deluxestogie Grow Log 2017

[mwaller]

Sorry if I stepped on anyone's toes!

[QUOTE = mwaller; 139130] J'ai fait l'amorçage final de mon Corojo 99 la nuit dernière! Depuis que je suis parti depuis environ 10 jours, beaucoup de tiges ont maintenant des ventouses importantes. Est-ce que cela vaut la peine de poursuivre, ou dois-je simplement tirer toute la plante à ce stade?
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Damage to post the question at Bob ... she will be lost for everybody, she would be better in your blog of growth either in a subject dedicated Just my opinion


Dommage de poster la question chez Bob... elle sera perdue pour tout le monde, elle serait mien dans votre blog de croissance ou bien dans un sujet dédié
Juste mon avis

 

[deluxestogie]

You can save suckers if they are really seductive, and you just can't resist. It's probably worth the effort for educational purposes. Occasionally...occasionally they turn out okay.

I know it seems like free tobacco, but there is a space and labor commitment involved. Once you've cured it and kilned it, it's really hard to just give up on it, and toss it.

Bob

 

[mwaller]

Hmm... I may pass on the sucker crop this year. I'm practically out of curing space, and I still have some late maturing plants left to harvest.
Thanks!

You can save suckers if they are really seductive, and you just can't resist. It's probably worth the effort for educational purposes. Occasionally...occasionally they turn out okay.

I know it seems like free tobacco, but there is a space and labor commitment involved. Once you've cured it and kilned it, it's really hard to just give up on it, and toss it.

Bob

 

[Tutu]

There are sucker crops sold commercially. Some varieties may very well be worth the effort. Mata Fina is one of them

 

[deluxestogie]

In Brazil, do they add more fertilizer to aid the sucker crop of Mata Fina?

Bob

 

[Tutu]

If they do, I doubt they add a lot. Farmers over there are quite reluctant to use a lot of fertilizer and pesticides. I can ask someone who surely knows. Will come back with an answer.

 

[deluxestogie]

I would imagine that suckers in the tropics really present a different potential, compared to suckers grown in a temperate climate.

Bob

 

[Tutu]

I guess that's true. Problem I find that with most suckers I get funny shaped leafs. They hardly ever look normal. Except for the Xanthi suckers, where most leafs are normal, only the very top ones are a bit strange again

 

[Tutu]

So I've asked an agronomist who works with these farmers in Brazil and he says that they usually don't use extra fertiliser when they grow a soca crop. There are only a few farmers who do.
Here in Indonesia we've asked a few farmers to try and grow a sucker crop too, but we have asked them to fertilise again (heavily). It hasn't yet been brought in.

 

[SmokesAhoy]

Last year I grew out the sucker growth or "rattoon" crop as it used to be called commercially and I had enough time to finish it too. It grew slightly smaller in leaf and stalk size but almost doubled my harvest that year. I was told at the time I could have done things better had I started another crop and planted that instead after pulling the harvested stalks and gotten more, but I didn't know in mid June I'd have a long season and the established root system I think allowed me to shave a month off the total grow time making the endeavor possible as it was growing through light frosts in the end coupled with lower daytime temps and shorter days.

I'd never plan on a sucker crop but I could see myself doing it again if I did another tiny grow in the future as the leaf turned out really good in the end.

 

[deluxestogie]

This Havana 322, confined to a tiny, Floger's coffee tub, and shaded for several hours every day, has performed beautifully. As you can see, the lower leaves, though conspicuously ripening, are still quite thin and somewhat droopy. I may have produced my first shade-grown wrappers.

Irregular color-curing

In response to a question posted about inconsistent patterns of color-curing, I decided to venture into my curing shed with a camera, to capture some funky leaves. I can stand up when I enter the door, but then I have to begin stooping beneath strings of primed leaves to proceed any farther. Below is a sampling of what's presently hanging.

And finally, an obvious, green stem in a dark brown leaf.

Worm Sign!

The poop of a large hornworm, when it falls from any height, will bounce on striking the wooden floor of the shed. In the above photo, the leaf fragment is ground zero. All the rest of the poop has bounced from that spot. Looking directly above the impact center, I found the plant shown below.

Only a large hornworm can produce so much poop, and destroy so much leaf--entire leaves.

