Deluxestogie Grow Log 2025

[deluxestogie]

This morning was cool and soggy. Perfect for stripping leaf that had been stalk-hung in the shed in 2024. This is Long Red—six plants worth. Just a few days prior to harvesting, the plants were subjected to a hail storm. Nearly every leaf was damaged throughout the lamina. I stalk-cut them, hung them in the shed, and tried to forget.

This averages just over ¼-pound per plant. Most of them had 20+ leaves per stalk. It should make some flavorful cigar filler, and perhaps I'll cook some into Cavendish, for pipe blending.

A couple of days ago, I stripped and bagged the three Glessnor plants that had experienced similar damage.

Bob

 

[Tobaccofieldsforever]

Hmmm. I haven't owned a TV in about 15 years.

Bob

Ha, good for you sir! I’m jealous of that. I own them but rarely use them.

 

[Anders A]

Ha, good for you sir! I’m jealous of that. I own them but rarely use them.

This time of year I don't need a TV, I mostly sit in the shade under my big spruce hedge and look out over the tobacco fields. It gives me peace of mind

 

[marksman01]

What do you use the Prilep tobacco for Bob? Coming from the pipe world, I'm not familiar with that variety.

 

[deluxestogie]

What do you use the Prilep tobacco for Bob?

Prilep is a city in North Macedonia. There are a number of varieties of "Prilep" tobacco that were developed from what I believe were Basma strains, and are grown throughout the region of Prilep. My favorite variety of Prilep tobacco is Prilep 66-9/7. It is sturdy, produces high yields of Oriental-quality leaves (typically more than 40 leaves per plant), and can be productively spaced at 12-16". It is a sun-cured variety. While primed and sun-cured Prilep leaf produces the most golden color of end product, I've found that stalk-cutting and stalk-curing in the sun (altogether about 3 weeks, while removing leaves as they cure) is quite nice, and minimal work.

I use my sun-cured Prilep tobacco in pipe blending, just as I would use any other Oriental.

Bob

 

[deluxestogie]

Prilep 66-9/7 detailed report as pdf (from 2010).

Bob

 

[deluxestogie]

I'm currently sitting out on my front porch, under a cloudy, gray sky, breathing gray, smoky air, looking out across the pasture through a slight, smoky haze, while reading Michael Soulé's Reinventing Nature, known among ecologists as "the gray book," because of its cover graphics. (I finished reading Soulé's Conservation Biology..."the brown book"...a few days ago.)

This morning, smoke just north of Blacksburg seemed to be Canada wild fire smoke training down the Appalachian ridge, but my smoke seems to be drifting northward from North Carolina.

"...go inside to cleaner air..."

Last I checked, the air inside my house comes from outdoors.

Bob

 

[jackpine]

I'm currently sitting out on my front porch, under a cloudy, gray sky, breathing gray, smoky air, looking out across the pasture through a slight, smoky haze, while reading Michael Soulé's Reinventing Nature, known among ecologists as "the gray book," because of its cover graphics. (I finished reading Soulé's Conservation Biology..."the brown book"...a few days ago.)

This morning, smoke just north of Blacksburg seemed to be Canada wild fire smoke training down the Appalachian ridge, but my smoke seems to be drifting northward from North Carolina.

"...go inside to cleaner air..."

Last I checked, the air inside my house comes from outdoors.

Bob

This map shows that you're most likely getting it from Canada, a bit heavier then we've been getting for the past month or so here in Michigan.

 

[deluxestogie]

I'm located (the little red caret) just south of the Canada smoke boundary on that map.

The wind is from the SE.

Bob

 

[deluxestogie]

My navel gazing doesn't seem to get any work done!

This is my semi-presentable, tiny tobacco bed. I identified 4 Lancaster Seedleaf [the tall ones] and 4 Havana 322 (NP) [the short ones on the right] that were clearly showing maturity in the top leaf. So I stalk-cut only those 8 plants. Notice the 3 lovely, blossoming Prilep 66-9/7.

All 8 stalks are now hanging in the shed. One surprise this year is that I have seen zero aphids all season. That's both good as well as worrisome. What happened to them?

Bob

EDIT: Since the pith of tobacco stalk is soft, and becomes even softer during curing, I always drive my hanging nail through the pith, and out the opposite side of the stalk (just the tip of the nail showing), so that my curing stalk of tobacco won't end up on the shed floor.

 

[deluxestogie]

Today's tobacco harvest hanging in the shed. The camera flash makes it all look very green.

The small harvest of garlic is ready for cleaning and trimming. Nine tobacco plants still in the garden bed, and two more in the porch corner bed, plus the volunteer.

Bob

 

[deluxestogie]

This is the 3rd leaf from the bottom of my porch corner Havana 322 (NP), with a lonely cicada for size comparison.

Spoiler

The cicada is a little shorter than a BIC lighter.

Bob

 

[WillQuantrill]

I am not recommending this, but in certain regions of the country, it is prepared through multiple boilings and consumed. Again... Not recommending, but... it goes to show hunger finds a way.

View: https://youtube.com/watch?v=Ky2IhTT0aQA

Ain't this Poké Salad? Like the song Poke Salad Annie by THE KING?

 

[deluxestogie]

The view from my porch now includes my Havana 322 (NP) and Prilep 66-9/7, since they have finally grown tall enough. Both are still a week or two before blossoming.

And on the opposite side of the front steps, my volunteer tobacco plant is trying to catch up on the time of year.

The tiny, blue flowers growing behind the volunteer are a kind of random plant that I've noticed in the margins of the yard, and have mowed over them weekly every summer, where they arise within the lawn. They are lovely. Even though I've seen them for decades, I've never had a name for them. Yesterday, at dusk, while sitting out on the porch, I decided to identify them on-line. I looked down, to verify that the blossoms were indeed blue, rather than a purplish blue. There were no blossoms at all! I went down the steps, and looked at them up close. No blossoms.

So in my search on-line, I just assumed they were blue. What I learned was that this common plant is known as Day Weed, specifically because the blossoms last only a single day, then they fall off, to be replaced by freshly budded blossoms each morning. We call them "weeds", because they don't cost anything, and because we didn't have to dig a hole to put them there.

Bob

EDIT: I mis-remembered the name of the blue-blossomed weed. It's Day Flower or Dayflower. It seems that some results of my identification efforts drop off at the end of every day.

 

[OakBayou]

Thanks for identifying! I have lots of dayflowers that spring up in my flower beds as well. I tend to leave a few every season as the blue is quite striking and they aren't too aggressive.

 

[deluxestogie]

6:48 pm EDT.

Bob

 

[deluxestogie]

I just noticed that, overnight, the price of ground coffee at Walmart increased by 10%.

Bob

 

[deluxestogie]

My 3 Prilep 66-9/7 plants in the garden bed were stalk-cut today, and stalk-hung for sun-curing.

Bob

 

[Knucklehead]

Are you going to try a sucker crop with the Prilep? I was really pleased with my Prilep sucker crop three years ago. Not so much with other varieties but Prilep turned out very well.

 

[deluxestogie]

try a sucker crop with the Prilep?

Probably not. In past years, when I mostly primed the Prilep leaf, a bounty of suckers would sprout from the upper axils. These seemed to produce leaf that was similar in quality to the primary leaf (in contrast to the notably lower quality of sucker leaf from most other varieties). And, although I had initially hoped to put 16 Prilep plants into the garden this year, I have little motivation for a longer work season.

Bob