Bob, How much Dawn to how much water? I may be using too much soap.
deluxestogie Grow Log 2013
- Thread starter deluxestogie
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I have a 4 ounce spray bottle. I don't measure the Dawn. I just squirt a bit (maybe 1/3 to 1/2 tsp.) into the bottle, fill with tap water, then mix.
Bob
Bob
AmaxB
Well-Known Member
Beautiful photo Bob wish I could say I had so few left to harvest, it is looking like I'll be stringing some up in my garage. The test leaves I put out there cured up nicely.
In the last week I have killed a few fat Horn Worms.
In the last week I have killed a few fat Horn Worms.
Old Yeller and the Green Genes
I rolled a cigar of small filler scraps, wrapping it in red burley. Alas, the wrapper split. So I covered it with this flue-cured VA Bright. It's about as mild as a cigar wrapper can be.
Today, I brought in the ears from my Oaxaca Green Dent Corn. There are about 20 nice ones. Some are too narrow for making a corn cob pipe, but there are a few promisingly fat ones.
Oaxaca Green Dent Corn.
The fat Oaxaca ears are a little over 2" wide. For comparison, the Bloody Butcher pipe is to the right.
Bob
I rolled a cigar of small filler scraps, wrapping it in red burley. Alas, the wrapper split. So I covered it with this flue-cured VA Bright. It's about as mild as a cigar wrapper can be.
Today, I brought in the ears from my Oaxaca Green Dent Corn. There are about 20 nice ones. Some are too narrow for making a corn cob pipe, but there are a few promisingly fat ones.
Oaxaca Green Dent Corn.
The fat Oaxaca ears are a little over 2" wide. For comparison, the Bloody Butcher pipe is to the right.
Bob
I'm currently sun curing some Djebel 174 and was planning on sending you a sample. If you like, I can include a couple of pre-fab stems that you can attach to a shank for your cob.
I accept! I'll try to send a good segment of cob to each of the forum's pipe makers.
Bob
Making Roots Go Away
Sorry. No photos of towering green plants or golden hanging leaf. This is my approach to the seamy underbelly of home tobacco growing--cleaning the garden beds after harvest.
I'll start by saying that I've settled on using loppers to cut stalks, whether for stalk-harvesting or after the standing stalk has been primed of its final leaves. Loppers cut the thickest stalk with ease, and are much safer to use than the host of other sharp objects that I've tried for the purpose. (My Ginzu-lacerated finger has finally healed.)
Why do I remove the roots? Despite the fact that tobacco roots contain nutrients that may be useful to the soil when they decay, they also may contain tobacco pathogens and pests. So each autumn, I remove the roots from the tobacco growing area, along with the stalks. I just toss these. They could be burned, and the ash safely added back to the soil, but I don't do this.
With small Orientals (not including those widely space, that grow to 6' or more), it's a simple matter to grasp the stalk, and yank the root ball out of the ground completely.
Oriental stalks and roots.
For large plants that have been primed, I lop down the stalks promptly, to prevent them from sucking more nutrients from the soil by suckering. I allow them to dry on the bed before hauling them off, since the dry stalks weigh less than a quarter of green stalks.
Cut stalks and standing stumps.
The remaining stumps will, of course, sprout their own suckers. So I try to get them out of the ground as soon as time allows. Some of you burly young bucks may have the strength of back to just pull these out. I don't. I wait until the soil is mostly dry (but not fully dry) and dig each out with a 90º spade.
Root removal complete.
I allow the root ball to weather on the surface of the bed until the clinging dirt is completely dry, which allows all that valuable dirt to be easily knocked off with one or two thumps onto the bed, using the stump as a handle.
Dirt clods.
My plan each year is to have all this debris removed from the beds before November. Sometimes it doesn't happen until the following spring.
So, there you have it: the true dirt on tobacco roots. An unvarnished account.
Bob
Sorry. No photos of towering green plants or golden hanging leaf. This is my approach to the seamy underbelly of home tobacco growing--cleaning the garden beds after harvest.
I'll start by saying that I've settled on using loppers to cut stalks, whether for stalk-harvesting or after the standing stalk has been primed of its final leaves. Loppers cut the thickest stalk with ease, and are much safer to use than the host of other sharp objects that I've tried for the purpose. (My Ginzu-lacerated finger has finally healed.)
