From Bud to Harvest

I thought I'd start a new thread since the first one is getting a little overloaded with photo's. I hope at least a couple of you are enjoying this little project, I know that I am.

Here's the crop as it looked this morning. Keep in mind that the majority of these were set in the ground on 12 June.....about 6 1/2 weeks ago. As you can see by the 3' fence in the background, the tallest plants have exceeded it and are approaching the 4' mark. The majority of the plants are between 2 1/2 ' and 3'.
http://www.cigarsmokers.com/attachme...achmentid=1893

Florida Sumatra:
These plants remain vigorous and continue to grow skyward. The leaf production looks good, however, my choice of location is turning out to be counter-productive. The cedar trees immediately to the north of these plants, while providing good shade, sheds serious amounts of debris that wind up on the leaves. To what extent this will mar the leaves I dunno, however, since the intended use of these is for wrapper material, any damage to the leaves is bad. :smiley13:
http://www.cigarsmokers.com/attachme...achmentid=1892

The lone Argentina. I intended to use this leaf as a component of the filler or possibly a binder leaf.
http://www.cigarsmokers.com/attachme...achmentid=1889

Long Red Leaf.
I'm extremely pleased with the growth and leaf production of this variety.:smiley20: As you can see, the bud is flowering and the leaf production appears to be very nice. Of the two specimens, I will allow one to flower and have removed the bud from the other. We'll see how pronounced the difference is between them from here.
http://www.cigarsmokers.com/attachme...achmentid=1890
Supplemental planting of LRL:
http://www.cigarsmokers.com/attachme...achmentid=1891

Small Stalk Black Mammoth.
As with the Long Red Leaf, only one of these will be allowed to flower. The leaves on these plants are just freaking huge already.:smiley20: Unfortunately, I left my sheet with the dimensions on it in the car :smiley5:. I'll either come back and update this post with them, or just measure them again this weekend.
http://www.cigarsmokers.com/attachme...achmentid=1896
Here is a bud forming on the black mammoth. This one will remain, the other was removed.
http://www.cigarsmokers.com/attachme...achmentid=1894
And the supplemental SSBM planting:
http://www.cigarsmokers.com/attachme...achmentid=1895

Those are great looking plants Jamie you must have the "green thumb"

I've been silent, but I for one have been enjoying the posts / progress on this whole project. They do look great.

Green thumb, yes. Green foot, probably not.:smiley36: actually, I hope not!

Will

They are good looking. From the title I was worried we would have to ban you for posting photos of "other stuff" you were growing.

Why don't I see the pics?

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Originally Posted by EGQ

Why don't I see the pics?

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Hmmm, I don't know Ed. The album is set to public, so you should be able to see them I think. Anyone else have problems?

Now I see them (post-friending). Odd.

this morning. I had several leaves of the Long Red Leaf that were starting to color up so I decided to go ahead and harvest the first priming from the two plants from the original planting of 12 June, 7 weeks ago.

http://www.cigarsmokers.com/attachme...achmentid=1905

http://www.cigarsmokers.com/attachme...achmentid=1901

I picked this sand leaf off one of the plants a week ago and hung it similar to those above. Making good progress on curing it out in just that week. There is still a significant tinge of green on the edges of the leaf, and the main stem is still very moist and pliable, it will be a couple of more weeks before it reaches the proper stage for fermenting. This was just an experiment to see the effects of hanging them on the fence. Looks like it would work, but I most likely will hang the bulk of the leaves in the garage to dry.


http://www.cigarsmokers.com/attachme...achmentid=1904

Here are the standard photo's of the crop. As you will notice, many of the leaves are starting to turn yellow on the edges....ready to be harvested. The only variety that seems to be behind is the Florida Sumatra. They don't appear to be coloring up and thickening along with the other plants and the leaf production is not nearly as vigorous as the other plants. These started off the best and grew the fastest of all the plants.....confusing as to what went wrong with the volume of leaf produced. :smiley5:

Florida Sumatra
http://www.cigarsmokers.com/attachme...achmentid=1898

Argentina
http://www.cigarsmokers.com/attachme...achmentid=1902

Long Red Leaf original planting....the lower leaves of these plants were harvested this a.m. The largest leaff on this plant is 29" long by 20.5" wide. The flowering plant is 5' 10" tall to the top of the flower. The privacy fence in the background is 6' tall.
http://www.cigarsmokers.com/attachme...achmentid=1900
2nd planting of Long Red Leaf. It's interesting to note, that these leaves are ripening right along with the original planting.
http://www.cigarsmokers.com/attachme...achmentid=1903

Small Stalk Black Mammoth
http://www.cigarsmokers.com/attachme...achmentid=1906
Supplemental planting SSBM
http://www.cigarsmokers.com/attachme...achmentid=1899

Thanks for looking.

