Nova Scotia Zone 6B: @bnichols

[bnichols]

I grew 12 tobacco plants last year to familiarize myself with the plant and the process. This year as promised in my Introduce Yourself thread this blog intends to document an attempt to grow tobacco, harvest the leaves and eventually produce something that be (enjoyably) smoked.

The strain is Canadian Virginia (Elena's Seeds)

Yesterday (March 29, 2022) finished transplanting 30 "keepers" from 8 oz. Styrofoam cups to 4.5" pots that had been selected from some hundreds of seedlings grown from seed harvested from last year's experiment (dozen plants grown from seed and allowed to flower, leaves wound up as insecticidal tea).

The harvested seeds were started by sprinkling over sterilized Miracle Grow potting soil (N-P-K: 0.21-0.11-0.16) in a 72 cell tray under grow lights and on a heat pad on January 4, 2022. Most (hundreds) had sprouted within 7 days. [Note on sterilization: the soil was pre-treated for fungus gnats that seem to be an issue with this brand by saturating with boiling water and letting cool].

The photo below shows them** resting in front of a window in my house since it's too soon to transplant into the garden (at least another month).



**The spindly plant in the foreground is a long suffering cherimoya "tree".

A few of the plants have yellowish bottom leaves. Treated these with diluted water soluble Miracle Grow 15-30-15 fertilizer and a side dressing of 1/4 tsp blood meal (12-0-0) although in hindsight the latter may be a waste of time. As far as I know the nitrogen this particular brand of blood meal is made available only after pre-digestion by soil organisms, and having been saturated with boiling water the soil is likely still pretty much sterile.

Plan to transplant to the garden in a month or so when nighttime temperatures no longer fall below 10 degrees C (50 F).

 

[GreenDragon]

Your seedlings look pretty healthy from what I can see in the picture. If you are a month away from transplanting outside, you may want to trim the leaves to give them room and encourage root development. I would not stress over a few yellow leaves, it's pretty common at this stage in my experience. Tobacco is a vigorous weed; you have to be pretty mean to hurt it. Have fun!

 

[billy]

hope it goes well, just suprised how early you started.
for timeline example, last year i started seeds april 24. which is equivalent growing zone to you starting seeds 2 weeks ago
1 month in, transplanted at 4 weeks

2 months

3 months

4 months

 

[deluxestogie]

Growing "zone" is mostly based on how low the temperature drops during the winter of an average year. Date of last frost is a better basis for deciding when to germinate seed. I recommend starting seed 8 weeks prior to last frost date, and setting them into the ground as soon thereafter as the weather permits.

Lookup your first and last freeze/frost dates by zip code

Welcome to the famous Dave's Garden website. Join our friendly community that shares tips and ideas for gardens, along with seeds and plants.

davesgarden.com

Bob

 

[billy]

i was just trying to point out that tobacco can go from golf ball size to 2 foot wide in just 4 weeks time if it has all the light dirt and nutrients it wants.
so its kinda trial and error. my 2 month old plant pic would be like a 5 gallon transplant, but just 2.5 weeks before that i could of had them in 3 inch pots. or i could of had it in a 3 inch at 10 weeks but it would be much smaller. so i think timing matters alot. and it can vary alot from how much light they get, container size, nutrients ect. but its capable of doubling in width every week if its happy. and indoor growing time and work can be shortened

 

[deluxestogie]

You are quite correct. The containers you utilize for starting tobacco is a trade-off between a practical sized soil container for larger scale crop, vs. more labor and potting soil and re-potting (and cost per plant) for small-scale crops. My seedlings remain in 48-cell 1020 inserts until they go out to the ground. They don't get re-potted. A 48-cell tray actually provides more growing space than the usual 72-cell trays of commercial tobacco growers, who go from 72-cell float trays directly to the field.

Bob

 

[Homegrowngoodnes]

Has anyone ever used similarly sized soil blocks? Im afraid 1020 trays n inserts arent going to happen this year but i could build a soil blocker similarly sized...probably be a bit deeper. I'm thinking 1.875" square by 2.5" deep.

 

[Tobaccofieldsforever]

You are quite correct. The containers you utilize for starting tobacco is a trade-off between a practical sized soil container for larger scale crop, vs. more labor and potting soil and re-potting (and cost per plant) for small-scale crops. My seedlings remain in 48-cell 1020 inserts until they go out to the ground. They don't get re-potted. A 48-cell tray actually provides more growing space than the usual 72-cell trays of commercial tobacco growers, who go from 72-cell float trays directly to the field.

Bob

This is also how I do things. Question though. I read you giving advice on how to transplant seedlings using forceps. What are you transplanting if you never switch out of the trays? Seedlings to other tray cells in the case you want to grow more plants of that variety than cells you originally Seeded? I’m asking because I sometimes do that but am starting to lean more towards the idea of just seeding the number of plants I want from the start and thinning rather than transferring as I am experiencing low survival rate of transferred seedlings. Sorry if this is a jumble of thoughts and hard to understand.

 

[Knucklehead]

Has anyone ever used similarly sized soil blocks? Im afraid 1020 trays n inserts arent going to happen this year but i could build a soil blocker similarly sized...probably be a bit deeper. I'm thinking 1.875" square by 2.5" deep.

This member made his own soil blocks:
I think he switched to 1020 trays. I just scanned through to make sure that was right grow blog.

Dubhelix 2020 grow

This year I’m growing a patch of Little Dutch for cigar filler. I’ve got seeds on the way from NWT. Since I gave last years garden spot to the wife for veggies, I’m reclaiming some swampy land for the tobacco patch. Last years patch on the left, this years patch on the right. Using my trusty...

fairtradetobacco.com

 

[bnichols]

hope it goes well, just suprised how early you started.

Yeah....the early start was somewhat accidental, meant just to get an idea of germination rate in order to plan for actual planting. Did not expect them all to grow. As others have said--like a weed. Decided to go for it.

Has anyone ever used similarly sized soil blocks? Im afraid 1020 trays n inserts arent going to happen this year but i could build a soil blocker similarly sized...probably be a bit deeper. I'm thinking 1.875" square by 2.5" deep.

This is the first I've heard of soil blocks--had to look it up--so can't help but thanks, very interesting. Turns out my go-to company for hard (for me) to find equipment sells soil blockers (Johnny's Selected Seeds), site contains some information about the process.

 

[Homegrowngoodnes]

I'm poor so i am having to make due with what i have for the moment. My thought is to build my own forms and slightly pack the soil myself. Then i could cover said device and turn it upside down n give it a few taps to release the blocks and hopefully it will work! I am working on construction currently. I will post an update and/or pictures on my grow log.