Pine Morton’s First Grow - 2025

[Pine Morton]

Whenever my transplants look like that, I give them a big drink of a soluble (therefore instantly available) of triple-20 fertilizer at full strength, along with half a teaspoon of Epsom salt per gallon. Usually perks them up and gets them green, again.

I’ll give that a shot. Just need to get my hands on the fertilizer.

Found this little guy on one of my KY5 plants too. Justice was carried out swiftly.

 

[Pine Morton]

Following johnny108’s advice, I fertilized my plants on 7/6. Each pot received 1 gallon of water with 1 tablespoon of 20-20-20 fertilizer and half a teaspoon of epsom salt. Three days later on 7/9, and they’re definitely looking much better.

Virginia Gold:



KY5:
(Wow!)



I went ahead and repotted the two best plants that were still in the smaller pots into my last two big pots. They got the same solution of fertilizer and epsom salt:

 

[Pine Morton]

It’s been a while, but the plants are doing better than ever. A few small worms here and there, but luckily the damage has been negligible.



The KY5’s are starting to get their buds too:



I think I might be closing in on a harvest, and my curing chamber isn’t even built yet…

 

[Pine Morton]

I’ve noticed that the KY5 has gotten some grey spots on the leaves… hopefully this isn’t an issue. I know there are some mushrooms growing out of the potting mix on one of them.




The KY5 is also ready to bloom. I’ve heard that I need a special kind of bag, but I thought I might just use a ziploc to bag one of them.

 

[deluxestogie]

I’ve heard that I need a special kind of bag, but I thought I might just use a ziploc to bag one of them.

The blossom head will likely die inside a Ziploc. You can pick up a paint strainer bag (designed for a 5 gallon bucket) at a hardware store.

Bob

https://www.lowes.com/pd/Trimaco-2-Pack-Plastic-Bucket-Paint-Strainer/1008387

You tie it closed around the stalk beneath the crowfoot.

 

[Pine Morton]

Got the paint bag. It was tricker to get it on than I expected… a few buds fell off. We’ll see if I get any usable seeds.

I went ahead and topped the other KY5 too. The Virginia Golds don’t have any buds yet.

The small plants I left in their tiny pots have what I think might be sooty mold. The small plants have been attracting whiteflies like crazy, but I didn’t think anything of it… are these leaves trash now?



I don’t want it to spread to my main plants. I will toss them if necessary.

The grayish spots on the bigger plants have spread to one of my Virginia Golds too. Starting to get worried that I’ll lose my leaves here at the end.



It has been very rainy in my area these past few weeks. I’m hoping this is just damage from the leaves staying wet.

 

[deluxestogie]

weather fleck

Bob

 

[Pine Morton]

Started the harvest on my KY5. The first pic was the first hand I put together a couple of days ago now. The second pic is the progress on the first hand plus the new hand that I just picked today.

I still haven’t harvested any of the Virginia Gold yet.

I’m hoping I didn’t harvest too soon. The leaves on the KY5 were developing even larger brown patches though, so I figured I’d better try to salvage what I could before it got too far gone. No idea what this is or if it will impact the tobacco, but it came on very quickly over the course of a week or so.







This was the worst one. I’ve picked most of these lower leaves now, but this plant hadn’t even flowered yet.

 

[wruk53]

No offence intended, but I wouldn't tie freshly cut leaves into hands. It's very likely to mold and rot where it's all bunched tightly together. Normally, tobacco is tied into hands after it's been color cured, dried and then brought back into case.

 

[Pine Morton]

No offence intended, but I wouldn't tie freshly cut leaves into hands. It's very likely to mold and rot where it's all bunched tightly together. Normally, tobacco is tied into hands after it's been color cured, dried and then brought back into case.

None taken, that makes sense. I don’t want to lose any leaf… I went ahead and strung them up individually. I also picked the rest of the KY5 to prevent any more brown patches from forming. I’m thinking I should have done this a week ago.

I did leave the top two leaves on the plant that I let flower. They’re small, but TBH I care more about salvaging my leaf than I do getting seeds, so if the plant dies before the seeds come in then oh well.

As for my Virginia Gold, I still haven’t picked any leaves. They’re only just now starting to form buds, and the brown patches aren’t a problem on these… yet.


(The KY5 harvest)

 

[Pine Morton]

Another update… this time it’s sad news.

I was attempting to sun cure my Virginia Gold in a plastic tote, but lost track of the days and lost most of the harvest to mold.



Most of the leaves look like this. Not sure if it’s worth it/advisable to cut out the mold to salvage the rest.



