Long time lurker, first time poster...
... I'm an "aging" guy hitting 49 in a few days, although i suspect i may be a spring chicken on this forum. Anyway, here is my introduction, and i am sorry if i hurt anyone with my wall of text, but i feel i might as well provide the proper backstory of how and why i found this forum and stuck around. Even if this is my first time posting
---
About 5 years back i was suffering from pain behind/around the eyes and had a major depression during this, as the docs couldn't figure out what was wrong. Eventually, due to the depression, i joined (physical) discussion group therapy. I didn't have any hopes of it doing anything good at all, but at least it was something to do. During that same period, i had a talk with an anesthesiologist, who - much to my surprise - prescriped some pain relief within 10 minutes of honestly not talking very much. I never got to try it though, because the head psychiatrist of the group therapy thing ended up speaking with him, and they came up with the idea that i should try something called duloxetine, which is both used as an anti depressant and for neuropathic pain.
So, i ended up switching from the sertraline i had been prescribed for the depression only (which basically made me "flatline" - not unhappy, but generally uncaring and uninteressted in the world) to this new duloxetine.
Lo and behold, i had taken this new stuff for less than a week, and it was as if giant weights were lifted off of my shoulders. Well, from my eye region really, but you probably get my drift. Within a couple of months i started to feel like my old self again.
---
So why am i posting all that? Well, thats where it gets interesting. Not the part about getting back to working and having a normal life (which was great mind you). But the part where i started to take interest in my old hobbies again.
I had (have) an old 325 L aquarium (~86 gallons) which had been empty for years. I finally cleaned it up and made a battle plan of getting life back into my apartment as life had come back to me.
That's where my first aquaponic experiment started. I filled the tank with about 1/3 water, and a planter on top of a couple of plastic boxes. Then i deviced some pipes that, along with my filter pump, would fill the planter with water, and then drain the water away at a certain level. And repeat.
I planted regular lettuce to start with along with a couple of cantaloupe seeds from a melon i had eaten and saved the seeds from.
This experiment turned out to grow actual edible lettuce grown from fish waste, where the fish were guppies and such.
That really sparked my interest, so i designed a pipe system and over the course of half a year or so i built it and had my first real aquaponic system going. Since then i've been growing several kinds of lettuce, red bell peppers, melons (never had much luck with those im afraid), basil and other stuff.
My ignited interest also prompted many wishes for different kinds of purchases: Fish, plants, equipment, materials and so on. But money was tight as it is for most people.
And that's where my connection to this forum started:
---
I realized (well, honestly i already knew) that most of my "fun" money were spent on cigarettes. I also realized that i was not going to quit. Been there, done that, repeated ad nauseam and gave up. But what if i could grow my own????
Now, i don't have any land. I don't even have a garden. I live in a first floor (second floor depending on where you are in the world - one story up) apartment in the middle of the city (Copenhagen). So how was i supposed to grow tobacco? Well, first of all, i found another dane with an online website and 12-13 years of experience growing his own tobacco in his large garden. Sure, there are probably many of those, but he also sold some of his seeds and provided a little pamphlet of his experiences for next to no cost other than the postal fee.
So, i contacted him, paid him some money (equiv. of 36 USD) which honestly was next to nothing compared to the adventure i was about to embark on and waited. After a while i recieved his pamphflet and 8 small ziplock bags with seeds: Virginia Gold, Golden Burley, Del Gold, Tabacum, Tabacum+ (cross breed with burley i believe), Maryland, Harrow Velvet and Rustica.
Now, i had the seeds, but still no garden. However, i hadn't really been using my old bedroom for years (same room the fish tank is in) due to sleep issues. I also had my aquaponic pipes and a seed starter tray with a great grow lamp.
I planted some of each tobacco strain, and waited. While waiting, i researched a lot on the whole tobacco growing and making process. Before the seeds had sprouted, i learned that nicotine is actually produced in the roots of the tobacco plants, and i immediately worried about putting them in my aquaponic pipes and risk the health of everything connected to them - in particular the fish, plants and nitrification cycle bacteria. I needed a new plan.
