Cangrow's 2026, first ever

[cangrow]

Hello all,

As a rookie to most gardening and especially to tobacco, I thought I'd share my experience so far to see if all is normal.

Ordered seeds a few weeks ago out of Lethbridge, 1.5 hrs drive to the south. They only had 3 varieties, so I got burley, virginia gold and bolivian black criollo. Man, those seeds are small!

Followed directions on the package and from another website tobaccoseedscanada.com, which has a lot of information about growing tobacco, though not as much as here.

On Sunday May 24, Used a 72 cell seed started tray, seed starting mix, saturated the mix, let drain, then placed 1-3 seeds in each cell, and placed the plastic cover on. It took about 4 days to see a little bit of white trying to escape the sand-grain-colored seeds, then some green appeared about a day or two after that. 18 cells per variety.

Now, we're 9 days in and my little seedlings are tiny but luckily are easily observable with the naked eye.

It's been raining and cold since day 7, so I bought a grow light here on day 9 as I was worried that these little guys could use a boost.

Looks like the sun might return tomorrow evening and highs of 18 C so maybe I'll take these guys outside then. Hopefully they're not too small.

Bought some fish emulsion tonight, apparently I could throw some one when they start showing their first true leaves.

Eager to see them grow more, seems they've stalled in the last few days. Thanks for reading. By the way, the tall plants on the right of the photo are of basil. Can't tell any of the tobacco varieties apart yet.

 

[johnny108]

Welcome!
What is your outside humidity like?
Putting seedlings this small outside can dry them out in a few hours. An indoor windowsill is a good alternative.

 

[Wombat_smokes]

I agree, they are too young and tender to go outdoors. I would wait for them to have their 2nd set of true leaves before "hardening" them. When you do take them out, give a good watering from below with the emulsions. The water will help them keep hydrated and minimize the wilting. A sunny windowsill will do them good at this stage. The grow lihht will keep them from being "leggy" (tall, thin stem, large distance between leaves). The basil will help you know if the grow light is too high and needs to be lowered. I've noticed my plants to be outdoor ready around week 3 (21 days) after sprouting; Plantable by week 4 or 5 (28 - 35 days).

The seedlings are "stalled" because they're growing their roots. Everything is doing well. Having bought "local", they hopefully will "mature" quickly (start flowering less than 70 days after transplant).

 

[cangrow]

Welcome!
What is your outside humidity like?
Putting seedlings this small outside can dry them out in a few hours. An indoor windowsill is a good alternative.

Hi there, not much humidity around here; 600km from ocean, dry side of rockies, 1100m elevation. Good call, will keep indoors for now! Thanks for your advice!

 

[cangrow]

I agree, they are too young and tender to go outdoors. I would wait for them to have their 2nd set of true leaves before "hardening" them. When you do take them out, give a good watering from below with the emulsions. The water will help them keep hydrated and minimize the wilting. A sunny windowsill will do them good at this stage. The grow lihht will keep them from being "leggy" (tall, thin stem, large distance between leaves). The basil will help you know if the grow light is too high and needs to be lowered. I've noticed my plants to be outdoor ready around week 3 (21 days) after sprouting; Plantable by week 4 or 5 (28 - 35 days).

The seedlings are "stalled" because they're growing their roots. Everything is doing well. Having bought "local", they hopefully will "mature" quickly (start flowering less than 70 days after transplant).

Thanks for that advice, that explains things a lot, really appreciate it! Big relief

 

[cangrow]

Hello all,

As a rookie to most gardening and especially to tobacco, I thought I'd share my experience so far to see if all is normal.

Ordered seeds a few weeks ago out of Lethbridge, 1.5 hrs drive to the south. They only had 3 varieties, so I got burley, virginia gold and bolivian black criollo. Man, those seeds are small!

Followed directions on the package and from another website tobaccoseedscanada.com, which has a lot of information about growing tobacco, though not as much as here.

On Sunday May 24, Used a 72 cell seed started tray, seed starting mix, saturated the mix, let drain, then placed 1-3 seeds in each cell, and placed the plastic cover on. It took about 4 days to see a little bit of white trying to escape the sand-grain-colored seeds, then some green appeared about a day or two after that. 18 cells per variety.

