Amersfoort in Indonesia 2016

[Isabel]

Hi all,

After having renamed the Amerongen tobacco into Amersfoort, it would be nice to keep a grow blog. As explained earlier, some of our friends and family members have a few Amersfoort tobacco plants in their garden in the Netherlands. We gave these plants away as we were moving back to Indonesia for work. One friend decided to prime and cure some of the leaves. Others wanted to keep the plants the way they are now and decided not to go further into processing. To keep track of these results of our friend, have a look here: http://fairtradetobacco.com/threads/6852-Amersfoort


We bought a new bag with seeds from the tabaksteelt museum in Amerongen to bring it with us to Indonesia and grow some of these tobacco plants here. Until now we haven't used any fertilizers. The soil we used we buy at a local shop selling it for growers of mainly fruit.


The first picture shows some of the seeds that have sprouted. The second picture is at the moment that we decided to transplant them into individual pots. The third picture was taken a while after transplanting. The date, 5th of June, was the date that we sowed the tobacco seeds.


We selected the three healthiest looking plants like the one in the fourth picture to rename them into Amersfoort. We do have some 'spare' plants left in case one or another doesn't make it. The last picture shows the plants as they are today the 5th of August.
It's a pity that we are moving to a new place at the end of September so we have to keep all of the plants in pots. Hopefully we are able to put them in the garden eventually!

 

[Chicken]

id bet money.. that just soil dug out of the ground in indonesia is good soil.. gotta love the tropical climates,

 

[SmokesAhoy]

Just curios, why would you rename the strain you are growing? Is it an unknown? If so would you share the back story on it?

 

[Isabel]

We bought the seeds from the "Tabaksteelt museum" in Amerongen. In the past they would grow this tobacco in Amerongen and nearby other areas.
However we did not know exactly what tobacco variety it was and named it Amerongen.
I did some research and found out that the variety probably is some variety of Maryland tobacco called Amersfoort.
In the thread Amersfoort under Cigar Tobaccos you can read the whole story.

 

[Tutu]

id bet money.. that just soil dug out of the ground in indonesia is good soil.. gotta love the tropical climates,

Originally the Indonesian soil is very fertile indeed. Most islands here have volcanoes. But exhaustive farming on certain areas, especially here on Java, has made it deteriorate. On other islands not so much. The climate on the other hand is brilliant, you are right. Well suited for growing most plants. Rather than digging our own soil we buy these packages of soil at a small shop near the main road in town. Mostly we buy one kind that is supposedly ideal for growing melons. Below is a picture of the small shop. The owner is in the picture as well. Note the Indonesian flag pole because it will be independence day coming 17th. Cheers!

 

[Isabel]

Hi everyone,

It is time for an update on the growth of the Amersfoort tobacco. I decided that the plants should be exposed to more sunlight for short periods of time so that they can get used to that.
Since we are working during the day and are not able to put the plants in the sun for a while and take them out, AEdeVries came up with the idea of building a small greenhouse.
He used a transparent piece of plastic to let through some of the sunlight. So now the plants are not exposed to direct sunlight and we can leave them under it for the greater part of the day.



Our plants have grown but some of the leaves do not grow properly. They are curling and are some do not have the more rounder shape as you would expect.
As AEdeVries explained, we buy soil at a local shop here and we are not very sure about the exact composition.
Does one of you know what could be the problem causing these leaves to grow improperly? What should I do?

 

[BigBonner]

I believe I would get rid of that plastic sheet covering the plants . When the sun pops out it is just like car windows rolled up . It gets hot quick .
A really thin shear curtain cover or just plain sun would be best .

 

[deluxestogie]

Our plants have grown but some of the leaves do not grow properly. They are curling and are some do not have the more rounder shape as you would expect. Does one of you know what could be the problem causing these leaves to grow improperly? What should I do?

View attachment 18660

This appears to be the result of very early insect damage to the developing leaves. As they continue to grow, they take on odd shapes. I would expect later leaves to not exhibit this.

Bob

 

[Tutu]

I believe I would get rid of that plastic sheet covering the plants . When the sun pops out it is just like car windows rolled up . It gets hot quick .
A really thin shear curtain cover or just plain sun would be best .

