A proposal....

[Jitterbugdude]

I just got off the phone with a lab that does tissue testing. I plan to get my tobacco leaf tested this summer. What I would really like to do is test the leaf at bud stage, 3 weeks later and 3 weeks after that. I would also like to do a soil test at the same time. I think this might yield some valuable data as to what is the best way (via fertilization and or watering) to grow tobacco for best yield or best quality product. For instance, we know that Nitrogen is needed in early growth stage and that it should stop being supplied to the plant at bud stage. I would like to do these tests to see what actually does happen at the various stages of growth and hopefully correlate the results to the best fertilizer to use as well as if variety matters ( does Turkish behave differently than Burley?). That is what "I'd like to do" however, my wallet dictates that I will probable just get a tissue test done at bud stage and another at 3 weeks ( for one variety only).

My proposal: It would be nice if there was a repository that we could send money too. If someone has some testing they would want to do they could submit a proposal. We would then vote on the validity of such a proposal and the money would be sent to that individual. He would then report the results.

Thoughts?????

Randy B

 

[Tom_in_TN]

My proposal: It would be nice if there was a repository that we could send money too. Thoughts????? Randy B

PM me and I'll give you the address to send the $$$ - small, unmarked bills only.

 

[FmGrowit]

I think it's a good idea, but our active membership is too low to make your idea viable right now. It would be nice if we had some sort of income from the site for things like this, but the membership is still too low to attract any kind of serious advertizing. Bob has tried to promote FTT gear (shirts, mugs, journals etc.) without any luck (I think one shirt was sold). We tried ball caps and about 10 were sold, which doesn't even put a dent in the bill for them.

I hired a forum manager to work on things like building a forum shop and improving search engine ranking, but he's AWOL. I'll try to find another one, but honestly...they're are all prima donnas. After dealing with almost 10 of them over the last year, I am qualified to make that claim. I'm going to keep plugging away at the forum store, but with the way web-designers operate, I wouldn't expect any changes in its status for at least another year.

Last year I tried doing a fund raiser to send a member to the Tobacco Workers Conference and got $35 in pledges.

The reality of the site is, the reason most people are here is to save money on tobacco. Most members simply don't have the money to donate or to buy gear.

I think there is some opportunity to generate funds by sell seeds, but I won't have time to do it until I retire...in about 20 years.

 

[jeapadrenaline]

I like the idea, but fmgrowit is right, at least in my case, i have no money to spare. Heck, due to healt problems i cant work and sometimes i dont even have enough for basic groceries. But any research info available certainly is most welcome. I am first time grower this year and been reading a lot as i depend on a good, smokeable crop.
i thank each and every one who contributes to this site. And a special thanks gos out to FmGrowit

 

[deluxestogie]

Gregor Mendel, with zero budget and a handful of peas, was able to deduce the fundamental rules of genetics in his hobby garden. Given all the crazy things each of us is attempting with tobacco, there's already quite a bit of tobacco research in progress:

• comparative germination techniques
• seedling culture
• approaches to transplantation
• testing the boundaries of soil suitability (e.g. Daniel's desert BBL)
• "organic" vs. chemical control of tobacco pests (Will Chicken's chickens harm the tobacco, or just eat the bugs?)
• mulching options
• benefits and downsides of selected transplant dates
• fertilizer considerations

The list is much longer. So long as members document their efforts, the results of all this research are available for free. And heaven knows, everything that appears in this prestigious forum is thoroughly peer-reviewed--publicly! It really doesn't get much better than this, regardless of the venue.

Bob

 

[FmGrowit]

I believe this site will grow in spite of the political arena.

If the Dems maintain the office, membership will grow due to necessity. If the Conservatives retake the office, the site will grow due to choice.

I wish upon you all the ability to buy commercial tobacco. If you can't, we will try to assist in supplying you with the best advise on growing your own or purchasing the highest quality "make your own" tobacco at the least possible cost.

This site really only condemns the unfair demonization of tobacco and its use as a scapegoat for all of societies health issues.

