Deluxestogie Grow Log 2026

[Kushtaka]

Most veggie seeds remain viable for 2 to 5 years.

Seed Viability & Storage Guide | Johnny's Selected Seeds

How long can seeds last in storage? One to several years for most common crops, but there are some caveats. Follow these simple tips and charts for successful seed-saving for the future.

www.johnnyseeds.com

Tobacco seed, if stored and kept dry, can last as long as 40 years. As for my own experience, this is my 17th year growing tobacco. 2011 was the first season that I bagged and saved seed. I have stored it in sealed dry boxes (used for water sports) along with a pack of desiccant in each box. The boxes are stored in a little refrigerator at just above freezing.

So...15 years is my max so far. USDA ARS-GRIN refreshes their tobacco seed accessions at 10 year intervals.

Bob

Great information. Do you grow fresh seed every year?

All of my veggies are from annually saved seed. I am working on local adaptation. I generally feed seed older than 2 years to my chickens. Not really an option with seeds like tobacco. I planned on discarding old tobacco seeds too. Good to know if I hit on a good variety I can keep using seeds from the same generation to slow genetic drift.

 

[deluxestogie]

Do you grow fresh seed every year?

When I decide to grow a variety that I have not grown for years, then I refresh the seed for that variety.

Bob

 

[deluxestogie]

This morning, after high humidity overnight, Lazy Bob finally went out to the shed to strip the leaf from the 2025 stalk-harvested (and stalk-cured) crop of Havana 322. I had grown 8 in the garden, and 1 in my porch corner bed.

Those in the garden showed tattering on the lower leaves, but intact leaf from about mid-stalk upward. The porch corner Havana 322 was entirely intact, larges leaves. The total for 9 plants of Havana 322 yielded ~1½ pounds of cured leaf, or about 2.7 ounces of cured leaf per plant.

Bob

 

[MadFarmer]

The total for 9 plants of Havana 322 yielded ~1½ pounds of cured leaf, or about 2.7 ounces of cured leaf per plant.

Bob

What do you use to weigh your dried leaf?

 

[deluxestogie]

I usually can fit all the stripped leaf from 8 to 10 plants into a large plastic bag. Then, if I care what it weighs, I place it onto an old Pelouze shipping scale, which is mechanical, and can weigh up to 50 pounds. So its dial is accurate to about 1/8 pound.

Bob

 

[deluxestogie]

Bob

 

[deluxestogie]

Late yesterday afternoon, I glanced out to my front porch, and noticed that my Decaffeinated Long Red had toppled over. I was unaware of gusty wind. I stood it back up, and added water. A half-hour later, I noticed it toppled over again. I re-stood it. Then, maybe 10 minutes later, as I looked out my front door, I saw a small flock of finches beginning to accumulate on my porch railing, beside the Long Red plant.

At the time, the plant still boasted an 18-inch blossom stalk, with most of the blossoms exhausted. Finches seem to enjoy crowding onto a single cluster of thin, leafless tree branches, then collectively flying away together, in the same direction. My guess is that they discovered that nearly bare tobacco bud stalk to be inviting, gathered together on it, then all flew away together. The extra 18 inches of leverage at the top of a plant in a relatively small diameter pot was enough to tip it over. What fun!

So I topped it. Problem solved.

Bob

 

[deluxestogie]

Three days ago, a wind storm blew over several of the Izmir-Ozbas plants in the garden bed. I re-stood those. This morning, a gust in the opposite direction snapped off one of the re-stood stalks at the base.

This is not as mature as I would like for sun-curing the stalk, but I hung it on line to see what I could salvage.

Bob

 

[deluxestogie]

The Izmir-Ozbas blow-down has been sun-curing well.

Bob

 

[deluxestogie]

All of the upper leaf of my Izmir-Ozbas in the garden bed showed clear signs of maturation. With a predicted 6 day stretch of warm, dry weather ahead, today was the day to cut the stalks and hang them for sun-curing. One of the stalks had repeatedly leaned down to the grass, and was riddled with tiny bug holes throughout all the leaves, so I didn't bother to hang it.

Oriental stalks are usually quite thin, and easy to cut with my hand pruner. I had forgotten that this particular variety produces thicker, woodier stalks. So cutting some of them was challenging. I will leave the bagged plant standing until the seed pods begin to turn brown, then bring the bagged head indoors, to my back porch, and hang the stalk at that time outdoors.

Fifteen years ago, my old clothes line was in direct sunlight all day. Now, it gets direct sun in the morning, partial shade for about 3 hours in the afternoon, then direct sunlight for the remainder of the day.

Years ago, I purchased a 500-foot spool of aluminum electric fence wire for use with stringing primed leaves. I still have more than a third of that spool of wire. For Orientals, I use it for hanging the stalks. The wire is passed through a hole punched into the stalks. Each plant gets an identity tag of Tyvek (cut from an old Tyvek mail envelope).

Hopefully these will be well on their way to sun-cured before I have to temporarily move them to the shed when rain threatens.

As the leaves cure, and their central vein is dried, I will pluck them from the hanging stalks, and toss them into a bushel basket inside my shed.

Bob

 

[deluxestogie]

As the old saying goes:
A Hawk Moth in the hand is worth two in the tobacco.

Bob