Indoor grow tent! Swedish snus variety Tofta!

[loui loui]

I think I managed to stabilise the curing tent with the following settings. I upload it for reference.

Light at 42500 LUX at seed level.


Temperature at 24-25 °C (75-77°F)

Humidity at 64-69%RH


Humidifier at low level, yellow light.


With these settings the extraction fan is running almost all the time, sometimes it may stop for a minute if the humidity fall to 64%.
The extraction fan replace 140% of the tent volume every minute with fresh air.

It looks like this.

 

[loui loui]

Soon there will be seeds.

And life begins!

 

[loui loui]

The system is very neat. When I opened the tent the humidity did fall below 65% and both the extraction fan and the circulation fan stopped and it became silent, providing a pleasant moment for some gardening.

While I was working in the tent the humidity did fall to 39.5%
When I was finished gardening I closed the zipper and the humidity did rise again.
It took 6 minutes for fans to automatically start when the humidity was back at 66%

The temperature did rise only one degree celcius or about two degrees fahrenheit, it topped at 25.1°C (77°F).

 

[loui loui]

I decided to pollinate a flower manually, take it with a pinch of salt cause it is first time I do it.
First I removed the flower, ofcourse with a leatherman supertool, the best tool!


Inside the flower there are many stamen but just one pistil. It is easy to spot the difference.
This plant is called P1 (Parent 1)

Remove the stamens and keep the pistil.

Grab some pollen from another stamen and put it on the pistil. The other plant is called P2 (Parent 2).

If done right the pistil will die and there will come a fruit instead, the seeds in the fruit is yours to name, pick a funny name or a serious name or give it the boring name P1×P2.
The first generation from a cross is called F1, I don't remember what the F stand for but the first generation is called F1, the second generation is called F2, the third F3 and so on.

F1 generation can be very good plants, they can express hybrid vigour if you are lucky!

I plan to make a F1 hybrid with tofta and another variety but which variety is secret cause it is more fun that way!

It is number two in this picture that you should remove while they are young so they can't make pollen.

Disclaimer, I did not cross any plants, I used stamen and pistil from the same plant but different flowers, I just made it cause I wanted to practice!

 

[Knucklehead]

Some further info here:

How to Intentionally Cross Tobacco Varieties

Creating an intentional cross is technically easy, though it is tedious. Here, I explain the basic procedure. Unbagged tobacco blossoms will randomly cross with whatever varieties of N. tabacum happen to be growing within a half-mile. What you end up with, even from a single mature seed...

fairtradetobacco.com

 

[loui loui]

Some further info here:

How to Intentionally Cross Tobacco Varieties

Creating an intentional cross is technically easy, though it is tedious. Here, I explain the basic procedure. Unbagged tobacco blossoms will randomly cross with whatever varieties of N. tabacum happen to be growing within a half-mile. What you end up with, even from a single mature seed...

fairtradetobacco.com

It is a nice introduction to DIY-crosses for us casual pollen chuckers.

I am so happy that fair trade tobacco took me in and let me do a grow blog here.
I will try my best to return the favour.

I will soon get my fathers savings, he passed away in covid-19. I miss him so much and want to spend the money on my hobbies that is growing, being outdoors and taking photographs.
It is such a pleasure to grow legal tobacco, it was always a pain to not be allowed to talk about my hobbies, I just love to grow stuff and to grow tobacco is so much more fun than to grow illegal plants..
I know we are not allowed to talk about illegal plants but I consider it is obvious where my indoor grow skills come from, we all have our backpacks and mine is that I like to grow medicinal plants.
I consider tobacco a medicinal plant that is more fun to grow cause I like beautiful flowers and tobacco has so beautiful flowers. My other passion is to grow flowers, violets is my favourite.

In my language we call them pensé and it is from french meaning thought, violets is a symbol of free thinking.
They are very hardy, they already sell them in the store cause they can survive the frost. They are very cool plants.
Morning Glory is another beautiful flower, also a medicinal plants from America.

I will try to return the favour of letting me in to fair trade tobacco forum by documenting my indoor garden and curing mistakes, I am thinking about to buy a temperature and humidity tracker to publish graphs of how neat the grow tent is working as a curing chamber, even with the cheapest possible humidifier and extraction fan.
I want to do it so others can feel confident to try a similar setup.

