deluxestogie Grow Log 2014

[deluxestogie]

Here is Cyprus Oriental mw. It is clearly a Samsun type, with a spade-shaped, petiolated leaf. Leaf color is a medium green. I'll be sun-curing this variety.

Today was my first priming of Cyprus Oriental.

Below, is Chichicaste 712, a Honduran variety. It likely was considered a primitive, because of the relatively low count of its somewhat dark green leaves. But its productivity seems adequate. Nice leaf size, on an Orinoco-type plant. It's blossoms are a very deep pink.

Bob

 

[Markw]

There looking good Bob. It is going to be interesting to see what the Cyprus comes out like. What difference would you say there is with the Bursa. I think it is a much smaller plant. The 712 leaf cures to a lovely dark brown colour. I must say it was the easiest plant to colour curer, never got any mould, I have some still hanging in the garage that has been there all over our wet winter and no mould on them. Unlike any Burley which would have been in the compost bin buy now.

 

[MarcL]

Fireflies

Have you ever tried to photograph fireflies (lightening bugs) lifting off from the grass at dusk? The sight is wondrous--sometimes dozens flashing in synchrony. But snapping a photo of it is something that can really challenge one's camera technique.

Fireflies at dusk.

The problem is that the photo exposure must be at a low ISO setting and a slow shutter speed, so the camera must be mounted on a tripod or some other fixed object. To prevent motion blur from pressing the shutter button, I use the delay shutter timer. But, the fireflies blink only momentarily, and in irregularly timed waves.

For the photo above, I used a tiny, portable, backpacker's tripod Velcro'd to the wrought iron of my front porch, set the timer, and repeatedly took random shots of the same location--20 of them. Out of those 20 exposures, a mere 3 of them revealed any fireflies. Of those, only 1 was anything to look at.

Because of the peculiar lighting, no standard balance of lightness and contrast adjustments to the photo looked anything like what my eye saw. I fiddled with the settings, until the photo looked like the reality--sort of.

When I looked at my one decent firefly photo again this morning, it seemed better than I recalled it being last night. But, alas, many of the bright dots turned out to be just dust on my computer screen. After cleaning the screen, what you see above is all that was left.

Perhaps the evanescent beauty of rising fireflies should be left to the magic of the human eye--a real-time experience.

Bob

I can see them.

 

[cigarchris]

Very interested in your sun-curing Bob, consider this a pre-request for a photo or two. I might try it for some of my Prilep.

 

[deluxestogie]

This is the striking blossom of Chichicaste 712.

Bob

 

[Knucklehead]

I think that is the most red blossom I have seen thus far. Very pretty and a photo worthy of a frame.

 

[deluxestogie]

Very interested in your sun-curing Bob, consider this a pre-request for a photo or two. I might try it for some of my Prilep.

Sun-curing is tricky. The idea is to transition from green to yellow to totally dry without having it dry green. If it's humid and sunny, then you can just string the leaf and hang it in the sun until it's done (a few days to a few weeks). If the humidity is low, you can allow the leaf to yellow in the shed or in indirect light for a couple of days before putting it out in the sun to finish.

I string my leaf, and hang it on an old clothesline. As long as it's green or yellow, rain doesn't seem to affect it at all. Once it starts to dry, I'll bring it into the shed whenever rain threatens.

For stringing the leaf, I use aluminum electric fence wire (17 gauge). I puncture the stem using the wire itself, and pack them closely, alternating back to back, front to front. This is in contrast to the 1" spacing between pairs of leaves destined to color-cure in the shed. I believe the closer spacing minimizes the risk of drying green, while not increasing the risk of mold in the sunny, breezy location.

Last year, I allowed suckers to grow freely from the bare stalks of my (already) harvested Prilep. Then I stalk-harvested all of it, simply hanging the sucker-heavy stalks on the clothesline for several weeks. With these, I also carried them into the shed if rain threatened after they began to dry.

I'm sure I posted photos of all this in my 2013 grow log.

Bob

 

[Knucklehead]

I tried putting out wilted green Orientals for sun curing this year and many of the leaves sun scalded beyond salvation (in a couple to three hours). They went straight to dark brown almost black like barn rot. I've gone back to yellowing first in the shop before moving the leaf to the sun.
Last year I cured my Orientals in bud bags and my flue cure varieties on modified coat hangers. This year I will cure my larger Orientals (lower leaf) on the modified coat hangers and only use the bud bags for the tiny leaf that are so hard to string.

