Charly's journey - 2017

[deluxestogie]

The garage is light grey (concrete), the bed is just north/north-west from the garage, 2 meters from the garage, some of the plants might receive about a half day of sun, some will get more and some will get less
And I don't know how old is the Doctor

I don't have much space, so I will for sure put some tobacco here, or I will not be able to put all my strains in the ground.

Maybe I should put some cigar strains, hoping for them to make big thin leaves (for wrapper) ?

I think a half-day may suffice. The lighter the color of the garage wall, the more late sunlight will be reflected onto the plants.

Bob

 

[Charly]

I just watch your grow blog, it is a good job , with the sun at the moment, the plants grow at eye level, the time should last, let's enjoy it !

Thank you Clément I am not done yet, I still have a lot of work to finish my planting... (exhausting)... but I will be rewarded with some good tobacco

 

[Charly]

I think a half-day may suffice. The lighter the color of the garage wall, the more late sunlight will be reflected onto the plants.

Bob

Thank you Bob, do you think some strains are more shadow friendly than others ?
I think I will try some cigar strains, to get some wrappers/binders, do you think it's a good idea ? maybe Maryland too ?

 

[deluxestogie]

Charly,
The only experience I have is planting the long, narrow bed alongside the foundation of my house. That wall of the house (with white siding) faces west-southwest (just a bit south of due west), so at about mid-day it begins to receive direct sun, as well as the reflection from the white wall.

Machu Picchu Havana grew well there. Orientals seemed to grow well there. Columbian Garcia became a giant there, and was able to make seed (it is usually too late in blossoming to make seed).

I would guess that Nostrano del Brenta needs a full day of sun. My Criollo (Cuba) did not grow well in the half-day sun. PA Red seems to suffer from shade.

For the rest of your choices, it will have to be an experiment.

Bob

 

[Charly]

Quick update : new beds planted, one plant replaced and a monster spotted !

Last days, I prepared 3 new beds (including the one shaded by the garage). On each bed I planted 3 rows of tobacco. I have now 215 plants in the ground
I still have two other small beds to finish...

Here is a picture of the new beds :



Inside, I put (from left to right) : Goose Creek Red, Machu Picchu Havana, Jalapa, Symbol 4, Hickory Pryor, Primitive Orinoco, PA Red, Criollo Colorado, Bolivian Criollo Black.
The left side is the place shaded half of the day by my garage, I will see if the plants in the shadows will grow correctly (thank you Bob for your advices).

From the plants already in the ground, one of my Coroja did not seem to love it's new life outside... From day to day it seemed less healthy... so I removed it and replaced it with a backup plant.






And last but not the least : I found the first "tobacco eater monster" of this year on one of my Corojo plant, it was divasting my plant !!! See the pictures :

 

[Tutu]

Haha good for you that it only just ate through some lower leafs and that you caught it early. Keep searching as there may be a few more around!

 

[deluxestogie]

Congratulations on slaying the dragon. It will go down in the legends.

Bob

 

[Charly]

Congratulations on slaying the dragon. It will go down in the legends.

Bob

It deserves it !

 

[Charly]

First (very early) priming !

I did not imagine it were coming so early this year, but yes, I've done my first priming of the year !
See the big leaves I got :



Ok, I confess, these leaves were not primed, they were stripped by the wind ! We had two days with big wind... with maximum at 80 kmh (=50 mph)
I thought there would be more damages... but just 2 leaves stripped



So now they are curing

 

[deluxestogie]

If you could train the wind to string the leaf onto a wire, that might have possibilities.

Bob

 

[greenmonster714]

So glad to see your garden coming along Charly. I see the greenmonster has arrived in your plot too. That doesn't look like the hornworm I have here. Or at least I don't see the horn or light strips. Anyway, ya got the little bastard..lol. Already harvesting leaf...lol. I've had heavy rain beat down some plants but no big winds yet. I saw yet because I know they are coming. Summer storms are pretty wicked here. So what are you doing about the bugs? Are you going to spray something?

 

[Leftynick]

You have done some very hard work Charly. Hope it will reward you with plenty of harvest.

I see your soil is somewhat the same like mine. Too many small rocks and gravel. I didn't add any soil amendment this year because I thought nothing have been growing there so it should have plenty of nutrient.

