Harvested today!

[Whalen]

Well the threat of frost/snow in two days forced me to harvest my tobacco. I had about 50 plants this year and they just went nuts, I had a late germination and thought it was pointless to continue in June. I left the plants in the garden for two weeks in flats due to a heavy work load. My wife found a friend that had some room in their field, so I put the plants in late and reluctantly.

I put in a row of Maryland Catterton, White Burley, and a nice heirloom Virginia. Then we had a drought, for a month, and I had just given up. then, I got a call from a friend saying how nice my plants looked, I said Huh? went over and was shocked to find them waist high, a nasty tiny storm had missed us and just dumped on the plants. I spent a lot of time cultivating, watering, and then topping, and then the Tropical storm Irene just dumped 14 inches of water. Well the plants just sucked the water up, grew two feet in a week, and the leaves were pointed strait up and just as green and sticky as can be, really awesome growth.

I went over and harvested, and had to make two trips in the pick up truck to get them all! Just overwhelmed with tobacco just now, I will be priming them all day tomorrow. The tips are just so long and dense, just overwhelmingly perfect. I have access to a greenhouse for overwintering, and will cure it in the same greenhouse next summer.

 

[Jitterbugdude]

So... we had fun didn't we?

 

[Whalen]

The shock of the rapid growth was something, and the resulting growth from the heavy rains, the plant leaves are just straight up and one after the other, I actually have used a spreader to get some air in there for the initial drying, It is like hands clasped in prayer. Yes I am having a little too much fun! How was your crop?

You know these plants were grown on top of an area that had been covered in a manure pile for ten years, a pile from a milk barn that the Park service finally moved and piled up. Makes sense now!

 

[Chicken]

that manure proablly did help you a lot,,,

i use chicken manure/sawdust mixture. each year,,,

it fertilizes my baccy all year long perfectlly,,,

 

[Daniel]

This year was my first growing tobacco. One of the biggest things I learned was tobaccos ability to stay alive. I've never seen anything like it. Next year we will be growing at least 132 plants all MCY and YTB. then I am going to add as many plant is new varieties as I can. Those two are the leading producers for us this year. they both took a beating and still came out very well.

 

[DrBob]

Once your tobacco is established it's as tough as thistles! You can chop it off at ground level and it will grow right back

 

[Chicken]

I harvested a lot of mine today,,,, did a lot of whole stalk curing,,,

....

 

[Whalen]

I have been hanging up tobacco until I am plain tuckered out! I went through 5 boxes of paper clips hanging leaf. I wanted to whole stalk, but did not like the way it was progressing indoors. Decided to take down the stalks and hang each leaf.