deluxestogie Grow Log 2015

[deluxestogie]

You're on your own with the hat embroidery. Take your hat to a local business that imprints and embroiders promotional items and team logo stuff. Ask about getting your name stitched on.

Columbian Garcia was transplanted on 17 May 2015. I'm trying to make seed.

Bob

 

[deluxestogie]

I'll tell a story about that hat. In mid June of 2014, while I was out in the garden picking peas, a fancy SUV pulled up. A middle age man got out. An elderly gentleman remained in the passenger seat.

The younger man introduced himself, and proceeded to question me about the difficulty involved in growing tobacco. His adult son, whom he said lived only a few miles away, had talked about possibly growing tobacco. After some discussion, I suggested that his son (who was, of course, not present) drop by and have a chat, and in the mean time, he should check out the FTT forum.

"I'll never remember that web address stuff."

I removed my FTT hat (the very one in the photo above), showed him the web address embroidered right there on the front, and handed it to him. "Just bring the hat back, after you've written down the address." [People here in southwest Virginia are generally honest, good folks.]

The summer passed. And the winter. My custom embroidered FTT hat was gone for good. I never did see that scoundrel of a son of the stranger in the SUV.

Then, in mid July of this year (2015), while I was smoking a cigar out on my front porch, that same fancy SUV pulled into the driveway. The same middle age man stepped out and sheepishly handed me my FTT hat (13 months later!), smudged with dust and dirt.

"I thought I would never see that again," I said.

"I'm sure." The man replied. "Kids these days."

He didn't actually apologize, but having my hat again was what mattered.

Moral of the story: some honest, good folks in southwest Virginia are schmucks.

Bob

 

[deluxestogie]

Bob

 

[kullas]

Nice looking leaf

 

[deluxestogie]

Thanks. That is a 3-leaf priming from 8 plants. Although I have 4 more Havana 322 plants in a different bed, they are much smaller, and lagging behind.

Bob

 

[Brown Thumb]

Nice looking leaf

Yes it is.
I thought that was Wilson hiding behind the Leaf.

 

[deluxestogie]

Not Wilson. That's me wearing jeans that should be cast away.

Bob

 

[Frozenthunderbolt]

Not Wilson. That's me wearing jeans that should be cast away.

Bob

Wash out your mouth sir, they're just getting nicely broken in!

 

[kullas]

People pays good money to have jeans that look like that

 

[deluxestogie]

When you're young, worn out jeans are stylish. At my age, they suggest a socio-economic status somewhere between impoverished and destitute.

Bob

 

[Brown Thumb]

When you're young, worn out jeans are stylish. At my age, they suggest a socio-economic status somewhere between impoverished and destitute.

Bob

Thanks, Bob
Now I know why I Wear Torn jeans.

 

[Frozenthunderbolt]

When you're young, worn out jeans are stylish. At my age, they suggest a socio-economic status somewhere between impoverished and destitute.

Bob

No downside to that, folks wont bother robbing you and might feel sorry enough for you to give you a deal on things, especially if you're amiable and jovial ;-)

 

[deluxestogie]

Columbian Garcia just starting to bud.

Bob

 

[deluxestogie]

Yikes! It's September!

The Chillard's White Angel Leaf (2 plants in the foreground of the image below) are full-size, average height tobacco plants. The Columbian Garcia (in the background) tower above them. By the time the bud stalks are done, I expect them to be above the top of the windows.

Below, the dramatic leaf angle difference can be appreciated between Habano Colorado and Havana 322.

Uppers and downers.

Purely by accident, I transplanted the Bahia immediately adjacent to the San Andrés. This turned out to be a useful side-by-side grow. The two varieties are nearly indistinguishable, so far as their appearance is concerned. (Unfortunately, I topped all the Bahia, since I did not require more seed, so I can't compare the blossoms.) As it turns out, all the detailed measurements that I gather for each variety are nearly identical between the two varieties. Stalk diameter, leaf angle, leaf size and shape, vein angle, node distance between leaves, leaf count, general leaf texture and color are similar.

