What's rain? We have had 3/4 of an inch in the last 4 months, and this is the start of our dry season.
VA Gold is a more well developed plant. VA Bright Leaf is an older heirloom strain. It's a good one too grow but it will throw out more suckers that VA Gold does. VA Gold also gets bigger and color cures super easily. 3 days in the greenhouse at 90 degrees and 90% humidity does it. But once cured it also molds very fast and needs to be dried down asap. I've never had any strain color as fast as VA Gold does or mold as fast if you don't keep an eye on it. As far as taste I can't tell any difference. They are 2 of my best sellers.
Well consider yourself lucky I guess. You can always add water, but you can't take it away. Here are my plants today in the "heat of the day" (79 degrees and overcast):
I have two plants in raised beds right now that are doing excellent. This weather is extraordinary (around 5.5 inches and counting in less than a week) so I don't know if I will base ALL my future actions around it but it wouldn't hurt to at least be prepared for it. If I understand correctly, the tobacco plant stops providing for the bottom leaves on its own anyway at some point in its growth, I just don't know if my plants are at that point yet. I appreciate the advice and may do something to that effect if they don't get any better.
What is the soil like in your area? I lost most of my first grow when we received a month's worth of rain in a week last year. Everything potted or in a raised bed did fine, but our heavy clay takes it's time draining.
it's not very clay like. I don't know it's like regular soil I guess. I've never had a survey or anything done of it. raised beds and pots with drainage are very difficult to overwater because the excess drains out quickly. That is not ideal in my opinion unless you plan on watering your plants quite often. Tobacco plants only need to sit in standing water for 12 hours to be badly damaged. There are no actual puddles around my plants but the soil is just so saturated (pretty much mud) they are drowning. I did all I could do to encourage rapid draining of the soil (drainage ditches, holes, etc..) But when it continues to rain every single day at a rate of at least a half inch a day, there's just not too much I can do about it.What is the soil like in your area? I lost most of my first grow when we received a month's worth of rain in a week last year. Everything potted or in a raised bed did fine, but our heavy clay takes it's time draining.
Mad Farmers 2020 Grow Blog (first time grow)
Here is a bit of Mr. Lock's biography...fairtradetobacco.com
nice, thank you!!
About 8 inches of grayish/brown silt loam, from 8 to 27 inches is a mottled brown to yellowish brown silt loam and loam. From 27 to 41 inches it is a dense, very firm dark brown loam fragipan. Down to 60 inches it is dark brown and brown loam...HAHA! That is from the 1978 soil survey of Ravenna @deluxestogie just sent me. Although I've rarely been that deep, I would say most of the other descriptions are quite correct. Very cool to read. My soil is classified as a semi poorly draining soil due to the fragipan layer I guess...
With loamy soil you might be okay as long as the rains let up.
Yea, but unfortunately the damage has already been done. The soil is already draining very well and drying up well due to the trenches, holes and sun. I'm just worried that maybe it's something the plants cant recover from. Time will tell I guess.
I looked over some of your 2020 grow log. Was I reading correctly when I read you got something like 10 inches of rain in two days??!! If so, that's crazy!!What is the soil like in your area? I lost most of my first grow when we received a month's worth of rain in a week last year. Everything potted or in a raised bed did fine, but our heavy clay takes it's time draining.
Mad Farmers 2020 Grow Blog (first time grow)
Here is a bit of Mr. Lock's biography...
I'd say we average about 3 inches a month this time of year and I got at least 5.5 inches last week, possibly more (I was in St. Louis 3 days last week and I'm not positive what happened here). On a more positive note, a lot of the plants seem to be doing better for now, even in the 80 degree sun of the day....fingers crossed.What is the soil like in your area? I lost most of my first grow when we received a month's worth of rain in a week last year. Everything potted or in a raised bed did fine, but our heavy clay takes it's time draining.
Mad Farmers 2020 Grow Blog (first time grow)
Here is a bit of Mr. Lock's biography...
I'm near Gettysburg, PA so usually any rain you guys get over there comes right over to me, and very similar soil in places. Also funny to note of a small world, a college age fella I know a few years on another forum that smokes pipes and cigars lives in Ravenna. I remember quite well because we send each other stuff periodically.
Nice! Tell your friend to join fairtrade. I personally think it is far superior to any other tobacco related website out there.
