Didgeridoo86
Member
Hello all.
Today I just planted my first tobacco seeds.
I am going to be experimenting with growing Rustica Nicotiana in late season and through winter in the Florida Keys.
In the first picture you can see that I am going to try sprouting the seeds in an egg crate. I'm just using some old flower bed soil that I dug out of an old garden. I sifted it to get a medium consistency.
Next I took a sheet of paper and I separated out two individual seeds to plant in each of the 18 slots. I used a small folded bit of paper to load one seed at a time and carefully placed the two seeds in each slot.
As I was seeding I took a tiny bit of scrap paper and placed it over the cell that had been already planted so that I won't loose track of my progress.
I placed it in the window and closed the lid after giving it a good spray in. The temperature in my room stays at about 76 degrees day and night.
The end goal is to see if it's possible to grow even through winter here. And I figured that wild tobacco would have the best chance of surviving.
If I see enough proper growth going into winter I'll start sprouting next years crop which will be Blue Star 100. Supposedly fast growing and very large. And have it planted by the end of January. If it works I'll have two full growing seasons a year.
Now, I do need your opinion on one issue.
That is Soil quality.
On one side, being in the tropics all plants grow like weeds all year round.
However it's just two to five inches of leaf litter soil on top of coral rock bed.
In the last few pictures you can see the space that I have to grow along the border of my property. Under the leaf litter is fairly rich composed soil. It's just not very deep.
I am fully aware that I will need to be fertilizing once a week with a high nitrogen blend. (Whatever is good for tomatoes).
I would prefer a slow release pellet style because it rains so much here.
I really want to avoid having to buy a ton of dirt at the local store for $4 a bag.
I suspect I'll need a bag per plant so that's 18 bags. That's about $72 and I want to do this as free as possible. I might try scavenging some dirt from the local woods.
Any thoughts or suggestions?
Today I just planted my first tobacco seeds.
I am going to be experimenting with growing Rustica Nicotiana in late season and through winter in the Florida Keys.
In the first picture you can see that I am going to try sprouting the seeds in an egg crate. I'm just using some old flower bed soil that I dug out of an old garden. I sifted it to get a medium consistency.
Next I took a sheet of paper and I separated out two individual seeds to plant in each of the 18 slots. I used a small folded bit of paper to load one seed at a time and carefully placed the two seeds in each slot.
As I was seeding I took a tiny bit of scrap paper and placed it over the cell that had been already planted so that I won't loose track of my progress.
I placed it in the window and closed the lid after giving it a good spray in. The temperature in my room stays at about 76 degrees day and night.
The end goal is to see if it's possible to grow even through winter here. And I figured that wild tobacco would have the best chance of surviving.
If I see enough proper growth going into winter I'll start sprouting next years crop which will be Blue Star 100. Supposedly fast growing and very large. And have it planted by the end of January. If it works I'll have two full growing seasons a year.
Now, I do need your opinion on one issue.
That is Soil quality.
On one side, being in the tropics all plants grow like weeds all year round.
However it's just two to five inches of leaf litter soil on top of coral rock bed.
In the last few pictures you can see the space that I have to grow along the border of my property. Under the leaf litter is fairly rich composed soil. It's just not very deep.
I am fully aware that I will need to be fertilizing once a week with a high nitrogen blend. (Whatever is good for tomatoes).
I would prefer a slow release pellet style because it rains so much here.
I really want to avoid having to buy a ton of dirt at the local store for $4 a bag.
I suspect I'll need a bag per plant so that's 18 bags. That's about $72 and I want to do this as free as possible. I might try scavenging some dirt from the local woods.
Any thoughts or suggestions?