 

[Jitterbugdude]

Gregor Mendel, with zero budget

The problem is: I'm no Gregor Mendel!

ps.. I'm also no Joe Kennedy

 

[johnlee1933]

Once again Bob is right on the money !

In 1958 I was hired by Western Electric the manufacturing arm of the Bell Telephone system to work at their Allentown PA plant. Two years later I was invited to join Bell Telephone Laboratories. On my first day I signed the patent release forms (and received my $1) and got my first notebook. These books were large brown spiral bound books with consecutively numbered pages. Everybody had one. I was instructed to note my efforts, results and ANYTHING I observed every day. At the end of each day you signed and dated the book. The object was to provide a trail of evidence for any project you worked on. It got to be a habit. No entry was too small or far out. Some guys would even add the shopping list their wives gave them on the phone. I recorded things like the first successful epitaxial growth on single crystal Germanium, my kids births, progress on the first printed circuit chips (50 micron line width, they are now down to 0.2), the recipe for a good dry martini and anything else of note. Each time you filled a book a new one was supplied and the old one turned in. The whole idea was innovated by the Labs and was vastly successful. Even negative results were valuable as they saved others from going down the same dead ends or allowed them to spot your mistakes. The books helped initiate and defend hundreds of patent applications.

I continue to write things down to this day. Looking thru I find a lot of garbage but now and then an old idea will be useful to me or others.

It seems some of our members now do something similar. I recommend it. If you do it at the keyboard as I do I strongly encourage "auto save" and periodic transfer to permanent storage media. (hard disk crashes do happen.)

I'm not the sharpest tack in the box but being able to track my failures and occasional success as saved me loads of time and effort and maybe helped somebody else down the road. It also helps you to throw away damned fool ideas.

The downside is that you tend to think "What a bunch of unauthenticated horse shit that is." when you read stuff on the net.

My advice (for what it's worth) is write it down, check it out and share the outcome.

John

 

[Chicken]

i think your on to something,,,
i mean, we all know potash is good for the baccy,,,, but what else is good for it,?

ive got chicken manure/ sawdust tilled in my garden,,, so for me to do a comparrison of my fertilizer,,,{ fox-farm grow big } wouldnt work, because my soil is fortified also,,,,

but id like to see a plant grown with fox-farm vs, a plant not grown with it,

 

[Rayshields]

Another question that I have is, has anyone experimented with a product called Spray-N-Grow? I have used it with great success on peppers, tomatoes and herbs. It is organic. I can find no info on the net about using it on tobacco. Does anyone have any experience here...or is this another experiment to log into our book?

 

[Jitterbugdude]

What I was aiming for I guess was more of a scientific basis for growing tobacco. Kind of a self fulfillment in the knowledge area for me. I think we all eventually figure out what works for us... eventually. We all settle upon our own choice of fertilizer, potting soil, priming technique etc. I was more curious as to what happens to the nitrogen uptake ( an other things) at bud stage. A lot of people fertilize with some type of nitrogen. My latest soil test showed I was low in nitrate nitrogen and extremely low in ammoniacal nitrogen. I decided to add some ammonium sulfate powder to my garden (as opposed to the granular form). How long does that nitrogen stay viable in the soil? Will it run out by bud stage or continue to feed the plant through priming? Another soil test and tissue culture test would yield some interesting data for me, but it would be just for curiosity's sake. My tobacco grows and smokes fine with the methods I currently use. Another issue: Almost all the Ag Services have different things to say about calcium and tobacco. More vigilant (read that as.. $$$) testing of calcium would tell me how much calcium MY TOBACCO sucks up and how much I need to replace based on my tobacco. I like the way my tobacco tastes and would not want to change things based on an "Expert" saying that I need "x" amount of calcium in my soil... make sense or am I babbling?

Randy B

 

[Chicken]

experimintation,,, leads to greater sucess,,,

and i like reading your BABBLING

 

[BarG]

Babble away , Your tobacco smokes great. What kind of capital are you looking at to run your tests, just out of curiosity?

Chicken, does that cigar stay lit perpetualy?

 

[Chicken]

yes it does,,, with each puff he takes,, is the further away from big-baccy i get