 

[Frozenthunderbolt]

What about the Magnolia wrapper you planted Bob? I'm dying to see a pic of how yours did and what you think of it after my rave (or raving!) reviews.

 

[deluxestogie]

The Magnolia is looking nice. I'll be bagging it soon. Once it's mostly grown, I'll get some photos.

Bob

 

[rainmax]

Bob, your garden is beautiful. You must really enjoy touching those health plants. Everything is on the right place.
I envy you your dark green color on your plants. I didn't fertilize my wrapper garden and lives are lighter green and growing slowly.

 

[rustycase]

Question, Bob...

What's in your cigar blend today?

rc

 

[deluxestogie]

What's in your cigar blend today?

My cigar blend is a randomly varying random sample of all the cigar types shown at the beginning of my 2012 and 2013 grow logs. Whatever is kilned and in the proper case for filler goes into them. Nearly every one is different. I still have some of Don's Nicaragua Habano viso that I use to crank up some cigars.

I was blessed with the gift of a big batch of damaged Bezuki wrapper that Don felt was not high enough quality to sell. I've been using it for binder for quite a while now. [Thanks again, Don.] For wrapper, I have my own FL Sumatra and Machu Picchu Havana, as well as occasional oscuro leaf from some of the filler varieties. In addition, I have on hand small quantities of many of the wrapper types from www.wholeleaftobacco.com.

So my cigar blend is like making an omelet. I know I'll use a couple of eggs, but everything else is spur of the moment.

Bob

 

[CT Tobaccoman]

Bob,

Do you think Little Dutch could be grown indoors in the winter time, like several plants in 5 gallon pots?

Charlie

 

[deluxestogie]

Well, the "Little" in "Little Dutch" only applies to its height, which typically tops at about 3'. But the leaves can be in the 30" range for length, giving you a 5' wingspan. Of course, with indoor growing, the sun exposure will be much less, under the best of circumstances, so they would end up smaller.

Bob

 

[CT Tobaccoman]

Another question. In shade, when we "sucker" a plant, it only means a sort of priming before the first priming, at about the same time plants are tied and hoeing and cultivating stops. Shade isn't topped so no other suckers arise. What we do is break away the bottom 4-5 leaves, which will not grow to be at least 16", and so the plant won't waste anymore energy on them. Do you normally do that sort of thing--get rid of the bottom-most leaves?

 

[deluxestogie]

I (and I think most members) save the bottom leaves. They are trashy. The worst of them end up in the compost heap. But some of those mud lugs (or sand lugs) make a mighty fine smoke. They're mild. If you have the curing space, you may as well save them.

As for "energy" going to the rest of the plant, the fact that mud lugs yellow on the plant quite early indicates that the senescence of their metabolism has already been triggered. So while they may continue to take up water from the roots, they are surely not consuming a significant amount of other nutrition. They are in the same metabolic state as tree leaves that yellow in the autumn--basically just in the process of dying.

For use as filler or shredding for cigarettes, their ultimate length doesn't matter. From a commercial standpoint, they are a waste of labor to handle and process, but for us, that's not really a consideration--we work for free.

Bob

 

[Knucklehead]

Another question. In shade, when we "sucker" a plant, it only means a sort of priming before the first priming, at about the same time plants are tied and hoeing and cultivating stops. Shade isn't topped so no other suckers arise. What we do is break away the bottom 4-5 leaves, which will not grow to be at least 16", and so the plant won't waste anymore energy on them. Do you normally do that sort of thing--get rid of the bottom-most leaves?

I guess I'm one of the few members that don't save the mud lugs. I get rid of them as soon as the real leaves are large enough to help shade the ground for weed control and water retention in the ground. I call it bottom topping. I saved them last year (my first year) to gain curing experience and find out if they were worth the trouble. Some of them are trimmed during the seedling stage and become half leaves after growing and most are slug and bug eaten and trampled on while working the patch. They make very thin, fairly tasteless leaf with very little nicotine for smoking. In my humble opinion, blending them with good leaves only degrades the good leaves. (I smoke mainly cigarettes) It is pretty neat to stuff a pipe with the ones that have cured on the plant and have a smoke in the patch. I recommend saving them your first year and make a decision based on your own perceptions. Most folk's tastes are different.

 

[cigarchris]

I'd save mine if they weren't so badly bug/slug eaten most of the time. On occasion I find a decent one that yellows nicely on the stalk, they always seem to cure quite easily, but like Knuck mentioned, they never seem to be worth the time or butane.

 

[deluxestogie]

I call it bottom topping.

It's actually referred to as "priming" in some of the older literature.

Bob