From Bud to Harvest

[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.

[ashauler]

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:


Argentina harvested 3....trashed 8.....total harvested this year 12 leaves from 1 plant:


Long Red Leaf harvested 7....trashed 9...total harvested 43 leaves from 4 plants:


Small Stalk Black Mammoth harvested 2...trashed 13..total harvested 30 leaves from 4 plants:


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:


The root systems:




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.

[mrtr33]

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.

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.

The root systems:

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

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 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.

[ashauler]

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.

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.

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

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

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

[Zywiec]

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

[ashauler]

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

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