China Voodoo Grow Log 2021

[peterd]

As a brewer I also dislike municipalities that use chloramines. I feel for you.

 

[Redleaf]

I was lucky to have access here in my farmyard to plenty of well water for my garden this year CV. I think you got mere rain than me if you got 3”. Driest June and July I ever remember but I’ve only been farming for about 38 years.

 

[peterd]

Adding bleach. Yes, funny though it sounds, it is possible, theoretically at least, to hasten the departure of chloramine from water by adding household bleach to it. This encourages the monochloramine to convert to dichloramine, which is appreciably more volatile. The excess chlorine from the bleach exits as chlorine gas, which is more volatile than monochloramine. In an experiment with synthetically chloraminated water, this technique was quite successful but less so with some municipalities chloramine treated water. The question becomes what is the least costly way to remove it and if you are noticing any impact without it in the water then live with it.

 

[Oldfella]

We use chloramine which isn't removed by aeration. I was thinking of filling a barrel with charcoal and tap water.

Bit late replying sorry. If you trickle the water through the Charcoal that should work. I've made a few filters to do that. All you need is a piece of about 3-4inch pipe, plastic is ok. Make about 12in long not critical. Cap the ends with screw on caps and fit a hose tail. Fit a medium to fine filter so as not to wash your Charcoal out. I used fish tank Charcoal. The process relies on the surface area of the Charcoal to remove impurities. The Charcoal will need to be renewed annually if used for drinking water. For the garden I'm not sure, it will be a calculation based on the total surface area of the Charcol,the amount of chlorine (ppm)and the amount of water through the filter. Very complicated, just taste it.
Oldfella

 

[ChinaVoodoo]

Compost Tobacco doesn't care. It just grows.

 

[Oldfella]

Bit late replying sorry. If you trickle the water through the Charcoal that should work. I've made a few filters to do that. All you need is a piece of about 3-4inch pipe, plastic is ok. Make about 12in long not critical. Cap the ends with screw on caps and fit a hose tail. Fit a medium to fine filter so as not to wash your Charcoal out. I used fish tank Charcoal. The process relies on the surface area of the Charcoal to remove impurities. The Charcoal will need to be renewed annually if used for drinking water. For the garden I'm not sure, it will be a calculation based on the total surface area of the Charcol,the amount of chlorine (ppm)and the amount of water through the filter. Very complicated, just taste it.
Oldfella

Sorry people, I forgot to mention that the filter can be easily made. Cut a plastic disc to fit into the outlet end of the filter.
Drill a heap of holes in it, say 3/16". Get some fish tank wool type filter material and stuff some in on top of disc with the holes in, make it about 1-2" thick. Flush the filter until the water is clear of any Charcoal dust, now you can drink it, your coffee will taste much better
Oldfella

 

[ChinaVoodoo]

Sorry people, I forgot to mention that the filter can be easily made. Cut a plastic disc to fit into the outlet end of the filter.
Drill a heap of holes in it, say 3/16". Get some fish tank wool type filter material and stuff some in on top of disc with the holes in, make it about 1-2" thick. Flush the filter until the water is clear of any Charcoal dust, now you can drink it, your coffee will taste much better
Oldfella

You're using this for human consumption, right? I really like the idea of building something like what you did, but I was also simply thinking of sticking a full bud bag of hardwood charcoal in my rain barrel for a couple days. Do you think that would work?

 

[deluxestogie]

The primary determinant of chloramine absorption is exposed surface area. You might pound the hardwood charcoal into smaller pieces, and I suspect it will work adequately. [For watering tobacco, probably just putting a spigot at the bottom of a barrel full of dirt or peat might do just as well. Probably would need a layer of gravel at the bottom. Fill dirt barrel with water. Wait a day. Drain out water from the bottom.] I believe that chloramines simply bind to and react with many types organic molecules. A bud bag of charcoal would certainly be tidier to handle than a barrel of dirt.

Bob

 

[dogfish858]

Regards weather, I'm a couple hours south of you and the same type planted in a greenhouse and watered is 7-8 ft tall and 6 ft tall. Outdoors 3 and 4 ft tall. I kept shade on the greenhouse most of the summer.

I think when it gets hot-hot like it was the amount of water required to keep plants going is much higher than we think and we also run the risk of adding too much chlorine and sodium to our plants with tap water. The tall indoor plants were grown in mulch as well, which made a huge difference. But bare dirt plants were lucky if they made waist height as I don't give active care to my outdoor plants.

 

[Oldfella]

You're using this for human consumption, right? I really like the idea of building something like what you did, but I was also simply thinking of sticking a full bud bag of hardwood charcoal in my rain barrel for a couple days. Do you think that would work?

Have used it for human consumption in the past. We have been on rain and well water for the last 20 odd years. A bud bag hanging in a barrel would I suspect take a long time as the water is not flowing over the Charcoal. Bob's idea should work for watering Tobacco but I wouldn't recommend it for human consumption as we don't know what might be in the dirt or peat.
Oldfella

 

[BarG]

Growing that

 

[ChinaVoodoo]

I've got Simox and Kumanovo in the greenhouse with neglected humidifier, and some green drying Kumanovo. Oh well. It's not quite as yellow as it shows.


Greenwood in the fire curing box @85° still yellowing.

Last year I had a fire pit and controlled the temperature with a fan drawing smoke through. It was finicky and required a lot of attention and the leaf had to be fully yellow. I mean, it tastes amazing, but was a pain.

This year, the intention is to humidify the inside so I can put leaf that's still yellowing inside. First, I tested a hot plate inside with cans of water and wood pellets, but it didn't work, really. The water didn't get hot enough because too much of the heating element was exposed and the receptacle for wood was too small and got used up too quickly.

Now I have a huge pot of water on the hot plate, with temperature controller heating and humidifying the inside. The pot is much wider than the burner so all is energy goes into the water. The smoke is supplied passively by a smoldering fire in an NPS 12" pipe. No fans. It appears to be working great.

Oosikappal in the kiln at 85° pretty much done.


I got more leaf in cardboard, and a little bit hanging from the garage ceiling. We had freezing temps a couple weeks ago.

 

[burge]

Looks good China

 

[ChinaVoodoo]

I've already learned I should use rubber bands for hands of tobacco while curing because the stems shrink and they fall out of string or twist tie or wrapped leaves.

 

[burge]

I have noticed with leaf it does gain weight when moisture is added and as mentioned with Don ordering you get a full dry pound.