deluxestogie Grow Log 2015

[deluxestogie]

I usually dig garlic around the second week of June. I plant it after the first frost, then cover it with nearly a foot of pine needle mulch for protection during the winter and weed suppression during the spring. I've found that if I wait too long to dig the heads, they have begun to split.

A great,1 page garlic growing guide from Seed Savers: http://www.seedsavers.org/site/pdf/Garlic_GrowingGuide.pdf

Bob

 

[chillardbee]

As of today, the Chillard's are completely, utterly unremarkable. They are starting to grow, but show not a speck of variegation. Also, the leaves, so far, do not appear to be petiolate. It's looking more like a burley than a Samsun variant. BUT, it's really early to say much.

Bob

I wouldn't say that it is varigated, which would imply that it has a bi-colour leaf. What I noticed last year was that, as the plant grew, It started green and then at some point (maybe when the first of the bottom leaves are getting ripe, most of the leafs turned white all the way up the stalk. new leaves that were still growing from the grow tip of the plant would still be green but would shortly start to turn white, even though the leaf was certianly not even close to being ripe to harvest.

 

[deluxestogie]

I'm pretty good at "white," so I'll keep an eye out.

Bob

 

[deluxestogie]

Little Bit of Rain, Little Bit of Sun, Little Bit of Growth

The bed in the foreground is just beans, squash and cukes.

Finally, there is some noticeable growth. More to the point, I can now notice that there is tobacco growing in the beds.

My notes on Chillard's White Angel Leaf indicate that it was originally said to be Izmir. Since the leaves are not petiolate (having a stem at the base of each leaf), it is unlikely to be the variegated Samsun (a petiolate variety) from Madhouse.

Bob

 

[cigarchris]

Looks like you're on track Bob! I'd love to know how last years Machu Picchu and Vuelta Abajo turned out after a good kilning. Pittsburgh has been getting that nice few days of rain, few days of sun combo that the plants love. Btw, when I heard the victim's name in this video, I thought of you: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=P7sU6JTYLEA It's good for a chuckle!

 

[deluxestogie]

Machu Picchu:

• lower leaf is thin and light-colored, excellent burn, mild flavor
• upper leaf is thick, dark, smooth, slower-burning, rich oily flavor

Vuelta Abajo:

• lower leaf is substantial, medium-brown, earthy and full, excellent burn
• upper leaf is thick, nearly oscuro, potent, deep earthy with leather, excellent burn
• best cigar variety I've ever grown

Bob

 

[cigarchris]

They both sound excellent. I wasn't able to find the MP seeds in time for this years grow, so maybe I'll try that variety next year. I do have twelve Vuelta Abajo in my front bed for the most sun exposure, very excited to see how they turn out. I wasn't able to get them hardened off well, so they're somewhat leggy, but I do have some 6 ft stakes for them. Did you have to stake yours?
Thx,
-C

 

[deluxestogie]

Did you have to stake yours?

The only tobacco that I stake is a blowdown that won't stand back up on its own.

Bob

 

[deluxestogie]

Mid June Update

The tobacco has been generally sluggish this season, though it has finally begun to engage in some active growing. Today, I spotted my first (nearly microscopic) hornworm. Boo. Since the tobacco is all so small, I suspect that the hornworms are in the tangle of tomato plants.

My bed against the house is unique. Although it receives only a half-day of sun, what it does get is amplified by reflection from the white siding of the house. So, eventually, the plants tend to put on fairly large leaves that are not quite as thick as most of my other sun-grown tobacco.

It also has several unique problems. Because of its proximity to the foundation, it tends to be plagued by slugs and earwigs early each season. In the photo below, you can not see the slug bait that is regularly sprinkled near the foundation. You can see the white, diatomaceous earth that I use to encircle each plant. I know that they're both working when the new leaves show no herbivore predation.

I really hate messing with the diatomaceous earth. It is a serious inhalation hazard, since it consists of ultra-fine silica dust. So I put off the task of hovering over it to pull the grass that invariably comes up along the brick. After the next good rain, I'll thoroughly weed this bed (maybe).

Bob

 

[deluxestogie]

The garden 4 days ago.

The garden today.

Bob

 

[ArizonaDave]

Bob,
If possible, look into fresh water Diatomaceous earth, not the pool chemically treated kind. I knew of a place in North Western Nevada where it was found in the high desert, but no longer have any. If we ever go up there for any reason, I'll pick you up some.

 

[deluxestogie]

Diatomaceous earth, from whatever source, is composed of the silica skeletons of microscopic diatoms.

It always poses a silicosis risk.

Bob

 

[deluxestogie]

Tuesday Tour

We have tobacco growing. After a very slow and disappointing early season, I finally have encouraging growth.

Below, you can see that there are only 3 Bahia plants that survived, and 2 San Andrés (one is a runt, to the right). The elder Dominican Olor is thriving. To my surprise, the root of the elder Golden Burley as sprouted (black arrow). A close-up compares its size to the tongue depressor nearby.

Finally, I've mostly weeded the bed alongside the house. Yesterday afternoon, I decided the time had come, and set about pulling the weeds and grass. After about 15 minutes, I became dizzy from the heat, and retreated to the porch with a bottle of cold water to drink and a box fan blowing in my face. It took about an hour to cool down.

Today, I revised my strategy. I waited for the morning dew to lift, then began weeding before the sun was high enough to strike the bed and the white siding of the house. I was able to get most of the weeds before it became too hot.

