IOLA tobacco Garden
- Thread starter USHOG
- Start date
- Status
USHOG
Well-Known Member
No I am using a soaker hose run down the middle of the ditch I made in the rows. It works great with very little waste of water.
Window seal is getting full of leaf
Rustica flowering
The beds are getting bigger even with almost no direct sun light
The seedlings in the tray are starting to take off
These 2 rows of different Burleys seem to be stunted. I added a little calcium nitrate and they did respond somewhat maybe they just grow a little slower but I don't think so. any ideas?
Another view of the burleys
Silver River is getting big quick
The kids and I picked a few berries this week and then the wife started 12 gallons of berry wine. I can give an update in a few weeks
Window seal is getting full of leaf
Rustica flowering
The beds are getting bigger even with almost no direct sun light
The seedlings in the tray are starting to take off
These 2 rows of different Burleys seem to be stunted. I added a little calcium nitrate and they did respond somewhat maybe they just grow a little slower but I don't think so. any ideas?
Another view of the burleys
Silver River is getting big quick
The kids and I picked a few berries this week and then the wife started 12 gallons of berry wine. I can give an update in a few weeks
The burleys look fine. White stem burley tends to grow sluggishly during the early season, then they take off.
Bob
Bob
sansonPR
Well-Known Member
Nice garden.
Brown Thumb
Well-Known Member
Nice looking crop you have going their. The burley looks fine also.
USHOG
Well-Known Member
I agree they don't look bad but there are huge differences between sizes of the same strains. One is 4 foot tall while others are 1 foot tall and this is only out of 3 different strains that I am growing and localized to one area. I will take more in depth photos of what I am seeing. Also the caterpillars have been horrible this year but that might be because of all of the rain showers. If I spray BT in the morning it will rain and be washed off. I do notice that about half of the caterpillars I find after spraying are dead but then there are more alive right next to it. When I can spray and let sit for a day or so they all die but we have had light rain almost every day so this applying BT has become a challenge this year. We are expected cloudy with rain for the next 8 days.
What changes in the tobacco can I expect since this year has mainly been cloudy compared to the normal sunny hot weather we get? I can see that some leaves are much thinner and longer than normal and a few strains have stretched bigger than normal. I wonder how the tastes will be affected if any?
Other than BT what are good methods to combat caterpillars?
What do you all use to combat squash bugs?
What changes in the tobacco can I expect since this year has mainly been cloudy compared to the normal sunny hot weather we get? I can see that some leaves are much thinner and longer than normal and a few strains have stretched bigger than normal. I wonder how the tastes will be affected if any?
Other than BT what are good methods to combat caterpillars?
What do you all use to combat squash bugs?
DGBAMA
Well-Known Member
Spinosad is another brand of BT spray, but is supposed to be longer acting and more resistant to washing off in light rain.
I would expect lots of cloudy days to result in thinner/lower yielding leaves, even though they may grow to full size and length.
what varieties are the two slow growing burleys? Like Bob said, white stem types like YTB tend to be "ground huggers" at first, getting big and very closely spaced leaves but not much vertical growth at first.
they are looking great.
I would expect lots of cloudy days to result in thinner/lower yielding leaves, even though they may grow to full size and length.
what varieties are the two slow growing burleys? Like Bob said, white stem types like YTB tend to be "ground huggers" at first, getting big and very closely spaced leaves but not much vertical growth at first.
they are looking great.
leverhead
Well-Known Member
In 2013, growing in Conroe, I only sprayed BT once. You might want to spray your wrapper leaf, but if you have red wasps and don't mind a dare, see if they will do the work for you. They did a very good job for me, I had very little damage. Keep an eye out for bud worm damage, some of those get missed. As you find them, spot treat or pick them off. http://fairtradetobacco.com/threads/1976-Leverhead-s-2013-T-Patches-SE-Texas?p=41810&viewfull=1#post41810
Squash/Stink bugs haven't been much of a problem for me.
USHOG
Well-Known Member
I see stink bugs all over the tobacco. I just kill them as I find them. I will try the other BT as I sprayed last night and it is raining at the moment, but when I checked the tobacco this morning all of the caterpillars that I found are dried up and dead. Yea one battle over on to the next. I used to have red wasps all over the tobacco garden but my son is allergic to the red wasp and he swells up like a pumpkin every time he is stung. So because of this I have kill almost ever wasp in the area. I used to have 4 giant colonies of red wasps near the garden and they would fly around and eat all of the caterpillars for me but their risk became to high for me to allow them to do their job.
leverhead
Well-Known Member
I didn't get stung once that year and I was in with them nearly every day. They seemed much less aggressive than usual.
USHOG
Well-Known Member
I would agree and I have been stung hundreds of times and to me it doesn't even hurt but when your child swells up like a huge piece of fruit for 3 or 4 days each time he is stung you just kill all of the wasps. They can move somewhere else if I get the choice. I just have no mercy for anything threatening my family. I do wish I could use the red wasps as they have been wonderful allies in the past and one day when my son is grown up and out of the house I can ally with the red wasps again to protect my garden.
This is what I do for a living. I manage risks by predators on hundreds of thousands of acres of crop land. I just get to catch the big nasty critters that the crop dusters can't spray for.
This is what I do for a living. I manage risks by predators on hundreds of thousands of acres of crop land. I just get to catch the big nasty critters that the crop dusters can't spray for.
