Wombat's 2026 Grow Log

[Wombat_smokes]

Time to begin my first growing season & Grow Log. Seeds are on order at Northwoodseeds.com

But first, a little back story. I learned about the FTT forums when I stumbled upon WLT. I then learned Utah state laws forbid mail ordering tobacco. That includes internet sales & paying by phone. Utah also has an 86% wholesale tax on premium tobacco. That means the purchase price is instantly doubled on any premium tobacco products. That includes whole leaf if a local shop was to provide it.

As a result, I decided to save myself some money and make it myself. For half the cost of a pound of pipe tobacco, I can be set for life - provided I remain vigilant.

By the numbers, my extra garden space is able to provide 5 kg of dried leaf depending on varieties and final curing success. I'm looking at an extremely ambitious 261 plants plus my normal veggies.

The list:

Brightleaf
Frog Eye Orinoco
Yellow Pryor
Trabzon #2

Air Cured
Semois
Shargo
Small Stalk Black Mammoth
Little Dutch
One Sucker
Tofta
Ahus

Orientals
Bitlis
Malatya
Anatolian
Yayladag
Trabzon
Ege
Duzce
Bursa
Prelip
Herzegovina Flor

As always, comments about personal experience & opinions regarding these varieties are welcome.

 

[Wombat_smokes]

My seeds have arrived! 20 varieties and I'm excited to start.

I will try staggering seed starts to avoid being overwhelmed at harvest time. I looked at days to maturity after transplanting (not leaf maturity), added 7 weeks for seed start, and looked at when I wanted each variety harvested.

I will start Ahus and One Sucker first. With about 150 frost free days, I want to try growing 2 crops of these - early & late summer. I will start the 1st crop in late February; the 2nd crop, in May.

Ahus has such a short growing time I think I can squeeze it in. One Sucker is said to have frost tolerance when mature, so I want to test its ability to grow when night temps start to dip below 40°F.

 

[deluxestogie]

Don't be too disappointed to discover that "days to maturity" is not particularly precise. My experience with growing over 100 different varieties has been that the published "days to maturity" carries an error of ± ~2 weeks.

Bob

 

[plantdude]

Time to begin my first growing season & Grow Log. Seeds are on order at Northwoodseeds.com

But first, a little back story. I learned about the FTT forums when I stumbled upon WLT. I then learned Utah state laws forbid mail ordering tobacco. That includes internet sales & paying by phone. Utah also has an 86% wholesale tax on premium tobacco. That means the purchase price is instantly doubled on any premium tobacco products. That includes whole leaf if a local shop was to provide it.

As a result, I decided to save myself some money and make it myself. For half the cost of a pound of pipe tobacco, I can be set for life - provided I remain vigilant.

By the numbers, my extra garden space is able to provide 5 kg of dried leaf depending on varieties and final curing success. I'm looking at an extremely ambitious 261 plants plus my normal veggies.

The list:

Brightleaf
Frog Eye Orinoco
Yellow Pryor
Trabzon #2

Air Cured
Semois
Shargo
Small Stalk Black Mammoth
Little Dutch
One Sucker
Tofta
Ahus

Orientals
Bitlis
Malatya
Anatolian
Yayladag
Trabzon
Ege
Duzce
Bursa
Prelip
Herzegovina Flor

As always, comments about personal experience & opinions regarding these varieties are welcome.

You'll want to plant most of your orientals closer together than other tobacco varieties (about 8-12 inches apart) and grow them on the dry side. Think small flavorful leaves that are air cured. Prilep is beautiful and particularly good (high sugar content and aromatic). It's one of the best orientals I've tried compared to black sea samson, canik, basma, and shirazi (which I have trouble calling an oriental). I haven't tried the others on your list so I can't comment on those.

Small stalk black mammoth is good, but kind of fails to impress me in my growing area for yield, you may have better luck. Little Dutch is great, very floral aromatic notes and a hardy little bugger with a good yield of narrow leaves for it's short stature. I can't comment on your other air cured varieties - I haven't grown them. Keep us posted if you find a winner.
Staghorn might be worth a try as well if you want to add to your labors. It's a dark Virginian variety that air cures a beautiful dark red color, has a short curing time and a great flavor. It goes well with pipe blends and most other tobacco uses. It's one of my staples I grow every year along with little dutch.

The first growing season is always a learning experience - have fun with it and don't be to critical if you encounter minor set backs. Label everything and draw a planting map for when your labels fail, which they most likely will. You're going to have your work cut out for you with that many varities and keeping them straight

 

[Wombat_smokes]

I expect some variance in maturation, but my paper plans looked at a 1 week variance. My most important thing is getting all the leaves out of the field and curing by the end of August. That's when day time temperatures start dropping and the threat of fall/winter precipitation.

As for orientals, I've combed through the discussions and "traditional" plant spacing. I plan to space small varieties (3 ft or less) at 6 inches, and big varieties (more than 3 ft) at 12 inches. Plant competition and heat/drought "stress" causes orientals to exhibit their best attributes.

 

[Wombat_smokes]

As I prepare my seed starting area, I've been thinking about my logistics. While staggered planting will spread out the work, I'm worried I'm going to hold the plants in pots too long in undersized pots.

My last frost date is Apr 21-30, but danger of frost is May 15. Starting my first seeds late February and last ones 6 weeks later, my oldest plants will be 10-13 weeks old. Is that too long to keep them without up-potting?

I know it's possible to untangle a root bound plant, but I worry about premature flowering.

 

[deluxestogie]

Commercial growers clip the leaves while holding plants in their float trays. (They use a lawnmower riding on a track above the trays.) I use scissors to clip about ½ to ⅔ of each leaf, avoiding clipping the growth tip of the stalk. So long as they have good light exposure, they will grow normally after transplant. Those clipped leaves are the "trash" leaves at the bottom of a mature tobacco plant. I clip the leaves as soon as they begin to shade their neighbors, typically every 5 to 10 days.

