Squeezyjohn's 2014 Grow Blog

[BarG]

I just smoked a whole bunch of it, mixed last month with my cig. blend 2 yr. old I had a substantial amount of Silver River in that bkend.

 

[squeezyjohn]

Your grow of rustica as well as POGreen's have demonstrated that, while rustica tends to be fairly runty when grown under the same soil conditions that produce normal, healthy tabacum varieties, the rustica seems much better able to utilize added soil nutrients. Very interesting.

Bob

Here's a photo that categorically proves that point!


All the plants on the right are sitting on a filled hole of rotted horse manure and top dressed with chicken manure and calcium nitrate ... of the two on the left - the back one had the chicken manure and calcium nitrate but no manure underneath, and the front left had just the tilled soil.

Pretty staggering difference! These plants are all approximately six weeks in the ground (a late sowing experiment) ... so with the same kind of care and attention but planted out at the end of May ... who knows how good it could be ... I am definitely converted to PO's method with Rustica varieties as I would find nice big leaves far better for my purposes than lots of little ones which I currently produce!

 

[POGreen]

Welcome to the Soilization Gang squeezyjohn !
That is really SOME differance you got there and I see you got rid of your suckers + flowers too.
I think you're gonna go big next year if u make the right preparations underneath , them varieties will reward you plenty if we have a summer like this one.
I was out and did a minor checkup on a different area , on the way there I saw a place where one could find loads of seaweed , another great fertilizer that was used more in the 'ol days.
The soil out there was more of a sandy soil , a type of soil in which tobacco was grown here in the southern parts of Sweden some 50-100 years ago.
I know its a lot of work doing 1 patch depending on how u do it , but I'll think about it........

 

[POGreen]

Your grow of rustica as well as POGreen's have demonstrated that, while rustica tends to be fairly runty when grown under the same soil conditions that produce normal, healthy tabacum varieties, the rustica seems much better able to utilize added soil nutrients. Very interesting.

Bob

I think doing soilization on a patch growing tabacums or rustica will yield the same result.
Depending on what u put in that hole , lets say grass, chicken manure which have a great content of nitrogen in them , is going to reflect on the size of your leafs.( in growth + size that is)
Fine if one can take the grass at its peak performance ( here in the end of June ) , after that its getting less and less nutritional.
Number one fertilizer as I have read about it is urea , I used a hole lot of it in this years grow and I have nothing but good things to say about it. But a 10 % limit in water is a rule to me.
Using manure I think one can wait til spring until adding that , if green organic waste one has to do that the year before so it has time to rot/decay.
I'm gonna stick with this after how I saw what it did to me this season.

 

[squeezyjohn]

I agree wholeheartedly with you PO ... I also use urine as a fertiliser for many years for lots of different things and it gives me some of the biggest leeks in my area! What you are doing is essentially trench composting which is a great way to break down the organic matter directly in the soil and also to give good drainage. My aim is to put as much organic matter in to my plot that I possibly can every year. Unfortunately I am as far away from the sea as it is possible to get in England, but seaweed is a great soil conditioner and I wish I could get it.

I will probably not go as deep with my holes - as when I dug up my tobacco I found that the roots don't go more than one foot in to the ground even on my biggest plants. The manure or weeds will not be wasted if the tobacco can't reach it - and it's good soil for further years ... but I would like to concentrate my efforts.

Are you going to be changing where the holes are every year? So that eventually the whole area has enriched soil?

 

[POGreen]

I haven't worked it out to that point yet , but I do think I've come to the conclusion that if I can sort of start the soilization in between the rows paralell to the ordinary grow and start making holes in the peak season + fill them with highly nutritious materia , I wouldn't have to be in such a rush when matter is starting to decay and I would have a 100 holes to dig + fill.
Sort of overdid it last year when drilling down to 3 ' or 90 cm's . Now I think 1 1/2 is enough , where the best soil is and where the worms like to be.
Think one would have much to gain doing it that way.
Its just my way of thinking , but I think it would work out pretty good.
On the other hand , if one uses manure it would be a hole lot different ( it can wait til spring I reckon)
On the downside , speaking about pliers and seaweed might be a high content of cadmium , therefore not use too much of it in the patch.

 

[deluxestogie]

I also use urine as a fertiliser for many years for lots of different things and it gives me some of the biggest leeks in my area!

Take a leak; get a leek. Sounds equitable.

