Why are my leaves wilting and drying?

[bohdan.zaremba]

I am growing cigar varieties in 5/10 gallon pots (black grow bags, in case this detail is related to my issue). During the hot days, the leaves wilt more than they normally do, and they do not bounce back at the end of the day. It feels as if the sun dries the leaves on the plant before they get a chance to recover.

The first time it happened, I just assumed I do not water them enough, and increased the watering a bit. But no matter how much I water, this keeps happening on hot days. We are going through a heatwave in southern Ontario, but I don't think its hotter here than in their native climate. Multiple varieties got affected, but Vuelta Abajo got the worst of it.

Could it be that the grow bags let out too much moisture during the day? Or they heat up in the sun, "cooking" the roots?

Photos attached show the leaves the next morning, after thorough watering.

I appreciate any help with trying to "troubleshoot" this. I won't be trying to fix it this season, but I would like to try and prevent it for the next year.

 

[deluxestogie]

You might wish to review @Knucklehead's 2023 grow log, in which he places grow bags inside a small kiddie pool.

Knucklehead's 2023 Grow Blog

I plan to start seed 1 Feb for a planting date of 1st week of April. I will have 48 cells of Reams 158 flue cure variety. Four will be backups. My seedling mix is several years old and dry so I went down earlier and dumped a gallon of water in the bag to help premoisten the soil. I struggled...

forum.wholeleaftobacco.com

Bob

 

[bohdan.zaremba]

Thanks Bob. This is probably a stupid question, but it's my first season growing so I got to ask: what I showed is not part of the normal/expected growing damage, right?

 

[deluxestogie]

The third image shows scorched leaves. The others show wilting. The wilting is not a problem if the leaves perk up after sunset. So what you describe is not normal. You may be correct that the roots are being damaged by the heat. I can't say whether or not more watering would have prevented the plant stress.

You may or may not end up with useable leaf from this season. I suspect that you will get enough of a harvest to experiment with color-curing and using the leaf.

Some of my own tobacco, growing within a garden bed on level ground, has some scorched leaf this year. This is my 17th year growing tobacco, but the first scorched tobacco leaf I've seen. (And my two apple trees, two pear trees, two grape vines and a blackberry bramble are totally barren this year. Even my green bean plants were scorched, despite watering.) My location in Virginia is above the Blue Ridge Mountains, at about 2000 ft. elevation—well over 1000 feet higher than the traditional tobacco regions in Virginia.

So, you're not alone. And much of Europe is also getting toasted this summer.

Bob

 

[bohdan.zaremba]

You may or may not end up with useable leaf from this season. I suspect that you will get enough of a harvest to experiment with color-curing and using the leaf.

Fortunately I have 28 tobacco plants growing now. Some are even doing quite well. I may not have enough leaf from each variety to experiment with blending (I was really looking forward to trying Vuelta Abajo, but this variety took the biggest hit), but I should definitely have enough to experiment curing, fermenting, and rolling with. That is, if I do not mess up the colour-curing step.

Can I use the partially-scorched leaves as filler (after removing the scorched areas)? Or is it better to toss the entire leaf?

 

[deluxestogie]

Can I use the partially-scorched leaves

I would.

Bob