NRustica
Well-Known Member
This is all very exciting. I'm so looking forward to more pics of what was planted as they progress and comments on them.
US Nicotiana Germplasm Collection 2013 Nursery
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ashaggyone
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I ran into the same late frosts and cold you have referred to. Will the early watering/covering/heat pots I use to save my veg planting work with tobacco? All my veg seedlings take well to early watering for light frosts(32 degrees and above) and I rarely lose a seedling if it drops below freezing and I have to cover and heat. Regarding pollination, I am understanding that tobacco is primarily insect-pollinated versus wind-pollinated. If this is so, will knowing my pollinators give me enough information to know whether bagging is necessary to prevent cross-pollination by the commercial varieties grown in my area?
I don't know about the frost stuff. I just wait it out. On bagging -- If you want strain purity it is the only sure way to go.
The same methods that protect tomatoes from frost seem to work well with tobacco. With regard to pollination, the presence of more than one variety of tobacco within at least 1/2 mile may lead to cross-pollination (mostly by manduca moths and hummingbirds). The wisest course is to bag the bud head of any plant from which you will collect seed. Since one plant can produce 1/4 million seeds, you don't need many bags. The remainder of the plants can be topped for better leaf production.
Bob
JessicaNicot
Well-Known Member
yes, hummingbirds LOVE tobacco. we see them in the nursery all summer long squabbling over who's flower patch it is. i've never been out there in the evening so i've never seen moths feeding, but im sure it occurs. i've stumbled on several large moths resting in the foliage. one startled me so bad when it flew out that i backed up, tripped over the tilled ridge of the row behind me and i ended up flattening a couple plants from the neighboring plot as i fell.
we also see a ton of bees. it seems like the bumble bees sometimes overnight on the plants because if you're out there early in the morning they are just hanging out on the plants not doing anything yet. other bugs that you dont think of as pollinators but that could none the less incidentally transfer pollen- some years the june bugs are bad, there are always stink bugs, and the blasted lady bugs. stupid biting lady bug larvae...
I'm sorry for laughing. I hope you didn't injure your .... pride.
They were laying hornworm eggs. Those beasts are as sturdy as raccoons. One night, one of them assaulted me on my porch. It slammed into my forehead while I was contentedly reading. I whacked it full-force with a fly swatter. It fell to the cement, dazed. Moments later it was up again. I smacked it again in the air. It went down again, only to rise once more. After the third mid-air impact with the swatter--a homerun swing, a wing was finally broken. Being the sadist that I am, when it comes to manduca moths, I flicked it out to the gravel driveway, hoping the sun would cook it in the morning. That indeed happened, but not before the crippled moth had dragged itself 10' through the gravel.
I guess this is no surprise, since it's just a large hornworm with wings. A pox upon them!
Bob
skychaser
Well-Known Member
There are over 1400 types of Sphinx Moths. Fortunately, we do not have the tobacco horn worm type here but we do have the White-lined Sphinx moth. Judging by how many I can spot on any given night on my open pollinated tobaccos, I' guessing we have them in great abundance and that they are a major pollinator here. Thankfully, they cause no harm to the tobaccos.
Hummingbirds do love tobacco and they buzz about our fields all day. Honey bees don't even touch the tobacco flowers if there is something better near by for them to feed on. I can find hundreds of bees buzzing around our poppies and catnip and not see a single bee in the tobacco growing 100 feet away. I think the moths and Hummingbirds do more pollinating of tobacco than the bees do here.
Hummingbirds do love tobacco and they buzz about our fields all day. Honey bees don't even touch the tobacco flowers if there is something better near by for them to feed on. I can find hundreds of bees buzzing around our poppies and catnip and not see a single bee in the tobacco growing 100 feet away. I think the moths and Hummingbirds do more pollinating of tobacco than the bees do here.
Since you are producing seed for market what value is open pollinated seed to you?
workhorse_01
Well-Known Member
Non GMO I bet, and the reproductive organs haven't been sterilized. The Chinese love em and Monsanto hates them! If sky yells too loud Monsanto will plant a field next to sky and sue him for patent infringement.
ashaggyone
Guest
After that bit of looking I'm gonna have nightmares of Mothra battling giant humminbirds while being eaten by carpenter bees. I hope that hornworm isn't too much harder to squish than the inchworms i was slaying in April.
BarG
Founding Member
How hilarious, Heh heh I haven't picked a hornworm smaller diameter than my thumb and shorter than my middle finger. I upped the dose on my bt [sooner would have been better] and big giant green worms turn brown. A Half eaten crop later.
What is your mixing ratio now? I've been adding a couple capfuls per gallon.
BarG
Founding Member
I'm at 4 teaspoons per gallon. It might be tablespoons, Its to dark and I'm too bleary eyed to ckeck. I know it worked better than before. I'm using a hose sprayer.I use it on my sweet corn also.
Its to dark and I'm too bleary eyed to ckeck. I know it worked better than before. I'm using a hose sprayer.I use it on my sweet corn also.
skychaser
Well-Known Member
Reason 1. Open pollination improves the stability, vigor and uniformity in a given variety. It avoids genetic bottlenecks that can occur in small populations with inbreeding plants. Even when mixing seed from a fairly large population of bagged self pollinated plants, you get a better genetic mix and will get more vigorous and hardier seedlings from open pollinated seed.
Reason 2. (and this may be the most important one) I can grow a large number of plants of one variety and DO NOT HAVE TO BAG THEM! I get really sick of bags by years end.
I have 3 places I can grow at with enough isolation distance from each other that I can let plants open pollinate. This year I have 120 African Reds and 120 Silver Rivers that I am growing for both leaf and seed and will let open pollinate. And 36 others plants at location #3 that I can't remember what the heck I planted there at the moment. lol We have been planting for 8 days straight now and it's all becoming a blur. My helper flaked out on me at the last minute, so me and the mrs. have done it all. We have over 4000 plants in the ground now with about 700 to go. About 2000 are tobacco plants. I will be very happy when we are done. We are taking a couple days off and going fishing.
AmaxB
Well-Known Member
This is a leaf from PI 512288 TC 538 SAMSUN (PHYB)-2
Am not sure what this is but you may have an interest or idea. Out of 40 starts I kept from the seed I germinated three had this on the leaves.
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Am not sure what this is but you may have an interest or idea. Out of 40 starts I kept from the seed I germinated three had this on the leaves.
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Could the leaf have laid up against any black plastic? I have some leaves that turn crispy when they get against the black plastic of the start trays. That black really soaks up the heat and just fries whatever part of the leaf is touching it.
Boboro
Well-Known Member
It got sunburn.
AmaxB
Well-Known Member
No it was in a soil cube wide open cept for other starts and was outside in the sun very little
This was the only tobacco strain to do it
This was the only tobacco strain to do it
Boboro
Well-Known Member
Ive seen them kinda spots on plants when I first moved them outside. I ant had problems from them kinnda spots.
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