Starting out growing tobacco for cigars and possibly chew: @Bigborebob

[Wombat_smokes]

The yellowing looks normal to me. Old leaves turning yellow is ok. New leaves growing yellow is nutrient problems. As the small, juvenile leaves (that you aren't gonna harvest anyway) often fade before the large, desirable leaves reach maturity.

My condolences for early budding. Those plants won't amount to much, but they are giving you seeds to save for next year. They are also good for practicing the curing process.

 

[GreenDragon]

Your soil looks good. N.t. is a pretty heavy feeder, so it would not hurt to supplement with a balanced fertilizer like 10-10-10 if you did not mix some in when you prepped the bed. Compost is great for all around health and growth, but it's not regulated so you never know what the NPK value of it is. Use recommended rate for tomatoes. I think you're off to a good start. Also, it's fairly normal for those bottom leaves to drop after transplant.

 

[StoneCarver]

I'd recommend some mulch under and around the plants. That will help reduce the sand from caking the plants.
I use brown leaves from last fall for mulch. I've used straw before too.
What I do is lay down the mulch in late fall after tilling the soil and leave it there till spring. When I go to plant the tobacco, I just push aside the mulch to get down to the soil.
By the end of summer the leaf mulch is mostly broken down. And then the cycle repeats.

 

[Bigborebob]

Thanks for the advice everyone. I watered with a full dose of organic tomato fertilizer. I guess we'll see what happens over the next couple weeks until they're due for the next round of fertilizer per the instructions on the bottle. I think I may be a little impatient and need to chill and let nature do it's thing. I'll keep you all posted on the progress of the plants. I'll grab some mulch to put under the plants once the leaves are above ground level.

 

[Bigborebob]

It seems a little time and fertilizer seems to have brought back the plants. Some of them are starting to grow flowers but just a handful. We're in a heat wave right now so I guess I'll see how they do over the next few weeks but it's exciting to see all the green.

 

[StoneCarver]

Looks like you have some suckers coming out. Do you plant to pinch those?

 

[Bigborebob]

We had a hail storm come through last month followed by a long heat wave. Most of the leaves look to have a calcium deficiency. The soil I'm growing in needs to be amended before next growing season. I think all the plants are unusable at this point. I'll chock this year up to a learning experience. I'll post some pictures soon. This year's definitely a bust .

 

[Bigborebob]

Looks like you have some suckers coming out. Do you plant to pinch those?

Nah, I'm going to let the plants finish growing and compost them. The soil is complete crap. I'll have a better game plan next year when I can control the soil and ph better.

 

[GreenDragon]

The first year growing always has a steep learning curve - don’t get discouraged. On the flip side of the coin you learn so much your first year. They may not be pretty, they may not be the best, but keep going with this crop. Learn how to prime, and cure, and age with these leaves. You will be able to process next year’s crop much better having learned from this one and will have a better success rate with leaves you do care about. Also, who cares if filler leaf is ugly and beat up. Buy some binder and wrappers and use your lead as filler!

A few other notes and observations. Your soil in general looks good, it just may need some amendments (organics, N, Ca). Trying to grow on 3” of topsoil over limestone rock I would kill for that bed right now! Get a soil test and find out exactly what you need to add.
Also, I infer from the pictures you are in a more arid area of the state. Next year plant a little closer together and mulch heavily. Over the last twenty years of gardening I’ve learned there is nothing better for your garden than to mulch everything every year.

Keep going and best of luck!