Haroon's grow log 2026

[deluxestogie]

I grew CT Shade in full sun, back in 2012. The plants reached about 7 feet in height, and required no support. The leaves were half the size of typical shade-grown CT. They were thick, with heavy veins. I found them not particularly suitable for use as a cigar wrapper, and relatively bland as filler.

Of course, "sun-grown" results will vary with local conditions of sun angle and cloud or fog presence, as well as variations from one growing season to the next.

Bob

 

[The Haroo ln]

Piloto (1st 2 pics) have been primed yesterday. They're looking quite mature. I've just put some black weed membrane up in the curing shed to cover up the big 3-4 inch gaps at the top where sunlight was coming through. I will pop up the pics once im free.

Last 4 pics are the CB that are going to seed this year plus the one that i intend to cross with habano 2000. Not sure wether i should stalk harvest these or start priming them?

 

[The Haroo ln]

As stated earlier. Below is the membrane on the shed. Just need to cover one more side but i need to make space between my mothers blueberry plants and a couple of stray pallets.

The other pic - CB had to be primed off due to the barn rot spreading. Below it is the piloto that was primed yesterday morning and at the very bottom is the habano 2000 thats been curing for about 2 ish weeks.

 

[The Haroo ln]

Nearly all the piloto has veen harvested and strung up. My curing shed is a bit of a mess and could do with cleaning up so i strung up the viso and some ligero from 2 plants and the seco and viso from my potted CBs in the backroom yesterday. I noticed the humidity dropped to 40% today so i have wicked up a wet towel about 4 - 5 inches away.

Next 2 pics are the flowering CBs. 3 of them. I used 1 to as the father to cross with h2000.

Pic no 6. The criollo 98 about 2 weeks into transplant. Doing great. Dont think i need to fertilize with a heavy nitrogen dose yet as the leaves seem to be a very nice darkish green. Might give them a low nitrogen and high potash mix in the morning just to give them a max push through this vegetative state.

Next 2 pics. 1st one is the h2000 mother which i crossed with CB. I did this with 2 different seed pods just in case the single pod didnt produce. The pic next to it is the h2000 that was snapped and has grown back with a vengnance from a sturdy sucker. Really interested to see how this one gets on.

Final pic is my shaded plot. All seems great. Almost 1 week since transplant and they seem to have took to my new soil mix happily. Transplant shock has been minimal - none. I watered in some bone meal, sulphate of potash, volcanic rock dust and a little epsom salt 2-3 days before transplant to help the roots. Seems like it worked (touch wood).

I think growing the tobacco is the easiest part, the curing however is alot more difficult. Striking that balance between temp and RH especially when your having 3-4 weeks of 30°c + temps. Im hoping that having the humidifer in the shed and the towel wick in the backroom helps! Will just have to wait and see...

 

[deluxestogie]

For indoor color-curing, you can split a plastic garbage bag, and drape it over a string of leaves, to help slow the loss of moisture.

Bob

 

[The Haroo ln]

Cheers bob will try that if the rh drop any lower

 

[The Haroo ln]

Oh i almost forgot as you can see in the middle of the shade structure i have 1 lonely pot. I'm gonna trial growning shaded CB. This is just the other end of what @deluxestogie and @Pasiasiainen did/planned on doing with the CT shade. I know leaves will be thinner and less oily than sungrown etc. But Curiosity got the better of me haha

 

[The Haroo ln]

So was suppposed to finish harvesting the remainder of the piloto, the CBs that were flowering and the habano 2000 that was flowering yesterday, but i woke up sunday night/monday morning around 1:30am just sick and not been able to move. I took cold and flu tablets to no avail until my mum saw a flybite on my arm. She then suggested it was highly likely that it was horsefly bite and i was suffering an allergic reaction as well as infection. So after taking some antibiotics and sleeping through all of yesterday and all of today morning i finally got around to tending the garden.

Pic no1. The 3 smaller transplants are CB and the larger one in the bottom left is H2000.

Pic no2. H2000 in grey pot

Pic no3. The pot with the CB in my shaded structure.

 

[The Haroo ln]

Quick update nothing major.

Pics 1 + 2: the 3 sungrowing criollo 98 were topped a few days ago i have 2 with 16 leaves and 1 with 18 leaves which im happy with. The most important thing is that they are all a healthy vibrant green colour.

Pic 3,4 and 5. Are habano 2000 doing nicely

Pic 6 is the flower heads on 2 of my CBs that im saving for seed.

