL 939 was released in 1992. It is a conventional variety developed by Gold Leaf Seed Company, Hartsville, SC from a cross between McNair 926 (K 326) and a breeding line. It has moderate resistance to black shank and high resistance to Granville wilt. Plant height, leaf spacing on the stalk, and days to flower are similar to those of K 326. GL 939 has average yields of mostly medium bodied orange tobacco.

GL 737 was released by Gold Leaf Seed Company in 1999. It was developed from ‘NC 1071 / Coker 319’. It has very high resistance to black shank race 0 and good resistance to root-knot nematode.

GL 973 was released in 2000. I can find little info on it other than that it is a hybrid. It may be sterile. Also, GL 737 and GL 973 might still be protected plants. I have seen varieties protected for up to 18 years after their release.
 

Knucklehead

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GL 939 was released in 1992. It is a conventional variety developed by Gold Leaf Seed Company, Hartsville, SC from a cross between McNair 926 (K 326) and a breeding line. It has moderate resistance to black shank and high resistance to Granville wilt. Plant height, leaf spacing on the stalk, and days to flower are similar to those of K 326. GL 939 has average yields of mostly medium bodied orange tobacco.

GL 737 was released by Gold Leaf Seed Company in 1999. It was developed from ‘NC 1071 / Coker 319’. It has very high resistance to black shank race 0 and good resistance to root-knot nematode.

GL 973 was released in 2000. I can find little info on it other than that it is a hybrid. It may be sterile. Also, GL 737 and GL 973 might still be protected plants. I have seen varieties protected for up to 18 years after their release.

All three varieties were from Doug. He had labeled all the hybrids and GL 973 was not labeled as such. It was last grown out several years ago and is one I'm growing this year. Germination was excellent. All the plants I'm growing out this year were last grown out between 2001 - 2005. It falls in there somewhere, I would have to look at my notes to get the exact year.

How would the protected plant status affect the home grower? We keep a sharp eye out for the revenoors out here. lol.
 

Knucklehead

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I'd rip that fabric out of there. Go old school and use a hoe to kill weeds. It also helps keep the soil loose and airiated. Mound it up towards the plants as you go and make a "hill" down the row.

This year has been one thing after another health wise. I'm going into my fourth month taking antibiotics. The sun and heat make me sick. Even in the evenings I work awhile and puke awhile. The fabric has saved me alot of time in the bushes. This whole season has been sheer will power. I haven't wanted to be a complainer, but there's been more than the weather against me this year. But by golly I'm going to make a crop!
 

skychaser

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How would the protected plant status affect the home grower?

I got my original GL 939 seed from Doug too.

Not sure how a protected plant affects a home grower. That might be a good question for Jessica. Since it is essentially like a patent or copyright, I suppose the company who owns it could sue you for distributing their seed. Not likely they would bother with the little guys who are sharing seed. But someone like me needs to be aware of and stay away from growing protected varieties.
 

DGBAMA

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I would think personal use would not matter, but selling seed w/o permission or selling product grown from free/unlicensed seed would be bad.
 

deluxestogie

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The licenses on proprietary tobacco tends to run for a fixed period of years, like 7 or 10 or 15. You may be able to determine if the license is still in effect.

Bob
 

Knucklehead

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I'm getting slow, steady all day drizzle of rain today. Perfect for melting in the fertilizer on my frenching wrapper varieties. They were scheduled for a fertilizing. To save fertilizer I lightly sprinkle a 12" diameter of fertilizer around each individual plant at transplant, then I come back 2-3 weeks later and fertilize a 4' swath down the whole row.

My wilted plants are all recovered now. I just need to pick a few dead and dying leaves from the base of each plant and I'm good to go. Most of the GRIN Orientals are budding and are being bagged right before they flower. These will be available through your local branch of the FTT Seed Bank drive through window. :)
 

DonH

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Glad to hear your wilted ones recovered. How many plants do you have total? Even if they only grow half as much due to the bad weather, you could end up with a whole lot of tobacco.
 

Knucklehead

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I'm guessing 350+. Too many for a first year. I'll have a lot of leaf, but from close to 70 different varieties. Alot of taste and sample stuff. Keeping it all separate will be a fun project. My Burley and Virginia will make a good crop, but not the two years worth I was shooting for. I'm hoping to add over 60 new varieties to the FTT seed bank.

This winter I'll work on a kiln and a cozy can.
 

DGBAMA

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Stay tuned.......I intended to air cure only first year......keep it simple. Our weather got me thinking that may not be possible. Rain all day gave me too much time in the shop.

Glad your plants are recovering.
 

Knucklehead

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Stay tuned.......I intended to air cure only first year......keep it simple. Our weather got me thinking that may not be possible. Rain all day gave me too much time in the shop.

Glad your plants are recovering.

Rained all day and so far all night. I'm watching your kiln build. I may do something like that until a freezer falls in my lap. Great idea! Check it out guys: http://wholeleaftobaccollc.com/forum/showthread.php?3064-DGBAMA-Redneck-Curing-Chamber-Build
 
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