Why do I remove the roots? Despite the fact that tobacco roots contain nutrients that may be useful to the soil when they decay, they also may contain tobacco pathogens and pests. So each autumn, I remove the roots from the tobacco growing area, along with the stalks. I just toss these. They could be burned, and the ash safely added back to the soil, but I don't do this.
With small Orientals (not including those widely space, that grow to 6' or more), it's a simple matter to grasp the stalk, and yank the root ball out of the ground completely.
Oriental stalks and roots.
For large plants that have been primed, I lop down the stalks promptly, to prevent them from sucking more nutrients from the soil by suckering. I allow them to dry on the bed before hauling them off, since the dry stalks weigh less than a quarter of green stalks.
Cut stalks and standing stumps.
The remaining stumps will, of course, sprout their own suckers. So I try to get them out of the ground as soon as time allows. Some of you burly young bucks may have the strength of back to just pull these out. I don't. I wait until the soil is mostly dry (but not fully dry) and dig each out with a 90º spade.
Root removal complete.
I allow the root ball to weather on the surface of the bed until the clinging dirt is completely dry, which allows all that valuable dirt to be easily knocked off with one or two thumps onto the bed, using the stump as a handle.
Dirt clods.
My plan each year is to have all this debris removed from the beds before November. Sometimes it doesn't happen until the following spring.
So, there you have it: the true dirt on tobacco roots. An unvarnished account.
Bob
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squeezyjohn
Well-Known Member
It's always amazing to see quite how few roots a tobacco plant actually has given that it's a tall, majestic beast with huge leaves!
My ground is wet and clay like at the moment and it would be a struggle to get them out! But I'm rotating crops on my allotment so the tobacco won't be back in the same place for at least 4 years.
My ground is wet and clay like at the moment and it would be a struggle to get them out! But I'm rotating crops on my allotment so the tobacco won't be back in the same place for at least 4 years.
Boboro
Well-Known Member
Im with you on all that. Try a turnin fork to pry out the stumps. then beat them on the fork.
Brown Thumb
Well-Known Member
Tell me about it. I just got done staking up plants that blew over in a bad storm, No big root ball.
I should be harvesting not staking.
Winding Down the Season
Garden beds on 9/18/13.
In the beginning: 4/28/13.
I discovered a curious attribute of Prilep (both of my varieties). Once the initial bud head begins to mature, every axil on the stalk simultaneously put out a sucker. Initially, I removed these as they appeared. But the pattern was so unusual that I decided to just allow them to grow, to see what they did.
With even the primary bud head still maturing, secondary bud heads grew much taller than the primary. None of the sucker leaf looked particularly good. The leaves continued to be thin, and matured very slowly. At the time the bagged heads were cut, I intended to just discard the candelabra-like stalks--leaves and all. Instead, in a experiment, I cut the entire stalks, wired them together, and hung them from a clothesline pole. They've been hanging there for about a week now. I clipped off any secondary pod heads (all unbagged). If the leaves come out just trash, then no loss. I don't bother to bring them inside at night.
Prilep 79-94 sucker crop stalk-hanging to sun-cure.
Bob
Garden beds on 9/18/13.
In the beginning: 4/28/13.
I discovered a curious attribute of Prilep (both of my varieties). Once the initial bud head begins to mature, every axil on the stalk simultaneously put out a sucker. Initially, I removed these as they appeared. But the pattern was so unusual that I decided to just allow them to grow, to see what they did.
With even the primary bud head still maturing, secondary bud heads grew much taller than the primary. None of the sucker leaf looked particularly good. The leaves continued to be thin, and matured very slowly. At the time the bagged heads were cut, I intended to just discard the candelabra-like stalks--leaves and all. Instead, in a experiment, I cut the entire stalks, wired them together, and hung them from a clothesline pole. They've been hanging there for about a week now. I clipped off any secondary pod heads (all unbagged). If the leaves come out just trash, then no loss. I don't bother to bring them inside at night.
Prilep 79-94 sucker crop stalk-hanging to sun-cure.
Bob
I've heard the saying "inquiring minds want to know." With you, it should be "inquiring minds will by golly find out!" I love your experiments and the ways you satisfy your curiosity. One tip of the FTT logo hat.