Now, we're 9 days in and my little seedlings are tiny but luckily are easily observable with the naked eye.

It's been raining and cold since day 7, so I bought a grow light here on day 9 as I was worried that these little guys could use a boost.

Looks like the sun might return tomorrow evening and highs of 18 C so maybe I'll take these guys outside then. Hopefully they're not too small.

Bought some fish emulsion tonight, apparently I could throw some one when they start showing their first true leaves.

Eager to see them grow more, seems they've stalled in the last few days. Thanks for reading. By the way, the tall plants on the right of the photo are of basil. Can't tell any of the tobacco varieties apart yet.

Day 17. These little guys are growing slowly, still, but growing. Looks like Saturday, weather will finally settle to sunny and warm, so I will probably plant most of them outside. I have various locations, so I want to try them all to see the effect of different soil types, containers, exposure.

I started giving the seedlings a fish emulsion solution instead of pure rain water. I mixed it at half of what the recommended concentration was. Smelly stuff; another reason to get these guys outside!

I've also taken the whole 72-cell tray outside to bask in the afternoon sun for a few hours after coming home from work. The rest of the time, the tray is sitting under grow lights, following the photoperiod here, which is more than 16hrs currently.

 

[cangrow]

Day 17. These little guys are growing slowly, still, but growing. Looks like Saturday, weather will finally settle to sunny and warm, so I will probably plant most of them outside. I have various locations, so I want to try them all to see the effect of different soil types, containers, exposure.

I started giving the seedlings a fish emulsion solution instead of pure rain water. I mixed it at half of what the recommended concentration was. Smelly stuff; another reason to get these guys outside!

I've also taken the whole 72-cell tray outside to bask in the afternoon sun for a few hours after coming home from work. The rest of the time, the tray is sitting under grow lights, following the photoperiod here, which is more than 16hrs currently.

 

[cangrow]

Day 24 since starting seeds:

3 days ago, last weekend, I decided to plant a bunch of seedlings outside, pictures to come later. Most are still alive but a few kicked the can. Not sure if they've grown much since, but I'm sure they will eventually. Weather last week was quite cool and unsettled, but last weekend was sunny and warm, which is why I decided to pull the trigger and get most seedlings outside. This week, more unsettled and cool weather.

As insurance, I counted my collection of small 3-4 inch pots and put one to two seedlings in these, keeping them indoors under LED lights and still feeding them the solution of fish emulsion. My biggest seedling of this bunch has almost a 2cm "wingspan" and the big leaves are starting to look like true tobacco leaves; very exciting!

I've taken out the potted seedlings to bask in the sun as much as possible, avoiding solar noon +/- 1.5 hours.

These potted guys will have to be planted in the garden no later than June 23ish, as I'm leaving town on the 30th and having friends and family take care of my plants until my return three weeks later. Not ideal, but it is what it is. I'll be so glad to get back to my plants and hope some are still alive and better yet, tall and healthy!!

 

[cangrow]

1 month minus 3 days since starting seeds:

Lots of pictures this time. This shows the plants that remained indoors since last weekend, when I planted a bunch outside. Generally quite happy with these indoor guys, in particular the one highlighted with a 1 1/2 inch wingspan. This is the biggest of them all and I've started to measure it to track its growth. I was barely over an inch 3 days ago and so now at 1.5; not bad! Just overnight gained 1/8th.

The bad news on the indoor front is the Virginia Gold plants, which are all in green pots. The ones circled in blue have started yellowing on the round lowest leaves. Wierd, everyone has been treated the same, save for pot size, due to inventory limits... Anyone have any idea why?

Another question is about the other two kinds; B1 and B2 (mixed up the Burley and Bolivian Black Criollo). I'm guessing the Burley must be the ones on the right, including the 1.5" big guy. He looks pretty burley to me...Which would make the B2 the tall black pot ones the Bolivian BC. Would that sound accurate? I know that with time, the differences will likely be more noticeable but might as well check.

 

[cangrow]

now here is part of one of the two outdoor beds. Since the plants are still so small, I added the blue arrow to show. That little guy is about 7/8" across. Planted him near that old stump as that was a good strategy for planting trees when I did that in the British Columbia forests back in the summer of 2001. Hopefully that also applies to tobacco.

