Cape grow blog for 2015/2016 season

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Another Southern Hemisphere grow blog!

The climate here in the Western Cape Winelands is distinctly Mediterranean, but extreme Med!: short, cold and wet winters followed by by long, hot, dry summers with daytime temperatures frequently knocking over 30C.
I am not a stranger to growing but this is my first crack at tobacco. If 90 frost free days are needed then, in theory, two plantings per year are possible, though I do not know of anyone who has tried it.

My interest is 20% in cigarette tobacco and 120% in cigars....

So the first efforts, to see what works here, are concentrated on a general smoking mix of Virginia, Burley and Samsun, with some Maryland and a Latakia type too.

The starter planting for cigars is made up of Criollo and Con Broadleaf, with loads more to follow. I have space, water and patience so here goes...

I made a shaded floating tray system for germinating. It worked very well. Everything went in there except the Burley which got a non-floating tray. This I managed to screw up by forgetting to mist it on a hot day after germination. Bye bye Burley - there could be a song in there....



Criollo 98 on the left and Samsun on the right. Over seeded, I see, but these were thinned with tweezers which is a swat, and allowed to grow on until the roots were feeding freely in the water below.

The best plants were individually potted to grow on a bit and harden off; as in get use to our sun and heat.




Above are potted Virginia plants waiting to planted out in the open. The date is a day in early November 2015.

More soon!

 

[Brown Thumb]

Very nice looking Start.
How many are you planning to plant.
Good Luck on you season.
Nice to see some Green Leaf too.

 

[wrapper]

Very nice looking Start.
How many are you planning to plant.
Good Luck on you season.
Nice to see some Green Leaf too.

Thank you Brown Thumb.

I get kinda obsessive about many projects, and this looks like no exception! I am really enjoying it. Apart from a little ciggy baccy for myself I am looking for a really good cigar mix - up to 20 varieties - that will work in this environment. Ben Brand can help with some seed, and I am on the lookout for forum recommendations plus seed for top cigar types. Around 50 - 100 plants of each to begin with to build up a reserve of ageing leaf.

Then roll 'em up! If and when I am half proficient maybe others in my hinterland will join in for boutique Saturday morning Roll 'em Up and Brandy Tasting sessions. (Distilling is core business). But there is a long way to go. I have a small but growing collection of antique shredders, cigar press moulds etc. Am also busy honing a home made chaveta made from an old rip saw blade.

Fact is I am a dedicated DIY nut, off the grid wannabe, and maker of ales, spirits, wines, soaps, oils, grower of medicinal herbs, veggies etc. And now tobacco. Sort of an artisan revolutionary with a wife who does get to roll her pretty eyes heavenwards from time to time.

 

[bonehead]

that virginia looks like it is ready to take off.

 

[wrapper]

Experiment (for me, anyway): a dozen organic Virginia shade grown for thin, pale wrapper leaf.

And here is a little Samsun, one plant in a bed of 40 that gets full sun for most, but not all of the day:



These are such pretty plants! They sit bolt upright in the cool mornings with leaves held straight up like shouldered arms, but lowering during the day, almost drooping if it is really hot out there, like 35C. They are growing fast on a diet of worm compost and seaweed tea.

 

[Hasse SWE]

Nice plant. Think I will follow your grow this winter..

 

[Planter]

These are such pretty plants!

Yes, I keep finding them quite wondersome, too. Even SHE-WHo-HATES-TOBACCO-SMOKE likes the plants.
How do you prepare your seaweed tea?

 

[DGBAMA]

Plants look good. That Samsun is starting to have "sucker's", keep them picked off for larger primary leaf yield.

 

[wrapper]

Yes, I keep finding them quite wondersome, too. Even SHE-WHo-HATES-TOBACCO-SMOKE likes the plants.
How do you prepare your seaweed tea?

The seaweed tea is from a kind of sea lettuce (which I also use for fining ales and wines as it contains natural vegetable gelatin). It is harvested on our south coast at low spring tide near to where the in-laws live. The salt is rinsed off, then it is dried. When dried I mill it fairly fine and soak it in water 5:1 for a week or two, then mix it with worm tea. I like it as you cannot "over dose" and it will not burn the leaves. I use it as a foliar spray in the evenings about twice a week, and also add it to the irrigation water. Great source of natural plant nutrients. I also dress around the plants with a compost of garden waste and dry seaweed.

The plants themselves are very attractive and "alive" in a way that, yes, even she-who-dislikes-smoke can get enthusiastic about my weakness!

 

[wrapper]

Plants look good. That Samsun is starting to have "sucker's", keep them picked off for larger primary leaf yield.

Thank you DGBAMA. I rushed into the field and did what should have been done already.... I swear one or two sucker leaves could have made a wrapper for a wee cheroot.... Now they are headed for the compost heap. Some of those Samsun primaries are already 8" x 6". So you reckon they can grow even bigger?

 

[wrapper]

Nice plant. Think I will follow your grow this winter..

Thanks for the follow. Our summer, your winter. What else can a man do whilst waiting for spring?!

 

[DGBAMA]

Thank you DGBAMA. I rushed into the field and did what should have been done already.... I swear one or two sucker leaves could have made a wrapper for a wee cheroot.... Now they are headed for the compost heap. Some of those Samsun primaries are already 8" x 6". So you reckon they can grow even bigger?

Can't say about size, never grown t that one. But energy used by the Suckers takes away from the quality/thickness of the finished leaf.

 

[wrapper]

Advice from DGBAMA led to hasty suckering. The internodes seem quite long....



A 200 cell floater with Maryland after first round of thinning the starts:

 

[Hasse SWE]

Thanks for the follow. Our summer, your winter. What else can a man do whilst waiting for spring?!

I'm probably just busy all the months of the year .. Now I'm planning the next year's crop. Cuts trees and teaches the kids to even things we dislike are necessary sometimes.

"After winter comes the spring"..

 

[wrapper]

This is what the float tray starts look like. Should they be bigger before setting out, or is this just about ok?



This little guy is a Virginia.

 

[Hasse SWE]

I would let em grow bigger in another pot. But nice work wrapper

 

[Ben Brand]

I let mine grow out to about my hands length, roughly 6", 150mm, before I put them in the soil.

 

[DGBAMA]

Looks like a healthy plant of good size to go in the ground. Leaves look a bit light and fragile though, could use hardening off/getting used to the sun before planting. Or put them out when a few consecutive days of overcast weather are expected to allow them time to acclimate before taking the bearing of full sun.

 

[Ben Brand]

Looks like a healthy plant of good size to go in the ground. Leaves look a bit light and fragile though, could use hardening off/getting used to the sun before planting. Or put them out when a few consecutive days of overcast weather are expected to allow them time to acclimate before taking the bearing of full sun.

Agree with DGBAMA, Especially with the latest heat waves we get, sure you get them in the Cape province as well, I let mine stay in the direct sun 2 weeks before I plant, to get hard. I always take 1 plant, wrap it around my finger, if it doesn`t break, then its ready to be planted out into the soil.

 

[wrapper]

I have some potted on to grow out a bit, but hardening off during the heat we have been experiencing is tricky: we have hit 37C frequently the last couple of weeks.

Some potted Virginias kept in semi shade during the searing heat, full sun for the rest of the time:



And last night a long wonderful, gentle, soaking rain - doing more than just lay the dust. All the plants now happier!



The drip lines can stay closed for a few days