Plus, may I add, a pleasure to read and look through... esp. in the winter.
deluxestogie Grow Log 2015
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Plus, may I add, a pleasure to read and look through... esp. in the winter.
It would have to be different leaves, since those are already strung, and hanging in the shed. I'm curious. What would you be looking for on the underside?
Bob
I Think it's easier to see the mid-rib If the leaf is shown up-side down nothing else.
Offcourse it's not need to be the same leaf..
I just did a leaf count on the (currently still growing) Columbian Garcia: 40+ full size leaves per plant, plus any tip leaves that mature before first frost. Compared to a typical Spanish-type tobacco, that represents twice the yield. This assumes that I am able to actually reach the top leaves while standing on my tiptoes atop my step ladder.
Although Columbian Garcia does sucker, the suckers are timid and infrequent.
Now, if I could get it to grow as high as Icarus was said to have flown (so high that the sun melted the wax that held his wings together), then I wouldn't even need to kiln the leaf.
Bob
Although Columbian Garcia does sucker, the suckers are timid and infrequent.
Now, if I could get it to grow as high as Icarus was said to have flown (so high that the sun melted the wax that held his wings together), then I wouldn't even need to kiln the leaf.
Bob
deluxestogie's Believe It or Not! (the Labor Day Freak Show)
There are no words.
GRIN Unknown #10 exists in the GRIN seed bank for some undocumented reason. And of course, it's name (varietal identity) is unknown. I might speculate that it was a project, or maybe an accession, that sought to increase the yield of Izmir, while keeping the expected, traditional, small leaf size.
30% of my Unknown #10 plants show an abnormality of the stalk that eventually leads to twinning of the growth tip. Below the point of twinning, the nodes in the stalk seem to duplicate themselves, resulting in twice the expected number of leaves on the same height stalk. Once it finally twins, the nodes (and leaf count) above the twinning revert to normal spacing.
Detail of the GRIN Unknown #10 abnormality.
In the photo below, you can easily compare the leaf count of the twinning plant to the normal siblings on either side of it.
And what could be more inspiring than death and resurrection? This 2012-germinated Golden Burley was transplanted from a 3-1/2" pot, to the garden bed in May of 2015. Seeing the true light of day seemed to have caused the frail seedling to promptly drop dead. There was nothing left to see.
But then...then a tiny, new sucker emerged from the ground, and grew. Below, we see the final result of its rebirth.
Not bad, for having been declared dead.
Bob
EDIT: In order to clarify what is happening with the twinning GRIN Unknown #10, I plan to bag both a twinning plant and a non-twinning plant of the unknown variety. In 2016, I will plant both, to see if a genetic pattern can be clarified. Who knows? Maybe it can be crossed with Columbian Garcia, to produce a cigar variety with 80 leaves.
There are no words.
GRIN Unknown #10 exists in the GRIN seed bank for some undocumented reason. And of course, it's name (varietal identity) is unknown. I might speculate that it was a project, or maybe an accession, that sought to increase the yield of Izmir, while keeping the expected, traditional, small leaf size.
30% of my Unknown #10 plants show an abnormality of the stalk that eventually leads to twinning of the growth tip. Below the point of twinning, the nodes in the stalk seem to duplicate themselves, resulting in twice the expected number of leaves on the same height stalk. Once it finally twins, the nodes (and leaf count) above the twinning revert to normal spacing.
Detail of the GRIN Unknown #10 abnormality.
In the photo below, you can easily compare the leaf count of the twinning plant to the normal siblings on either side of it.
And what could be more inspiring than death and resurrection? This 2012-germinated Golden Burley was transplanted from a 3-1/2" pot, to the garden bed in May of 2015. Seeing the true light of day seemed to have caused the frail seedling to promptly drop dead. There was nothing left to see.
But then...then a tiny, new sucker emerged from the ground, and grew. Below, we see the final result of its rebirth.
Not bad, for having been declared dead.
Bob
EDIT: In order to clarify what is happening with the twinning GRIN Unknown #10, I plan to bag both a twinning plant and a non-twinning plant of the unknown variety. In 2016, I will plant both, to see if a genetic pattern can be clarified. Who knows? Maybe it can be crossed with Columbian Garcia, to produce a cigar variety with 80 leaves.
rustycase
Well-Known Member
That would be a fun experiment, Bob... to see if you can keep the twinning going for 5 or 6 generations until it stabilizes...
Good luck
rc
Good luck
rc
Even More Bizarre
Although it's still a little early, I decided to go ahead and bag the two versions of GRIN Unknown #10 (twinning and non-twinning). I stripped some of the top leaves to allow room for tying the bag. What doing so revealed is almost spooky. The twinning plant is truly Zombie Apocalypse tobacco.
Approaching the top of the plant, the stalk becomes quadrupled, and ends (at several levels) in two single bud heads, plus a tripled bud head.
