Charly's grow blog 2018

[Charly]

Ok... I did it again...

Yesterday evening, I had those little baby plants waiting and I did not want to waste them... so I put them in the ground too !
Since I have not many place left, I used them to expand my "oriental growing style crop"
38 additionnal plants (spacing : 15cm) plus the only two Yenidje plants that wanted to germinate.

10 different strains (some bright leaf, some cigar, some burley...) all mixed together



This completes the planting.

So I have 368 plants in the ground (203 with traditionnal spacing, 75 orientals and about 90 other plants at 15cm spacing (6"))
18 different strains... a little bit more than I planned, but that's fine.

 

[deluxestogie]

Are you able to identify which are the Yenidje?

Bob

 

[Charly]

This morning, I counted the number of PVY infected plants : 21.

The Foreheimer, the Vuelta Abajo and the Colombian Garcia are the most affected strains.

This year, the first signs of PVY came sooner (one week earlier than last year, if I compare the planting dates) : only 3 weeks and a half after transplantation.

 

[Charly]

Are you able to identify which are the Yenidje?

Bob

Yes, the Yenidje are the two on the bottom. They have a little bit more space around them (I would like to see if they grow correctly, and hope that they are good enough to give me some seeds for next year).

 

[Charly]

News from the front ! -stop- PVY infected plants count update : 55 -stop- New disease : brown spot -stop-

PVY continues to appear on my tobacco, now I have about 55 plants showing symptoms of it.
32 plants with small symptoms or small growing delay.
23 plants with big symptoms or big growing delay.

Total count : 55 on 223 plants => one quarter of my plants.

The worst strains (the strains with the higher degree of infection) are :
- Colombian Garcia (11 infected plants on 14, with 9 really struggling and small)
- Vuelta Abajo (11 infected plants on 20, with 9 really struggling and small too)

- Foreheimer G. III (8 infected plants on 11, but the majority of them are not too much ugly... yet)
- Delhi 34 (9 infected plants on 15, but the majority of them show only a little growth delay and small symptoms)

And since misfortune never comes singly : a new disease apperead a few days ago in my garden : Brown Spots !

It touched the lower leaves primarily and a bit less the upper leaves.
Some strains seems very sensitive to it : Delhi 34 for exemple (picture below).


One of the leaves showing the more of these brown spot

I already had some spots like these last year but not a lot. This year, we had 3 or 4 weeks of high temperatures and high humidity, brown spot seems to love this weather.
The weather changed a little, maybe it will stop to appear (brown spot is a fungal disease... I hope less humidity will help it go away...). Time will tell.

All in all, I am not too much worried, since it's the third year I grow tobacco, and each year I have a lot of struggling plants.
That's why I plant as much as I can, to be sure to get some good leaves in the end of the season

Some new strains are going fine : the Piloto Cubano for exemple, with only a few pvy symptoms and only a few brown spots, I hope they will continue to be healthy !
The same with the TN90 : no pvy sympoms and only a few brown spots ! finger crossed !!

And this year, a lot of baby tobacco plants are growig everywhere between the one I planted !


I will let them grow and if they grow big enough I might harvest them

 

[deluxestogie]

Tobacco disease has driven the development of new varieties for over a century. Your analysis of more sensitive and less sensitive varieties (to PVY) is helpful information.

In successive seasons, I had problems with brown spot, particularly on one variety: Jalapa. It is a robust, richly flavored Nicaraguan native strain that I enjoyed. I simply stopped growing it, and seldom see brown spot, even though the fungus is persistent in the soil. So I believe variety selection is a key factor in avoiding it.

Bob

 

[Charly]

Thank you Bob.

I share my notes on the PVY disease in hope that it will be useful to others
The bad thing about PVY is that there are a lot of different strains of the disease, so what I share are just the observations I can make in my area.

Year after year I find some resistant or semi-resistant tobacco strains, I hope this list will be useful for those who have to deal with PVY...

I hope this brown spot was strong this year because of the weather (hot and humid)... I already have enough to do with PVY
The most infected strain (Delhi 34) is at the exact spot where I grew Jalapa last year, but I do not remember clearly if I saw brown spot on Jalapa last year... I'll have to check my photos !