Very nice looking plants indeed! Great job :smiley20:

Looking good. I've been busy with work/family/life/vacation/sickness, but my plants are still growing in the backyard. I have absolutely no idea when to harvest them. I'm hoping to take some photos this week to show you, but even then, I don't know what to do with them. The only reason I think I'm still okay (they went in the ground June 1st) is that none of the plants have flowered yet. I don't know about drying these leaves. Might just let them be. It was fun, though.

Are you rolling cigars or making pipe tobacco?

This is really cool to see. Great job!

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Originally Posted by nhcigarfan

Are you rolling cigars or making pipe tobacco?

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Cigars, I hope.

This is an awesome project and seeing what you have done, they look great. I hope it works out well for you as I can imagine smoking your own product would (hopefully) be a very rewarding experience. :smiley4:

Visited the tobacco patch this morning.....without the goddamn crutches!!!! WoooHooo!! First time I've stood on my own two feet in 6 weeks. Damn, even the pain feels good. :smiley4:

Needed to water this morning so I set out the hose, rinsed the plants off and snapped some pics. I went ahead and removed the flower buds from all plants due to a nasty infestation of tobacco bud worms. These little bastards drill right into the buds themselves and hide...then come out to feed on the uppermost leaves of the plant. That is what the little holes in the top leaves are from. They don't seem to bother the mid or lower leaves, they let the grasshoppers have those.

It's too close to harvest to use anymore pesticide, except the insecticidal soap that is. I don't think they are doing enough damage to worry too much about anyway, especially since I'm not dead set on getting anything smokeable from this crop.

Here's the crop:
http://www.cigarsmokers.com/attachme...achmentid=1909
Florida Sumatra:
http://www.cigarsmokers.com/attachme...achmentid=1913

Argentina:
http://www.cigarsmokers.com/attachme...achmentid=1912

Long Red Leaf:
http://www.cigarsmokers.com/attachme...achmentid=1910
Example leaf of the LRL. You can see some of the indicators of ripening in this photo. The "alligator skin" texture is becoming more prominent along with some yellow mottling of the leaf. Not quite there yet, but soon.:
http://www.cigarsmokers.com/attachme...achmentid=1911
2nd planting of LRL:
http://www.cigarsmokers.com/attachme...achmentid=1920

Small Stalk Black Mammoth:
http://www.cigarsmokers.com/attachme...achmentid=1922
Example SSBM leaves, check out the size compared to that $1 bill:
http://www.cigarsmokers.com/attachme...achmentid=1923
http://www.cigarsmokers.com/attachme...achmentid=1919

2nd planting of SSBM:
http://www.cigarsmokers.com/attachme...achmentid=1921

I did not harvest any additional leaves today, and in fact I believe that I harvested the others just a tad early. This shouldn't have too much of an effect on the dried/cured leaf. I've learned it is better to be a little early with the harvest than late, so that is positive for the leaves I have drying already.

I'll start another thread to cover the drying/curing phase of this project. I'm coming to realize that this phase will be the most difficult of all, as well as the most risky.

Thanks for looking, and stay tuned. :smiley20:

Very cool Jamie.

Hey Chris, where ya been brother? Nice to see ya posting again!!

Been way too busy with grad school. On the home-stretch now.

Went to the tobacco patch over my lunch hour today to inspect the crop. We had a couple of days of rain earlier in the week, high winds, etc. Two of the Florida Sumatra plants and one Small Stalk Black Mammoth were blown down. Pop stood them back up for me and they appear to be none the worse for wear and should make it to harvest with no issues.

Speaking of harvest......Saturday will be a big day for me. All plants appear to be ready to harvest the bottom 1/3 of leaves. This will most likely be 5-6 leaves per plant for the Argentina / Long Red / Black Mammoth varieties and 3-4 of each Florida Sumatra, so somewhere around 50-60 leaves to pick, string, and hang.

The change in the leaves over the last couple of weeks has been dramatic. The texture of the surface of the leaf becomes very bumpy....alligator skin like, and they have noticeably thickened. They have gotten very, very, sticky. They shine from the oils and are now drooping from the weight.

I'm excited. :smiley4:

Harvested the first 1/3 of the leaves from all the plants. I've heard many terms for this priming....viso, volado, primero.....whatever you wanna call it is fine with me. I harvested a total of 54 leaves and have them curing now.

