MAB 2020 (Virginia Gold)

[MAB]

Hi Everyone and I hope you are all well!
As the title says, this year I will only grow Virginia Gold (summer 2018 seeds) because last year I had a small harvest and this year I will try to have a lot.
And I suppose the best variety for my soil and climatic conditions is Virginia.

So, Sunday 12 April 2020, the day of Easter, I sowed and what follows is a small summary of the phase / stage of the transplant.


May 22, 2020: 40th day after sowing. Seedlings ready for transplanting in the garden:




May 24, 2020: 42nd day after sowing. Transplant in the garden:




May 24, 2020: Transplantation. Aerial panorama:



Yes, you don't see the plants .. LOL, because they are under the black baskets. I need the baskets to protect them from the sun which already has very strong UVA rays.

After a few days I start to get them some morning sun (until midday) and evening (from 5:00 PM onwards):




Sunday 31 May 2020 ended the first week in the garden for my plants. This is a pic of Garden A:



And these are two close up images of one of the best plants, 80% of the cultivation has a size like this:






Well, now I am in the hands of luck, there is little I can do against the storm or an attack of locusts! Let's touch wood! (here we say "touch iron").
See you next week

 

[stdly]

Nice thanks for sharing.

Steve

 

[Oldfella]

Hi Everyone and I hope you are all well!
As the title says, this year I will only grow Virginia Gold (summer 2018 seeds) because last year I had a small harvest and this year I will try to have a lot.
And I suppose the best variety for my soil and climatic conditions is Virginia.

So, Sunday 12 April 2020, the day of Easter, I sowed and what follows is a small summary of the phase / stage of the transplant.


May 22, 2020: 40th day after sowing. Seedlings ready for transplanting in the garden:

View attachment 30860


May 24, 2020: 42nd day after sowing. Transplant in the garden:

View attachment 30862


May 24, 2020: Transplantation. Aerial panorama:

View attachment 30864

Yes, you don't see the plants .. LOL, because they are under the black baskets. I need the baskets to protect them from the sun which already has very strong UVA rays.

After a few days I start to get them some morning sun (until midday) and evening (from 5:00 PM onwards):

View attachment 30865


Sunday 31 May 2020 ended the first week in the garden for my plants. This is a pic of Garden A:

View attachment 30866

And these are two close up images of one of the best plants, 80% of the cultivation has a size like this:

View attachment 30867

View attachment 30868


Well, now I am in the hands of luck, there is little I can do against the storm or an attack of locusts! Let's touch wood! (here we say "touch iron").
See you next week

Looks like you're going to get a nice crop. They're looking very healthy.
Cheers Oldfella

 

[CobGuy]

Looking good!

 

[Knucklehead]

Here we say “knock on wood”. I have no idea why. Your plants are looking great. Is that a drone aerial view or are you sitting on the barbed wire taking a photograph? Keep us updated we love those photos.

 

[Radagast]

Looks great

 

[Charly]

Good job, the plants are healthy.

 

[MAB]

Hello everyone! And thanks for the replies! How long have I not updated the Log, but nothing important has happened!

@ Knucklehead: yes, I'm sitting on the barbed wire taking a photograph..LOL

Well, today, Sunday 5 Jeuly 2020, ended the 6th week in the field for my plants, and the Knee-High stage also ended:



Now, the height of the plants varies between 60 cm. the smallest (1.96 feet) and 90 cm. the largest (2.95 feet). They have between 14 and 16 leaves with a length between 40 cm. the smallest (15.74 inch) and 90 cm. the bigs (23.62 inches). I hope I translated the Anglo-Saxon measures well!
A couple of closer pics:

Garden A:




Garden B:




This year I had about a dozen sun-burnt leaves, this is an example:




In some days the midday sun is really strong and above all the ultraviolet rays are of a very high degree, today they will be 8.9 on a scale from 1 to 10, but in some days it has exceeded 9 !!

I would like to ask for advice: do I do well to cut away the area of the sun-burnt leaf? Or do I let it go on as it is?
Thank you!

