Deluxestogie Grow Log 2025

[deluxestogie]

I awakened right at dawn, when the wind was forecast to be zero, so that I could spray some glyphosate in a few spots.

A lovely aspect of Easter Day is that I hear no mowers or other machinery operating while sitting out on the front porch.

I'm smoking a Consuegra #30 EMS, which I purchased just before JR Cigars doubled their price earlier this month. My sky blue, fashion shirt is one that I wore in Saudi Arabia, Sudan, Egypt and Turkey, back in the early 1980s.

Bob

 

[Anders A]

I awakened right at dawn, when the wind was forecast to be zero, so that I could spray some glyphosate in a few spots.

A lovely aspect of Easter Day is that I hear no mowers or other machinery operating while sitting out on the front porch.

I'm smoking a Consuegra #30 EMS, which I purchased just before JR Cigars doubled their price earlier this month. My sky blue, fashion shirt is one that I wore in Saudi Arabia, Sudan, Egypt and Turkey, back in the early 1980s.

Bob

A very handsome gentleman

 

[adamziegler]

I awakened right at dawn, when the wind was forecast to be zero, so that I could spray some glyphosate in a few spots.

A lovely aspect of Easter Day is that I hear no mowers or other machinery operating while sitting out on the front porch.

I'm smoking a Consuegra #30 EMS, which I purchased just before JR Cigars doubled their price earlier this month. My sky blue, fashion shirt is one that I wore in Saudi Arabia, Sudan, Egypt and Turkey, back in the early 1980s.

Bob

Happy Easter!

 

[deluxestogie]

With some rain last night, and a partially drizzling day in the low 70s today, I decided it would be perfect for stripping some of my 2024 stalks that have remained in the shed since harvest. Since each stalk bore a Tyvek identifier tag, each of those tags was tossed into its respective bag.

The leaves were nicely pliable, while the leaf stem junctions were still crispy enough to snap of easily.

Bob

 

[deluxestogie]

This is poor performance for this year. I suspect two issues.

As you can see to the bottom right, those cells appear dry. The tray assembly is warped slightly upward in that corner, so those particular cells were not receiving as much watering as the others in the tray.

The other issue is that, for this season, I did not use fresh starting mix. Instead, I used the leftover mix that I had prepared for last year. Although it was held in a 5 gallon bucket with a lid, I wonder if it altered in some manner. Perhaps the pH slowly changed. Perhaps the "slow release" fertilizer of the MiracleGro sphagnum moss was consumed in microbial processes. Early on, I noticed that the seedling mix seemed to want to remain soggy, compared to previous years. The sphagnum moss may have partially rotted.

It's not catastrophic, but certainly disappointing. The Havana 322 and Lancaster Seedleaf should be adequate. I'll just have to settle for many fewer Prilep 66-9/7 than I had intended to put in the garden.

Bob

Edit: My cukes and squash starts are using the same soil mix, and are performing well. Baby tobacco is just so fragile.

 

[deluxestogie]

Eastern Eyed Click Beetle

I just spent 45 minutes of my life observing this impressively clumsy beetle ponderously walking around the floor of my front porch. It's body is about 1½ inches long. Those two, huge "eyes" are actually just decorations on the back of its thorax. It's head is tiny. After I gently disturbed it, it instantly tucked its head and all its legs under its body.

In that posture, it resembles a thick twig, or the feces of a small mammal, or maybe a caterpillar—all in black and white. The beetle remained there, immobile for over 20 minutes.

It never "clicked".

Bob

 

[deluxestogie]

Frost this morning. Temp down to 32°F. (The forecast low temp was 41°F.) Nothing planted out yet.

Bob

 

[Anders A]

Eastern Eyed Click Beetle

I just spent 45 minutes of my life observing this impressively clumsy beetle ponderously walking around the floor of my front porch. It's body is about 1½ inches long. Those two, huge "eyes" are actually just decorations on the back of its thorax. It's head is tiny. After I gently disturbed it, it instantly tucked its head and all its legs under its body.

In that posture, it resembles a thick twig, or the feces of a small mammal, or maybe a caterpillar—all in black and white. The beetle remained there, immobile for over 20 minutes.

It never "clicked".

Bob

It is very cute

 

[Anders A]

Frost this morning. Temp down to 32°F. (The forecast low temp was 41°F.) Nothing planted out yet.

Bob

We had frost on May 2, 5 and 6. The last frost here usually comes in early June.

Besides the fact that frost can kill the plants, do you have any idea what temperature you should wait for before planting the plants out?

I have a feeling that tobacco, like many other plants, does not do well in too cold soil and air. Should we perhaps wait until the average daily temperature is at least 50 Fahrenheit (10 degrees Celsius)? This is to avoid stressing the plants, risking premature flowering and poor growth?

 

[deluxestogie]

what temperature you should wait for before planting the plants out?

