Introducing myself - Mike from Houston

[HoustonTobacco]

My name is Mike. I live in northwest Houston area. Tried germinating tobacco seeds in college in the early 90's without success. Been wanting to try again since then.

This year I picked up seeds for American 572, Punche and Shirazi. Put them in pots early this year. Didn't know about cutting off flower heads or suckering in time, so let them flower and eventually cut them down so as not to blow over expensive pots during an approaching tropical storm. I was surprised at how big and pretty the plants got, especially when flowering. Very ornamental. Also learned how thirsty they were, hand watering every day. I've since install drip emitters which eliminate that daily task.

So then went for a second round. Got all 3 varieties in. Learned that a 35 gallon fabric pot contains enough soil to actually make it thru 1 day without wilting. The others - not big enough. I did keep the flower heads off for this round, but still didn't know about suckering. Probably explains the form, especially of the Shirazi (speak up if you know if this is its natural form). After having primed American 572 #1 far up the plant, I decided to let this one flower for the enjoyment of the bees and hummingbirds, while still continuing to prime.

As to where to air cure, decided against under the carport, as the radiant heat coming off that in July is brutal, knocking down RH. So I set up a camp shower in the front room. "Sealed" off the ventilation meshing with towels/trash bags and installed a steam humidifier. I keep it on the highest setting, yielding about 75% RH and using 1-1/2 to 2 quarts of RO water per day. Have it plugged in thu a power station, as any interruption in power will turn off the humidifier (have to turn it back on manually then). A grow tent would probably be a better fith that this camp shower, but the camp shower is proof of concept - even if expensive to keep moist for months on end.

I've managed to get maybe 10 jars (some spaghetti, some Ball) full so far. Put a 65% Bodeva pack in each one.

Tried smoking some freshly cured in a pipe once - not worth doing. Hoping in a year that I'll actually enjoy it.

Lots for work. I go out every morning before work with a UV flashlight to pluck hornworms and their eggs. If I didn't do that, I'd have no plants left. I've got to figure out a better way to justify to myself that this is worth doing again. I still work, so 11 hours per day away from home, so need a system that is a bit less demanding of daily attention.

Comments/suggestions welcomed.

 

[GreenDragon]

Hi Mike - Welcome to the Forum!

Your plants look very healthy - I'm sure they love the warm sun and humidity of Houston.

I'm quite a lazy gardener, so my suggestions are:
1) Plants in pots are a lot of work. Plant in the ground next year if you can. A 2' by 10' row along your fence works great, and free mulch from the recycling center keeps weeds out and moisture in. Or, others have been successfull by placing the fabric pots in a plastic kiddie pool and just filling that once a week or so.
2) Spray with BT (Bacillus Thuringiensis) about every two weeks once you see the first hornworm. It's a bacteria toxin that's specific to caterpillars. Non-toxic to everything else and will keep those hornworms off your plants. The concentrate from Amazon is very cost effective.
3) I color cure my tobacco in the garage. You shouldn't need to humidify the garage in Houston - just crack or close the garage door as needed.

Good luck next season!

 

[StoneCarver]

Welcome,
Growing tobacco for personal use is largely a hobby. Is it worth your time and energy? I can be. Many of us find that what we produce ourselves makes a better smoke than most of what we can purchase from a store. That is after aging sufficiently. Have you considered building a kiln to speed up the aging process? There's lots of information and ideas here about building and using a tobacco kiln. if you insist on having something to smoke now which is understandable, I'd recommend smoking the volado- that is the bottom most leaves. Those are usually fine without any aging/kilning.

 

[HoustonTobacco]

Hi Mike - Welcome to the Forum!

Your plants look very healthy - I'm sure they love the warm sun and humidity of Houston.

I'm quite a lazy gardener, so my suggestions are:
1) Plants in pots are a lot of work. Plant in the ground next year if you can. A 2' by 10' row along your fence works great, and free mulch from the recycling center keeps weeds out and moisture in. Or, others have been successfull by placing the fabric pots in a plastic kiddie pool and just filling that once a week or so.
2) Spray with BT (Bacillus Thuringiensis) about every two weeks once you see the first hornworm. It's a bacteria toxin that's specific to caterpillars. Non-toxic to everything else and will keep those hornworms off your plants. The concentrate from Amazon is very cost effective.
3) I color cure my tobacco in the garage. You shouldn't need to humidify the garage in Houston - just crack or close the garage door as needed.

Good luck next season!

Thanks. As far as garage is concerned - mine is attached and I keep the door open between it and the house (yes, I'm single!). Keeps the place useable from a temp and humidity perspective and keeps my tools from rusting and plant starts from cooking.

If I put along fence you can see in pics, it is east-facing. So gets sun only in the morning. Do you think tobacco would fair at least decently well with that? Otherwise I could plant along a south-facing wall of my house that would get sun for a few more hours.

I wouldn't spray anything with plants around the pool. But this is year #1. If spraying every couple of weeks could save all that hornworm hunting, that would be reason enough to move planting location well away from pool next time.

 

[HoustonTobacco]

Welcome,
Growing tobacco for personal use is largely a hobby. Is it worth your time and energy? I can be. Many of us find that what we produce ourselves makes a better smoke than most of what we can purchase from a store. That is after aging sufficiently. Have you considered building a kiln to speed up the aging process? There's lots of information and ideas here about building and using a tobacco kiln. if you insist on having something to smoke now which is understandable, I'd recommend smoking the volado- that is the bottom most leaves. Those are usually fine without any aging/kilning.

