Smokin Harley Grow Log 2015

[Smokin Harley]

The entire garden...30 wide by 40 deep , view is from our yard looking back.

front is the baccy patch

little dutch

Vuelta Abajo

single row Va Gold on left, Criollo 98 on the right

The behind times flat...looking better though

 

[Knucklehead]

Planting day. You gotta love planting day. Don't be surprised if they just sit there awhile. They'll go semi dormant up top while the roots spread out. They may also wilt down during the day and stand back up at night. That's normal. I've seen mine melted down like they were inflatable and someone let out all the air. It'll scare the crap out of you the first couple of times. Now it's no big deal.

 

[Ben Brand]

Looking good Harley. Love your soil!!!

 

[Smokin Harley]

Our neighbors are having a bumper crop of maple seeds this year...
Thanks Ben. I've put a lot of work and amendments into it . 4 years ago it was all grass.
The Vuelta Abajo just impresses me. stalks get slightly taller every day. The stragglers still in cell packs in the flat are picking up speed again too. I only bottom watered them when I repotted them to new soil and haven't watered since, light only during normal daylight hours and since its cooled off the last two nights I've turned the bottom heat back on for them at night .

 

[Ben Brand]

Is that a smoker I see in the one corner, or compost maker. mmmmm I love smoked meat

 

[Smokin Harley]

compost tumbler....add your fruit/vegetation scraps ,coffee grounds, egg shells,leaves,etc, close the hatch and crank the handle...makes nice compost in as little as 3 weeks.
I add a beer and Mexican coca cola to boost its activity.

 

[Chicken]

I don't know. If I'd pour my beer in the compost bin....I like drinking my beer...

 

[deluxestogie]

...I like drinking my beer...

So, when you're done borrowing it, add it to the compost.

Bob

 

[Smokin Harley]

its only one beer...and its for the sake of good compost and in turn , good tobacco,so I can live with sacrifice of just one.

 

[Knucklehead]

its only one beer...and its for the sake of good compost and in turn , good tobacco,so I can live with sacrifice of just one.

One tin soldier rides away.....

 

[ProfessorPangloss]

So, when you're done borrowing it, add it to the compost.

Bob

You're saying to pee into the compost bin, right? When you're done "borrowing" the beer? Actually there's a fun science experiment to do here. My understanding of the chemistry of urea is that it gets converted into available nitrogen pretty quickly by soil-born bacteria. Accordingly, if one was to pee into the compost bin (presumably under cover of darkness), would the urea be safely broken down in the weeks and months following, when one would deploy this compost into the soil?

Or am I reading that wrong, and does beer straight outta the can feed the compost in some way?

Hypothetically speaking, of course. Asking for a friend.

 

[deluxestogie]

POGreen would be our resident expert on that subject matter.

Bob

 

[Smokin Harley]

Heres where I heard about it ...

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FDPAbkUUT-o

only I didn't put any household ammonia in mine , just beer and cola added to what is mostly coffee grounds banana peels,and eggs shells but other fruit and veggie kitchen scraps ,dry yard waste ,dryer lint,three labradors worth of dog hair and I always remove the peat pots from store bought garden plants.
My scraps turned to compost in no time. Tumble( I give it 3 full rotations) only once a day. In just 3 weeks I have warm black gold ,no smell other than nice humus goodness. I need to empty it out this weekend ,but I will leave maybe a gallon of "mother" for the next batch.

 

[ProfessorPangloss]

Ah, that's different. My compost setup is "cold" - contained by pallets, as opposed to "hot" like yours.

 

[Smokin Harley]

as I understand compost is self heating by microbial action and breakdown of the material...actually when we ferment our tobacco (as is done the way the plantations do it by piling it up to get the internal heat to 120) we stop just short of making compost out of it, break the pile down and restack and let it do its thing over and over until it gets that sweet prune/raisiny smell throughout.

If you're doing what you call a cold compost, are you adding any redworms??