This is not subtle. After carefully inspecting the affected plant, and finding no hornworm, I thoroughly checked each of its neighbors. No hornworm could be found. In reviewing my records, the Havana 322 was stalk-cut exactly one month ago. That is plenty of time for a tiny hornworm baby to complete all of its maturation stages, then drop off the plant as a monster hornworm the thickness of my thumb, and attempt to burrow into the ground to pupate.

But it's a wooden floor! Although I couldn't swear that it wasn't shriveled up dead in some dark corner of the shed, I am confident that it found an opening somewhere, and headed for dirt.

[About 5 years ago, I picked a huge hornworm off one of my tomato plants, and carried it 20 yards away, depositing it gently on the yellow center-line of the asphalt road on a 90-degree day. Several hours later, when I went back to see the expected, green smear on the road, the asphalt was bare. In fact, this humble moth larva had crossed a lane of scorching blacktop (more successfully than many mammals), and headed through deep grass, in a straight line toward the same tomato plants. I located it about half-way there. No mercy this time.]

I swept the floor clean of hornworm poop. I will inspect the shed floor again tomorrow.


Epilog

One Havana 322 plant was tried and convicted of treasonous collaboration with a hornworm, despite enjoying the privilege of sheltered curing. It was sentenced to public shaming, followed by being drawn and quartered.

Bob

 

[Youn]

Impressives poops, I never imagined it could reach this size!! I'm glad I did not have hornworms!
The hanging stalks, from an aesthetic point of view, are very interesting…

 

[SmokesAhoy]

I saw the adult moth but still never had caterpillars, I don't know what to make of that.

 

[OldDinosaurWesH]

Bob:

Glad to see that you haven't lost your sense of humor!

Wes H.

Also, an interesting shade of orangey - red. I'm guessing it will get darker over time.

 

[deluxestogie]

Tip Leaf

I have nothing for comparison. This is the largest tip leaf I have ever harvested. The leaves are huge and thick and corrugated and threatening. I expect them to be challenging to color-cure. But I look forward to some truly volcanic corona leaf.

I think it's all too thick to make oscuro wrappers, so I'll be thinking filler condiment for these beasts.

Even if they don't cure well, it sure has been fun watching them grow.

You may notice in the background that many of the Prancak N-1 hanging stalks are looking rather bare. This variety doesn't seem to hang onto its leaves, once the leaf stem has dried. They blow off, and land in the grass nearby. So I gather them daily, and toss them loosely into a bushel basket inside the curing shed.

Bob

 

[OldDinosaurWesH]

Bob:

Those are some serious looking leaves, I hope they cure out for you. They look down right intimidating from a curing perspective. About how many leaves is that and how many plant's worth?

Speaking of hard to cure, I have decided that I'm going to let my pesky Turkish mature as long as the weather will allow. Then I'm going to string them and put them as close to the window in my store room as I can. This way they will get the benefit of the high humidity of the store room, and a few hours of light each day. Only about two hours of direct sunlight, but that is better than none. Kind of a hybrid between air curing and sun curing. If this works, then it works. If it doesn't, I don't use a lot of Turkish anyway. And I know where to buy Turkish for modest prices. In fact, I already have some Prilep I acquired from WLT a while back in my current inventory.

Also: Is it cold there? You have your vest on. September is our second hottest month of the year. It's in the mid eighties out there right now.

Wes H.

 

[deluxestogie]

That string of tips is 56 leaves, from 16 plants. The leaves are strung back to back, front to front, with an angle of about 20-30º between the face-ups and the back-ups. So in the photo, you mostly see only half of the leaf count. The stems are thick and tough.

It was in the low to mid 60s today. I'm old, so I wear a long sleeve shirt and a fleece vest. You'll know it's really cold if you see me in a wool sock hat.

Bob

 

[OldDinosaurWesH]

Yes, as the sunshine wanes with the season, I get my insulated shirts out. Soon we will be in the heat in the morning, air-conditioning in the afternoon season. Insulated shirts in the morning, shirtsleeve in the afternoon. Unlike Western Washington, where they only have two seasons, 9 months wet and three months dry (I exaggerate a little on the wet part), we have distinct seasons around here.

Good luck with the curing, and may you have many happy smokes as a result.

Wes H.

 

[Gavroche]

Your Corojo is green no ?...

 

[greenmonster714]

Nice string of leaves there Bob. Those should pack a punch.