Fisherman
Well-Known Member
Mr Deluxe,
My Xanthia is not making a large seed head.... I clipped one to see if it would make secondaries like you said........ Did I mess up?
My Xanthia is not making a large seed head.... I clipped one to see if it would make secondaries like you said........ Did I mess up?
Xanthi usually produces a relatively small seed head. When clipped, it will often produce secondary seed heads--still small. But the seed from a single mature pod will provide gobs of seed (~30,000+). The real issue is the length of your growing season. With enough time, it will nearly always produce secondary seed heads.
The Prilep is unusual in the high degree to which it produces secondary seed heads.
Bob
The Prilep is unusual in the high degree to which it produces secondary seed heads.
Bob
Fisherman
Well-Known Member
my virginia brightleaf is a nusience producing seeds. I bet I clipped flowers off 5 times so far and they each are producing full seed heads. 4 plants got me over 7 oz of cleaned seeds earlier on this season. I just gave up trying to get between the rows and stretching to get to the tops. Had to use limb trimmers last time.
Naturally tho , the strain I want is a low producer
But looking back at the year. it really doesn't take a lot of seeds to over populate a persons plot either.
I am lucky so far with temps. We are forecast to have another month of at least 85deg F. My main concern was the blasted tropical storms we so far haven;t gotten.
Naturally tho , the strain I want is a low producer
But looking back at the year. it really doesn't take a lot of seeds to over populate a persons plot either.
I am lucky so far with temps. We are forecast to have another month of at least 85deg F. My main concern was the blasted tropical storms we so far haven;t gotten.
Rooting Tops - Results After ~2 Months
Here's where we started on 8/3/13.
Results after ~2 months, and close-up of roots on the left cutting.
The sucker, which did remain alive, and even produced new roots, never showed any growth. The immature bud head also remained alive, although none of the buds blossomed, and all eventually died. The bud head produced no new roots, despite having several nodes beneath the surface. It behaved much like a cut flower in a vase.
I believe the sucker might well have prospered, had I transferred it out of the vermiculite and into soil after a few weeks. On the other hand, the plant top seems to have been unable to produce roots, perhaps caused by auxin inhibitors from the budding process.
CONCLUSION: Simply sticking a sucker into vermiculite allows it to produce new roots. It must then be transferred to soil. A cut bud head seems to actively inhibit production of new roots.
Bob
Here's where we started on 8/3/13.
Results after ~2 months, and close-up of roots on the left cutting.
The sucker, which did remain alive, and even produced new roots, never showed any growth. The immature bud head also remained alive, although none of the buds blossomed, and all eventually died. The bud head produced no new roots, despite having several nodes beneath the surface. It behaved much like a cut flower in a vase.
I believe the sucker might well have prospered, had I transferred it out of the vermiculite and into soil after a few weeks. On the other hand, the plant top seems to have been unable to produce roots, perhaps caused by auxin inhibitors from the budding process.
CONCLUSION: Simply sticking a sucker into vermiculite allows it to produce new roots. It must then be transferred to soil. A cut bud head seems to actively inhibit production of new roots.
Bob
DGBAMA
Well-Known Member
Thanks for the follow up.
Last night, the temp fell to 19ºF.
I'm not concerned. Knucks assures me that 3 days of sunshine will have these plants perking up like it's mid June.
On a happier note, I rescued some fairly well developed PA Red suckers a few days ago, and hung them indoors, in the back porch. Since the humidity is rapidly falling, I've provided them with a folded over sheet of plastic wrap. The bottom is still open for ventilation. If I can get them to yellow--all of 15 leaves--then they should make something passable.
Bob
I'm not concerned. Knucks assures me that 3 days of sunshine will have these plants perking up like it's mid June.
On a happier note, I rescued some fairly well developed PA Red suckers a few days ago, and hung them indoors, in the back porch. Since the humidity is rapidly falling, I've provided them with a folded over sheet of plastic wrap. The bottom is still open for ventilation. If I can get them to yellow--all of 15 leaves--then they should make something passable.
Bob
Boboro
Well-Known Member
I usealy agree with Knuck, but those will be jelly in 3 days.
leverhead
Well-Known Member
Another Summer passes in the North. The guys down South are coming along well.
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