Jessica's Random Greenhouse Adventures

[JessicaNicot]

N. clevelandii seems well prepared to re-seed itself, without human intervention (when compared to N. rustica and N. tabacum).

The anthers are very near the stigma, so it does not take a lot to get pollen onto the stigma, but in the absence of a pollinator or a breeze, I'm still getting better seed set after paint brush agitation than if they are left alone (unlike the N. plumbaginifolia which proved to be truly autogamous).

 

[bonehead]

hellow jessicanicot, how are the plants doing in the greenhouse? if you get any time an update would be much appreciated. pictures are always a favorite of mine in the winter. thankyou for participating on this forum.

 

[NRustica]

Looking great!

 

[JessicaNicot]

I took some more pictures today to show you guys how things are coming along. I'll try to get them up tomorrow. The different rustica lines are starting to come into flower, with 10 more varieties germinated in the growth room. Still piddling with the clevelandii every day, scavenging for its tiny capsules (think I may have about 5g of seed so far). The acuminata is still very slow growing so the flowers don't come in quick succession, but more like one per plant every few days. The noctiflora is finally coming into flower- so far just 2 plants but there are tiny buds on others. I crossed the two today but it will be a couple days before I know if they are compatible mating types (either the flowers will fall off or capsules will form). Everything else is still growing vegetatively.

I made an attempt at putting up shade tents today since the sunlight is quickly intensifying and it will still be months before they white wash the greenhouse roof. They're basically the brown postal paper pierced on 6ft stakes (stole the idea from something I saw in the peanut greenhouses). Doesn't seem that complicated but it's still a pretty tough one person job.

 

[deluxestogie]

So much for the image of a scientist in a starched white coat and pocket protector.

Bob

 

[MarcL]

Thanks... looking forward

 

[JessicaNicot]

N. noctiflora:

The plants are very tall and spindly, the tallest about 4ft or so. They are finally starting to flower. The flowers are white and occur in small clusters. (I'll have more details in a later post.)


N. cordifolia:

The silvery sheen of this species is really neat. They are about 1-1.5ft tall at this point and still don't show any signs of floral induction.


N. undulata:

I am unsure of the "undulating" characteristic that gives this species it's name. It is about 2ft tall right now.


N. alata:

This picture was taken before I put the shade cover up. So far this species has just been a roseate of tightly compact leaves. I think each of those plants easily have produced 30 leaves so far.


N. otophora:

These are about 1.5-2ft tall. The leaves are neat because they have a very long, narrow leaf base. You might even get away with calling them winged petiolate.


N. tomentosa:

Not expecting this photosensitive species to flower until the fall at the earliest. So far they are about a max of 1ft tall. I'm seeing a little variation in this line for leaf surface puckering and leaf longitudinal profile (some are planar while some are recurved like the one in the foreground).


N. rustica:

There are 7 different varieties in this shot. They don't grow as vigorously in the greenhouse as they do in the field. The tallest lines are about 2-2.5ft.

 

[Knucklehead]

Dark green and healthy looking. Give my "great job" to all the folks helping out in your greenhouse. Impressive.

 

[burge]

Nice I have seen wild tobacco plants in BC and thinking of picking some of tose leaves and trying it. I wish I had access to grow

 

[Knucklehead]

Nice I have seen wild tobacco plants in BC and thinking of picking some of tose leaves and trying it. I wish I had access to grow

How limited are you? Two five gallon pots with a plant in each can give you around 1/2 pound of leaf. A deck, porch, or beside your parking spot is all you need. I have a patch but still do 4 or 5 in buckets at the house. It's fun playing with my pet plants.

 

[JessicaNicot]

Here are a couple more detailed pics of some things.

A close up of the N. cordifolia. I think it is densely covered in very small trichomes which give it the silvery look and the feel of velvet almost.

My best guess as to the undulating characteristic that gives N. undulata its name: the stem. If you look closely you'll see that at every leaf node the stem slightly changes the angle of growth. I'm not sure why that would be advantageous over a straight stem however...

 

[bonehead]

looking at the pictures makes me want to start some seeds. it is still to early for tobacco but peppers are going in next week then tomatoes in another week or two. thankyou for the pictures. i have snow up to my waist and more coming. i need spring.

