Crossing short season varietys with more productive strains. Im back baby!

[Bottenslam]

Hello there. After a intense summer with no time for growing tobacco, i finaly have got the time.
As the first snow is setting, ive started some seeds.

Varieties as of now are Alida and Tofta, that i plan to cross with Rotfront.
Tofta and Alida are as some of you probably know old swedish varietys, with atleast Tofta having history of being grown in My hometown in Finland.
I tried growing these varietys 2023 and found the early blooming of them to be good, but their stem to leaf ratio was low. After topping they seemed to not really do much, maturation was very slow.

This i want to change by mixing in genetics from Rotfront, The most productive strains i grew that year, while retaining the short seed to flower Time.

This grow blog will document this prosess, and hopefully next years grow.

Nice to be back.

 

[Bottenslam]

Tofta and Alida showing signs of life, still waiting for rot front.

Also finaly got a new light up,

300w led, think it will be enough. Thought i got nuked this morning when that thing started shining. Hopefully this will give me a good day night cykle aswell....

 

[Bottenslam]

Tofta seedlings looking pretty. Think the light was a good investment. Ive never gotten the seedlings so compact before. Soon i will repot them individually.
Still waiting for Rotfront. Gonna start another batch If they dont show signs of life soon.

Thinking about ways of keeping the plants small (small pots premarily) but i wonder If this is gonna be a problem for choosing variety typical specimens... Anybody got opinions on this?

 

[GreenDragon]

Short answer: I would worry about it. A more important concern is will there be enough overlap in flowering times between your short and long season varieties to cross pollinate? I have two cherry trees in my yard that flower a week apart every year, so I never get any cherries.

 

[Bottenslam]

Short answer: I would worry about it. A more important concern is will there be enough overlap in flowering times between your short and long season varieties to cross pollinate? I have two cherry trees in my yard that flower a week apart every year, so I never get any cherries.

Hmm, i think it should probably be possible to prolong flowering time by not letting the plant go to seed, as when you top a plant it will continusly try sending up new flowerheads...

But you are right, i should probably try syncing the flowering times, and start some backups in case it doesnt work out.

 

[Bottenslam]

Rotfront finaly starting to grow. About 10 days since sowing, strange.

Alida and Tofta already transplanted individually. I wonder If i should discard them for new seeds as the timing won't be right with Rotfront.

That being said i read about issues regarding premature blooming from chances in light cirkles. I might use atleast some of these to see If i can force blooming by messing with The light.
Could be interesting, would also perhaps let me cut down the time needed to make a stable strain.

 

[johnny108]

24 hour light might be able to induce early flowering…
Did you get your Rot Front from Amazon.de? 10 days is about usual for those seeds.
I wouldn’t throw them out yet (I’m a seedlings hoarder, though). What you could do is start a few (like one row, etc) at one week intervals to get the timing for flowering a bit closer.

 

[Bottenslam]

I was thinking because I read on this forum that sudden shortening of the day can set of flowering, i might test that with extra seedlings, but well see. I won't do it to induse faster flowering times for the cross polination, as flower time is one of the things im selecting for.

I dont know where they are from,as i got them from a friend.

Germination was poor with Rotfront, but i got 6 of them, i think it should be enough.
Seedlings are growing good, they got a bit of nutrient burn as i was a bit quick to transplant, but oh well.
Starting some more Tofta and Alida now.

 

[Bottenslam]

Took the 5 strongest plants and reported them.
Here they are, colour coded, from left to right:
Tofta, Alida and Rot front.

 

[Bottenslam]

Finaly Back home after Christmas. They dried out a bit but seem to be fine. Soon time to clip the leaves. Also started some "latakia"(dont know real name of the strain) at the same time as the others.

 

[Bottenslam]

 

[Knucklehead]

View attachment 54333

That photo is worthy of a frame.

 

[Bottenslam]

That photo is worthy of a frame.

Thank you. Maybe ill redo it when i gotten them out of thoes ugly colored pots haha

 

[Bottenslam]

First issue at hand, i requier you guys wisdom.
As im doing this crossing inside, space is an issue. Meaning there is a heavy selection going on.
Pic above is of Rot front, id like to pick 2 for repotting to use as the parents for the cross.
3 out of 5 are growing taller, and i would say more typical to rotfront. But as i had issues with stems breaking im tempted to pick the ones not streching as much. Would this be a mistake?
I suppose i could go both routes and end up with way to many variations of the same Cross.

 

[Bottenslam]

Im thinking i might go The middle route,and eliminate the 2 talest ones, but keep the shortest one around to see how it behaves as it grows.

 

[deluxestogie]

Would this be a mistake?

The number of individual plants is so small that your outcome will be random luck, regardless of which you choose. Statistically meaningful crossing and selection are difficult at a small scale. But whatever you get will be interesting.

Bob

 

[Bottenslam]

Yeah that is true. And even If that wasnt the case it would still be very hard not to select for suitability for My inside growing setup.. i suppose this is More an intro to crossings than an actuall attempt at getting the final cross. Hopefully during this summer i can get an actuall selection of plants.
I ended up taking the middle ground but still keeping The ones with abnormal growth.


In falling order:
Tofta
Alida
Rotfront
Last row consists of the short Rot front and a darker Tofta.

 

[JukkaPekka]

Nice to see fellow finnish grower. My growing attemp at summer 2023 was a disaster. I am thinking of trying again with Virginia. I will surely follow your growing blog.

 

[Bottenslam]

Hey Jukka, likewise! Growing in Finland is quite tricky, as the season is short getting the timing right is essential, it took me a cupple of years to get everything dialed in. What Part of Finland are you located in?
Virginia is a tricky term, as in our part of The world Virginia often means n. Tubackum... Do you know what variant it is you are growing?
I hope you Make a grow blog for this year, would love to give advise when i can.

 

[JukkaPekka]

Hey Jukka, likewise! Growing in Finland is quite tricky, as the season is short getting the timing right is essential, it took me a cupple of years to get everything dialed in. What Part of Finland are you located in?
Virginia is a tricky term, as in our part of The world Virginia often means n. Tubackum... Do you know what variant it is you are growing?
I hope you Make a grow blog for this year, would love to give advise when i can.

Hello.
I live in Jyväskylä.
I bought the Virginia seeds from Antti Pellonpää who was commercial tobacco grower in Finland but I think he won`t grow tobacco anymore.
I have bought other seeds from suomensiemenpankki.fi and they are (Canik, Cherry red and harrow welvet).