Wombat's 2026 Grow Log

[Wombat_smokes]

After letting my Trabzon #2 rest over night, it is most leaves are in extra wet high case (almost like a wet sponge) to high case (leathery & stretchy). Only two leaves had small spots of white mold around the midrib at the center of the leaves. These 2 leaves and a few more didn't have the last 1/3 of the mid rib brown.


Some leaves have thin, translucent spots; but all have. Cured to a nice golden brown.

There was a fair bit of leaf damage from the wind knocking things about, but 4 small hands of "tangled" flue-cured tobacco is still good, smokable product. Each hand had ~9 - 10 leaves.

While the next step is to expirament with a solar kiln, I am unsure if I should remove the stems now or later. Midribs/stems mean excess moisture, therefore, mold. For mold safety, I want to dry down to low/medium case. Removing stems now is also convenient since their already in high case.

 

[Wombat_smokes]

Well, I done did it. Hand thrashed my 1st batch of high case Brightleaf (Trabzon #2)


I swear shelling 5 gallons of green beans (white mountain half-runner) out of my Grandaddy's South Carolina garden was easier. There's a delicate balance between too moist and just right moisture for pulling stems.

I am tempted to save the stems to make my own reconstituted tobaco wrappers (paper), but that's a project for a different grow year.

 

[Wombat_smokes]

What a productive day. Yaladag is strung up to cure and my clear lid, water/dust resistant tote has the Trabzon #2 as a solar kiln.

I hope the Yayladag isn't too green to cure properly. Half of each plant was starting to lighten in color with yellowing base leaves.

The Trabzon #2 smelled wonderfully of raisons and dare I say, honey. We'll see if this 1st priming "kilns" well or if it molds. I admit it was still in high case, but I wanted some humidity left inside to aid the process and expect the sun to thoroughly warm the tote.

 

[Wombat_smokes]

I checked on the solar kiln yesterday afternoon with an instant read meat thermometer (analog). The thermometer is 5°-10°F too high (need to calibrate) and measured 140°F in the tote. Adjusting for the inaccuracy, the kiln is 130°-135°F. Hopefully, this did not have time to fully denature the oxidase enzymes. However, that should only cause the color to stay light golden brown/orange while peroxidase will still develop the flavors.

Also, the raisin smell did get stronger throughout the day.

 

[Wombat_smokes]

Maltya is stripped and resting in my "bushel" bag.

Leaves are a bit tattered & bug nibbled, but they'll still be good smokes. Some leaves dried a bits of green, but I'm hoping the kiln will help fix that.

Bursa is now hung to cure.


Yayladag is coming along nicely.


Things not going so well.... my Frog Eye Orinoco is having trouble with ripening lower leaves. I see them maturing, but it feels like lower leaves are feeding suckers & flowers instead of yellowing. I keep picking suckers. Trabzon #2 seems to be doing the same thing.


Oh, and the Shargo is now mature. I'm topping and picking suckers while waiting for plants to be 50% yellow before I stalk harvest.

 

[Wombat_smokes]

4 plants worth of Åhus are sacked for curing.


My full sun, Åhus grow bed has made a lot of leaves with good size. All were planted at 12 inches or less. I haven't even harvested the biggest plant (which had ~6 inches of space). My largest stalk harvested, 1st early spring crop looks to be drying green, but I'm not going to intervene. An expirement in Åhus stalk curing.

I'm suprised how some varieties will tell you they are ready to harvest by yellowing on the plant while others do well when you decide they are ready. Brightleaf, Burley and most Orientals (esp. my chosen varieties) ripen on the stalk and you harvest accordingly. With the advice for topping Åhus and wait 3 weeks, I'm diversifying my harvesting & curing methods to maximize my yeild.

My 3rd Åhus crop will be grown more like an Oriental. I'll top once to promote larger leaves, but let the suckers grow until the plants are either "ripe" or it's too late in the season for continued growth.

 

[Wombat_smokes]

I harvested 4 more Åhus yesterday. I still have 6 more - some are runts. I had to cut my harvest session short due to curious wasps. I had no desire to accidentally anger one.

As I stripped the leaves, I sorted them by size. The largest leaves are 17 x 9 inches. 7 plants are stacked for bag curing. It took 3 brown paper grocery sacks to avoid making the piles too big. I am stalk curing 1 of the smaller plants. We'll see if it dries slightly green, or cures properly.

I also brought the 1st batch of Åhus into case for stripping. Their green tint now looks more of a garish green-brown.

 

[green_bean]

View attachment 60407

What you got growing between the tobacco rows? From here, it resembles epazote.

 

[Wombat_smokes]

Weeds
Lambsquarter, red root pig weed, goat thorn, oxtail grass, Scotch/Canada thistle, perennial pepperweed, various members of the Asteracea Family.....

My garden is a constant battle with weeds. Start with nothing there. Week after week, no weeds. Then some small sprouts pop up and they're manageable. Then, like magic, they explode and take over the rows.

The only "not weed" I allow to grow is alfalfa. Alfalfa is EXTREMELY drought tolerant once established. I have some outside of the garden that grows quite well with the meager rain get. The only reason alfalfa hay gets a bad rap in the arid west is growers want to maximize their season with regrowth - more harvests, more money.

 

[Wombat_smokes]

Well.... I came home from work due to a "hard to work through" migraine. I slept a good portion off and decided to medicate the rest of my migraine with some nicotine in the garden. I stripped most of the Yayladag and primed the Frog Eye Orinoco to about the 3rd or 4th stalk position. Much of it was green with signs of maturity. I chose to harvest instead of let the ripe leaves become food for insects.



For color curing, I piled the Frog Eye Orinoco leaves and covered them with a brown bag. The pile is 11 inches tall. My biggest leaf was 12 x 24 inches. I did not feel like stuffing those leaves in 3 or 5 bags, so a pile they will sit in my shed.

 

[Wombat_smokes]

Exhibit A: the crime

Brown spots. We all get them on our tobacco from time to time. This is a leaf from my 2nd priming of Frog Eye Orinoco. Notice how the large spot near the center of the leaf is suspiciously... geometric. You might even be able to see tiny pin holes, also.

Exhibit B: the suspect

Can you find the odd, gray/white colored patch? Those are shield bug eggs. Most likely one that damages plants, not one that is carnivorous. My theory is 1) the egg cluster causes laminar necrosis (kills a spot on the leaf) similar to weather flecking; 2) the shield bug nymphs that hatched out nibbled on the vascular tissues damaged by the egg cluster.

 

[Wombat_smokes]

My Frog Eye Orinoco pile is coloring nicely. I've started splitting it into air cure and sun cure. Air cure leaves are ready to hang and riddled with holes. Sun cure leaves are not yet ready to hang and mostly my largest leaves.



My box curing Åhus had some leaves in need of emergency dry down due to advanced coloring and mold starting to grow. These are strung up and hanging.


The stalk curing Åhus appears to be progressing in an ok fashion. I think the 1st group had stems that were too thin to hold enough moisture to prevent the green color.


However, after hydrating the 1st group for stripping; the green/brown/gray leaves appear to be losing their green tint. I'll try to keep them at low case in the hydration chamber.

 

[Wombat_smokes]

This afternoon, I took some time after work to harvest the 2nd priming of Trabzon #2 (up to 4th leaf position). While harvesting, I noticed that half of the leaves on some stalks where maturing (yellowing in small patches all over)


All of the "not yet mature" green leaves are from suckers, not the main stalk. As such, I decided to stalk harvest a few stalks.

Trabzon #2 is a Brightleaf x Oriental hybrid. I believe this hybrid matures more like its Oriental parent than its Brightleaf parent. While low leaves turned a full yellow, the upper leaves have been slowly growing yellow patches - mostly at the same time.

While Trabzon #2 is classified as a brightleaf, it might do well grown like an oriental. Grow it tight for smaller leaves and (presumably) concentrated flavors/aromatics; or grow spread out for large leaves with mild, VA flavors.

This year's plant spacing is 18 inches. I have only tried the bed leaves (the tiny leaves that grow before the BIG ones grow). There was a distinct "sweet tea" taste. My lugs, however, refuse to light. Either my cheroot was wrapped too tight (which it was) or my use of fertilizers before planting was excessive and the leaves have accumulated micronutrients that inhibit the ability of leaves to smolder properly. We'll see the end results when everything is cured and dry.

 

[Wombat_smokes]

I forgot to post a picture of a particularly nice looking leaf from the Frog Eye Orinoco. I broke the leaf of from a high stalk position while inspecting for any missed suckers or leaves. It took a few days to start color curing. I left it unattended for a couple of days and found it to have rapidly progressed to the brown stage with a very yellow stem.

I hung this solitary leaf up to dry down the stem.

 

[deluxestogie]

I suspect that "Trabzon 2" is simply a bright leaf variety that happened to be grow near Trabzon when the USDA guys were collecting seed in Turkey in 1937. Nowhere in the listing on the USDA ARS-GRIN site does the name, "Trabzon 2", appear.

From Turkey. Seeds collected by H. L. Westover and F. L. Wellman, Bureau of Plant Industry. Received January 12, 1937.​

120513. No. 2464. From a field near Trabzon, August 15.​

https://www.ars-grin.gov/npgs/pi_books/scans/130/pi130_032.pdf

 

[Wombat_smokes]

Thanks for the ARS-GRIN info, Bob. I'll have to experiment with another growing season.

 

[Wombat_smokes]

Well.... I've lost nearly 30 leaves of Åhus to various molds and mildew. At first, I thought it was frass (bug poo). Most of it looked like black flecks; others like yellow pollen. As I sorted and turned the bag curing piles, I couldn't find the culprit bugs and isolated the leaves for cleaning. Then there was more of the black, powdery flecks that looked to be attached to white filaments (cue suspenseful music). I continued to pull out all of the infected leaves and leaves with transfered spores. I threw them away instead of risking insufficient sterilization with my peroxide solution. Also, not letting the cleaned leaves dry enough would only make things worse.


As a result, I removed all yellow and browning leaves to air cure in strings of 8-10 leaves.


Proof that vigilance of inspecting and turning "box" and towel curing leaves is vital. Also, temperatures below 125°F/50°C make your tobacco petri dishes for fungal growth.

I did, however, find a caterpillar of sorts in my bag curing leaves a day or so before finding the molds. It's back was snapped from lifting the leaves and brushing away the grass it was surrounded by.


On a happier note, I seperated my pilone of Frog Eye Orinoco into small stringers for air and sun curing. 4 for air curing, 3 for sun curing with ~10 leaves in each wire string. I'm using T-post fence clips I have leftover from old chicken fencing.