Out of curiosity, I carried a thermometer out to that bed this afternoon, at about the same time that I had been weeding yesterday. It was 85ºF in the shade. I set it directly on the sun-drenched soil of the bed. The dial rapidly rose to about 128ºF (which is beyond the calibration scale). No wonder plants grow differently in this bed. It's shaded for about half the day, then it gets slammed with double sun, and the soil temp rises.

Bob

 

[rainmax]

Wow, beautiful. You really have rich and healthy soil. All plants grow the same.
Dom. Olor Elder is mannequin.

 

[deluxestogie]

End O' June

Chillard's White Angel Leaf, though showing no indication of white, does seem to be yellowing early on the lower leaves, suggesting to me that it is a burley.

Notice the early yellowing on the lower leaves of Chillard's.

I do like the shape of the Red Rose.

At this stage, the Dutch (Ohio) resembles Little Dutch.

Last season, I was pleased with the generous growth habit of Long Red. After kilning, it makes abundant, mild to medium strength filler that blends well with imported leaf.

Bic lighter for scale.

All of the Vuelta Abajo is budding early, but should still produce fairly well.

I had planned 16 Machu Picchu plants, but had to fill in the bed with Chillard's.

Flea Beetles tend to jump away from your approaching finger, like a flea. If allowed to have their way, they can cause a leaf to be riddled with small holes. Before they become numerous, I just rub them with my finger.

The flea beetle is a little larger than a pin head.

When aphids first appear, there are very few of them, and they are limited to only a small number of plants. This is the time at which a spray of detergent water (which I do just before dusk) will wipe them out. If you wait until they accumulate, and appear icky on numerous plants, they are really tough to control with that method. For several following days, I carefully inspect the sprayed plants, and re-spray if needed. Spraying in hot sun often damages the leaves.

Don't wait for a population explosion before treating.

Bob

 

[deluxestogie]

Rainy Day

My Little Dutch crop from 2014. These numbers are incorrect. See my next post.

I still have quite a bit of my 2014 tobacco hanging in the shed. In particular, the varieties that were stalk-harvested were occupying shed space that I will need soon for the 2015 crop.

Since the day is rainy, the leaf in the shed is in case, and can be easily handled, without damaging it. I decided to start with all of my Little Dutch. I stripped all of the Little Dutch leaf from the stalks, dropping it into a bushel basket. Then, for one hand at a time, I selected a leaf for the tie, folded it lengthwise, then randomly gathered about 40 leaves from the basket, aligning the butt ends of the stalks. The tie leaf is wrapped from the butt end toward the leaf tips, then tucked into the center of the bundle. (Somewhere on FTT, BigBonner has a superb video of the process.) I ended up with 6 full hands, plus a tiny hand of little tip leaf.

Each year, I accumulate pieces of used string and used aluminum wire, as I finish the tobacco. The tying hook (below) makes it simple to pass a loop of string through the hole in the Tyvek tobacco tag, which has accompanied each string or stalk of tobacco. For stalk-harvested tobacco, a generous nail hole is already in the tag. For primed leaf, the Tyvek tag on the string may have a tight hole, which needs to be stretched a bit for passing a string.

My tying hook (top), tags from stalks, leftover string and 17 gauge aluminum wire.

Attaching string to the tag.

String tied to tag with a simple larkshead.

Tag tied onto hand.

The tied hands will be hung on ropes suspended across the ceiling of my enclosed back porch. So a simple wire hook works well.

Scrap wire bent to for a hook.

Ready for hanging on a rope.

Stalks of PA Red (16 of them) are next on the list.

Bob

 

[deluxestogie]

A Good Kind of Wrong

While selecting the hanging stalks of PA Red, I came across 7 (count them, seven) additional stalks of Little Dutch still there. Then I recalled that my 5' x 12' bed of Little Dutch contained 24 plants, unlike the usual 16 for all my large varieties. So, I missed 7 full-size Little Dutch stalks.

The actual leaf count for the 5' x 12' bed is in the range of 350+ leaves, which is close to 6 leaves per square foot.

Bob

 

[Knucklehead]

A link to BigBonner's "How to tie Hands of tobacco": https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UvhmJ7RTNEc

 

[deluxestogie]

Thanks, Knucks. I've added the video link to the Key Threads.

Bob

 

[deluxestogie]

Long Red

The Long Red hand contains about 40 leaves--from the 2014 crop.

Long Red is a medium height plant that produces moderately wide and very long leaves, that generally kiln to a deep reddish brown. The aroma is not quite as dark and woody as PA Red, but the production of each plant, by weight, is about double that of PA Red. [PA Red does produce a greater percentage of very dark leaf than does Long Red, and most of the PA Red leaf is a bit darker than most of the Long Red leaf.]

After kilning, the leaf blends beautifully with Caribbean leaf from WLT, providing a dense smoke with medium body and strength, and a good burn.

I only put 8 of these plants in the ground in 2014 (which is the crop I just tied into hands), but doubled the number for the current season. I stalk harvest Long Red. The yield is about 20 leaves per plant.

Of the 8 Long Red plants last season, one of them had to be replaced about two weeks after the initial transplant. This pinch-hitter never took off, until after the other 7 plants had been harvested. So it was a late grower. Unfortunately, it never developed the size or character of the normal plants. Presumably as a result of its low nicotine, earwigs feasted on that stalk while it hung in the shed.

I've already kilned the leaf from one 2014 Long Red stalk. The remaining 6 normal stalks added up to 3 generous hands. Each normal hand weighs about 1 pound--an average of 1/2 pound of cured whole leaf per plant.

Bob