 

[deluxestogie]

Beautiful grow. I would just ignore the damaged leaf. Decide what to do with if after curing.

Bob

 

[MAB]

Ah OK! Thanks Bob.

Anyway, I was reading the Mad Farmers 2020 Grow Blog now and you wrote about hail:

On the bright side, hail makes filler.
Bob

What does it mean?

 

[deluxestogie]

Hail damages tobacco leaves. So lovely wrappers and binders instead become filler. An attempt at humor.

Bob

 

[MAB]

ah ah,,, I was thinking of a new thing, a new discovery thanks Bob

 

[CobGuy]

Fantastic ... congrats!
I like the "scarecrow" you've made too.

~Darin

 

[MAB]

Thanks Darin, unfortunately the hat covers the face of the scarecrow, otherwise it would have been better ..

However, I have two scarecrows because the magpies pounce on the leaves to catch the insects and obviously damage the leaves ... unfortunately, the insects without their predator have multiplied !!

 

[MAB]

Hello everyone! And thanks for the reruns! How long have I not updated the Log, but nothing important has happened!
Well, Sunday, August 16, 2020, the 12th week in the garden for my plants ended, and for many of them the rapid growth stage with 31 flowering plants out of the total 56 plants also ended:



Now, the height of the plants varies between 165 cm. the smallest (5.41 feet) and 185 cm. the largest (6.06 feet).
I can no longer count the number of leaves because I have started to harvest but I can say that the length of the leaf is between 60 cm. the smallest (23.62 inch) and 75 cm. the largest (29.52 inch).
I hope I have translated the Anglo-Saxon measures well!

A couple of pics closer, the plants begin to show their legs:

Garden A








Garden B



Also on Sunday, I finished the harvest of the leaves low on the stem and the card-box of the cured leaves begins to fill:



Well, I know that my blog is quite boring, so I take advantage of this space to get comments on this image seen on the web:



My question is: What are the two women doing?

It seems that the Italian tobacco field is divided into two strains: in the foreground the plants are topped and behind the women there is a crop that is not topped.

My other consideration is that huge suckers with floral heads have taken off from the topped plants in the foreground ... so if I wanted to eliminate those suckers, I would cut a bit above the tall leaves of the plant, instead the two women are handling the floral part , it almost looks like they're cutting the leaves and keeping the flower heads, yeah because those long sucker-stems are leafless!

I really don't understand. Anyone have any opinion? Thank you!

 

[deluxestogie]

Your tobacco is looking good. Nice work.

About that photo of the two folks in the tobacco field: I will take a wild guess. The entire field may be a single variety. The women are harvesting all of the small, powerful leaf from the upper stalks, and then top all of the upper stalk. They are working their way toward the plants in the background.

Bob

 

[Knucklehead]

Your tobacco is looking good. Nice work.

About that photo of the two folks in the tobacco field: I will take a wild guess. The entire field may be a single variety. The women are harvesting all of the small, powerful leaf from the upper stalks, and then top all of the upper stalk. They are working their way toward the plants in the background.

Bob

Are they topping the plants in the foreground in preparation for a sucker grow?

 

[MAB]

Knucklehead, Bob, do you think those long branches that end with the floral head are from the main stem or are they suckers?
I looked a bit at traditional cultivation in Umbria and saw this image of Kentucky tobacco from a long time ago:



As you can see, it appears that they let the flower branch grow but removed the small leaves at the top of the stem!

 

[deluxestogie]

The old photo shows an untrimmed stalk, terminating in a crows foot (short, diverging stems). It's leaves have been removed. When a plant is first topped, then allowed to sprout all the suckers at the top, you end up with the very long branches shown in the color photo, each terminating in a new, secondary bud head.

Bob

 

[MAB]

Bob, I agree with you, but I ask myself: why do they do this? It's a huge waste of time (and money), they are professional growers, and they must have a good reason to do it! It seems to be a particular cultivation method… I don't know.

Also, doing a search, I found two more images and it seems that they pull the flowers away too !! :