Pic 7 and 8 are the 3 CBs in the ground and 1 habano in the bottom left and 1 in the pot doing ok.

Pic 9 and 10 are my 4 habano 2000, 3 corojo 99, 1 criollo 98 and 1 CB in the shade structure. These are all doing great also.

Pic 11 is just to show that i have tied some twine/jute across width ways inside the top of my structure to where i will string my plants as the get taller to avoid toppling over/damage. This method also works better than staking as i dont have to worry about driving a stake into the ground and damaging roots or leaves as the plants grind against the stakes. If you zoom in you can see that i have tied 1 of my habano 2000 plants up with a tiny little bit of slack so the stem is not damaged.

The final few pics are just to show the progress of my piloto, CB and habano 2000 leaves that i harvested a few weeks ago. All doing great. Some lovely dark colours on the piloto, the habano 2000 seems to be curing a little lighter in colour and the CB is doing good also.

 

[The Haroo ln]

The 2 most top leaves on my 3 criollo 98 plants. These were tiny when i topped the plants almost 1 week ago. Its insane how quickly these 2 leaves have grown. Tobacco still amazes me!

 

[The Haroo ln]

Does anyone know what this is? Is this TMV or weather fleck? I remember i had this 3 years ago with my habano 2000 that were planted in roughly the same spot these criollo 98 are planted. I've tried to include pictures of the top and bottom of the leaves and the veins. The veins seem fine so not sure what it is.

 

[deluxestogie]

I will cast an uncertain vote for weather fleck.

Bob

 

[johnny108]

Looks like weather fleck to me, too.
TMV darkens the veins in the underside of the leaf. The leaf will start curling down at the spot where the veins start darkening.

 

[The Haroo ln]

Thanks Bob!

I'm not big on AI, but i sent a picture to chatgpt/dola and they said the same thing. 'Its nothing to worry about its to do with weather being hot during the day and then a sudden drop overnight, also. My plants could do with some more potash and magnesium.' I will see to it that they get their wish tonight when i water them

 

[The Haroo ln]

My shade grown plants are approx 32 days into transplant. On the right are 4 x habano 2000, on the left - back 3 are corojo 99 and front 1 is criollo 98. The middle pot is CB. The sungrowing pot is habano 2000 - beautiful thick healthy leaves!

I'm happy with all these. Leaves are nice and thin, growing slowly but i do believe shaded crop takes a few extra days to produce flower buds and mature than sungrown plants.
In no rush, expected 1st harvest/priming is around middle -late september.

There has been some severe winds for the last 2 days hence why the stems are tied. Some of the habano 2000 leaves have been turned over with the gusts, but overall happy with progress for now.
However I am starting to think that 2.4m may be touching the height limit when these fully grow but i may jussst get away with it. Only time will tell.

Edit: i've had to prop some bamboo stakes into the shaded structure 'door' to prevent the net swinging into the leaves and damaging them

 

[Pasiasiainen]

to prevent the net swinging into the leaves and damaging them

I don't know what material your shade net is made of, but the net on my shade structure is quite coarse, and it caused some pretty bad damage when the leaves started rubbing against it.

Based on the photo, it looks like your plants are also quite close to the sides, so I think the leaves will eventually touch the netting at some point during the season.

If your netting is also coarse, I’d consider hanging some clear plastic or something similar from the ceiling between the plants and the mesh. Just something smooth that won’t tear the leaves as much.

I don’t want anyone else to suffer the same sad fate as I did.

 

[The Haroo ln]

Yeah i planted them at the specific spacing so i had a little path wide enough to walk through when i sucker/top/prime. The plants are about 70cm away from the sides of the next and then spaced the plants about 75cm apart. The spacing between the 2 sides, left -right (pathway) is just shy of 1metre

 

[Pasiasiainen]

Sorry, I worded that side measurement a bit unclearly earlier. What I meant was the distance from the stalk to the side/wall/netting of the shade structure. I have about 50–65 cm of space there, and even that doesn't seem to be quite enough for the CT Shade I'm growing under shade, because the leaves get so huge.

 

[The Haroo ln]

For now everything seems like it has enough space from the sides apart from the corojo 99 on the left. When i grew it in full sun last year it had absolutely huge leaves, something i should've took to mind when planting them haha. I think they will have the biggest leaves in the shade and more than likely a few leaves will get damaged from 'net-rub'. But its a lesson learnt for next year