Cangrow's 2026, first ever

[cangrow]

1. Burleys, cigar and Virginia varieties should all be topped.
2. No more fertilizer! With flowering this close, more fertilizer will make color curing difficult.
3. 3 weeks after topping is a good minimum.
Virginia tends to ripen at 2 week intervals as you go up the plant. Burley can be stalk harvested and stalk cured when the top leaves show signs of maturity. The cigar varieties should be primed as they mature, to prevent the more fragile leaves from being damaged by bugs and weather.
4. Sun curing is your best choice for the Virginia, but the dry climate may make this difficult. Prime and box cure the cigar varieties- cardboard box with layers of newspaper or paper bag paper in between the leaves. Stalk cured the burley somewhere dark.
5. Once you have color cured, you can kiln at whatever time you can- interrupting kilning and restarting it doesn’t seem to cause any problems, but you MUST get the green color out, first!
6. Oven kiln? I’ve never tried it. Most ovens being given away don’t have precise enough temperature control on their own- so temperature probe and a separate control for the heat would be needed.
7. When topping is done, I only water enough to keep the plant from wilting, to prevent damaging the leaf or having it dry green.

Thank you so much @johnny108 !

 

[StoneCarver]

6. An oven would be overkill as a heat source and the oven box isn't really tall enough to hang long tobacco leaves in. If you want to repurpose an old appliance, people do use old non-functioning refrigerators for kilns. You still need to add a heat and humidity source and a crockpot works well for that.

 

[Havok]

You can sun cure your virginas (and orientals), weather permitting, and I’ve had success and the last few years and the weather has been on our side. You will need to stalk cut the plants so they can draw on the moisture from the stalk, primed leaves will just dry green. The last couple of years mid to late September has been dry and humid (well, for us anyway, 40-55%). You will want them mobile so you can move them to cover if the weather turns. Find a place that gets the most sun, I have a hill that I use that gives me almost 12 hours at that time of year. Just keep your fingers crossed we don’t get one of those early September snow falls.

 

[cangrow]

You can sun cure your virginas (and orientals), weather permitting, and I’ve had success and the last few years and the weather has been on our side. You will need to stalk cut the plants so they can draw on the moisture from the stalk, primed leaves will just dry green. The last couple of years mid to late September has been dry and humid (well, for us anyway, 40-55%). You will want them mobile so you can move them to cover if the weather turns. Find a place that gets the most sun, I have a hill that I use that gives me almost 12 hours at that time of year. Just keep your fingers crossed we don’t get one of those early September snow falls.

Good to know, thanks @Havok, where abouts are you in this huge province?

 

[Havok]

Cochrane.

 

[Havok]

…sorry, “dry and humid” maybe wasn’t the best choice of words. “Rain-free and humid” (compared to our usual 10%).

 

[cangrow]

80 days since starting seeds
59 days since planting seedlings outside in vegetable garden
52 days since planting larger seedlings outside in S-facing tobacco patch

Hey all,

I took a few pics of the patch tonight because overnight lows are dropping down to 5C tonight and 1C tomorrow night, so the days might be counted.
Growth has been tremendous since last post just over 3 weeks ago. The burleys started flowering first and all got topped about 1.5 weeks ago. I did save the tallest one from decapitation for curiosity's sake in order to see how tall it could get and because a friend expressed an interest in growing tobacco over the winter using an indoor grow tent. The tall one tops out at 6'1", taller than me!


The patch of smaller plants has also done well, though not as well as the big-plant patch. Between now and the spring, I'll take time to homogenize things better when it comes to soil and I may even attempt to grow a long patch along the back alley in a very exposed, sunny location.

For my overnight lows of 1C on Friday night, I think I might harvest half of the plants and hope that the rest can tough out the cold if it really does get that cold. Thoughts? -The thing is, overnight lows jump back up to 4, 5, 6 degrees, perhaps even higher, after this cool dip. I wouldn't mind letting things mature as much as possible on the stalk and it hasn't been 3 weeks since topping for the burleys. Average first frost date here is Sept 18th, btw.

I remember reading somewhere here that plants toughed temps as low as -3C? The way I see it, pure water freezes at 0C, but there's no pure water in these plants, meaning their freezing point is below 0C. Plus, they're now quite large, so that's a bit mass of water that would have to freeze. Finally, these seeds did come from 150km south of here, from an almost identical climate, so I could assume that they might be semi-cold-resistant? I'd love to hear from other locals or northern-latitude types. Happy harvesting and curing!