It heats up a bit more gradually due to the sun not reaching the plastic sheets until about 1pm. They seem to cope with the heat. When we leave them exposed to full sun they seem to have more difficulty. They have been growing fast the last couple of days. Maybe we'll take one out and put it next to the 'greenhouse' to see if it grows better. But the shade provided by the (rather thick) plastic layer seems to do a good job.

This appears to be the result of very early insect damage to the developing leaves. As they continue to grow, they take on odd shapes. I would expect later leaves to not exhibit this.

Thanks for the insight. Other than the odd shape, the leafs seem to be in good condition. We will keep a close watch on how they develop further. Our intention is not to use any pesticides.

 

[Gavroche]

. Our intention is not to use any pesticides.

You are right, I made the same thing but it is necessary to kill in the hand we can put of the BT if some caterpillars become greedy


And there are biological insecticides...

 

[Isabel]

After further inspecting the leaves we have indeed found some insects..
There are small white flies and we saw another small flie which you can see in the picture in the right, which is hopefully clear enough.
We often see the second type of fly on the new forming leaves.



What could we do to get rid of them in an biological way? We don't want to use any chemical pesticides.

 

[Tutu]

To add to that, the last of these three pictures is not Amersfoort but Kasturi. It too has some of the insect marks like the earlier pictures posted, though is affected to a lesser extend

 

[deluxestogie]

What could we do to get rid of them in an biological way?

The biological method of herbivore removal is to eat the herbivore.

An alternative would be to mist the plants with mild, soapy water. The soap works only by causing the insects to dehydrate, and only affects the insects directly sprayed. There is no residual effect. Also, spray in the evening, so that you avoid wetting the leaves in direct sunlight and causing the leaves to scald.

Usually, if the little tobacco plants can grow rapidly, this minor insect damage becomes insignificant.

Bob

 

[Isabel]

The biological method of herbivore removal is to eat the herbivore.

This seems a perfect job for AEdeVries!

 

[Tutu]

The blend we made with garlic, onion, chili and tobacco chased away most of the whiteflies. The source of the problems was the close proximity to an bed of garden flowers carrying a lot of whiteflies. The tobacco is now a bit further away. However, the other little flying insects seem to arrive in larger numbers, regardless of the potion we sprayed on the plants. They mostly hide in new leafs starting to form. On the other hand, the new leafs don't seem to take on strange forms any longer! We will be in Singapore for a few days from Saturday until Friday. Looking forward to see how they have grown once we get back!

 

[Isabel]

The tobacco plants were outgrowing their small pots so we decided to transplant them into big containers.






The first photo shows the three Amersfoort tobacco plants in the orange pots. We also have one Kasturi plant, which is in the pink pot, the one in the back.
The Kasturi plant is a bit older than the Amersfoort plants. When we started to grow Kasturi we had 8 plants but only one survived. This one is doing great.
We transplanted the Kasturi plant first and later on the Amersfoort as well.
We used different ratios of fertilizers which you can see in the photos (don't mind the mess). From left to right the ratios of NPK are; 6-4-8, 8-5-10, and 12-6-9.
The last photo shows the transplanted Amersfoort in the garden. We give them labels with the ratios of fertilizer so that later if there are any differences in growth we might be able to see what ratio works best.
Regarding the white flies, most of them are gone. There are still a lot of the other insects but luckily they don't really seem to do much harm.

 

[Floppy2]

Neem oil. It is an all natural alternative which I have used successfully on my tobacco when it had those very same bugs on it. I also use neem oil on my veggies. I spray it on my tomatoes and especially on my brassicas (broccoli, cabbages, brussel sprouts and such) Also! Use Thuricide! It is also a natural bug controller that will keep away the tobacco worms. Use it also. Helped a great deal!

bjr

 

[SmokesAhoy]

Imidacloprid.

Bye bye problem

You can literally see when it wears off.

 

[Tutu]

The culprits look like this. Besides knowing how to kill them, does anybody know what they're called? With a mix of garlic, onion, hot chili's and tobacco stems blended and sprayed on the plants, most of them die. Not all of them though. But then again we find it hard to pinpoint what harm they do to the plants. It seems like they like to be in the leafs' shade but they don't seem to eat the plant. Would be nice to know what they're called.

 

[deluxestogie]

I'm unable to identify the insects in the photos. I've noticed quite a few species of insects that hatch eggs on the underside of tobacco leaves, yet don't seem to injure the plants.

Bob