I had an old defunct air mattress and some old pallet wood. I cut up the mattress and added pallet boards to the sides. Voila, planting area, where water leakage wouldn't be an issue. Then i ordered a lot of 13 cm (5.12 inches) diameter pots. I ended up with 42 pots with tobacco sprouts, "powered" by manually watering with fish tank water and using my seed tray grow light and an extra grow light i had.
That was my first season of tobacco plants. I quickly discovered that my plants were quite a lot smaller than the ones you typically see from plantations etc, but it was a starting point. I used priming and hung up the ripe leaves for airdrying. Eventually, i had some leaves which looked finished and rolled them up and cut them into cigarette tobacco size with a regular pair of scissors.
Testing the tobacco, they smelled and tasted awful though At that point, i had already found this forum and had started reading all the information about fermenting, kilning, flue cure etcetera.
So, while still growing my first batch, i went back to the drawing board:
First of all, i figured that the puny size of the plants i had was due to 2 reasons:
- Not enough space
- Not enough light
So, i bought 12 much larger pots, 37 cm (14.6 inches) in diameter. Where the old small pots could hold about 1-1½ liter of dirt, each of the new ones held 25 liters. I also bought more growlights and some wood, and made a frame to hold all the lights, attached to ratchets hung from the ceiling, so i could adjust the height of the grow lights as the plants grew.
And oh my... WHAT... A... DIFFERENCE!
I went from tiny leaves, to leaves of which the largest were about 65 cm long and 45 cm wide (25.6 x 17.7 inches)!!!!
And as they grew, i had been reading about all the different DIY kilns on this forum.
I decided i was going to design my own. From scratch. And so that i could change things around as i went. Using not the most expensive materials, but not necessarily the cheapest either.
And that's where my story here really begins, as my homemade kiln is now up and running. It still isn't done, and i've only done my first test run of 36 leaves so far (filled it up again today). But i plan on making an "Onde's kiln build" thread to share my experiences and enjoy all of your great advice as i go.
With all that said, i started documenting the whole thing back when i started feeling normal again with the proper medicine. All the way back from cleaning the fish tank which had been dormant for years. For anyone who might be interested, the whole thing as well as new additions can be found on my instagram:
So there it is, and there you have it. That's me.
Hi
... I'm an "aging" guy hitting 49 in a few days, although i suspect i may be a spring chicken on this forum. Anyway, here is my introduction, and i am sorry if i hurt anyone with my wall of text, but i feel i might as well provide the proper backstory of how and why i found this forum and stuck around. Even if this is my first time posting
---
About 5 years back i was suffering from pain behind/around the eyes and had a major depression during this, as the docs couldn't figure out what was wrong. Eventually, due to the depression, i joined (physical) discussion group therapy. I didn't have any hopes of it doing anything good at all, but at least it was something to do. During that same period, i had a talk with an anesthesiologist, who - much to my surprise - prescriped some pain relief within 10 minutes of honestly not talking very much. I never got to try it though, because the head psychiatrist of the group therapy thing ended up speaking with him, and they came up with the idea that i should try something called duloxetine, which is both used as an anti depressant and for neuropathic pain.
So, i ended up switching from the sertraline i had been prescribed for the depression only (which basically made me "flatline" - not unhappy, but generally uncaring and uninteressted in the world) to this new duloxetine.
Lo and behold, i had taken this new stuff for less than a week, and it was as if giant weights were lifted off of my shoulders. Well, from my eye region really, but you probably get my drift. Within a couple of months i started to feel like my old self again.
---
So why am i posting all that? Well, thats where it gets interesting. Not the part about getting back to working and having a normal life (which was great mind you). But the part where i started to take interest in my old hobbies again.
I had (have) an old 325 L aquarium (~86 gallons) which had been empty for years. I finally cleaned it up and made a battle plan of getting life back into my apartment as life had come back to me.
That's where my first aquaponic experiment started. I filled the tank with about 1/3 water, and a planter on top of a couple of plastic boxes. Then i deviced some pipes that, along with my filter pump, would fill the planter with water, and then drain the water away at a certain level. And repeat.
I planted regular lettuce to start with along with a couple of cantaloupe seeds from a melon i had eaten and saved the seeds from.
This experiment turned out to grow actual edible lettuce grown from fish waste, where the fish were guppies and such.
