Tutu's Year 2017

[deluxestogie]

Maybe that's just me being lazy.

You've already done the hard part. Cross-pollination can occur from tobacco plants over 1/2 mile apart. Also, a plant may actively produce new blossoms for a month or more. And the plants that look similar are likely different genetically. They're F1 generation.

Since you probably don't have a sewing machine, purchase some of the thinnest fabric you can locate, and find a person who sews. Have that person sew a white cloth tag into the seam of each bag. Make extras. How expensive can sewing be in Indonesia? (Have them make you a shirt or neckerchief with the leftover fabric.)

I make my bags 30" tall and 24" wide. Smaller may work, if you discard some of the blossoms.

Forum members from across the world are watching.

Bob

 

[Tutu]

China had me convinced yesterday so I bagged them a few minutes after his post. Although the only tobacco in the field nowadays in Jember are still seedlings, and the closest field is probably 5 miles away. Then again, there may be a stray plant somewhere closer so I do have to watch it, and I shouldn't be so lazy. I had already been collecting bags for the past weeks. Although you're right Bob, it wouldn't be too hard to have them custom made here. Going to have a peek at the flowers some time, they look nice dark pink. Will be away from home for a few days though. We'll see if the brightleaf version gets anywhere near flowering too when I'm back. Tried to make another shot from the same angle as the previous shot.

 

[deluxestogie]

The bags look like plastic. If so, you may want to amply puncture them with pinholes, to allow air and water vapor to pass.

Bob

 

[Tutu]

All four of them are cloth!

 

[greenmonster714]

I can see where one would assume they are plastic. They are kinda shinny. Did you make those or buy them like that? Man those plants look great.

 

[Tutu]

The two in the back are bags that helmets are kept in. The two in the front are laundry bags from a hotel. I've got two more helmet bags from last year, one white, one black.

 

[deluxestogie]

Back in 2005, when I was engaged in paintball, my helmets came in cloth bags that were well ventilated. Good idea.

Bob

 

[Tutu]

During my last weekend my camera got stolen at the beach. Luckily I got it insured quite well, and gotten a good police report. For now, I got my old camera off the shelves because I wanted to take a picture of the leafs that I just pressed. These are the first few leafs I've cured in a while. Left top corner is the last remaining leaf from a Timor plant grown from seed I got from Bob. That is the only dark air cured leaf in the picture. The three leafs remaining in the top row are sun cured Besuki. I decided to ask some of the farmers that we work with also to sun cure their sand lugs. Usually we tell them to discard those, but maybe we can use it for a sun cured Jatim grade. Anyway, all leafs in the bottom row are sun cured Kasturi x Amersfoort. The first hybrid leafs I've cured! Going to stack it all up for some fermentation later this calender year. Please do note the pillow on the right. It's batik from Jember. Part of the print is tobacco leafs!

 

[deluxestogie]

The Timor that I grew cured and kilned to a medium to dark brown, and seems to have an unusual "barbecue" aroma, though it was not fire-cured.

Bob

 

[Tutu]

I haven’t smoked any of the leaf yet so that remains to be seen. The few Timor leafs that I have will go into fermentation during the second half of this year. What I can say about it so far though, is that it smells less grassy prior to fermentation compared to other varieties I’ve grown so far.

Let me update my garden a bit with some photographs taken with the older camera. Now we had a very cloudy morning, which is quite unusual. Later in the day we got a lot of wind and rain. I wasn’t in the neighbourhood, and I didn’t know about the bad weather. I found many of my fruit trees in pots blown down, but not the tobacco. I was lucky this time ‘round.

• KxA Darkleaf
• KxA Brightleaf
• Besuki (topped)
• Amersfoort (4), KxA (7), Xanthi (1)
• Besuki
• Besuki Soca

 

[greenmonster714]

Gotta say it sir. You are the container king. They all look fantastic. To bad about your camera but at least you had insurance. The Timor looks nice cured up as do the others. I even like the pillow thrown in there. It will be nice to see how all these turn out for ya. It's kinda cool to be able to watch your tobacco mature as ours are just getting started here in the States.

 

[Charly]

Your plants in container do look great and healthy, but I am very interested to know how they compare to the same strains in full ground, did you make some comparison ?
The plants I grew in containers were about half the height of their brothers in full ground, and the leaves were really tiny... (I should have give them more fertilization for sure...)