It's difficult to appreciate in the photo, but these are not lots of sucker buds. These are simultaneously emerging bud heads. Some of the buds appear to be trying to form double and tripled blossoms as well.
JessicaNicot, you've created a monster!
Bob
Although it's still a little early, I decided to go ahead and bag the two versions of GRIN Unknown #10 (twinning and non-twinning). I stripped some of the top leaves to allow room for tying the bag. What doing so revealed is almost spooky. The twinning plant is truly Zombie Apocalypse tobacco.
Approaching the top of the plant, the stalk becomes quadrupled, and ends (at several levels) in two single bud heads, plus a tripled bud head.
It's difficult to appreciate in the photo, but these are not lots of sucker buds. These are simultaneously emerging bud heads. Some of the buds appear to be trying to form double and tripled blossoms as well.
JessicaNicot, you've created a monster!
Bob
Happy News!
Columbian Garcia
Bob
Columbian Garcia
Bob
The Columbian Garcia is blossoming more than 3 weeks earlier for me this year, compared to 2014. I still have about 5 weeks before average first frost date.
Bob
Bob
Although the Columbian Garcia are likely to put on a little more height, I went ahead and measured them today. Height to the crowsfoot is 114", which is nearly 32" taller than they grew in 2014. I attribute the increased height and greater leaf size to their location this season in the bed alongside the house.
Bob
Bob
ProfessorPangloss
Amateur Kentuckian
Holy moly. Is that some kind of record?
Only a handful of folks have grown it, so I don't know the record height. GRIN observations (PI 405672) report ~81.5", which is only a smidge taller than my 2014 Columbian Garcia. While 114" seems awesome for a genuine cigar variety, it is also a genuine pain in the butt to top and to manage. Very pretty, though. I'm happy with it.
I'm considering planting some Hacienda del Cura (Canary Islands) in that peculiar bed in 2016. That is the bed that is shaded until mid-day, then gets double sun, from reflection off the white siding, for the rest of the day. It seems to give me sunny shade-grown leaf, or shady sun-grown leaf--taller plants with larger, somewhat thinner leaf.
Bob
I'm considering planting some Hacienda del Cura (Canary Islands) in that peculiar bed in 2016. That is the bed that is shaded until mid-day, then gets double sun, from reflection off the white siding, for the rest of the day. It seems to give me sunny shade-grown leaf, or shady sun-grown leaf--taller plants with larger, somewhat thinner leaf.
Bob
Last of the Mohicans
These are the remnants of my 2014 harvest that still hung in the shed--so, a year of shed exposure to temp and humidity swings. They were runty, raggedy looking stalks that were small enough to hang with a twist of wire, instead of a nail.
With a drizzly day, I took advantage of the humidity to strip the leaf, and tie it into hands. These will now go into my enclosed back porch to await eventual kilning.
In the shed, it really looked like trash begging to be tossed. Once tied up, and the occasional moldy leaf removed or truncated (notice the Vuelta Abajo in the top photo), it becomes a useful bit of filler and filler condiment. The ratty looking Little Dutch will fill a few cigars. The Vuelta Abajo top leaf, which will kiln to a very dark brown, will serve as potent ligero.
The two hands of Brasil Dunkel are curiosities. Of the 8 Brasil Dunkel plants that were growing in the bed in 2014, one grew much lighter leaf than the others, and one appeared indistinguishable from a white-stem burley.
Brasil dunkel from 5 Aug 2014. Intermediate (L front) and White (R front) variants.
I can't explain the intermediate variant, other than possibly impure seed (or genetic instability). It's possible that the white variant was simply one of my Harrow Velvet burley plants, mislabeled.
Burley tastes like burley, so that will be the easy one.
Now my nearly full shed contains only leaf harvested in 2015.
Bob
These are the remnants of my 2014 harvest that still hung in the shed--so, a year of shed exposure to temp and humidity swings. They were runty, raggedy looking stalks that were small enough to hang with a twist of wire, instead of a nail.
With a drizzly day, I took advantage of the humidity to strip the leaf, and tie it into hands. These will now go into my enclosed back porch to await eventual kilning.
In the shed, it really looked like trash begging to be tossed. Once tied up, and the occasional moldy leaf removed or truncated (notice the Vuelta Abajo in the top photo), it becomes a useful bit of filler and filler condiment. The ratty looking Little Dutch will fill a few cigars. The Vuelta Abajo top leaf, which will kiln to a very dark brown, will serve as potent ligero.
The two hands of Brasil Dunkel are curiosities. Of the 8 Brasil Dunkel plants that were growing in the bed in 2014, one grew much lighter leaf than the others, and one appeared indistinguishable from a white-stem burley.
Brasil dunkel from 5 Aug 2014. Intermediate (L front) and White (R front) variants.
