The Tobacco Plant Project

[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.

[ashauler]

Well, I haven't been able to work much with the crop since my mobility is limited at the moment, but I was able to con my wife into taking these photos on 8 July. Sadly, I wasn't persuasive enough to get measurements or a yard-stick included. Hopefully I'll be able to get out in the garden this weekend and get some detailed statistics for each variety.

Overall the crop is doing very well, imo. You will see some insect damage on some of the leaves, however, it seems to be confined to just a couple of plants. Perhaps my application of the insecticidal soap has been uneven or it was washed off some leaves more than others during some recent rains we have had. It has been hot an dry here for several consecutive days now.....hi's in the upper 90's with heat indexes of 107+.

Overall Crop view:


Florida Sumatra. 2nd plant from the fence shows some insect damage. I would guess the tallest plant is approximately 20" or so:


The lone wolf Argentine. The white spots visible on the leaves is residue from the insecticidal soap. One small spot of damage to one of the lower leaves....I may remove it next time I'm out. I have been pulling some of the bottoms leaves of all the plants if they yellow or appear to be more rounded than the main leaves. No ill effects from this "pruning" that I've seen yet.:


Long Red Leaf. First pic is of the plants set on the original planting date of 12 June. 2nd pic is of the supplemental planting on 30 June.:




Small Stalk Black Mammoth. Again, first pic is of the original planting and 2nd is the supplemental:

[mrtr33]

That is a beautiful picture there. Nice looking plants.

How far apart did you space your plants?

Unfortunately, I, too, have been neglecting everyday care over the plants. But for the most part, they've been doing just fine without me. I haven't had much problem with pests since my initial aphid infestation. Something that helped me was spraying not only on the top of the leaves, but also on the underside of the leaves. I think I did that every other day for about a week - that seemed to do the trick.

My newest thing now is keeping the leaves in prime condition - a few fallen twigs (my garden is underneath the outstretched arms of a pecan tree in our neighbor's yard) have punctured holes in a few leaves. Nothing too bad, but not desirable, either.

The weather here last week was hot and wet. This week so far has been overcast and still hot. The humidity level is ridiculous. I think the plants are loving it. I've been watering almost every morning if it didn't rain the day/night before. I'll feed them again this weekend.

I'll also get some pictures up this weekend.

Does anyone have any idea about when to harvest these leaves? If I let them go, will they just keep getting bigger? It won't get cold here until December, and even then, it won't freeze until probably the end of January. I seem to remember reading something somewhere that tobacco plants are actually perennials - you can cut them down to a stub, and supposedly, they'll grow back. I do know they drain much of the nutrients out of the soil, so I wouldn't imagine that would work for long.

[ashauler]

That is a beautiful picture there. Nice looking plants.

How far apart did you space your plants?

Thank you. I spaced them about 18" apart. From the looks of it that may not have been far enough....we'll see.

Unfortunately, I, too, have been neglecting everyday care over the plants. But for the most part, they've been doing just fine without me. I haven't had much problem with pests since my initial aphid infestation. Something that helped me was spraying not only on the top of the leaves, but also on the underside of the leaves. I think I did that every other day for about a week - that seemed to do the trick.

Yes, I do spray top and bottom of the leaves with each application. With the limited damage that is evident so far, I don't think I'll put much more effort into pest control than I am currently.

My newest thing now is keeping the leaves in prime condition - a few fallen twigs (my garden is underneath the outstretched arms of a pecan tree in our neighbor's yard) have punctured holes in a few leaves. Nothing too bad, but not desirable, either.

Yes, this was my intention also, especially with the Sumatra since they will be the primary wrapper leaves in this crop. I'm not so concerned with the others as they will be used as filler and binder....well, Long Red will be the binder with small stock and argentine being the fillers.

The weather here last week was hot and wet. This week so far has been overcast and still hot. The humidity level is ridiculous. I think the plants are loving it. I've been watering almost every morning if it didn't rain the day/night before. I'll feed them again this weekend.

Hot and humid here as well....not so much overcast, partly cloudy at best. We are expecting rain this evening or tomorrow. I feed the plants, miracle grow for tomatos, weekly during one of the watering sessions. Seems to be working just fine.

I'll also get some pictures up this weekend.

Does anyone have any idea about when to harvest these leaves? If I let them go, will they just keep getting bigger? It won't get cold here until December, and even then, it won't freeze until probably the end of January. I seem to remember reading something somewhere that tobacco plants are actually perennials - you can cut them down to a stub, and supposedly, they'll grow back. I do know they drain much of the nutrients out of the soil, so I wouldn't imagine that would work for long.

Look forward to your photo's.....I'll try to get measurements on my next batch.

As far as harvesting goes, I'm just really starting to read up on that. From what I understand, the leaves "ripen" in stages. When they ripen, they get much thicker and may even "bubble" a bit or start to turn colors....this is when you would make the decision to either stalk harvest or harvest the ripe primings one at a time, from the bottom up. I haven't learned enough about it to make a decision on which way to go yet, but I'll keep reading and let you know what I decide.

[ashauler]

I imposed on Pops, once again, to take some photo's of the plants since last I had was a week old. The pictures from 14 July were taken at mid-day. The temp here was 99 and the heat index was 113. You will see some wilting of the leaves and some of the insect damage. The recovery from wilting is very quick when the sun stops hitting them.

Florida Sumatra 14 July


Argentine 14 July (center of frame)


Small Stalk 14 July....first photo is original planting, second is supplemental planting.



Long Red Leaf 14 July....first photo is original planting...2nd is supplemental planting.



Last night, after the massive heat of the last week, we got some moderate thunderstorms and about 1/2" of rain fell on the crop. Here they are this morning at 8 a.m. The chain link fence in the background is 3' tall for reference. I am pretty pleased with how this is going so far. The majority of the plants have been in the ground for 33 days.....the last 3 plants (only one of which is visible in the photo on the extreme right) only 16 days.

[mrtr33]

Nice pics. Those guys really took off quick. About how often are you watering? I should try feeding as often as you do.

My lone Florida Sumatra plant looks very similar to yours; it's tall, and the leaves are spaced further apart than the other varieties. Considering that these are the "wrapper" leaves, I took a longer look at the leaves this morning; mine don't look very big - at least not as big as other leaves do. We'll see how things end up.

I estimate my plants have been in the ground around 45-50 days or so at this point. I'll try to get pics up tomorrow, but more than likely, it will be Saturday.