Thanks. For this round I'm just going to wait the 6-12 months I've read about. Gotta see if the end product is actually enjoyable. I CAN say that it does smell really nice after color curing though. I'm starting to keep the reject pile (hints of green) to see if I can make an air freshener with it instead of going into the compost pile. What I really don't know is how to tell what is green and what is just fine. Using my untrained eyes for that. But taking an attitude of quality over quantity, so rejecting 20%+ of what has been thru curing.

 

[StoneCarver]

For the not so nicely color cured leaves, I like to use those for practice material for rolling cigars and yes I will smoke them. I mean, y'know, for science. Don't want to waste good leaf on my unpracticed hands. This year I learned that not all green means uncured. Some leaves on a couple varieties I grew this year, particularly the RedRose, would be green on the underside of the leaf but dark brown on the top part after color curing. I couldn't tell if I had green mold or what was going on. Turns out, everything was just fine. After kilning, a lot of that green turned to brown (kinda sorta) and those leaves turned out to be very tasty. I'm looking forward to using those for wrapper leaves as the dark brown is a very nice shade.

 

[HoustonTobacco]

For the not so nicely color cured leaves, I like to use those for practice material for rolling cigars and yes I will smoke them. I mean, y'know, for science. Don't want to waste good leaf on my unpracticed hands. This year I learned that not all green means uncured. Some leaves on a couple varieties I grew this year, particularly the RedRose, would be green on the underside of the leaf but dark brown on the top part after color curing. I couldn't tell if I had green mold or what was going on. Turns out, everything was just fine. After kilning, a lot of that green turned to brown (kinda sorta) and those leaves turned out to be very tasty. I'm looking forward to using those for wrapper leaves as the dark brown is a very nice shade.

Thanks. In the end, I might go thru that reject pile again and select some of the lesser green stuff. Then jar it up with its own label and age. So then I'll get some feedback as to if I should be more or less picky about what I perceive to be green.

I just topped quite a few stalks on that Shirazi last weekend. Bucket got kinda heavy. Was going to the compost pile with it but realized it had quite a few leaves I deemed worth of keeping (by size). So did the usual of rinsing in sink with gloved hand, surface dry on towel and then into curing chamber. These have a label so I don't mix them in with the rest. The goal is to find out if these much younger leaves can be color cured. And if so, will they smoke worth a damn in a year.

 

[deluxestogie]

Welcome to the forum.

Bob

 

[jclif43]

Welcome! Enjoy the journey.

 

[WillQuantrill]

My name is Mike. I live in northwest Houston area. Tried germinating tobacco seeds in college in the early 90's without success. Been wanting to try again since then.

This year I picked up seeds for American 572, Punche and Shirazi. Put them in pots early this year. Didn't know about cutting off flower heads or suckering in time, so let them flower and eventually cut them down so as not to blow over expensive pots during an approaching tropical storm. I was surprised at how big and pretty the plants got, especially when flowering. Very ornamental. Also learned how thirsty they were, hand watering every day. I've since install drip emitters which eliminate that daily task.

So then went for a second round. Got all 3 varieties in. Learned that a 35 gallon fabric pot contains enough soil to actually make it thru 1 day without wilting. The others - not big enough. I did keep the flower heads off for this round, but still didn't know about suckering. Probably explains the form, especially of the Shirazi (speak up if you know if this is its natural form). After having primed American 572 #1 far up the plant, I decided to let this one flower for the enjoyment of the bees and hummingbirds, while still continuing to prime.

As to where to air cure, decided against under the carport, as the radiant heat coming off that in July is brutal, knocking down RH. So I set up a camp shower in the front room. "Sealed" off the ventilation meshing with towels/trash bags and installed a steam humidifier. I keep it on the highest setting, yielding about 75% RH and using 1-1/2 to 2 quarts of RO water per day. Have it plugged in thu a power station, as any interruption in power will turn off the humidifier (have to turn it back on manually then). A grow tent would probably be a better fith that this camp shower, but the camp shower is proof of concept - even if expensive to keep moist for months on end.

I've managed to get maybe 10 jars (some spaghetti, some Ball) full so far. Put a 65% Bodeva pack in each one.

Tried smoking some freshly cured in a pipe once - not worth doing. Hoping in a year that I'll actually enjoy it.

Lots for work. I go out every morning before work with a UV flashlight to pluck hornworms and their eggs. If I didn't do that, I'd have no plants left. I've got to figure out a better way to justify to myself that this is worth doing again. I still work, so 11 hours per day away from home, so need a system that is a bit less demanding of daily attention.

Comments/suggestions welcomed.

If it offers you any hope, your results are far better than my first go at it.

 

[crasch]

Hi Mike -- Your potted plants look great!

I am also in the north Houston area. I haven't had much trouble air curing in our climate, without any fuss or special setups. This September, I stalk-cured a couple of plants by hanging them in the bicycle shelter on the north side of my house. The bicycle shelter is just a makeshift roof made out of fence pickets that is attached to the side of my house, with the cedar fence on one side and open on the other two sides. Completely shaded and protected from rain, but essentially out in the open air. A temperature and humidity sensor that takes a reading every 1 minute tells me that the _average_ humidity in that location during the month of curing was 74.6% RH. Even though humidity sometimes drops all the way down to the 45% RH range in the afternoon heat, it always recovers quickly when the sun goes down. There's no need to keep a constant 70%rh or whatever; the daily average is good enough. Late November through March comes with some spells of dry days, but May - October are probably fine.
Your microclimate may of course differ, but in my experience, air curing is pretty much a hang-it-and-forget-it-for-a-few-weeks type thing in our area. My east-facing front porch worked fine, too. And two years ago I even hung some strings with primed leaf from a low branch of a big oak tree in the back yard.

 

[Alpine]

Welcome to FTT

pier