From Bud to Harvest

[ashauler]

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.

[ashauler]

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:


Florida Sumatra. 15 leaves harvested, largest leaf 20" x 13"


example FS leaf:


Long Red Leaf:
16 leaves harvested. largest leaf 30" x 14"

example LRL leaf:


Argentina:
6 leaves harvested. largest 24" x 11"


Small Stalk Black Mammoth:
17 leaves harvested. largest, and largest of the crop, 30 1/2 " X 17"



Overall view of the harvest...not a very good pic, but you get the idea:


Some ugly bastard with one of the leaves:


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.

[mrtr33]

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.

[ashauler]

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

[ashauler]

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:

Here is what I removed from the entire crop. There are also 2 leaves that were too bug damaged for processing.

Crop before harvest:


Crop after harvest:


Argentina....whopping harvest. Largest leaf 25" x 12" (3 leaves)


Florida Sumatra. Largest 19" x 11.5" (15 leaves)


Long Red Leaf. Largest 33.5" x 13" (14 leaves)


Small Stalk Black mammoth. Largest 31" x 14" (11 leaves)

[Smoked!]

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):


Attack of the voracious, um, whatever ate this plant.


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!



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.)




Do you guys think the seeds will be viable?

[mrtr33]

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.....

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.