The Tobacco Plant Project

[Smoked!]

mrtr33 - I noticed your Sumatra had a bit of mold on the seeds and in the pellets. I had a few with the same condition. The other varieties are not affected. It appears that it could be a moldy batch of seed from the supplier. Crud.

[mrtr33]

Fertilizer Rate –
I used Miracle Grow liquid fertilizer for the initial pellet hydration at about ¼ teaspoon per quart. I will increase the rate by ~50% on the next feeding, and then an additional ~33% for all weekly feedings. That gives me an approximate rate of ½ tsp. per quart, or 1 1/3 tbsp. per gallon for regular diet. Alternatively, I may just dump the jug in the middle of the plot and hope for rain.

Another consideration is the quality of water used in the propagation phase. As I understand it, tomacco will not tolerate chlorine until it is established. The same goes for all the nightshades, I guess. I used filtered water – nothing special.

After much thought about my specific situation, I've decided not to fertilize the peat pods. My primary concern is burning these plants up. I've read in other places that it's best these tobacco seeds be brought up in direct sunlight. I'm worried that their early life may be hindered in the sun with the addition of a fertilizer.

Good call on the water - that makes sense to me.

Also, I'm not going to start hardening these plants for a few more weeks. Ideally, I won't transplant until they are clearly individual seedlings.

Question: Does anyone have a recommendation for tomato fertilizer? There is a similarity in nutrient requirements.

I do, but I can't recall what it is. It's another one of those slow-release, in-ground fertilizers (as opposed to a fertilizer for potted plants). I'll add it to the beds once I get those in place. Supposedly, it is something I only have to add once, then I can forget about it. I'll find out what the name of the stuff is, and post it.

mrtr33 - I noticed your Sumatra had a bit of mold on the seeds and in the pellets. I had a few with the same condition. The other varieties are not affected. It appears that it could be a moldy batch of seed from the supplier. Crud.

Yeah, the Sumatra did. I guess I was thinking it was a result of the sunlight hitting the covered tray, and the condensation was too much, and mold formed. I never thought the seeds themselves could be moldy. I've taken the trays off, and don't see any more mold.

I have a few more sprouting up. I'm probably only going to keep a few of the Black Mammoth's, and give the rest to the local garden store that's helped me so much with little tips and advice in getting me started.

I'll post pics and an update on my growing experiences (what isn't posted here) a bit later on.

[Smoked!]

03.26.10

Today, the first pairs of secondary leaves appeared on three of the four varieties. The Sumatra is a little behind the others in development.




03.30.10

All four varieties now have tiny secondary leaves and are progressing ever so slowly. The Black Mammoth seedlings are the most vigorous of the plants so far. The temperature has dropped again this week. We had a strong storm front push through yesterday which brought cooler, drier air and low temps near fifty. For late March in FL, that’s cold!




03.31.10

The low temp this morning was forty-seven. I know that’s just a warm spring day for all you Yanks up in Pennsyltucky, but here it’s an arctic blast. It was so cold that I had to put on socks. Even the little tomaccos were shivering!

Normal temps should be in the mid-sixties to low eighties by the end of March. I think the cooler air is stalling plant development slightly. If these seedlings were sown outside in the soil, they would have already failed.

This weekend I plan to place the seedlings into direct sun for a couple hours each morning. After a week or so, they should be hardened off enough to take full morning sun. It should be interesting to see how quickly they respond to direct sun energy. Will they fry or accelerate? I want to see a couple more leaves kick out before I leave them out in full sunlight all day.

[mrtr33]

So, I've been slacking the last week. I meant to get these up last Thursday, because today, the plants look completely different.



The Small Stalk Black Mammoth. The one in the bottom right is Argentina. These plants, far and away, are the most hearty of the bunch.



Long Red Leaf



Florida Sumatra

I should note that when I took these photos, it was last week. I watered them immediately afterward. The plants really do look much better this week than they did then (last week).

I also wanted to update the thread with what kind of fertilizer I'm going to be using once I get the plants in the ground. This is still probably at least 45 days away, but it is something I wanted to start thinking about now. The fertilizer is called Plant-Tone, and can be found at your local gardening store. Probably won't be able to find it at a big box store, but you might. Espoma also makes a Tomato-Tone, but I can't find it anywhere locally.

Just thought I'd share. I'll try to get updated pics up soon.

[Smoked!]

I snapped a few photos showing the progress to date. Clearly, the Mammoth seeds have done best in the germination phase, but they are smaller than the other plants. Time to thin them out? Maybe... The other three varieties are about equal. See for yourself:

Argentina


Black Mammoth


Florida Sumatra


Long Red Leaf

[Smoked!]

It’s a great day for America!

Today, I stepped the tobacco plants up from pods to peat pots. Check out the survivors:

Argentina –



Florida Sumatra –



Black Mammoth –



Long Red Leaf –





My first thought was to choose two or three of each variety and carefully cultivate only the finest of the seedlings. That would probably be the most efficient, well reasoned, and easily managed solution. It would require a minimum of supplies, only little effort, and an economic expense of time.

With that understanding, and while carefully considering my options, I cracked open a cold one, counted up the supplies available (see below)… and decided to make an afternoon of it. All these little guys went in new containers today. No doubt, there will be consequences. Don’t let your friends drink and farm.

As you can see, I picked up some potting soil with a slow-release fertilizer. Seems rather like cheating, doesn’t it? The off-brand was priced roughly forty percent less than the Miracle brand. Additionally, there was only one remaining sleeve of the large size peat pots and it was priced to move, so I loaded up my cart and cheap-skated my way to the register. Here are the goods:





Potting is simple, repetitive process. I find it to be relaxing. It must have been quite a bit warmer than I imagined. A full six pack of my favorite carbonated barley-based beverage evaporated. Chalk it up to angel’s share. Check out the roots pushing through the netting on the pod.




Most of the pods have a dominant seedling that will remain when the others wither or are plucked out. There are a couple considerations. For example, the Mammoth seeds hit very close to the target of eighty percent germination and most of the pods now have strong seedlings. Once they get through the transplant shock, I can remove the weakest ones. The other varieties are less vigorous.

In most cases there is a single viable seedling. However, there are a several doubles that may both survive if I can separate them. Siamese… I mean ‘conjoined’ tomacco twins? Yeah, kinda… sorta. Look:

From the top left, working clockwise we have: twins, twins, regular, regular, weakling, and an empty. What to do, what to do… that’ll be tomorrow’s post.

[Smoked!]

Here’ the split experiment. These are the Florida Sumatra plants. I had only a few that survived, so I wanted to try to salvage as many as I could by splitting the doubles.




You can see that the siam… I mean, conjoined plants are really only intertwined at the feeder root level. The stalks are clear. To further complicate things and senselessly waste more bandwidth on photos, I decided to create an additional component to the experiment. Instead of splitting both twins, I will allow one pair to duke it out for the Championship of the Known Universe. It will be the World Tomacco Entertainment Smackdown. (Prize valid only in sectors where the Known Universe may be legally awarded, or a similar substitute prize may be awarded at the judge’s discretion. For those of you scoring the contest at home - please, no wagering.)

Yeah. I know. Friends don’t let friends drink and farm. Whatever.




Here’s the split pod. You can see the tap root is intact. If they can survive the initial shock and transplant stress, they should do as well as the other plants.




Here are the marked split containers.




But wait, there’s more!

Check out this clinger. It looks like it’s climbing up the pod to get back on top. Maybe it’s some kind of ninja tomacco…