 

[deluxestogie]

Brown Spot growth is favored by humid weather. Like mold, it increases its dispersal from infected leaves to uninfected leaves most effectively in dry weather.

Bob

 

[ChinaVoodoo]

The most infected strain (Delhi 34) is at the exact spot where I grew Jalapa last year, but I do not remember clearly if I saw brown spot on Jalapa last year... I'll have to check my photos !

That's sad to hear.

 

[Charly]

That's sad to hear.

Yes, it's sad
But for now they are more healthy than last year's virginias
So I still hope I will be able to harvest some

You know, in my garden I have real struggles to grow bright leaf strains...
Last year, the "virignia" strains I tried were the most infected and unhealthy plants of all (Hickory Pryor, Primitive Orinoco, Goose Creek Red), from which I harvested nearly nothing...

This year, I try Delhi 34 (for which I have to admit that I have high expectations , Yellow Leaf 36 (from which I don't know much), and Frog Eye Orinoco. I hope one of these will give me some nice Virginia
The Yellow Leaf 36 seem to have less difficulties, but I don't know if it's a real "bright leaf"

Anyway I will continue to try new strains each year, I am sure I will find some which will like my garden

 

[ciennepi]

The past year I have big problems with PVY on Vuelta Abajo and Virginia Gold. This year I have mid problems whit Vuelta Abajo and no problems with Nostrano del Brenta, Bucak and Yellow Pryor......until now.

 

[Charly]

Nostrano del Brenta is one of the strains that seem to resist pretty well to PVY, I grow some for the second year now and there is still no symptoms

Thanks for the info on the Bucack and the Yellow Pryor
I hope they will continue to be fine for you !! If they do, I will certainly try them too, so I can see if they do fine in my garden

 

[Charly]

For a few days now, I am harvesting mature/ripe bottom leaves.
Since we had some really hot and dry days, after harvesting, I put all the leaves in piles on a paper for 2 to 5 days (depending on how long they take for yellowing correctly), then I hang them on a wire so they can finish the color curing correctly.

Here is a picture of some Delhi 34 bottom leaves after 2 days in piles :


Then hang directly in the sun :

(I love this yellow color !)

Some Prilep, after 2 days in pile, lay down on the (sun burned) grass :

 

[Charly]

And now some pictures of pests found on my organic tobacco these days :

Aphids :


Grasshopper (with a nice hole just eaten on the left) :


Heteroptera laying some eggs:


Sleeping snail...

 

[deluxestogie]

Heteroptera laying some eggs:
View attachment 24118

Wonderful photo. I've never known that those little, flat clusters of white eggs were from a stink bug.

Bob

 

[Charly]

I have found at least 2 different sizes of clustered eggs on my tobacco leaves.
The biggest (about 0.3 mm each I think... next time I will measure them) are from these stink bugs.
I don't know which creature lay the small sized eggs... (which can be found in greater quantities)

 

[Hasse SWE]

And now some pictures of pests found on my organic tobacco these days :

Heteroptera laying some eggs:
View attachment 24118

l can add this picture her. The picture are from my 2017 grow.

 

[Charly]

Nice picture with the babies coming out of their egg.
You are right, the eggs may be bigger than the size I wrote, maybe more about 1mm each.

 

[Charly]

I have been harvesting some leaves on most of my strains the last weeks, pile curing a few days each time to help yellowing, but I am now facing a strain that seem to have difficulties to yellow : the Piloto Cubano PR.
A few leaves (bottom or volado) are in pile for 6 days already and only a couple leaves are showing some yellow or a little bit of brown... the others seems as green as they were on the plant.

Did you already notice that this strain is hard to color cure ?
Did I harvest them too soon ?
At what point of maturity are they meant to be harvested ?

Another question is about the "Yellow Leaf 36" : does anyone knows what type of tobacco it is ? It is clearly a "bright leaf" type, but I think they are more close to a burley... Has anyone already grew some ?

Thanks for your help

 

[Hasse SWE]

Charly: I have been trying to found info about YELLOW LEAF#36. But can't found any information about the parents. In my note I can see it is a variant from Ukraine and that I believe that it is some Maryland tobacco in. But also in my note I have put this after: (?). I don't use to tell about details before my work is done but in this case I do it and hope you understand that it's not shore.