Tom in Baccyville TN 2012

[Tom_in_TN]

1st year growing tobacco and making a few mistakes but learning as I go along. None were major mistakes unless you want to count the one where I lost 6 flats of seedlings in a 2 hour time span.

A huge Thank-You to FmGrowit for starting FTT and to Deluxe for persuading me to join. Thanks to everyone here for helping me sort things out by providing seeds, lots of advice and good humor. My plans started out simple enough. You know, grow 6 to 8 varieties and not more than 60 to 80 plants. Things quickly spun out of control because every time I read posts about how this or that variety was really good, I wanted to grow it! Then there were the posts by growers who wished they had grown more plants and were going to expand their space next season. Well, thanks to all the generous folks who sent me seeds and provided terrific support, things are going OK - not perfect, but there's always NEXT YEAR for that.

My germinating success was OK and had no huge problems. The main area where I could have done a better job was to give the seedlings more light and more warmth on the cool spring days and nights. I like the way Chicken set up those light fixtures to get his plants growing strong and very fast. Also like the setup Deluxe has with his enclosed porch. Anyway, thanks to everyone for posting so many photos of their growing setups because it has helped very much.

I have been consistently late by a week or two in getting plants in the ground due to wet weather or my day job. The 1st wave went in on May 10th. The last wave was planted June 25th, which was due to re-starting the germination for those 6 flats I lost back in April. I took a few photos of the garden and will post a few more as things develop.



Did have Blue Mold show up in early June but nipped that quickly and lost only 3 plants. Then I'm always ready for some help in the garden and the Hornworm Hunters are on the attack again this year. Have only seen 2 hornworms so far.

 

[Rayshields]

Tom, your patch looks too close to perfect for me...you need a few bent over plants and a few more weeds in there for it to look real...ha.
Good work, man.

 

[johnlee1933]

Great looking patch tom. I'm green with envy.

John

 

[Jitterbugdude]

Tom, What variety(s) had Blue Mold?

Randy B

 

[Chicken]

for a first timer,

and those pic's,

I'D SAY YOU DID EXCELLENT ,, your patch and plants look picture perfect,,,

im sure 99% of us, didnt have that kind of sucess, the first time around,

 

[Tom_in_TN]

Tom, What variety(s) had Blue Mold?

Randy B

That was a Silk Leaf. The other 2 plants (no photos) were Yellow Twist Bud. The plants were not that close to one another. I first discovered the Silk and the others were 2 days later. I made a fairly thorough inspection over the whole patch after finding the Silk plant so I think Blue Mold develops rather quickly in an infected plant. I was very concerned about losing the entire crop and for at least a week or more I patrolled and closely monitored the entire patch at least twice each day.

 

[Tom_in_TN]

Tom, your patch looks too close to perfect for me...you need a few bent over plants and a few more weeds in there for it to look real...ha.
Good work, man.

After 3 1/2 days of rain the weeds are already starting to take over a few places and have a good start in most of the rest of the garden, so my workload is growing exponentially by the hour. Plus most of the tobacco plants now need to be primed.

There was a little bit of wind damage over the past couple of weeks. Just a few plants and nothing too bad.

 

[BigBonner]

The picture with a plant that you thought was blue mold . It was not , Blue mold will have little yellow circles from pea size to a fifty cent piece , under side of the leaf will be a bluish / purple hairy mold growing .
Once you get blue mold just pulling infected plants will not get rid of it . The spores would be there scattered on the other plants .Damage can be ligt or severe , it differes in wet weather .

Systematic blue mold is mold inside the plant . The plant stem and leaves turn yellow stunt and sometimes die .


That is a good looking crop keep it going .

 

[wazzappenning]

its probably too late, but maybe this will help for next year. i looked at the nutrients grass clippings would give and found out if you put newspaper down, and then cover with those grass clippings it should keep the weeds from coming up, and just cause them to compost under the paper. also keeps you from tracking up mud when youre in there. they say not to put too thick a layer down or it makes a mat that water cant penetrate. apparently you can do this without the paper, but im not having great results without. im sure you could use hay or something else as well.

ok now i see you used paper in the first pics, but dont see any around your baccy????

 

[BarG]

Glad to see you back Tom.

Thats A great looking garden you got there. I had a few plants get some sun scald when it was in the high 90's for several days with no clouds on some young plants. I haven't had any since. Those plants look healthy.

