Professor Pangloss' grow blog

[ProfessorPangloss]

Friends, Romans, countrymen: here's my modest grow plan for this year. We're in a new house (which I am renovating) with a blank slate yard, and I don't own a pickup or rototiller, so I do everything the hard way. I'm growing Perique (~10) and Catterton (~20) to experiment with pipe tobaccos I like. I've enjoyed the Perique and cavendish threads and am interested in trying my own. Anyway, here are my babies: started in a random cardboard container I found at work, and then painstakingly transplanted (with toothpick and butter knife) to a 36-ct Jiffy tray with Jiffy-7 peat pucks. We'll see how resilient the little guys are, because I grasped a few by the itty leaves and sort of smoothed them into the pellets with the flat of the knife. Then I spritzed them with water to set the roots to the soil. I'll leave the lid off and let them get optimally dry. And do course I'll keep my starters so I can reinforce if needed.

That's all for now. At some point, if anyone cares, I'll throw up a few before-after pics of my baby barn (a 10x12' shed painted black like other barns here in the burley belt).

 

[ProfessorPangloss]

Derp. Can't do more than one photo per post, I guess.

 

[Knucklehead]

Good luck with your season. Yeah, of course we want pictures of your barn. Without photo documentation we tend to disbelieve everything. No photos, it didn't happen.

 

[POGreen]

Good luck with your grow Professor !

 

[jolly]

Good luck!

 

[ProfessorPangloss]

I got done with my flooring project at a decent hour, so I spent some time digging over the garden with junior. I turn the sod over, fork some horse manure over it, cover w/ corrugated cardboard (tape removed) and then municipal wood chips. It suppresses the weeds really well and prevents splash back on the leaves, but it's only for stupid people who don't have a tiller (yrs truly). Oh well.

 

[bonehead]

it looks like nice dirt after you turned it over. good luck on your new adventure.

 

[ProfessorPangloss]

The dirt is ridiculously good - loamy and organic. A historical owner (the house is 104 years old) raised pigs back there for who knows how long. Can't wait to see what kind of garden turns out. Also, my transplanted seedlings seem to be okay, so things proceed apace.

 

[ProfessorPangloss]

I spent all day yesterday with a borrowed rototiller and my lawnmower. All I was able to do was grind up the sod, but I do a lazy man's garden involving cardboard and wood chips (pictured elsewhere and in the back of the yard). We've had an absurd amount of rain so far this season - in fact it is raining again today and probably tomorrow - so it's just as well that I'm behind in my prep. Other gardeners have been washed out for jumping the gun.

Of this patch, lest ye think me a baller or shot caller, only the area next to the shed is for tobacco. I have space for about 10 Perique plants there, which is plenty to experiment with. Let's see, what else? The pile of concrete/pavement scraps came out of the garden. Please don't judge my piss-poor job on the tiller. It was kind of a slog.

Also, I'm adding a picture of my seedlings. They've been in since the beginning of this grow blog. Does anyone have any suggestions to get them to grow faster? I suspect they are not getting enough sunlight, but I can't leave them out most of the time. The pellets were Jiffy-7 or whatever with the fertilizer.

 

[deluxestogie]

The seedlings seem about the right size for 2 weeks out of the seed. Any pellets with multiple plants may do better if thinned to 1 plant.

Bob

 

[Knucklehead]

Git 'er done, Professore! I think there is a thread on here somewhere showing the method you are using with the cardboard and wood chips, built up on top of the ground. Boboro uses newspaper with old and rotten leaves to mulch his plants and that does a great job of weed suppression. You have the added benefit of producing next years compost in the patch and just tilling it under. Will be watching with interest. You'll really have to watch out for slugs in the wood chips. They like very young tobacco plants but seem to lay off them as some nicotine is produced later. I use something similar to Sluggo around the perimeter of the patch and that seems to do a pretty good number on the slugs.

 

[Brown Thumb]

Good Luck,
You are off to a really good Start.
BT

 

[ProfessorPangloss]

Git 'er done, Professore! I think there is a thread on here somewhere showing the method you are using with the cardboard and wood chips, built up on top of the ground. Boboro uses newspaper with old and rotten leaves to mulch his plants and that does a great job of weed suppression. You have the added benefit of producing next years compost in the patch and just tilling it under. Will be watching with interest. You'll really have to watch out for slugs in the wood chips. They like very young tobacco plants but seem to lay off them as some nicotine is produced later. I use something similar to Sluggo around the perimeter of the patch and that seems to do a pretty good number on the slugs.

Thanks for the tip on the slugs. I'll keep an eye peeled. The Catterton plants are going in a driveway-side strip down the side of my house - a western exposure with good soil and about 3.5' of space - perfect for a soldier-row of plants. However, it's along my 105 year-old masonry foundation and wet crawl space, which has some slugs in it. One tip I've heard before is to put out an aluminum pie pan filled with beer. The yeast-y smell attracts the slugs, and they come and drown like little frat boys. It's a good thing that I drink cheap can beer during the summer gardening days.

 

[deluxestogie]

I have one bed beside a brick foundation. There are always slugs gunning for my tobacco transplants there. Sluggo (iron phosphate) takes about 1 week to kill the slugs, so I hose down the bed in the evening, to wet the soil, then sprinkle the bed with Sluggo. about a week prior to transplanting.

Bob

 

[CT Tobaccoman]

The seedlings seem about the right size for 2 weeks out of the seed. Any pellets with multiple plants may do better if thinned to 1 plant.

Bob

I hate waiting for them to grow--seems to take so long. I have some seedlings with such tall stems, like an inch high with only the first 2 leaves--maybe not enough light. I should post a pic on my own log. I had a kid roto-till my patch. Saved me so much work, "plowing" with a shovel is no fun.

Good luck PP

 

[DGBAMA]

I hate waiting for them to grow--seems to take so long. I have some seedlings with such tall stems, like an inch high with only the first 2 leaves--maybe not enough light. I should post a pic on my own log. I had a kid roto-till my patch. Saved me so much work, "plowing" with a shovel is no fun.

Good luck PP

CT, a lot of mine do that. Using somethin small like a tooth pick or coffee straw, I gently push the "root ball" down into the cell, until the leaves are at soil level (actually as close as I can to the base of the seedling without pressing on the stem). This only gets done once, and then they grow happily with the roots deeper and not get leggy.

 

[ProfessorPangloss]

The weather broke and I was able to get out yesterday and today and finally dig up the side facing my neighbor's driveway. Soil is incredible. Best dirt I've ever seen. Got the weeds cleared, raked it smooth and laid wood chips. It made a huge difference for the foundation as well - one day of sunlight plus no vegetation and the pill bugs and slugs disappeared. For an idea of scale, the house is like 32' deep and the bed extends back about 20 more feet.

 

[ProfessorPangloss]

Derp. Only one photo at a time with iPhone. Forgot to mention that my Catterton is going in this row. I was thinking 2' spacing - is that right?
Dang - the forum undoes the auto rotate on the phone...

 

[deluxestogie]

It looks like that bed is wide enough for 2 rows, if they are staggered. You can probably get excellent results with ~21" spacing between plants, 18" spacing between the two rows.

Bob

 

[Chicken]

That soil does look very good,