 

[Charly]

If you could train the wind to string the leaf onto a wire, that might have possibilities.

That's a good idea ! I will try (it could be very convenient !)

So glad to see your garden coming along Charly. I see the greenmonster has arrived in your plot too. That doesn't look like the hornworm I have here. Or at least I don't see the horn or light strips. Anyway, ya got the little bastard..lol. Already harvesting leaf...lol. I've had heavy rain beat down some plants but no big winds yet. I saw yet because I know they are coming. Summer storms are pretty wicked here. So what are you doing about the bugs? Are you going to spray something?

I am happy to see my garden nearly ready too There are still some plants waiting, I will take them in the ground in the next days.
I don't think it was a hornworm, I don't know if we have this kind of worms in France, but we have other small creatures that like to eat tobacco
As I want my tobacco to be as natural as possible, I won't treat it with anything unless I see some real problem. I hope I won't have to put chemicals.

You have done some very hard work Charly. Hope it will reward you with plenty of harvest.

I see your soil is somewhat the same like mine. Too many small rocks and gravel. I didn't add any soil amendment this year because I thought nothing have been growing there so it should have plenty of nutrient.

Thank you It's true, it was hard... but the good news is that it will be much much easier next year !
All the rocks help to drain, I did only remove the big rocks.

I gave every plant it's dose of fertilization, and yes I hope my tobacco harvest will be gooood And I hope you will be rewarded for your hard work too

 

[clemdu76]

Hello Charly, i see that one in him even problems with creatures , Today i have pulverized my plants with a manure of tomato which apparement is an insecticide, i would see the result .
Good night

 

[BarG]

It's great to keep it organic but the reality is that bugs love tobacco. good luck, and there are safe methods for controlling them as you will soon discover.But If you want a keeper quality crop short of walking your crop every morning looking at every leaf for eggs of the critters that love your crop you will ask what can I do , what should I use.. Dawn dish soap for aphids, BT [Baccillus thuringinuses} Spinosad. These are all safe if used correctly.

 

[Charly]

Hello Charly, i see that one in him even problems with creatures , Today i have pulverized my plants with a manure of tomato which apparement is an insecticide, i would see the result .
Good night

This year we have not so many pests (yet), nearly no slugs and snails (I saw the first one a couple days ago, so I used some anti-slug product (iron phosphate) to protect my plants
Manure of tomato ? I did not know it works as an insecticide Let us know if it works well

It's great to keep it organic but the reality is that bugs love tobacco. good luck, and there are safe methods for controlling them as you will soon discover.But If you want a keeper quality crop short of walking your crop every morning looking at every leaf for eggs of the critters that love your crop you will ask what can I do , what should I use.. Dawn dish soap for aphids, BT [Baccillus thuringinuses} Spinosad. These are all safe if used correctly.

I would like to keep my tobacco as organic as I can, using only organic fertilization and as few chemicals as I can : last year I did use only anti-slug (iron phosphate) and some anti fongal product when I got blue mold.

If you have some natural product to help me to keep pests to a minimum just let me know I will certainly prepare some soap for aphids (many people told me about this), I did not know BT and spinosad (I will read more about them, thanks).
I go often in my patch to check for bugs and creatures and remove them if they are a treat, especialy eggs.

 

[Charly]

Already suckers !

Two strains seem to sucker very early : "Coroja" and "Criollo Cuba Ti 1376", I did already seen it when I put them in the ground, but I forgot to remove them... I think I should, now ? What do you think ?

 

[clemdu76]

No problem Charly, for the moment my plants sprayed are not anymore eaten .
I use as other defense, the "Tansy" tanaisie in french , I puts her in mulshing against them "towards grey" (Vers gris in french) .
Good After-noon

 

[deluxestogie]

...but I forgot to remove them... I think I should, now ? What do you think ?

If suckers can be removed without injuring the main stalk, I remove them. My thought is that every sucker consumes resources from the roots.

Bob

 

[greenmonster714]

I can appreciate your desires to keep your garden organic. I have the same in mind. I searched for a while and did a lot of reading on the subject. This is one article that kinda made up my mind on the Spinosad. Check it out and see what you think. It may be something to consider.

Is Spinosad organic?