That plant had an even bigger neighbour, but with yesterday's nasty hailstorm, said neighbour got washed away. Tried to find him this morning but no dice. Hopefully he takes up root and comes back to surprise me!

 

[cangrow]

and then there's the vegetable garden. On the southern end, on a bit of a downward slope, is a bunch of the 3 varieties planted. Lost 3-4 to yesterday's hailstorm. Counted that yesterday, basically solstice, the whole patch was in the sunshine for about 4.5hours. Not amazing for the longest day of the year. The problem is the structures on the right and left. Then, just SE of the brown structure is a tall spruce tree which creates a lot of shade. I need to top that guy, that's something I'm hoping to do in next 2 weeks.

The tobacco plants section is circled in blue and there are coffee stir sticks just N of each plant. The biggest one of that lot is about 7/8" wide.

Weather has been cool still, today is only 12 degrees C, not great. Tomorrow, still rainy and unsettled, but then 3 good days of 21+ degrees and sun. I think the plants are going to love that. Just need a good long stretch of sun and heat.

I hope to get some straw as mulch and to cover up bare soil. Maybe some manure as well to mix with the soil that will receive the last of the indoor plants, which I'll have to get outdoors in less than a week.

Measured my soil pH, the worst I have is 7.5. Any suggestions for lowering pH on the cheap in the soil in which plants are already planted?

Thanks for reading down to here, hope your plants and you are doing great, happy summer solstice!

 

[cangrow]

finally, here's the S-facing, no-E-or-W-obstruction mini-patch which had nice-looking soil on the east end (the grassy end leading to E neighbour's garage). On the west end, you can see the stir sticks with plants, and some charcoal bits placed near the plants this morning as I read somewhere that adding charcoal to soil is good? You might notice some white chunks as well, those are bone fragments; homemade bone meal made by breaking deer bones with rocks (i'm also a hunter and bones accumulate in the compost bin). The hope is that any nitrogen or calcium in there might get leached away and into the soil and into the plants...

 

[Pasiasiainen]

A good rule of (Bob’s) thumb is that seedlings should be minimum 6 inches tall (growth tip from the soil) when transplanting outside.
I have to admit that I am a bit worried if your seedlings will survive outside as they are still very small.

As a reference, these were my plants with clipped leaves 4 days before transplanting this year.




And another reference picture of the amount of roots my seedlings had before transplanting.



I might try to move them gently back to pots with fresh potting soil (I have used store bought potting soil with good results), put them under grow lights and water with just rain water. If you feel that you want to fertilize the seedlings, do it max one or two times a month, with a very light dose of tomato fertilizer added to water. They will do just fine without any special fertilizers. After they have reached that 6" height, transplant again.

 

[deluxestogie]

The first year is always a learning year.

Bob

 

[cangrow]

A good rule of (Bob’s) thumb is that seedlings should be minimum 6 inches tall (growth tip from the soil) when transplanting outside.
I have to admit that I am a bit worried if your seedlings will survive outside as they are still very small.

As a reference, these were my plants with clipped leaves 4 days before transplanting this year.

View attachment 60007


And another reference picture of the amount of roots my seedlings had before transplanting.

View attachment 60008

I might try to move them gently back to pots with fresh potting soil (I have used store bought potting soil with good results), put them under grow lights and water with just rain water. If you feel that you want to fertilize the seedlings, do it max one or two times a month, with a very light dose of tomato fertilizer added to water. They will do just fine without any special fertilizers. After they have reached that 6" height, transplant again.

Thanks for your feedback. Ideally, I would have waited longer before transplanting them, but I have to leave from June 30-July 21 for a pre-planned trip, so I just wanted to transplant and care for the plants for at least a week after transplant before leaving. A friend will come by and water the plants in my absence. The first transplants were really an experiment to see if they could even survive. Most have made it through a week but are definitely not thriving. This could also be due to the mainly fresh weather. And Bob, you're right, this is an experimental first year and I'm not expecting miracles but hopefully I'll get some leave to smoke by the end of it! Love your pics Pasiasiainen!! Cheers, G.