Crop:
http://www.cigarsmokers.com/attachme...achmentid=1952

Florida Sumatra. 15 leaves harvested, largest leaf 20" x 13"
http://www.cigarsmokers.com/attachme...achmentid=1954

example FS leaf:
http://www.cigarsmokers.com/attachme...achmentid=1961

Long Red Leaf:
16 leaves harvested. largest leaf 30" x 14"
http://www.cigarsmokers.com/attachme...achmentid=1955
example LRL leaf:
http://www.cigarsmokers.com/attachme...achmentid=1957

Argentina:
6 leaves harvested. largest 24" x 11"
http://www.cigarsmokers.com/attachme...achmentid=1951

Small Stalk Black Mammoth:
17 leaves harvested. largest, and largest of the crop, 30 1/2 " X 17"
http://www.cigarsmokers.com/attachme...achmentid=1953


Overall view of the harvest...not a very good pic, but you get the idea:
http://www.cigarsmokers.com/attachme...achmentid=1960

Some ugly bastard with one of the leaves:
http://www.cigarsmokers.com/attachme...achmentid=1959

I hung 44 of the leaves using the same air curing method that I started with. I took 10 of the leaves and am trying a different method of color curing them. I'll detail the differences in the curing thread sometime soon.

I'll most likely prime the second 1/3 of leaves next weekend.

Really awesome job, man. I've kind of given up on my little garden. The plants are still growing, one has started to flower. I just don't have the time.

Totally understandable.....you and Smoked detailed the seed starting process very well.

Sunday I harvested the 2nd priming of all varieties. I managed to get 43 leaves. The amount of growth of the suckers was amazing....these grew in just one week between the first priming and now:
http://www.cigarsmokers.com/attachme...achmentid=2008
Here is what I removed from the entire crop. There are also 2 leaves that were too bug damaged for processing. :smiley6:
http://www.cigarsmokers.com/attachme...achmentid=2009
Crop before harvest:
http://www.cigarsmokers.com/attachme...achmentid=1993

Crop after harvest:
http://www.cigarsmokers.com/attachme...achmentid=1991

Argentina....whopping harvest. :smiley5: Largest leaf 25" x 12" (3 leaves)
http://www.cigarsmokers.com/attachme...achmentid=1989

Florida Sumatra. Largest 19" x 11.5" (15 leaves)
http://www.cigarsmokers.com/attachme...achmentid=1990

Long Red Leaf. Largest 33.5" x 13" (14 leaves)
http://www.cigarsmokers.com/attachme...achmentid=1992

Small Stalk Black mammoth. Largest 31" x 14" (11 leaves)
http://www.cigarsmokers.com/attachme...achmentid=1994

Well, let me just set this post down here. That way it won’t clutter up your most current ‘curing thread.’


The last surviving mammoth is still stuck in a pot. I made yet another error by not plucking the leaves off immediately after this photo was taken. The tomato caterpillar enjoyed most of it... or maybe a tortoise.

Potted Plants (not the dominant tobacco farming strategy):
http://i869.photobucket.com/albums/a..._BM_potted.jpg

Attack of the voracious, um, whatever ate this plant.
http://i869.photobucket.com/albums/a...016_sucker.jpg

You can see there is now a sucker growing off the base of the stalk. It shot up out of nowhere after the caterpillar ate the other leaves. Ashauler mentioned the same phenomenon after his first priming. I think I’ll let it go and see what happens.


Sucker!
http://i869.photobucket.com/albums/a...16_sucker3.jpg


After picking the remaining leaves from the original stalk, I hung them in the utility room above a freezer chest compressor vent. The unit pushes out a fair volume of heat so the room stays warmer than the rest of the house. It is also more humid. Hey, that’s Florida. (btw – The leaves are at least eight or nine feet long… at least! They just look small on camera.)

http://i869.photobucket.com/albums/a...vor_leaves.jpg


Do you guys think the seeds will be viable?

Yeah, those tomato worms are a bitch. They seem to have no end to their appetite. You'll be able to tell by little black spots (their poops) all over the leaves.

Wow, 8 or 9 feet long? That looks suspiciously like a clothes hanger.....:smiley17:

I have absolutely no idea if you'd be able to salvage the seeds. I'd assume so, but you may have to dry and store them in some certain matter. Definitely keep us posted on this.

Smoked!'s point about the humidity/heat in the south brings up something interesting - I wonder if I can get 2 growing seasons in one summer/fall. The trick would be not frying the small seedlings when getting them used to the outdoors. Assuming you introduced them to the elements, say, in August, with the purpose of planting them at the end of the month (around the same time you harvested your first batch), I bet you could have a healthy crop around Halloween. Maybe next year.