Bob

 

[squeezyjohn]

Had a check of everything hanging and it all looks pretty good for the tabacums ... later stuff is yellowing pretty quick in the shed with the warm humid weather we are having at the moment - once it's fully yellow and starting to brown on the tips and edges I've been taking it outside under the eves of the shed to blow around in the wind - the increased airflow seems to get the browning done far quicker outside. And I've been finishing them off in the greenhouse which gets very dry and hot indeed (but only as long as the sun shines) - this is an attempt to try and get the midribs dried out. I'm finding the YTB the hardest to dry the midrib of.

Rustica is curing less well ... I've got them stalk hanging in the shed ... and this year it seems as if all the lower leaves are determined to dry green. I've stripped the leaves and hung them up with rusticas in the past - but wanted to give stalk hanging another go ... and it seems as if the plant is sucking all the juice out of the lower leaves and they are drying green - whereas the upper ones are browning nicely. They're still suckering too - persistent little buggers!

 

[POGreen]

Mine suckered too when they were stalkhung.
Sorry to hear that your Rustica doesn't wanna play along with you , think it could have something to do with flow of air , perhaps a bit damp in the shed ?
Maybe you have a few windows u could open a little bit and let the air flow through ?

 

[squeezyjohn]

I think it is the opposite actually PO ... there are gaps at the top of my shed and so maybe a little too much airflow ... the leaves need to brown while they are still sort of alive and not completely dried out.

I think it may have something to do with how ripe they were too ... because I was cruel to my rusticas this year and tried growing them very close together - some of the lower leaves did not get any real direct sunlight - and I think it is maybe these which are drying green.

 

[POGreen]

Reading what you were writing I came to think of just that , how ripe they were when you harvested them.
If the bottom leaves were green , the plant wasn't ripe or ready to be hung I reckon.
Last year I grew 10-15 plants in the same amount of space as you would give 1 plant and this year I did just the opposite.
2,5' apart ( 75 cm) and 4 ' ( 1,25 M ) in between rows , last year I couldn't get in to the patch and water them in the end , had to do that with a hose from the outside very early in the morning since we are not allowed to use a hose.

 

[squeezyjohn]

I have never been able to make my rustica varieties brown or yellow on the plant, no matter how much light they get ... they have always just thickened and stayed green while growing - partly because it is normally so wet here at the end of the growing season.

But in the past when I have grown them further apart then they have all browned very well when I've hung them in the shed. I think that the lesson to take from the experiment of growing them very close together is that the leaves grow fine - but the bottom ones will not ripen properly if they're shaded out from the sun too much.

I still have plenty of upper leaves which I'm sure will cure fine for this year.

 

[POGreen]

I use one kinda simple method here , when lugs change color , the plant is ready to harvest.
One could wait til you get it really confirmed , then take it down.

 

[squeezyjohn]

The mighty Silver River patch is no more ... upper half of the plants have all been stalk-harvested except the lone plant left to flower. They are in the foreground wilting in the sun this morning.

Now they are hanging up inside my tiny shed which seems to be taking the weight of them very well!

The only tobacco standing now is my late planted Rustica with the huge leaves ... and about a third of what I had already harvested is completely finished curing. And the sun is still shining.

Definitely looking to be my most successful season yet!

 

[Markw]

I am glad you enjoyed growing them this year, they should keep you in leaf for quite some time. What did you think of the YTB ? the Yacon is doing well and thanks for the plants.
Mark

 

[squeezyjohn]

Hey Mark ... thanks a million for the seeds - they were ace! The YTB did OK, nothing spectacular, but good healthy plants and a decent yield - although I am finding it harder to dry out the midribs of these than I was expecting. Definitely a different strain to the one I was growing last year ;-)

My yacon is not as big as it was last year - but it keeps going up until the end of october and should give some nice yellow flowers about then. The roots won't be ready for harvesting until about December/January time. But if it turns in to deep-freeze weather you'll need to get them out of there before the frost can get in to the ground.

 

[POGreen]

What do you do with them roots John ?

 

[squeezyjohn]

I think I might deliberately bury them in the middle of my compost heap without breaking them up. I did that last year with some - and found that they not only failed to rot down - but they were sprouting little suckers and quite clearly alive in the springtime after being protected from the freezing temperatures by the heat from the compost heap!

This time I might see if I can get them to make roots and grow them as a cutting to get an early start on plants next year! It's worth a try.

 

[POGreen]

Yeah sure , why not
I imagined myself you used it to make snus or somethin like that.....

 

[squeezyjohn]

Make snus out of tobacco roots? Are you serious?