In the two images below, the leaves are from roughly the same stalk level (about the 10th leaf). In these, the Bahia appears a somewhat lighter color, with a broader and less pointed shape. But when I consider these characteristics on all the leaves of the two varieties, there really is no difference.

I have found that the leaf auricle is often clearly different between varieties of two otherwise similar plants. This is not the case here.

And to highlight the confusion, the photo below shows adjacent leaves (about the 15th) of the two varieties, and the color difference is the opposite.

So, at the very least, I would conclude that Bahia and San Andrés share many traits relating to appearance. San Andrés is native to the valley of that name in south-eastern Mexico. Bahia has, of course, been grown as a primary cigar tobacco crop for ages, in the Mata Fina region of Brazil. (And it's not likely that the Colonial Spaniards and the Colonial Portuguese were happily sharing their tobacco varieties with one another.) I will be curious to compare them after curing and kilning.

Bob

 

[rustycase]

When you're young, worn out jeans are stylish. At my age, they suggest a socio-economic status somewhere between impoverished and destitute.

Bob

I resemble that remark, Sir.
...and when I do get to town, where anyone might care, the street people never fail to bum a smoke from me.
rc

 

[deluxestogie]

Here's one more bit of comparison between Bahia and San Andrés.

As I watch the leaves of both varieties mature, the Bahia seems slightly more rugose (rumpled surface) than the San Andrés, and I'm inclining toward seeing the San Andrés as being a tad more slender. (Or, you can just look for the "dead fly" sign.)

More leaf from both varieties went into the curing shed today.

Bob

 

[deluxestogie]

Here is a 3-1/2 minute, fairly boring video of what was hanging in my curing shed this afternoon.

After that, my weather service emergency radio broadcast a warning of a fast moving, severe thunderstorm headed right for me. Forecast was for 60 mph winds, quarter-size hail, and heavy rain.

I dropped what I was doing, primed about 120 of the most mature (most brittle) leaves that were still on the plants, and strung them. These were added to the hanging leaf in the shed. Fastest priming and stringing I've ever done.

As it turned out, I received only gusty winds, while the massive storms slid past me to the east. The only worrisome leaf still out there is about half the Columbian Garcia crop. A quick walk through the remaining drizzle shows that everything is happy.

Bob

 

[Knucklehead]

I feel a little better knowing that I'm not the only one guilty of importing hornworms (or hornworm eggs) into my hanging area. Misery loves company. I kept the floor swept under the leaf so I could spot their waste and know when it was time to go hornworm hunting. The poop on the floor is much easier to spot than the worms.
It looks like you put the adrenaline rush from the weather report to good use.

 

[Hasse SWE]

I feel a little better knowing that I'm not the only one guilty of importing hornworms (or hornworm eggs) into my hanging area. Misery loves company. I kept the floor swept under the leaf so I could spot their waste and know when it was time to go hornworm hunting. The poop on the floor is much easier to spot than the worms.
It looks like you put the adrenaline rush from the weather report to good use.

Wallace I don't think my eggs was on the leaf when I took em in to the garage.. I can't bee shore and actually It doesn't do any big different. I haven't seen hornworms' at my plant yet..
My biggest problem is that my wife don't can take care of the kids at the moment, so I haven't time to take the time I need. Really hope she will be better soon.

 

[Hasse SWE]

Here's one more bit of comparison between Bahia and San Andrés.

As I watch the leaves of both varieties mature, the Bahia seems slightly more rugose (rumpled surface) than the San Andrés, and I'm inclining toward seeing the San Andrés as being a tad more slender. (Or, you can just look for the "dead fly" sign.)

More leaf from both varieties went into the curing shed today.

Bob

Nice pictures as always Bob, Just thinking can you put em up-side down at one pictures also?