Completed the final harvest on 10 Sept after work. This harvest was disappointing....I paid the penalty for my inexperience on this one. Well, that and the 60 mph winds we had the week before. All the tiny holes became huge ones and many leaves were destroyed for curing purposes. Too much damage = too much risk of rot or mold....and I ain't into risk at this point.

Here's the crop before harvest, you can see some of the shredded leaves:
http://www.cigarsmokers.com/attachme...achmentid=2065

Argentina harvested 3....trashed 8.....total harvested this year 12 leaves from 1 plant:
http://www.cigarsmokers.com/attachme...achmentid=2064

Long Red Leaf harvested 7....trashed 9...total harvested 43 leaves from 4 plants:
http://www.cigarsmokers.com/attachme...achmentid=2070

Small Stalk Black Mammoth harvested 2...trashed 13..total harvested 30 leaves from 4 plants:
http://www.cigarsmokers.com/attachme...achmentid=2073

Florida Sumatra.....0 harvested....36 leaves trashed. These plants suffered from calcium defficiency to a higher degree than the others. This defficiency causes the leaves to "hood"....curl over from the edges to the middle, causing the leaves to rot during curing and fail to lay flat....ruins them as a wrapper, and again, too much risk of rot for me to try to cure these out. Total harvest of FS was 30 leaves from 4 plants.

The aftermath:
http://www.cigarsmokers.com/attachme...achmentid=2063

The root systems:
http://www.cigarsmokers.com/attachme...achmentid=2069

http://www.cigarsmokers.com/attachme...achmentid=2068

So, my overall results of the experiment were:
18 peat pods successfully yielded transplantable seedlings.
12 were planted to the field and yielded a total of 115 processable leaves.
3 were planted to large pots and grew successfully. They have not budded yet, and 0 leaves were harvested.
I have not lost any leaves during the curing process.....yet. We'll see how that goes.

I would like to extend a grateful thank you to Mark for getting this started. I have enjoyed it immensely and look forward to the curing and fermenting processes, and eventually smoking a few cigars made from these tobaccos.

Thanks for following this with me, I hope it has been enjoyable.

Quote:

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Originally Posted by ashauler

Florida Sumatra.....0 harvested....36 leaves trashed. These plants suffered from calcium defficiency to a higher degree than the others. This defficiency causes the leaves to "hood"....curl over from the edges to the middle, causing the leaves to rot during curing and fail to lay flat....ruins them as a wrapper, and again, too much risk of rot for me to try to cure these out. Total harvest of FS was 30 leaves from 4 plants.

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Calcium deficiency, huh? I'll make a note on that for next year. I know several of the leaves I harvested had "hooded". While I hope I'm able to spot them during this curing phase, the chances of me getting past the curing phase at this point in life is unrealistic.

Quote:

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Originally Posted by ashauler

The root systems:

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...look much MUCH stronger than mine did. You've got some great soil there.

Quote:

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Originally Posted by ashauler

I have enjoyed it immensely and look forward to the curing and fermenting processes, and eventually smoking a few cigars made from these tobaccos.

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Thanks for participating. I think we're all interested to hear how the next processes go. Keep us posted as you have time. Hopefully, you'll even want to do it again next year! This could be a regularly recurring even on the board. I know I've already started a small compost pile for next year's garden, and will probably be putting in new soil as well (with extra attention to the calcium fortification, of course!).

Let me know if you want some of my leaves, to further your potential cigar-making empire. We'll figure out something.

Quote:

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Originally Posted by mrtr33

Calcium deficiency, huh? I'll make a note on that for next year. I know several of the leaves I harvested had "hooded". While I hope I'm able to spot them during this curing phase, the chances of me getting past the curing phase at this point in life is unrealistic.

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The Calcium can be handled through feeding during the growing season and need not be done with soil modification per se.....though that would work too.

Ya know, theoretically, you can put the color cured and completely dried leaves in a brown paper bag and they will continue curing with the passage of time. Just have to kinda look at 'em once in a while for mold. It will take much longer (months) for the tobacco to be smokeable, but that would give you plenty of time for cupcakes, diapers and supermodels. :smiley2:

Quote:

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Originally Posted by mrtr33

Hopefully, you'll even want to do it again next year!

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I've already ordered some seeds from the gov't and am planning the soil test and amending for this fall. :smiley4:

I doubt I'll do a thread on it though.

Wow nice project, is there a special way to make the leaves special such as "marinading\seasoning" for taste\flavors?

Quote:

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Originally Posted by Zywiec

Wow nice project, is there a special way to make the leaves special such as "marinading\seasoning" for taste\flavors?

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Yes, there are many ways to "process" tobacco.