First, sorry for the lack of pics and the retrospective posts. I'm no media genius LOL!
OK so last year I tried growing tobacco. I started the seeds on April Fool's Day and planted out on June 21 after the last frosts had passed.
The deer loved the plants but in the end they grew big and straight. I didn't get many ripe leaves before the frosts in September started knocking the plants around. I ended up harvesting the whole plants, and hanging them in the basement. But in Canada it gets cold fast and the furnace kicks in which strips the humidity from the air. the result was a lot of green dry leaves.
So I made a pile in the basement and covered it with plastic and towels. Over the next few months I did get some improvement and managed to keep the mold at bay. all in all it was a pretty good first season.
2023, and I started the seeds on March 1 - a month earlier so that I would get more ripe leaves. I also used peat jiffy plugs to start them under grow lights. I think the peat killed most of the seedlings because I planted 3 times more seeds I ended up with roughly the same amount of plants.
This year I harvested the leaves earlier, and hung them up in late August. That gave me a few week's of heat where the leaves could cure in the shade before the frost hit, and I ended up with a lot more properly cured leaves.
When the damp cold of fall arrived I hung the leaves in the basement to dry down completely as shown in this photo:
OK so last year I tried growing tobacco. I started the seeds on April Fool's Day and planted out on June 21 after the last frosts had passed.
The deer loved the plants but in the end they grew big and straight. I didn't get many ripe leaves before the frosts in September started knocking the plants around. I ended up harvesting the whole plants, and hanging them in the basement. But in Canada it gets cold fast and the furnace kicks in which strips the humidity from the air. the result was a lot of green dry leaves.
So I made a pile in the basement and covered it with plastic and towels. Over the next few months I did get some improvement and managed to keep the mold at bay. all in all it was a pretty good first season.
2023, and I started the seeds on March 1 - a month earlier so that I would get more ripe leaves. I also used peat jiffy plugs to start them under grow lights. I think the peat killed most of the seedlings because I planted 3 times more seeds I ended up with roughly the same amount of plants.
This year I harvested the leaves earlier, and hung them up in late August. That gave me a few week's of heat where the leaves could cure in the shade before the frost hit, and I ended up with a lot more properly cured leaves.
When the damp cold of fall arrived I hung the leaves in the basement to dry down completely as shown in this photo:
