Wruk53 2023 grow log

[johnny108]

Johnny, I routinely mix in some epsom salts with the MG to provide extra magnesium. 4 parts Miricle grow to one-part Epsom salts. Magnesium falls in between a major and minor element needed by plants, so always add a little to be sure they are getting enough.

I’ll make sure to add it: already have it in the house!
Thanks again!

 

[wruk53]

I will harvest the remainder of the Ainaro soon.
My sucker crop of One Sucker is doing okay. Some of them are already forming buds.
I'm pretty confident that the mystery plants are Little Dutch.
Thompson and OS in the garage drying.
I plan on starting more seeds in early July. I'm thinking of growing only dark strong varieties in the fall, I have an abundance of milder tobacco on hand.

 

[wruk53]

Rainy season is here, it's been raining almost daily starting about 1PM and continuing intermittently into the evening.

All the main crop has been color cured and is now in various stages of drying. Some has already dried and been tied into hands for storage/aging. This is the first time I've tied tobacco hands; it makes for more compact storage.

I've determined that my mystery seedlings are Little Dutch, so I did have the seeds labeled correctly. I don't expect much out of them on account of the excessive rain and humidity. A lot of the lower leaf is already getting holes from brown spot.

The sucker crop of One Sucker is doing okay, I guess. I've already been picking blooms and suckers off of them. Won't be much of a yield I don't imagine.

 

[wruk53]

Ole Snagglepuss lost another tooth a few weeks ago.

 

[wruk53]

I tied some of the tobacco hands the traditional way and some with sisal twine. I think I like the twine better; I just used a simple whipping knot. There are six hands of 25 leaves of One Sucker in each of the two paper bags. I've been moving them outside to bring them in case, then in the house to dry. The heat and humidity have been horrendous lately. My sucker crop kind of sucks. It has some disease and won't yield much. I might get a pound total from it. Probably won't do it again. My Little Dutch is budding and will need to be topped soon. I'm car kilning some of the first priming of One Sucker and Thompson.

 

[johnny108]

I tied some of the tobacco hands the traditional way and some with sisal twine. I think I like the twine better; I just used a simple whipping knot. There are six hands of 25 leaves of One Sucker in each of the two paper bags. I've been moving them outside to bring them in case, then in the house to dry. The heat and humidity have been horrendous lately. My sucker crop kind of sucks. It has some disease and won't yield much. I might get a pound total from it. Probably won't do it again. My Little Dutch is budding and will need to be topped soon. I'm car kilning some of the first priming of One Sucker and Thompson.

I know about the dashboard cure. (I sun cured some Xanthi in plastic bags, and it appears to be kinda like the Indonesian shredding/sun curing- green faded in 2 days). But does car curing work in your region? I would think it would be too hot.

 

[wruk53]

I know about the dashboard cure. (I sun cured some Xanthi in plastic bags, and it appears to be kinda like the Indonesian shredding/sun curing- green faded in 2 days). But does car curing work in your region? I would think it would be too hot.

It does speed up the fermentation process. I don't put it in direct sunlight. You have to be careful doing it this way, if you have several cloudy days in a row and the tobacco is in high case, it will probably mold. If I had a kiln, I would definitely use it instead. The tobacco was already color cured and dried, then brought back into case before I put it in the car.

 

[johnny108]

It does speed up the fermentation process. I don't put it in direct sunlight. You have to be careful doing it this way, if you have several cloudy days in a row and the tobacco is in high case, it will probably mold. If I had a kiln, I would definitely use it instead. The tobacco was already color cured and dried, then brought back into case before I put it in the car.

I color cured in plastic bags on the dashboard- seemed to be similar to the Ranjangan method ChinaVoodoo did in a 10x20 tray, but I didn’t shred the leaves first. I’m drying them now, and wondering if they need to go back in the car….

 

[wruk53]

I know about the dashboard cure. (I sun cured some Xanthi in plastic bags, and it appears to be kinda like the Indonesian shredding/sun curing- green faded in 2 days). But does car curing work in your region? I would think it would be too hot.

Just to clear up any confusion, all I'm trying to do is speed up the aging process. My color curing is carried out on my lanai, then the tobacco is dried completely in my garage and then bagged up, brought into case and placed in the car for forced aging. What you are doing is a completely different process.

 

[johnny108]

Just to clear up any confusion, all I'm trying to do is speed up the aging process. My color curing is carried out on my lanai, then the tobacco is dried completely in my garage and then bagged up, brought into case and placed in the car for forced aging. What you are doing is a completely different process.

You are car kilning, I am dashboard sun curing. (Car Ranjagan?)
I was wondering if car kilning was worth while, too.

 

[wruk53]

I know this doesn't prove anything, but the hand on the left has been in a zip lock bag in my car for three weeks and the hand on the right was stored in a cardboard box in my closet. They are both Thompson Maryland tobacco from the same crop, harvested at about the same time and from the same position on the plant. The darker hand has a richer tobacco smell, the lighter one still smells fresh and green. I'm pretty certain that the temperature in my car is not reaching anywhere near 160 degrees, but I will try to get a temperature reading this afternoon during the hottest part of the day. My vehicle is silver colored, if it was dark colored, I'm sure it would get hotter. Also, I am not putting the tobacco on the dash, that would increase the solar heating effect quite a bit, mine is stored out of direct sunlight on the seat or floor of the car. As I've stated before, if I had a kiln, I would definitely use it instead of a car. However, my carpentry and electrical skills are not such that I want to attempt to build a kiln. In other words, use this method at your own risk and monitor it closely.

 

[wruk53]

Hey guys, I took some temperature readings hourly in my car kiln from 12p to 4p. 12p=113f, 1p=118f, 2p=127f, 3p=129f and 4p=126f. The high today was about 91f and mostly clear, so I'm satisfied that I'm not harming my tobacco at least. I'll just keep it in low/medium case so it doesn't mold during a stretch of lower temps or cloudy days. I'm still not advocating for this method, it's just what i have available.

 

[wruk53]

Have a squint at this big un. It was clinging to the wall at the back of the house. The wingspan looked to be about 6 or 7 inches. I downloaded a better pic from the internet. That's the biggest moth I've ever seen.

 

[stdly]

Very cool, are those both stucco walls. I wonder if they like stucco, I'm bored.

 

[Homegrowngoodnes]

Maybe they got "stucc"? Ha!

 

[wruk53]

Just a quick update on my car kilning. I decided to check the temperature in my vehicle at 3pm today and it was 145 degrees. So, I've abandoned that experiment. I only had about a pound each of One Sucker and Thompson in the car. (Lower third of the plants) The tobacco smells good, so maybe it's not ruined. I'll find out in a few months. One of these years I'll get up enough courage to build a kiln.

 

[deluxestogie]

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[wruk53]

All of the regular spring crop has been tied into hands. I put them on the lanai to bring them into case, then bring them in the house where the AC dries them out again. I'll keep doing this for several months until I need to make more snus.
The approximate yield of whole leaf for each variety was: Ainaro = 2.4 ounces per plant. Thompson = 2.3 ounces per plant. One Sucker = 1.9 ounces per plant. I estimate I wound up with about 11 or 12 lbs. of whole leaf from 82 plants.
The hanging leaf is from the sucker crop of One Sucker. I think I'll end up with a little over a pound total from about 35 plants.
Six Little Dutch plants are doing okay except for more than usual brown spot.
I'm letting the Ainaro sucker also, the leaves will be much smaller than the original harvest, more like small oriental size.
I'll start part 2 of this year's grow in a few weeks when I start more seeds for the fall crop. I've tentatively decided to grow 50\50 little Yellow and One Sucker so that I'll have plenty of dark tobacco for my snus base.
It has been hot as the dickens lately, the "feels like" temperature is 116 degrees today.

 

[wruk53]

This is the beginning of part 2 of my 2023 grow log.
I sowed 72 cells with Little Yellow seeds for a Fall crop. I may plant a few more varieties later on for a Winter crop.

 

[johnny108]

This is the beginning of part 2 of my 2023 grow log.
I sowed 72 cells with Little Yellow seeds for a Fall crop. I may plant a few more varieties later on for a Winter crop.

Please take this with all the admiration and jealousy it denotes, rather than any derision of your person….