Lost about 28 leaves. The majority of the Virginia Gold.



This is what remains that isn’t molded. A few color cured leaves and some still yellowing.

At least my burley did well enough. I have almost 50 leaves of the KY 5 color cured and dried. I’ve put off placing them in a box to age because I’ve been very busy with the birth of my first daughter… probably why I lost track of the Virginia Gold.

 

[Alpine]

Congratulations for your first daughter!
For the tobacco, there’s always next year.

pier

 

[StoneCarver]

I know there are some mushrooms growing out of the potting mix on one of them.

Generally, its said mushrooms in a plant pot is an indicator of good soil in the pot. Many plants develop mycorrhizal relationships with fungi in the soil.

 

[green_bean]

Agree w/ you about the mushrooms. Actually, when I see fungi growing in our woods, yard, on the wood pile, etc., I gather them up and bust them up, and put them in my compost pile. Have read where some folks go so far as to mix them in a blender with water and then pour all that on the compost. I haven't found the need to do the blender thing. However, if I see a known poisonous mushroom, like an amanita for example, I leave that kind where it sits.

 

[johnny108]

Agree w/ you about the mushrooms. Actually, when I see fungi growing in our woods, yard, on the wood pile, etc., I gather them up and bust them up, and put them in my compost pile. Have read where some folks go so far as to mix them in a blender with water and then pour all that on the compost. I haven't found the need to do the blender thing. However, if I see a known poisonous mushroom, like an amanita for example, I leave that kind where it sits.

Paul Stamets outlined a method he called “spore mass inoculation”.
It consists of taking a 5 gallon bucket of water, adding 1-2 grams of salt (to inhibit bacteria), and 50ml of molasses to it, and adding a mature mushroom to it, leaving it to soak for 4 hours. Then allow the spores to germinate in the “broth” for 24-48 hours at a temperature of 50-80F (10-27C), while you prep a wood chip pile, etc. to be inoculated with the spore slurry.
This will result in a pretty healthy mycelium growth, but you will have to tailor the mushroom bed to the specific variety in order to guarantee mushrooms to harvest.
I’ve been looking into it as a way of dealing with the massive amount of branches and sticks I have to deal with in my garden, as hauling them away is a logistical nightmare.

Source: Growing Gourmet and Medicinal Mushrooms, by Paul Stamets.
Page 24 of the book/pg40 of this pdf file:

https://library.uniteddiversity.coop/Permaculture/Growing_Gourmet_and_Medicinal_Mushrooms.pdf

 

[StoneCarver]

I’ve been looking into it as a way of dealing with the massive amount of branches and sticks I have to deal with in my garden, as hauling them away is a logistical nightmare.

You'd be amazed at how quickly stuff can break down without any sort of inoculation. If you could rent/borrow a chipper shredder to reduce stuff into smaller particle sizes, it makes the process all that much faster. You can also till the chipper shredded stuff into the soil in the fall.

I don't mean to jack Pine Morton's thread, but I will admit I have a copy of Paul's book. Thanks for reminding me about the spore slurry. Boletes grow in the mulch beds at work and I've been trying to transplant them to my mulch beds at home for several years now with no luck. But I haven't tried the spore slurry method. I had forgotten about that. Boletes are good eating.

 

[GreenDragon]

@Pine Morton Congratulations on your first born! You are doing great for a first year grow. It's a steep learning curve and the first two years growing is all about figuring out what works for you and your location. Each year it gets easier and the harvests get bigger and better quality. Enjoy the time with the family - time flies by so fast the next thing you know they're moving out, going to college, and getting married!

 

[Pine Morton]

Thanks y’all. All this time I’ve been busy with the new baby, my leaves have just been patiently waiting, hanging dry on their string the garage.

Today I finally brought them back into case. Strung them up in the bathroom and ran a hot shower. I was pleasantly surprised to enter the bathroom and find they were actually smelling nice, like tobacco. I guess they must have aged a bit on the string, even if they were mostly dry.

Here is my Kentucky 5 burly, the only surviving leaf of my 2025 grow:



49 leaves total. Took out the stems and laid them out to stuff in a ziploc bag for now.




I was surprised at how quickly these leaves dropped their case. I’m almost worried the leaves will be crushed just from being in this bag after a day or two. At any rate, I did squeeze a bit of air out of the bag. Now it’s resting in the dark of our cabinet drawer.

49 leaves, weighing 74 grams after stem removal, not counting the bag. That’s about 2.6 ounces.

I’m guessing I’ll want to burp this bag occasionally? Probably rehydrate a bit too? If I want it to age, that is.