deluxestogie Grow Log 2013

[deluxestogie]

It's too bad this lovely planting won't remain for more than a brief spell.

A surprise this season has been the speed with which the Bolivia Criollo Black leaves mature, and its ease of color-curing to a light to medium brown. It has yet to come to full blossom. The Guácharo is from Venezuela (nearly 1600 miles north of Bolivia). Both countries include some of the eastern slope of the Andes, thought to be the origin of Nicotiana tabacum.

Though these look similar, the Guácharo is somewhat shorter, with smaller leaves, and is slower to grow.

Moonlight is a wrapper variety that appears to be similar to FL Sumatra.

The Vuelta Abajo produces medium-size leaves, and generally resembles other "Spanish" type varieties.

The Iztepeque (Ti 589), from Costa Rica, and the Tabasqueño Prieto, from Mexico, both take an Orinoco shape. They are both primitives, though the Iztepeque seems more productive.

Bob

 

[BarG]

I produced a lot of leaf this year but none as good lookin as that Bob. Your plants all look so healthy.

 

[DonH]

The Bolivian Blacks are real pretty plants, aren't they.

 

[ne3go]

Beautiful plants. Its amazing the shape of Tabasqueño Prieto with so bending from wind!

 

[deluxestogie]

Data for istanbulin

The bed of Orientals is partially shaded by a line of distant trees, as well as one nearby, ancient maple, the canopy of which just barely shadows a single corner. More significant is that the root spread of the big maple also reaches to that same corner. Even though all tree roots are removed each season, down to ~2 feet, the roots still influence overlying soil conditions.

With the Çelikhan, two factors are different for the tall row, compared to the uniformly shorter rows: the tall row is exposed to extra soil, available because of the juxtaposition of the wider-spaced Mutki bed; in addition, that row, and only that row, was topped. So the plants are taller and the leaves are larger, but it's unclear which of these factors (perhaps both) contributed to their being larger.

In their dense planting, the Xanthi are rather curious. Each plant is roughly columnar, with leaves of nearly the same size. While some entire Xanthi plants carry leaves of only 6" x 3", others carry leaves of only 9" x 4.5". There seems to be no particular logic about their respective locations. As you can see, all of them were left untopped.

As I have mentioned in an earlier post, although the Çelikhan and Xanthi are quite crowded, access is not much of a problem, since the 12' bed is only 5' wide. If planted entirely with Xanthi, the 12' x 5' bed could easily hold 88 plants at the current density.

Bob

 

[DGBAMA]

Nice plants and good info.

 

[Chicken]

no holes in the plants, are hornworms not a issue where your at,,?

 

[Mrs BeeKeeper]

Harrow Velvet is a smooth and mild burley.

Everything about that statement makes me crave a cigarette.
(I have managed to stay quit for the last 10 years - while married to a heavy smoker.)

 

[johnlee1933]

while married to a heavy smoker.)

That's an easy one. Just get him to loose some weight! LOL

 

[Mrs BeeKeeper]

That's an easy one. Just get him to loose some weight! LOL

Too late. I just had to buy him some suspenders this weekend!

 

[Chicken]

i may pick your brain on certain '' cigar'' plants as to thier chacterisitics, in the future,

next year im thinking of growing some '' cigar varities'' as a flavouring to my cigg blend,

 

[deluxestogie]

no holes in the plants, are hornworms not a issue where your at,,?

I definitely have hornworms. I carefully inspect the plants at least daily, sometimes two or three times during the peak of a wave. I try to find them when they're no bigger than about 1/2 to 3/4" long.

My first hornworm this season was June 29 (later than previous years, probably because of all the nighttime rains). The second wave appeared at almost exactly 3 weeks later, and is now waning. I'm expecting the third wave (hopefully the last) in mid August.

I occasionally miss a tiny one. When they reach about 1" in length, the damage becomes obvious. But when they're caught while tiny, there is only a 1/8-1/4" diameter hole.

The Turkish varieties, shown in yesterday's post, have had only a few tiny hornworms, but that patch is isolated from the rest of the plantings.

Bob

 

[Chicken]

lord; i dont have that much time on my hands, i leave for work at dark and come home at dark, im lucky to have 1 day a week for the garden, [ my trucks in the shop. i been off 3 days and much needed things are getting done ]

i found one yesterday, but it wasnt a hornworm, it was some other worm, that hatches from the pecan trees, but they all eat the leaf the same way!!!!!

 

[Knucklehead]

I'm thinking grasshoppers got me yesterday during the rain. The day before, the leaf was clean and relatively hole free. It rained all day yesterday and when I went to look today, the Olor looked like it had been shot with buckshot. Nothing else was bothered.

 

[Chicken]

I'm thinking grasshoppers got me yesterday during the rain. The day before, the leaf was clean and relatively hole free. It rained all day yesterday and when I went to look today, the Olor looked like it had been shot with buckshot. Nothing else was bothered.

grasshoppers are rare in my yard,,,,i got free range chickens,

 

[deluxestogie]

Here's a quick peek at this year's bigger and better Machu Picchu. It's looking quite wrapperly.

It's about 15% longer than last year's, and nearly 2" wider. I'm not sure if it's the screwy weather, different soil, or the partial shade + house reflection.

Bob

 

[DGBAMA]

midrib looks really thin for such a large leaf. Nice pic.

 

[grgfinney]

That looks really good I'll take 2000 to go please

 

[deluxestogie]

My second Cozy Can flue-cure batch came out two nights ago. It contained about twice as much leaf as the first batch. The tips of the most central leaves (center of the can) tended to have green tips on the longer leaves. Near the outside, the much longer VA Bright cured perfectly yellow. The batch also contained Çelikhan, and both Prilep varieties.

My general impression is that Çelikhan doesn't have enough body to flue-cure well. It does come out light yellow, but very thin and mild. It is aromatic though.

The Prileps seem to do well with flue-curing.

Time will tell.

Tonight, I started a third batch: both Prileps, Xanthi Yaka 18a and VA Bright. I think I may air-cure the remainder of the Çelikhan. It's too bad that my VA Bright patch has not grown well this season.

I've sent some tiny samples of the Prilep and Çelikhan to a small number of selected victims, in order to get some feedback on whether or not flue-curing Orientals is a good idea. I think it would be a nice component in English-style pipe blends, but I suspect it may be too aromatic for cigarettes. It's pretty stuff, but maybe should just be air-cured (or sun-cured).

One thought I had was to take Orientals through the yellowing phase in the Cozy Can, then attempt to sun-cure it, but sunlight has been in short supply this summer.

Bob

 

[skychaser]

" I've sent some tiny samples of the Prilep and Çelikhan to a small number of selected victims, in order to get some feedback on whether or not flue-curing Orientals is a good idea. "

I'm looking forward to trying it. I'm betting the Celikhan tastes better than mine did. And mine wasn't very pretty either. My wife thought it tasted ok and smoked the rest of what I had cured but I really didn't care for it. One of my buyers loves Bafra and says it is his favorite tobacco of all. I didn't like the taste of it that much either. To each his own I guess.