G

 

[MadFarmer]

What varieties are you growing? I've had mature North American cultivated varieties make it through (several) light frost when the Cuban seed ones did not.

 

[Wombat_smokes]

Most plants will tolerate 4°C/39.2°F, but 3°C/37.4°F and lower will risk leaf damage. I was extremely lucky that me Virginas (Frog Eye Orinoco & Yellow Pryor) and Burley (Shargo) survived a late spring freeze (1°C - 3°C). Your mature (yellowing at the tips) and ripe (25% or more yellowed) leaves will be dmaged or ruined by this cold snap. I would definitely harvest and "box" cure the mature/ripe leaves.

Stalk harvesting & stalk curing the air cured Burley and Bolivian Criollo Black is a good choice to get the not yet mature upper leaves cured. I wouldn't count on enough warmth left in the season to sun cure the Virgina Gold, so flue or air curing would be best.

 

[cangrow]

4 months since starting seeds
3 months and 10 days since planting seedlings outside in vegetable garden
3 months minus 1 week since planting larger seedlings outside in S-facing tobacco patch

Hi all,

Got lucky and my plants went through the recent cold patch unscathed. It got as cold as 2 C twice. There was frost on windshields on the N side of the house but not on the S side, where the plants are.

I say that, but almost half of the leaves are now dry or drying in the basement. Basement was demo'ed 1.5 years ago just before we moved into this house. Glad I haven't built it back up yet as many drywall screws were left behind in the joists, which makes tying wire a simple task. Basement temp is mainly around 15-18 C these days and drying seems to be going well. I'm into seco and viso though I find the distinction between the two a little vague.
Just did an extensive priming yesterday, so now what's left is probably pure viso, ligero and corona. Think I`ll stalk cut my tall burleys on the back row near the brown wall this weekend as it`s easily been 3 weeks since I topped them. The lone flowering one will stay as long as temps are above freezing.

And then there`s the patch of little plants where the few surviving Virginia Golds live. None of their leaves are all that big but I'm eager to see how they compare to the burley and Bolivian Black Criollo.
Excited for next year; looking for aged horse manure on the outskirts of town and hoping my new choice of patch works out well. It's past equinox, so happy fall to all,
G

 

[bbfarmky]

4 months since starting seeds
3 months and 10 days since planting seedlings outside in vegetable garden
3 months minus 1 week since planting larger seedlings outside in S-facing tobacco patch

Hi all,

Got lucky and my plants went through the recent cold patch unscathed. It got as cold as 2 C twice. There was frost on windshields on the N side of the house but not on the S side, where the plants are.

I say that, but almost half of the leaves are now dry or drying in the basement. Basement was demo'ed 1.5 years ago just before we moved into this house. Glad I haven't built it back up yet as many drywall screws were left behind in the joists, which makes tying wire a simple task. Basement temp is mainly around 15-18 C these days and drying seems to be going well. I'm into seco and viso though I find the distinction between the two a little vague.View attachment 61082
Just did an extensive priming yesterday, so now what's left is probably pure viso, ligero and corona. Think I`ll stalk cut my tall burleys on the back row near the brown wall this weekend as it`s easily been 3 weeks since I topped them. The lone flowering one will stay as long as temps are above freezing.
View attachment 61083
And then there`s the patch of little plants where the few surviving Virginia Golds live. None of their leaves are all that big but I'm eager to see how they compare to the burley and Bolivian Black Criollo. View attachment 61084
Excited for next year; looking for aged horse manure on the outskirts of town and hoping my new choice of patch works out well. It's past equinox, so happy fall to all,
G

If you can't locate aged manure, throwing it down this fall after harvest and then sitting through winter will be plenty safe enough.

 

[cangrow]

hey all, question for you:

I think I might stalk-cut everything tonight as it's been long enough and I don't want to lose any good leaf to freeze.

Will I still get seeds from my tall burley that's had open flowers for about 3 weeks? Thanks in advance!
G

 

[vktr]

I don't think you will. They do keep flowering in suspending condition but I can't see how they can produce seeds.

 

[StoneCarver]

They can produce seeds whilst stalk curing. In my extensive one year experience of growing tobacco, I've had some to produce a seed pod or two.
It was a daily chore to pinch the flowers. Inevitably, I missed some flowers. And this was in the dark of my basement. Bright sunlight wasn't even needed.
The stalks have enough energy to push out flowers without much any further outside input.