At first I wanted to experiment with smart devices, smart humidifier, smart hygrostat and smart plugs but I have no experience with smart devices except smart phones but I think this is the future, to control the curing chamber with smart devices would have been a fun experiment but the market for smart devices is a mess or I am too dumb to understand what devices work together.

Ok rant over and out, time to grow!

 

[deluxestogie]

The only smart device you need to grow tobacco is your brain. Growing tobacco is tedious, grubby and time-consuming, but also relatively simple and fun.

Bob

 

[loui loui]

Here we go, next trial.

Lights on full strength.
66'000 LUX at seed level.

Humidity dome removed.

Flowers tucked away, they recieved more than 100'000 LUX before, they don't need that.

Humidifier at medium setting, green light.

After one hour passed, the temperature was 26.3°C (80°F)

69.8%RH


That gives me a Vapour Pressure Deficit of about 0.5 kPa if my VPD chart is correct, it is low. It should be suitable for propagation.

The VPD is a value useful for indoor growing and growing in greenhouses, it is a combination of temperature and humidity.
0.5 kPa means that plants don't need to drink a lot of water and don't loose a lot of water by evaporation, it is good for plants.

I want to try a VPD for propagation because logically curing and propagation takes place at the same time, after harvest.

I will now leave the grow tent at this setting for some days, the fans move constantly if I don't open the tent. I hope it is good for curing.

For more information about VPD, google VPD and VPD chart or VPD tomato for some scientific literature.

I gave the plants some tomato nutrients, I think they need some extra nutrients to produce healthy seeds.

 

[Snue]

won't you cook your seeds at 100% light strength?

 

[loui loui]

won't you cook your seeds at 100% light strength?

Good question, I hope not. The light is far above.
I want the light to shine on the plant that produce seeds, I want it to grow healthy seeds.
But you are right, seeds don't need a lot of light.

 

[loui loui]

The only smart device you need to grow tobacco is your brain. Growing tobacco is tedious, grubby and time-consuming, but also relatively simple and fun.

Bob

I bet you know, I saw your books at Tilbudet. You know a lot about tobacco, thanks for helping me out, I am just a casual pollen chucker. Very good to release it under creative commons, respect!

 

[loui loui]

I used a funny VPD chart.
No wonder I thought the VPD was a bit low.
No matter what, this is my correct VPD.



The VPD calculator can be found here:

VPD Calculator — Dr. Greenhouse, Inc.

www.doctorgreenhouse.com

The VPD chart for tomatos is this according to the website, it doesn't matter a lot cause VPD is just a number but it is an interesting topic for growers.



The higher humidity the better for seedlings and I have seedlings on the way so I want high humidity. I also want a high light regime for the fruiting plant so the seedlings and the flowers must live together.
I hope 70%RH and 79°F is a good compromise.
The green is for fruiting plants and the yellow is for smaller plants. Seeds may want a VPD even more to the left side of the chart.

 

[loui loui]

Seedlings look healthy!

Fruits looking healthy!

Leaves looking nice!

 

[loui loui]

I got a new use for the tent, why not use the grow tent for storing my pipe tobacco?
No more dry tobacco?
Temperature: 27.5°C (81.5°F)
Humidity: 68% RH
VPD: 1.17 kPa
Greve Hamiltons Blandning in the tent!

 

[deluxestogie]

why not use the grow tent for storing my pipe tobacco?

I would fear that hygroscopic pipe tobacco will eventually mold in those conditions.

Bob

 

[loui loui]

I would fear that hygroscopic pipe tobacco will eventually mold in those conditions.

Bob

I hear you but according to my research it is supposed to be fine.

Mold need 80% relative humidity and water according to a website about mold and other house pests. The website say that mold mostly grow when water condensates, like when hot air meet cold surfaces.

My own experience from growing is that mold grow when air is stagnant or outdoor when plants are wet for a long time.
With good air circulation I just don't experience mold. I have good air circulation in the tent.
The extraction fan replace 1.4 times the air volume in the tent every minute and the air is circulating a lot inside the tent. I don't think mold will grow in such a well ventilated space.
My main concern of mold is if air get stagnant and saturated with water, for example in between leaves that cure.