 

[JessicaNicot]

looking at the pictures makes me want to start some seeds. it is still to early for tobacco but peppers are going in next week then tomatoes in another week or two. thankyou for the pictures. i have snow up to my waist and more coming. i need spring.

yeah, the last two weeks even for us have been dominated by snow and ice. a nasty ice storm last week followed by single digits, then a fair amount of powdery nice snow that stuck around for a day, then snow/rain/snow which turned into a slushy mess which is still all over the place. my power blinked on and off all day yesterday as trees came down on power lines and car accidents took out other power poles.

This will be the first year I can recall where we have to work on Saturday in order to get things seeded out in the float house.

 

[JessicaNicot]

So here are some more details about the N. acuminata that I am growing.


This is a picture of my shade tent that I built to go over the N. acuminata plants. Unfortunately I've discovered the sun is still often low in the sky and shines from the direction that shot is taken so I am not sure how effective my tents will be (but the one I put of that N. alata seems to have dramatically cut down on daytime wilting).

I tried to get a good shot of a single plant but it wasn't easy. It's sort of a roseate of petiolate leaves at the base and then the stem rapidly elongates to produce the flowers, which are not closely spaced (as you can sort of make out by the placement of the capsules). The leaves are basically lanceolate (you could also call them ovate) with acuminate tips (where I think the name comes from).

The flowers are about 3" long and pure white with a green hue on the outside of the corolla tube. The limb is quite large with 5 distinct lobes. Unlike regular tobacco, there is no throat enlargement so the opening is quite small; probably evolved for moth pollination.

Another unique characteristic I have noticed is that it has very long sepals that are cut down very far into the whirl, like long little fingers.

The capsule is roughly shaped like that of regular tobacco (ovoid), but smaller. When ripening the capsule will crack open along the seem, but not fold back to make the goblet as other species do. The seeds are roughly the size of those of N. rustica and maybe 300-400 per capsule. The seeds in the photo below are a little damp so they appear darker, when the true color is no different than rustica seed (which I feel is about a shade darker than regular tobacco seed).

 

[ArizonaDave]

yeah, the last two weeks even for us have been dominated by snow and ice. a nasty ice storm last week followed by single digits, then a fair amount of powdery nice snow that stuck around for a day, then snow/rain/snow which turned into a slushy mess which is still all over the place. my power blinked on and off all day yesterday as trees came down on power lines and car accidents took out other power poles.

This will be the first year I can recall where we have to work on Saturday in order to get things seeded out in the float house.

A cold front has arrived in AZ today.....the high is 65*.....On a more serious note, sorry you guys are having bad weather!

 

[bonehead]

i need a greenhouse or a southern vacation.

 

[deluxestogie]

Jessica,
I think your photos are among the most detailed and telling of any that I have seen on these non-tabacum varieties. Outstanding!

Bob

 

[JessicaNicot]

So some good news; the noctiflora that I crossed were compatible and set a couple capsules. Unfortunately neither have produced any more flowers yet (like I said, they come out in small discrete bunches of maybe 10 or so at a time). However, three more noctiflora were flowering this morning so I crossed back and forth among those.

My bamboo stakes finally came in so I was able to try to wrangle the acuminatas and stake the cordifolias. I think they may begin to flower soon, fingers crossed.

Oh, I also realized that I forgot to mention the acuminata flowers are fragrant, as well as those of noctiflora. It's subtle but pleasant, similar in both cases.

 

[JessicaNicot]

So I noticed something weird going on when I was pollinating the rusticas. These photos are two different deformed capsules on the same plant:



I didn't carve out part of the capsules walls and I am not sure how or why they ended up like this. The white things are the ovules that are developing into seeds. In the first one you can see that the normal capsule partitioning is also wrong, but not in the second. I thought it was this just particular plant, but I also saw another capsule looking very similar to the one in the first photo on another plant on the other end of the bench.

 

[bonehead]

this summer i have to take a closer look at some of my plants and see if the capsules are that hairy. i guess i am not very observant while working in the garden. those plants look sticky, are they?