After my 5th clipping (2019).

Bob

EDIT: Just disentangle the roots at transplant time, and spread them a bit, when you put them in the ground. I have only limited experience with growing to maturity in pots.

 

[Wombat_smokes]

Thanks, Bob. Reading through the forums, I thought leaf clipping needed to remove whole leaves. Now I know to leave something behind for photosynthesis.

I'm also thinking about using my 1020 trays like float beds. Fill with growth medium, plant seeds, thin down to desired amount, and keep 'em alive until planting time; or at least until they need a pot of some sorts.

 

[deluxestogie]

Using the 1020 inserts makes it far easier to maintain uniform moisture in the soil, and handier for carrying selected starts out to the field for transplant. I just remove one insert pack, to add water to the upper 1020 tray (with holes), with a reservoir held in the lower tray (without holes).

One added benefit of clipping is that new transplants seem to suffer less transplant shock, compared to unclipped transplants with full leaves.

Bob

 

[Wombat_smokes]

And so it begins....
The 1st crops of Åhus and One Sucker seeds are set in their germination trays.



I decided to play around with some different methods as I work through my various seed starts. Since transplanting is almost 13 weeks away, I'll put Åhus & One Sucker in individual pots. I chose the "coffee filter in a tray" method. As the seeds germinate, I'll place them in pots to continue growing.

The tomatoes are an heirloom "beefsteak" type my wife aquired in Connecticut while working an internship for her Master's degree.

 

[Wombat_smokes]

A brief description of my heat source:

I'm using a 175W heat lamp. I angled it towards a spare peice of reflective styrene insulation to help reduce & balance out the heat. The right side side of the "chamber" (closest to the styrene panel) is ~80°F/26°C. The left side is ~64°F/17°C. A good temperature range for germination considering I used to aim the lamp straight at my seeds providing a whopping 120°F/50°C

 

[Wombat_smokes]

First signs of life!
4 days since starting seeds. I'll transplanting to 2.5 inch pots over the weekend.

 

[Wombat_smokes]

This week, I joined the "I mixed up my plants" club. On Wednesday, I put the One Sucker seeds into pots. I wanted to move the seeds as soon as I could to avoid the roots from growing into the coffee filter (a problem I have had using paper towels). As a result, I rotated the One Sucker and Åhus trays.

Thursday, I thought the Åhus had exploded with green sprouts when, in fact, it was the One Sucker. I transfered nearly all the One Sucker (gonna want backups, right ) and just a few Åhus, but some pots might be mixed.

The good news: I have a 1020 tray full of One Sucker. The bad: I transplanted almost no Åhus. I know seeds can take a full fortnight to germinate, but I choose to start a new batch of seeds this morning. I also started the Prilep, Bursa & Trabzon #2.

 

[Wombat_smokes]

While checking on the seedlings this morning, I saw roots popping out if a few Prilep. 24 hours & I'm already seeing growth. I didn't expect anything yet.



Also attached are some pictures of the One Sucker/Åhus tray. The black pots are One Sucker; the green, Åhus. I put 1 sprout in each pot. The 5 inch trays have 5 each. All of the trays are One Sucker.

 

[Wombat_smokes]

Prilep and Bursa sprouts are transplanted. No cotyledons (the first "seed leaves") on them, but the roots are growing. The Bursa is a day or so behind the Prelip, but it will catch up. The 2nd Åhus and Trabzon #2 are starting to germinate, but not ready for planting.

I also made some labels from a scrap pine board & used my wood burning tool to write on. We'll see if they rot or soak up tannins from the peat moss seedling mix I'm using (Sun Gold brand)

It's also time for the hardest part about growing tobacco - throwing away the seeds you don't need. I did save about 12 of each Oriental for back ups, but it still feels bad to chuck the extras in the bin.


Here is the status of the first Prilep sprout

 

[johnny108]

I always end up finding a pot for my extra sprouts, much to my wife’s chagrin.

 

[Wombat_smokes]

So far, I've started 6 varieties and have nearly 50 extra plants between the 3 that have sprouted. 14 more varieties of tobacco & 4 varieties of tomato (not to mention all the other vegetables that get started). I'm going to end up with 300 plants before spare tobacco seedlings, and I have space for only 200. There WILL be major culling as time goes by.

Only the bravest and strongest will make it to the field!

 

[Wombat_smokes]

While checking on the seedlings this morning, the Bursa pots were dry on the surface, but their Prilep siblings were very wet. The shelf they were on slants to the back, but the shelf above slants forwards. I might have put too little water in the tray also. To fill my 1020 trays with 1 inch of water when empty takes about 1/2 gallon.

The back up tray has about 12 sprouts and was doing fine. I only need 10 plants. Fingers crossed I don't need the backups.

 

[Wombat_smokes]

The Bursa appears to be growing ok. Both my primary & back up sprouts

The Trabzon #2 and Åhus (reseed) are in their pots & trays. Given how well the Åhus reseed sprouted, the 1st batch germinated, dried & died due to uneven weting. The reseed has consistent moisture and sprouted VERY well. My worst case scenario as of today: a large grow of One Sucker and Prilep.

 

[Wombat_smokes]

Week 3 update:
Yellow Pryor, Little Dutch & Shargo are all in the germination chamber.

The Trabzon #2 and Åhus are slowly progressing. There was one pot at the outside corner of the Åhus that was dry, but it looks like only the surface. I sprayed it to water from above & keep the sprout hydrated.

The One Sucker is now showing their first "true" leaves.

Prilep & Bursa are also doing well.



The heirloom tomatoes also send their love.


Until next time,
TTFN