According to this website tobacco is produced and stored at 60-70% humidity:

"Primary Production
Tobacco leaves in the primary production areas will have a moisture content of 13-16% by weight that must be maintained. An ambient relative humidity of 60-68% RH is needed to maintain equilibrium between the air and the moisture in the tobacco.

If the air's humidity level is lower than 60% RH the tobacco leaves will start losing moisture, which will result in a weight loss and quality.

Cut Tobacco Storage
After the primary production processes, tobacco is normally bulked into large bins or silos. Smaller tobacco plants typically will use boxes in cut tobacco stores.

These areas must be maintained at 60-70%RH and 21-24°C in order to maintain product weight and quality.

Secondary Production
Maintaining humidity levels around 60-70% RH is critical around the maker, catcher band and any other machine storage systems.
Cigarettes can be stored in a buffer for several hours or over a weekend and will lose moisture if the relative humidity is not maintained."

Humidification for Tobacco | Condair

Tobacco producers manufacture, and package, their products in humidity levels up to 70% RH, to meet the demands of their customers. Learn more:

www.condair.com

 

[loui loui]

1. Passive air intake
2. Humidifier
3. Circulation fan
4. Passive air intake
5. Air outtake 140% the tent volume per minute

Blue arrows = estimated airflow

The recommended ventilation of indoor grow tents are 100% the tent volume per minute.

 

[loui loui]

The curing/grow tent have been going super steady for 24h at:

Temperature: 27.5°C (81.5°F)
Humidity: 68%RH
Ventilation: 140% of the tent volume per minute
Humidifier: medium setting
VPD: 1.17 kPa
Light: max intensity

I have no use for a hygrostat or a thermostat with these settings, everything is running like a clock without interruption.

If I would make a new grow tent of same size I would keep everything like it is but instead of buying a hygrostat and thermostat I would have bought a Xiaomi smart humidifier with integrated hygrostat and a Xiaomi hygrometer/thermometer. They can communicate with eachother wirelessly.
The cost is the same and I have had great success with a Xiaomi humidifier before they became smart.
Such a change would automatically keep the humidity at set level no matter the size of the plants. The current setup may be more difficult to control with the tent filled with transpiring leaves.
However the most important for me is that the ultrasonic humidifier is of top fill type and it is.

At the moment I can conclude that I am lucky, the light, tent, humidifier and ventilation work very well together when the light is at maximum setting and everything is cranked up to where I want it. I like this setting.

Also, the pipe tobacco smokes nice!

 

[deluxestogie]

light is at maximum setting

Does that mean that your Tofta is being "sun-cured"?

Bob

 

[loui loui]

Does that mean that your Tofta is being "sun-cured"?

Bob

Good question!

It is cured in light but it is not very bright light at the top of the tent. I moved the smartphone around between the leaves and got an average of around 500 Lux.

500 Lux is less light than a cloudy day, it is about the same amount of light as indoor or during sunset.

Also I don't have any UV-light in the tent and only two tiny infra-red diodes, it's probably just a selling point cause I doubt two tiny diodes makes a difference.
The diodes are mostly samsung lm301b diodes, (a mix of 3000 Kelvin and 5000 Kelvin diodes) 5-10% of the diodes are red to promote flowering and fruiting.

Sunlight provides far more infra-red heat, raising the temperature of the leaves by several degrees above room temperature. The samsung diodes is a very gentle light for both plants and humans.

Light cured yes but not really comparable to warm daylight.

I think you are right that this is a new approach to curing, for me it just came natural to hang it in the top of the tent, I did not think about it as something new, I just had to hang the leaves somewhere and the rest is ad-hoc!

Environment	Typical Lux
Hospital Theatre	1,000
Supermarket, Sports Hall	750
Factory, Workshop	750
Office, Show Rooms, Laboratories, Kitchens	500
Warehouse Loading Bays	300 to 400
School Classroom, University Lecture Hall	250
Lobbies, Public Corridors, Stairwells	200
Warehouse Aisles	100 to 200
Homes, Theatres	150
Family Living Room	50

Natural Light Condition	Typical Lux
Direct Sunlight	32,000 to 100,000
Ambient Daylight	10,000 to 25,000
Overcast Daylight	1000
Sunset & Sunrise	400