I can't explain the intermediate variant, other than possibly impure seed (or genetic instability). It's possible that the white variant was simply one of my Harrow Velvet burley plants, mislabeled.
Burley tastes like burley, so that will be the easy one.
Now my nearly full shed contains only leaf harvested in 2015.
Bob
Unknown Weirdness
GRIN Unknown #10 has turned out to be a continuing curiosity. Those plants (30%) that exhibit what I've designated as "twinning" produce simultaneous, multiple bud heads from their abnormally widened stalks. These bud heads form a mix of single (normal), double and triple fused buds. While a normal tobacco blossom always has 5 petals, some of these have 15, with multiple pistils inside.
Wind in the Columbian Garcia
This is a 20 second video of my ~10' tall Columbian Garcia on a windy day.
Bob
GRIN Unknown #10 has turned out to be a continuing curiosity. Those plants (30%) that exhibit what I've designated as "twinning" produce simultaneous, multiple bud heads from their abnormally widened stalks. These bud heads form a mix of single (normal), double and triple fused buds. While a normal tobacco blossom always has 5 petals, some of these have 15, with multiple pistils inside.
Wind in the Columbian Garcia
This is a 20 second video of my ~10' tall Columbian Garcia on a windy day.
Bob
GRIN Unknown #10 is fascinating. I can't wait to hear what Jessica has to say about it.
I wonder if they were seeds that had been treated with Colchesine (used to treat Gout) to create a polyploid plant?
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Colchicine (see Botanical use)
http://scholar.lib.vt.edu/ejournals/JARS/v44n3/v44n3-paden.htm
I wonder if they were seeds that had been treated with Colchesine (used to treat Gout) to create a polyploid plant?
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Colchicine (see Botanical use)
http://scholar.lib.vt.edu/ejournals/JARS/v44n3/v44n3-paden.htm
Yesterday evening, I completed a formal leaf count (per plant) on the GRIN Unknown #10.
I stalk harvested 8 of the GRIN Unknown #10 stalks (after priming the lower leaf on two earlier occasions). I discovered with Prilep, a couple of seasons ago, that stalk-harvested, small Orientals seem to sun-cure well, without the need for yellowing in the shade. I assume it's the reservoir of moisture from the stalks that keeps the leaves alive for a few extra days.
Eight stalks of GRIN Unknown #10.
These are both variants.
As the stalks shrink with drying, I
just crush the wire tighter.
In full-size tobacco plants, much of the moisture is contained within the succulent leaf stems, and if wired together like this, would end up molding. This did not happen with the Prilep--a combination of low stem moisture and sun exposure through the thin leaves.
The remaining bagged Orientals (GRIN Unknown #10 as well as Izmir-Karabaglar) will be leaf primed.
For 2016, I plan to grow both variants of GRIN Unknown #10, in order to clarify the following questions:
Bob
- normal variant: 40
- twinning variant: 79
I stalk harvested 8 of the GRIN Unknown #10 stalks (after priming the lower leaf on two earlier occasions). I discovered with Prilep, a couple of seasons ago, that stalk-harvested, small Orientals seem to sun-cure well, without the need for yellowing in the shade. I assume it's the reservoir of moisture from the stalks that keeps the leaves alive for a few extra days.
Eight stalks of GRIN Unknown #10.
These are both variants.
As the stalks shrink with drying, I
just crush the wire tighter.
In full-size tobacco plants, much of the moisture is contained within the succulent leaf stems, and if wired together like this, would end up molding. This did not happen with the Prilep--a combination of low stem moisture and sun exposure through the thin leaves.
The remaining bagged Orientals (GRIN Unknown #10 as well as Izmir-Karabaglar) will be leaf primed.
For 2016, I plan to grow both variants of GRIN Unknown #10, in order to clarify the following questions:
- Is seed from the twinning variants fertile?
- Does seed from the non-twinning variants produce, once again, roughly 30% twinning offspring?
- If fertile, does seed from the twinning variants yield a different ratio of twinning to normal offspring?
Bob
I decided today to make a single list of all the tobacco varieties I've grown at least once. It came to 87. Seemed like a lot more. I think Knucklehead grew double that number of varieties in a single season. There are a lot of repeats in there, but still, it seemed like it would come to more.
Bob
Bob
87 variants is impressing Bob. It's would be funny to see that list.
Do you even have a top 10 or 5 list?
I have"only" been growing half of that and know some I like more (and less) to grow and keep in my mixes..
Would become interesting to se your's..
Yes knucklehead are amazing as a friend and a grower, just like you he seems to give his all for this..
Do you even have a top 10 or 5 list?
I have"only" been growing half of that and know some I like more (and less) to grow and keep in my mixes..
Would become interesting to se your's..
Yes knucklehead are amazing as a friend and a grower, just like you he seems to give his all for this..
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