 

[Tutu]

I am getting the idea that it depends on the variety as well. My Besuki plants went to a reasonable height, although I know that the plants from which I got the seed where taller. The leafs seem to be slightly smaller, but not much. The Amersfoort grows much shorter than it does when planted in the Netherlands. Then again, some of the taller specimen in the Netherlands were also grown in pots. The tallest plant reaching well over 2 meters was grown in full ground in the Netherlands. My Amersfoort reaches maturity very very fast in Indonesia, shooting flowerbuds at a very early stage every single time. However, looking at the Ainaro that I grew in a container, I got leafs as tall as 70 cm. The plants grew quite tall as well. I doubt they would get much larger when grown in full soil. Also Kasturi x Amersfoort gets very tall leafs. I think that growing in containers makes you get smaller plants, but it still varies a lot depending on what soil and fertilizer you use. If you have no good soil to your disposal, a good container growth might be to your advantage. If you can't get good soil to mix into containers, maybe don't go there.

I have now bagged the Brightleaf KxA plant as well. It's quite gummy.

 

[deluxestogie]

The plants look great.

Bob

 

[Tutu]

Just harvested a good bunch of leafs. The measuring plate is 30 cm tall.
On the right there's Besuki leafs.
The middle has KxA leafs.
The left is KxA brightleaf.

 

[greenmonster714]

I am getting the idea that it depends on the variety as well. My Besuki plants went to a reasonable height, although I know that the plants from which I got the seed where taller. The leafs seem to be slightly smaller, but not much.

Since they are a bit smaller would you think that maybe it was the container grow that stunted things a little?

Just harvested a good bunch of leafs. The measuring plate is 30 cm tall.
On the right there's Besuki leafs.
The middle has KxA leafs.
The left is KxA brightleaf.

That Besuki leaf is gorgeous. I love that deep green color. I've gotta get some of those beans next year. I'll have to put them on my list..lol. I think I saw them on the northwood site. You going to air dry those or put them in the sun?

 

[Tutu]

Yes I think it's definitely because of growing in a container. But I don't mind, as long as the leafs are of reasonable size. I think so far, they've been good. Yeah you can buy them on Northwood, but if you want to I can send you some straight from the source. I'm going to sun cure all of the leaf that I have because I'm leaving for the Netherlands soon. Even a few days earlier than anticipated. So I've got to speed everything up a notch. I've topped all non-KxA to have them all mature faster. Sun curing, pressing, storing. Then they'll all be fermented later this year. I also harvested the four little Besuki sucker leafs I still had going.

 

[greenmonster714]

Sure man, I'd be glad to trade some beans later this year. I think we chatted about that a while back if I remember right. I've got a long list for next year but that beast is going to have to be shaved down...lol.
I kinda figured it was the container but you do get some impressive plants in those. Have a safe trip.

 

[Charly]

For sure, you got big leaves for growing in containers !
That's great !
Good luck with your curing

I got my Besuki and a few other seeds from Tutu (thanks again ).
The Besuki are much much slower to grow than all the other strains I am growing, I really think they are not happy with the weather/temperature we got here in France...
I hope they will catch up the others, they might need to acclimate to their new home, I will save seeds and will see what it will become
The Kasturi show the same behavior : very low germination rate, very slow grow, only thee seedlings survived
Whereas the Amersfoort do fine (we can see it's a strain that is accustomed to cold weather and few sun !)

 

[Tutu]

That is interesting and it is the same as Bob reported. His Besuki from Tabakanbau grows much faster than those that came straight from Indonesia. I can imagine that Kasturi does the same. That's why it's interesting what will become of the Kasturi x Amersfoort cross. For the adult plants I bagged, the brightleaf version grew slower than the other four that look similar.

I'm a bit puzzled myself though. I've got two Besuki plants that show the same characteristics as Bob described in his earlier growth blog, they're almost as bright as white stem burley. These were grown from the seed I sent Bob's way which he is growing at the moment. Those were collected during our first tobacco season last year. The Besuki leafs from the plants which I harvested this morning are quite different, they're much more dark green. They're from the second crop of last year. The difference is striking. The Besuki that grows in this region in general looks much more like normal green version than the brighter one. I hope Bob is getting some normal green Besuki plants from his seed, not the white version. The only way to show the difference is by showing a picture, so here we go again. The difference in size has to do mainly with the earlier Besuki leafs being top stalk positions and the others being middle stalk positions.