 

[Smokin Harley]

Emptied out 15 gallons of compost this morning. Left about another 10 for Mother and added a couple weeks worth of kitchen scraps and some dry leaves from the yard that blew into the garden confines over the winter.
The finished compost went to the prospective tobacco rows , the plants still in cells in the flat. Maybe another 2 weeks and I'll plant those out. Last date I plan to set out any plants in order for sufficient growth time to priming is first weekend in July.

 

[Smokin Harley]

Been rainy and very windy last few days . Just yesterday we got some good showers ,once early in the morning ,then it dried out enough for me to cut grass and trim then decided to put one more Criollo 98 into the ground . Then two more substantial showers in the afternoon . All the "field" plants are standing tall. Got more than half a week of rain coming .
Not sure what was going on with the rest of the flat specimens...The Black Mammoth ,Florida Sumatra ,Machu Picchu ,and Long Red seem to be finally taking off . Its a good thing I split off the Machu Picchu because I doubt I would have gotten 9 decent ones had I left them in just one single cell pack. Between the two cell packs I might have only 9 decent ones to plant out. Still, both of the Ct varieties are still stuck at about the 2 week stage of growth. Kind of disappointed in that . I was looking forward to a nice Ct Shade wrapper crop. Doesnt even look like at this point or even in two weeks will I have any single one of that to plant out.

 

[Smokin Harley]

Pa Red is also doing ok, but only about 3 very strong ones and two more questionable.
The ones still in flats have only 2 or 3 sets of leaves and aside from maybe 4 plants, the rest are only silver dollar sized . I'm contemplating setting them out anyway and hope the natural sunshine and rain does them better than artificial light and fertilized well water.

 

[ProfessorPangloss]

as I understand compost is self heating by microbial action and breakdown of the material...actually when we ferment our tobacco (as is done the way the plantations do it by piling it up to get the internal heat to 120) we stop just short of making compost out of it, break the pile down and restack and let it do its thing over and over until it gets that sweet prune/raisiny smell throughout.

If you're doing what you call a cold compost, are you adding any redworms??

yeah, "hot" and "cold" are sort of arbitrary distinctions. My pile will be warmer than the ambient air, but not by a whole lot. Yours, enclosed, will be *much* warmer and faster.

 

[Smokin Harley]

Just got home from the first night shift of this job(pre-outage), and 12 hours at that ! Very tired .
Yesterday while I was up I did some more last of the seedlings first transplant . Since the Criollo98 seems to be very aggressive growing and quite the versatile variety, I had sown some seed a week or so ago after I planted out- both Criollo 98 and Florida Sumatra. Sprouted well so I transplanted those to fresh soil in cell packs. This morning when I got home I peeked in on them and they are standing tall. Very hardy varieties,even when the tiny taproot is only a fraction of an inch. When the RooTrainers arrive later this week I will transplant some to those and see how they grow compared to the old standard square or hexagon cell packs. The Black Mammoth ,Machu Picchu ,and the PA Red and Long Red seem to be picking up growth ,finally ,and becoming a deep green rather than yellow like some have done. Sadly, both Ct varieties are not doing well and if I get 1 good Ct Shade plant that will grow out to seed I'll be amazed. Maybe 3 decent Broadleafs. I have noted to let the cell packs soak in water/fertilizer just long enough to dampen the soil then remove to a heated mat tray.I'm pretty sure some of my yellowing and lack of growth was due to over watering / damping off . We had a few rain showers last night and wind afterwards ,today and tomorrow is supposed to be sunshine and upper 70's(F) . So far the best in the field has been Little Dutch , doubled in size in one week and then some,looks very strong. Second is probably Vuelta Abajo and third Criollo98 . The varieties I mentioned above hopefully I can plant out by June 1 and the rest I hope to plant out between Fathers Day(June 21st)and July 5th. I need to go to bed or I'd go take some fresh pics of the patch . I might get to that tomorrow,I'll have to see how tonight's shift goes.