The Tobacco Plant Project

[ashauler]

One week in the ground. Noticed some bug activity for the first time, and even found a little caterpillar chewing on a leaf. Squished the bastard and applied some insecticidal soap liberally after I fed and watered. Used Miracle Gro mixed per label directions and gave each plant a generous portion.

Whole crop, looking from South to North along the row.
http://www.cigarsmokers.com/album.ph...achmentid=1832



Close up shot of a Florida Sumatra plant....this variety is outperforming all the others.
http://www.cigarsmokers.com/album.ph...achmentid=1833

[mrtr33]

Close up shot of a Florida Sumatra plant....this variety is outperforming all the others.
http://www.cigarsmokers.com/album.ph...achmentid=1833

Nice looking plant. It's interesting you're having so much luck with the Florida Sumatra plant - that's the only one that has been under-performing for me.

Again, I envy the space you have to plant. You must have some awesome soil back there. Have you had it tested? What's it's pH? Our soil here is basically clay (thus the boxes). If I did in my backyard what you did with yours, not only would my plants be flooded, they might get that big at the end of the season.

Let me know if that soap works. What was the name of that stuff?

[ashauler]

The garden area that I have these in has been our family garden since I was a kid. It has proven to be very productive over the years. Never had the soil tested, perhaps that would be interesting to do.

I have no idea what the name of the soap is....I'll look on the bottle next time I'm out and let you know. It has proven successful for my Father over the years.

[ashauler]

O.K., 18 days in the ground. Let's see if I can post photo's:

Here is Planting Day, 12 June (sorry, I hadn't figured out how to rotate the pic yet):


Here is the crop on 20 June:


And here we are this morning:


The three closest plants to the camera were just transplanted from pots to the ground today. I fear I let them get too big in the pots and that they will suffer serious transplant shock as a result. The stem and leaves seem to be very healthy though, so I expect them to recover and do fine.

All four Florida Sumatra plants are doing very well:


The best of the sumatras....though not by much:


Argentine (the lone survivor):


Long Red Leaf:


Long Red Leaf transplants:


Small Stock Black Mammoth:


Small Stock transplants:


The insecticidal soap that I am using is Safer.....that's the brand, not only the expectation. You can see some minor pest damage on a few of the leaves, however, it is just that, very minor and not happening on every plant. I did not reapply the soap today....didn't feel the need.

Overall I'm very happy with the progress so far. Though it is hard to tell the size of the plants from the photo's, the Florida Sumatra plants are about 14" tall, or so. I'll use a yardstick in the next series of photo's to provide some scale.

I have also found a forum that has a wealth of information regarding the planting, tending, harvesting, curing, fermenting....etc, of tobacco. Seems to be a good bunch of people with a huge amount of knowledge to draw from. One member has 7000 plants in his field.

Mark,
Thanks so much for allowing me to participate in this project!!!

[mrtr33]

Awesome pics, man. Good call on the yardstick - I'll have to do that next time I take pics (I'll try this week).

I find it interesting that you're having so much luck with the Florida Sumatra. I only have one of those, and it's the weakest plant by far. I still have several plants in pots, but only because I don't have any room for them and can't bear to throw them out. How long are your leaves?

Thanks for the tip on the insecticide; the insect problem I had when I put the plants in the ground seems to have dissipated. I'm guessing it's part of the hardening process once the plants are introduced to the elements.

I've been meaning to check out that forum you sent over, I just can't find the time - yet. I'm anxious to show these plants off, though, and the inevitable question looms in the back of my mind: what do I do with them once they are fully matured? Are you going to try drying and curing them?

[ashauler]

snip........ How long are your leaves?

snip......I'm anxious to show these plants off, though, and the inevitable question looms in the back of my mind: what do I do with them once they are fully matured? Are you going to try drying and curing them?

The plants I just transplanted this morning have leaves that completely cover my hand, so maybe 7" x 4" or so. I would guess the plants in the ground, the larger specimens anyway, have leaves in the 10" range. I'll measure them next time I'm out to be more exact.

Yes, I plan on trying to dry and cure any harvestable leaves that I am able to obtain. Fermenting will most likely pose the greatest challenge, depending on when they ripen. If this happens in late August or September I may have warm enough temps to ferment for a month or so......which, from what I've read is way too short. However, on the forum I gave you, there are some interesting options for home-made kilns and fermenting chambers just for this situation. We'll see.

I'm just starting to read up on the harvesting/drying/fermenting process now. Hopefully by harvest time I'll have some kind of plan.

[mrtr33]

Thought I'd update the progress of the tobacco garden.

So, the weather here lately has been kind of rainy and overcast, with humidity levels pretty high. As I'd hoped, the plants have been responding to this heat/humidity/wetness combination well. Photos are below.

The "left" garden (all are Black Mammoth except for top right, it's Florida Sumatra)



The "right" garden (two on the left are Black Mammoth, top right is Long Red Leaf and bottom right is Argentina)



Taking a cue from ashauler with his last update, I included a measuring stick in some of the individual plant shots. For a few of them, I even measured the leaves, which I'll provide where applicable, but the mosquitoes were feasting on me, so I didn't have the patience to get accurate readings on them all. I'm measuring plant height here as the highest point on the plant itself; it may not be the most accurate way to depict it - someone correct me if this isn't the case.

Florida Sumatra
largest leaf length: unavailable
largest leaf width: unavailable
plant height: 18"
This plant has really surprised me. Refer to previous posts as to why; it started out as kind of a "runty" plant, and just never really took off like the others did. With this latest spell of weather, though, it's done really well.



Black Mammoth
largest leaf length: 13.5"
largest leaf width: 8.25"
plant height: 18"
This plant looks to be growing "out" more than it's growing "up". I mean, it's still growing in height, but everything about this plant seems squatty to me. The leaves are broader and fatter, but not as long. So far, so good; I have a total of 5 of these in the garden now.



Long Red Leaf
largest leaf length: 15"
largest leaf width: 7.5"
plant height: 20"
The biggest plant in the garden now. It might not look like it, but these pictures don't do it justice; it has the best looking leaves, the best color in the leaves, and the thickest stalk. The leaves are very long and narrower than, say, the Black Mammoth leaves. As it looks right now, if I do end up drying any leaves, this plant will provide the best of them.



Argentina
largest leaf length: 14"
largest leaf width: 7"
plant height: 18"
Probably my second best plant. For a seed that I didn't think would even grow (because it was designated and sold for growing in the 2009 season), this plant has done quite well. It also sports a thick stalk, good leaf color and rigidity, and looks like it will match up well with the Long Red Leaf in size. Time will tell.



This is really getting good. Next week I'll probably feed again; the forecast calls for a slight possibility of rain all week with the temps in the mid-90's; then we have a whole week of 100's. We'll see how they do. I also wanted to point out that the leaves droop every day due to the heat; it looks like they are dehydrated and droopy. I've tried watering twice a day at different times of the day in order to keep them from doing that, thinking that it may be hurting the plants. I don't think it's hurting anything, though.

Thanks for reading.