Thanks for sharing, i'm looking to connect with Floridians that are willing to share their growing tips and if i may visit since i am on East Central Florida Osceola County, i have four lovely tobacco plants, 3 Piloto's and 1 Negro. They are in small pots and ready for transplant in which i will do this week.
Hello, nice to "meet" you. As this is only my first attempt I am by no means any kind of expert to be giving anyone advice but this is a good opportunity for me to describe what I did do, particularly with my outdoor plants which are doing GREAT. Here's my best Yellow Orinoco and a large Rustica on the left (I had to tie it to a support because it got too top-heavy), and kale in the middle:
I got most of these steps from a farmer who knows what he's doing, but I can't say that anything I've done led to my success, I can only way that nothing I've done seems to have HURT my plants (the outdoor ones at least).
Keep in mind I only have a few plants this time so I dug individual holes. If you're going to be planting a mass of plants, that's a totally different story and you'll need to till and improve the land for months ahead of time. In my area the soil isn't TOO bad, it's very silty and loamy, not nearly as bad and sandy as what I've heard Miami and Keys area is like.
First of all, I made the mistake of trying to locate most of my plants in areas that have constant, direct sunlight. This is a mistake because unlike up north where sunlight is not as strong or abundant, I've found that it is downright murderous and oppressive down here. After only a few minutes in the strong mid-Florida sunlight the plants start to shrivel, so actually a well-shaded or at least partially-shaded spot is best. Unless you have the time to water your plants 3 times a day! (I water about twice a day).
I tilled/cleared the soil of weeds in the spots where I was going to dig, about a week or two before digging, just to make sure any weeds I might have missed died off.
Then I dug holes about 1 1/2' deep and up to 1 1/2' or 2' wide. In a bucket, mixed good-quality commercial "garden soil" with about 1 cup of "Marine Cuisine 7-7-7" marine meal and about 1 cup of "Bio-Fish" 7-7-2 powder per 2 gallons or so of soil. Mixed in some peat moss, plenty of manure, perlite, and vermiculite. Mixed all of the ingredients up real good in the large bucket. Then started filling in the hole a few inches with the mixture. Stopped, then sprinkled:
A couple tablespoons each of gypsum, garden lime, Epsom salts, "Tomato Tone", "Grow Well Tomato & Vegetable" pellets, and "Miracle Gro" orchid food (which is about 20% nitrogen). I did go nuts with the fertilizer but figured they'd need it with how poor the soil is.
Then put a few more inches of the soil mixture, then planted the plant. Then watered it in real good. Watered about twice a day at first. Don't miss more than a or two, or they come close to dying (which I learned the hard way when we went away for a weekend and came back to find them shriveled pathetic remnants of themselves. They did bounce back after watering but I was worried).
Every other day or so I water with the large 2 or 3 gallon cans, with about a tablespoon of Orchid food (or any other food with more than 20% nitrogen) mixed in.
And that's it. The indoor container plants are a completely different process, which I'd be glad to outline if you're interested.
By the way I do have a handful of plants that are still in Solo cups that I don't think I'm going to have time to plant and raise, would you be interested in them? Maybe we could meet halfway. I'm in Lake county, near Tavares.
burleytobaccoextension.ca.uky.edu
ephytia.inra.fr