That really sparked my interest, so i designed a pipe system and over the course of half a year or so i built it and had my first real aquaponic system going. Since then i've been growing several kinds of lettuce, red bell peppers, melons (never had much luck with those im afraid), basil and other stuff.
My ignited interest also prompted many wishes for different kinds of purchases: Fish, plants, equipment, materials and so on. But money was tight as it is for most people.
And that's where my connection to this forum started:
---
I realized (well, honestly i already knew) that most of my "fun" money were spent on cigarettes. I also realized that i was not going to quit. Been there, done that, repeated ad nauseam and gave up. But what if i could grow my own????
Now, i don't have any land. I don't even have a garden. I live in a first floor (second floor depending on where you are in the world - one story up) apartment in the middle of the city (Copenhagen). So how was i supposed to grow tobacco? Well, first of all, i found another dane with an online website and 12-13 years of experience growing his own tobacco in his large garden. Sure, there are probably many of those, but he also sold some of his seeds and provided a little pamphlet of his experiences for next to no cost other than the postal fee.
So, i contacted him, paid him some money (equiv. of 36 USD) which honestly was next to nothing compared to the adventure i was about to embark on and waited. After a while i recieved his pamphflet and 8 small ziplock bags with seeds: Virginia Gold, Golden Burley, Del Gold, Tabacum, Tabacum+ (cross breed with burley i believe), Maryland, Harrow Velvet and Rustica.
Now, i had the seeds, but still no garden. However, i hadn't really been using my old bedroom for years (same room the fish tank is in) due to sleep issues. I also had my aquaponic pipes and a seed starter tray with a great grow lamp.
I planted some of each tobacco strain, and waited. While waiting, i researched a lot on the whole tobacco growing and making process. Before the seeds had sprouted, i learned that nicotine is actually produced in the roots of the tobacco plants, and i immediately worried about putting them in my aquaponic pipes and risk the health of everything connected to them - in particular the fish, plants and nitrification cycle bacteria. I needed a new plan.
I had an old defunct air mattress and some old pallet wood. I cut up the mattress and added pallet boards to the sides. Voila, planting area, where water leakage wouldn't be an issue. Then i ordered a lot of 13 cm (5.12 inches) diameter pots. I ended up with 42 pots with tobacco sprouts, "powered" by manually watering with fish tank water and using my seed tray grow light and an extra grow light i had.
That was my first season of tobacco plants. I quickly discovered that my plants were quite a lot smaller than the ones you typically see from plantations etc, but it was a starting point. I used priming and hung up the ripe leaves for airdrying. Eventually, i had some leaves which looked finished and rolled them up and cut them into cigarette tobacco size with a regular pair of scissors.
Testing the tobacco, they smelled and tasted awful though
At that point, i had already found this forum and had started reading all the information about fermenting, kilning, flue cure etcetera.So, while still growing my first batch, i went back to the drawing board:
First of all, i figured that the puny size of the plants i had was due to 2 reasons:
- Not enough space
- Not enough light
So, i bought 12 much larger pots, 37 cm (14.6 inches) in diameter. Where the old small pots could hold about 1-1½ liter of dirt, each of the new ones held 25 liters. I also bought more growlights and some wood, and made a frame to hold all the lights, attached to ratchets hung from the ceiling, so i could adjust the height of the grow lights as the plants grew.
And oh my... WHAT... A... DIFFERENCE!
I went from tiny leaves, to leaves of which the largest were about 65 cm long and 45 cm wide (25.6 x 17.7 inches)!!!!
And as they grew, i had been reading about all the different DIY kilns on this forum.
I decided i was going to design my own. From scratch. And so that i could change things around as i went. Using not the most expensive materials, but not necessarily the cheapest either.
And that's where my story here really begins, as my homemade kiln is now up and running. It still isn't done, and i've only done my first test run of 36 leaves so far (filled it up again today). But i plan on making an "Onde's kiln build" thread to share my experiences and enjoy all of your great advice as i go.
With all that said, i started documenting the whole thing back when i started feeling normal again with the proper medicine. All the way back from cleaning the fish tank which had been dormant for years. For anyone who might be interested, the whole thing as well as new additions can be found on my instagram:
So there it is, and there you have it. That's me.
Hi
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