BarG
Founding Member
Bt will affect eggs also if sprayed but often the eggs are on underside of leaf and will not be affected unless sprayed. When inspecting your patch lift up the leaves and look for tiny green pearl like eggs. If they are white or brown they are dead.
leverhead
Well-Known Member
The way you catch them, the crop dusters would be called gun ships. Thinking about it, it sounds like a little fun.
USHOG
Well-Known Member
We use helicopters all the time to help reduce the population of the feral hogs in the rice fields. The hogs run into the narrow strip of woods trying to get away from the helicopter only to find my Argentina Dogos and I are running them back out into the open to face the inevitable. This continues until there are no more feral hogs left in the group or we get tired. I tell people all the time that the only way to completely get rid of the hogs on their property is to fence the property off from them. This goes for growing tobacco also but stopping flying attackers is much more difficult and expensive than building a fence to stop hogs walking through.
Yes it is much more fun than an office but sometimes it makes me wonder when by noon I have almost been seriously injured or killed 5 or 6 times and that can be a slow day. It is very stressful to be on high alert all the time when at work. If it was only me or with my friends these issues wouldn't be stressful but when I have to keep everyone safe during all of these adventures and this does includes the dogs it drains on me. For example during the walks through high grass you are 99% focused on the ground for cotton mouths and holes to fall in at the same time I am keeping up with the dogs avoiding problems as we go like going around rivers without anyone knowing. I guide a bunch of fathers and their sons first hunts and most important is keeping people from getting lost or hurt. Remember that I might be walking 16 people through the woods keeping track of 6 to 9 dogs on the ground. When I have help these things are all much easier. I hunt many nights by myself on the rice fields and will say it has taught me to never fear a situation but to figure out the solution as fast a possible and fix it and to never hesitate or it could be the last thing I do
Yes it is much more fun than an office but sometimes it makes me wonder when by noon I have almost been seriously injured or killed 5 or 6 times and that can be a slow day. It is very stressful to be on high alert all the time when at work. If it was only me or with my friends these issues wouldn't be stressful but when I have to keep everyone safe during all of these adventures and this does includes the dogs it drains on me. For example during the walks through high grass you are 99% focused on the ground for cotton mouths and holes to fall in at the same time I am keeping up with the dogs avoiding problems as we go like going around rivers without anyone knowing. I guide a bunch of fathers and their sons first hunts and most important is keeping people from getting lost or hurt. Remember that I might be walking 16 people through the woods keeping track of 6 to 9 dogs on the ground. When I have help these things are all much easier. I hunt many nights by myself on the rice fields and will say it has taught me to never fear a situation but to figure out the solution as fast a possible and fix it and to never hesitate or it could be the last thing I do
if not for the show '' SWAMP PEOPLE'' id have wondered how the great state of texas would have water mocassins.
but hell you guys got alligators also.
alligators and cactus... what a combination.
but hell you guys got alligators also.
alligators and cactus... what a combination.
USHOG
Well-Known Member
We have so many snakes that I see 10 to 20+ a day while walking through the woods with the dogs. The alligators are everywhere but do not mess with us to often or they die
I saw something interesting yesterday evening. I was picking flowers off of several of the tobacco varieties I am growing and I noticed that on the Hopi tobacco there where 100s if not 1000s of squash bugs covering the whole plant. I think they where breeding because they where all mounting each other. The squash bugs where on every Hopi and also the 2 varieties of rusticas I am growing but they where not n any other tobacco plants. So I broke out the sprayer and poisoned them all. This got me to thinking that if this happens normally it might be a good idea to plant a few rusticas away from he garden to attract the squash bugs away from wrapper leaves I am growing. I have also noticed several varieties that the bugs and worms do not touch or at least not yet. Everything is growing great even with very little sunshine. I started priming several of the cigar varieties this last week. I have also noticed a splotchy lighter green pattern of most of the tobacco. To me it look like iron deficiency so I am going to folar some ironite and see what happens. I will update with pictures next week. It looks like the silver river and burley are about to start flowering. They are the last to flower in my garden. I am transplanting all of the new seedlings into their own trays today. Got to get ready for second crop
200 posts I thought I would never get there...
I saw something interesting yesterday evening. I was picking flowers off of several of the tobacco varieties I am growing and I noticed that on the Hopi tobacco there where 100s if not 1000s of squash bugs covering the whole plant. I think they where breeding because they where all mounting each other. The squash bugs where on every Hopi and also the 2 varieties of rusticas I am growing but they where not n any other tobacco plants. So I broke out the sprayer and poisoned them all. This got me to thinking that if this happens normally it might be a good idea to plant a few rusticas away from he garden to attract the squash bugs away from wrapper leaves I am growing. I have also noticed several varieties that the bugs and worms do not touch or at least not yet. Everything is growing great even with very little sunshine. I started priming several of the cigar varieties this last week. I have also noticed a splotchy lighter green pattern of most of the tobacco. To me it look like iron deficiency so I am going to folar some ironite and see what happens. I will update with pictures next week. It looks like the silver river and burley are about to start flowering. They are the last to flower in my garden. I am transplanting all of the new seedlings into their own trays today. Got to get ready for second crop
200 posts I thought I would never get there...
DGBAMA
Well-Known Member
silver river is always late to flower for me. Cant believe you are starting harvest already.......wow.
USHOG
Well-Known Member
The silver river is just starting to flower and is 7+ feet tall. I harvested in July last year and the second crop just needed a few more weeks to finish so I started a little earlier this year to see if it helps out any.
- Status
