Jolly log 2012

[jolly]

I'm migrating this from the other site. Sorry if you read it twice. My preference will be to post here...


Thought I'd start a new log for this year, and give an update. My midewiwan rustica and Mt. pima rustica that I had started in late November were finished up by Jan and Feb, respectively. They've been on the dashboard ever since.

In early march, I started some Bafra seed from GRIN. I cut two of those stalks this week, with one left. They seem to have taken a bit longer to mature, and were very tall and lanky, but with lots of leaves. With the current weather we're having, I should be able to get these cured in the next two weeks.

I was planning to start some green brior burley that dhk2 had sent me, but as I was digging through my seed bag, I noticed there were a few burley mammoth (KY 16) seeds stuck to the inside of a baggie. Since they're getting older, I thought I'd sow them and see what happened. Out of 5 or 6 seeds, only one has made it through the week. I think tropical storm Debby beat them up a bit. I'm guarding it pretty closely, and hopefully I can get it to flower this year.

The overall strategy has been to continually grow different varieties of tobacco. I've been keeping track of the average time from sow to flower, and then from top to harvest, so that I can sow and have transplants ready to go when the old plants are done. The bafra has messed up my schedule a bit, becuase it took longer to flower, and then was ready to be cut almost right after topping. I probably could have primed it before topping. One plant had a white stem, which I thought was odd -- other than that they were identical.

Anyway, I'm a bit late on my burley sowing. I sowed this past weekend, so my estimated harvest date is around mid Oct. and I'll be starting another oriental (Bursa) mid to late Sept.

 

[Aaron]

Welcome, glad to see you posting here. I look forward to following your progress.

 

[FmGrowit]

It sounds like you might be on the verge of creating an American "Vroege Oogst" or "VO" classification of tobacco...I've never heard of this being done in the USA.

From the description of your "winter" plants, it sounds like that would make a fine cigar tobacco. The angle of the sun (that time of year) could mean a shade grown type of leaf might be able to be produced without the tent.

Very interesting\

Welcome back

 

[Chicken]

welcome, to the most active baccy site on the web<

where are you in south fla,?

im in fla. also, and drive to south florida, daily/weekly, i deliver fertilizer, in bulk, to the orange groves down there,

 

[jolly]

Thanks guys,
I had to google the Vroege Oogst term. Interesting... From what I read it appears to refer to "early" grape harvesting/wine production. Sounds cool, but I'm not sure what I'm doing fits, since I've been harvesting my plants at maturity (let me know if I've misunderstood).

I should probably clarify that I'm still growing in pots on the back porch of my town home, so in order to grow any real quantity of leaf I have to force multiple grow seasons into one year. I was planting in the plant border around the inside of the fence, but my wife has decided that tobacco is too ugly to have it taking up valuable landscape space. I'm not too disappointed, since the shading around the fence was stunting the plants.

Normally, the gardening season in south FL begins in Sept/Oct. I found that the plants did pretty well in the summer last year, and I just kept starting and setting them out. I've been growing continually since since May of last year.

I lost the burley seedlings to slugs. I've gotten rid of the slugs, but rather than plant burley I thought I'd sow some papante "rustica" seed I'd gotten from nicotiana project. I grew the mt. pima last year, and I agree with Bob's findings -- I don't think it's rustica at all. Judging by his pics of papante, it isn't rustica either. But who knows, maybe it'll be a new favorite, and I've still got plenty of burley left from last year.

 

[Chicken]

a lot of people grow very sucessfully, in 5 gallon buckets,,,

i thought the plant wouldnt reach full height, and give a proper yield,

i was wrong, a 5 gallon bucket per plant is fine,

good luck to you my fla. brotha,

how about some pic's of your grow,????

 

[jolly]

It's been a while, so I thought I'd give an update. My bafra is still dashboard curing. I'm finding that this method is pretty slow, about 3 months to get a good cure on average.

I had some difficulty with slugs, but have finally gotten things going again. My papante is about a month old, and so is my Isla Pueblo rustica. This has put me behind this year, but luckily the florida sumatra I gave to my mother in law did very well. She had never grown tobacco before, and was interested to try it. I primed the last of it today, and the first two primings are already color cured. Once it's all cured, (another two weeks, I'd guess, given the current weather) I'll put it in the dashboard and take out the bafra.

So far, the papante is looking very good -- typical of tabaccum variety, not rustica. I've given a few to my mother in law, and I plan to save seed on mine and top hers. I'll be germiating something else in late Nov, but haven't decided what yet. Maybe some green brior burley.