I really don't know. My habit has been to wait until the average last frost date, then look at the 15 day forecast. I consider the predicted weather pattern during that period. If if looks worrisome, then I may wait. Otherwise I go ahead and put the plants out as soon after the average last frost date as I can.

For me, the process is a matter of weighing the value of waiting for warmer weather to transplant, vs. the value of warmer weather at the end of the season, for curing.

Bob

 

[deluxestogie]

United States Postal Service:

I drove to the nearest post office 2 days ago, to mail a birthday gift to my niece. Closed.
I drove to the same post office this morning. Their Internet is out, and can't accept a parcel.
I drove 10 miles to the next post office this morning, during a rain storm. They were operating just fine.

So, from this morning (~9:15 am, 12 May 2025), it will take USPS 3 days to deliver my parcel to an address that is 7.7 miles away.

Bob

 

[deluxestogie]

My seedling tray this evening.

I may attempt to plant them out Friday or Saturday. Compared to my grows that maxed out at more than several hundred transplants, this feels like a token grow. That's okay. I have a decade and a half of stored tobacco.

Bob

 

[deluxestogie]

So, from this morning (~9:15 am, 12 May 2025), it will take USPS 3 days to deliver my parcel to an address that is 7.7 miles away.

USPS's secret? They shipped this to a postal center ~50 miles south of the post office where I mailed it. Soon it will travel another 58 miles north, past its origin post office, and up to its destination 7.7 miles north of its origin. Net travel ~108 miles to go 7.7 miles.

Bob

 

[johnny108]

USPS's secret? They shipped this to a postal center ~50 miles south of the post office where I mailed it. Soon it will travel another 58 miles north, past its origin post office, and up to its destination 7.7 miles north of its origin. Net travel ~108 miles to go 7.7 miles.

Bob

Could you give a passing horse rider a flask of hot coffee/whiskey (depending on their age, and the weather), and have them deliver it?
I know that going “old fashioned” is in style of late, but I didn’t think a pony express would be a need that resurfaced.

 

[deluxestogie]

One particular farm, about 150 yards from my house, has a mule. That might do.

Bob

 

[deluxestogie]

The severe rainstorms passed just to the south-east of me over the past 3 days. This morning was beautiful. At about noon, it began to rain again. After lunch, I took a brief nap. When I awakened, my driveway and front lawn were fully flooded. The rain stopped a few hours later.

Maybe that is where this day of the week got its name: Wetnesday.

Bob

 

[deluxestogie]

My garden beds were mud yesterday. With some sunshine for now, I tilled the merely moist, 5' x 12' bed that the tobacco will go into. I may transplant later today, if there is no rain (Ha!), but more likely in a couple of days (Sunday).

I've noticed the local grackles dramatically increasing in concentration, and scavenging grass clippings for nest building. So I'll need to cover my tobacco transplants immediately after they go in the ground, using Agribon AG-15. Otherwise, the grackles will hoist them out, for their nests. I'll also sprinkle the bed with slug bait, prior to covering it.

For now, I'm sitting on the front porch, smoking a cigar, sipping ice water, and enjoying a 10 am temp in the mid-80s, with relative humidity in the mid-80s. Square weather.

Bob

 

[deluxestogie]

There was, indeed, more rain today. My driveway and front yard are once again flooded. More to come overnight. The afternoon storm that swept through, with lightning and thunder, was accompanied by 60 mph wind gusts. All the trees swayed and bent, but nothing broke. Folks 10 miles to the south and east of me were not as fortunate.

So it looks like the tobacco will go out Sunday (18th).

Bob

 

[deluxestogie]

I dumped about 4 gallons of my seedling mix over the garden bed, and tilled the bed for the final time this morning.

Havana 322 (NP), eight of them in the foreground, and Lancaster Seedleaf, four of them beyond. I added imidacloprid (a dose suggested for tomatoes) to the bucket of transplant water, then watered-in each transplant with 2 cups. Next, I sprinkled slug bait over the bed.

Finally, I've covered these tiny transplants with Agribon AG-15, to reduce random damage from birds.

My original plan was for 8 Havana 322, 8 Lancaster Seedleaf, and 16 Prilep 66-9/7. I still have a few extras of the Havana 322 and the Lancaster Seedleaf. Perhaps in another week or so, I may be able to put out a small number of the Prilep. I also plan to put one or two seedlings of any of these 3 into the porch corner bed, so I can watch them, and watch the hummingbirds that show up for their blossoms.

Bob

 

[deluxestogie]

Today, I transplanted one Havana 322 (NP) seedling into my porch corner bed, for my visual enjoyment. (Note the slug bait.)

As the few remaining seedlings in the 1020 tray mature, it appears that, perhaps next week, I will be able to put two more Lancaster Seedleaf plants and a single row of three Prilep 66-9/7 into the garden bed. That would get me up to a total of only 18 tobacco plants for 2025. That's not much, but it's not nothing. [It surpasses my 2010 grow of a trifling 16 plants!]

Bob