Tim

 

[Tom_in_TN]

Larry, thanks for the help on the Blue Mold issue. I had always heard it was the kiss of death for most tobacco crops once it got started. So, anybody got an idea of what it was?

BarG, I set out some seedlings, at night, in late June just before the 100+ heat wave got to us and had the same thing happen to several of 'em. The buds were not damaged so the new growth came out green and sun hardened. Set out about 500 of those and lost about 3 or 4 to cutworms. Also, saw a hornworm making a beeline for 'em the next morning. I intercepted it about 5" away from a row of seedlings. Threw him to the chickens and guessing it helped make an egg for us to eat. Ain't that the way its supposed to be?

Hey, Wazz...keeping some mulch down is OK. I used 3' wide silt fencing down the middle of a few of the rows, plants set at 2' apart and 4' between rows. Then it got so dry the weeds stopped sprouting and I never got all the silt fencing in the rows. Now with all the rains it would have kept mud off my plants better as well as my shoes. Oh well, next year.....

 

[Tom_in_TN]

Left the house about 2:30 today and a few minutes later another storm hit us that was packing some wind and caused a bunch of blowdown damage. It is exactly what I was thought could happen because it has been raining every day this week. If the ground had been moist instead of soaking wet, I don't think there would have been much damage. Still, the damage was not severe. I jumped right into straightening up plants when I returned home. That was about 6:30 and the stalks had already started bending upwards toward the sun. These tobacco plants have some amazing properties.

I thought it was a blessing that only some plants got blown down. They were in 'patches' throughout the whole garden. Perhaps there were small downdrafts instead of strong straight-line type winds. The 1st photo shows several of the Golden Wilt plants down while the plants in the adjoinging rows were still standing like nothing had happened. Strange but true.

There were a couple of rows of plants leaning over a bit too much (see 2nd photo). The 3rd and 4th photos shows how I mounded up dirt (mud) around the stalks by hand, then straightened the stalks and firmed up the dirt. Those plants will be just fine for another 2 or 3 weeks unless the stronger storms forecasted for tomorrow hit us.


I did not get finished tonight and will finish up tomorrow morning. What really needs to be done is get these tobacco leaves in the barn. A lot of these plants started budding about 2 weeks ago and I had hoped to have all the bottom leaves primed and in the barn this weekend. Then have the middle, seco leaves in the barn by next weekend and the tip leaves in by the end of July. I have the bottom leaves of 4 varieties in the barn but will not have time to finish up since I have to work at my day job again tomorrow.

So much to do. So little time left.

 

[Chicken]

are you p[lanning to start them a little earlier next year?

i try to start as early as i can,

 

[Tom_in_TN]

Great question, Chicken. I need to start about the same time as this season but be more consistent. I started on 03/23 with 4 varieties followed up by germinating a bunch more over the next 3 weeks until I had most of the varieties that ended up planted in the garden. But, then on 04/06 the cold dry winds wiped out 6 seed flats. Their replacements were not started until 04/19. Then a few more varieties got started on 05/01. Those are doing OK and are growing well.

Next year I want to get most of what will be planted to start germination by Mid-March to Mid-April. Then keep those seedlings warmer, more protected from the cold winds AND provide some light. I'm looking at your setup and the way you did things. I do not have enough light fixtures and will need to round up some salvaged stuff if I try that. I need to rig up a greenhouse with some shelves, a heat source and an alternative light source since in March and April we can go for several days of little or no sunshine here in Baccyville.

I may start as many as 3,000 plants with a goal to sell 1,500 seedlings in April and May - just local sales. I think if I can get some simple road signs placed all over the area, go to local farmer's markets and come up with other ideas it could generate a bunch of sales. I thought you came up with good ideas this season for selling plants. So did deluxestogie. His labels on those seedling sets looked great. By steering a bunch of people to join FTT where folks like us can help provide information on growing their own tobacco, it will expand the base. You and Deluxe are leading the way in getting folks to join FTT.

BigBonner has cornered the market for selling plants to FTT members and I do not think any of us should be in direct competition with him. I believe if I sold a dozen seedlings to someone, got them interested in joining up here, then it could generate extra sales for him because he raises a lot more varieties then I care to, or want to raise. Plus, I will be buying some more seedlings from him next season for my own use. We should get more folks here to pre-order from him so he can plan things out better and hopefully he can actually make a profit!!! And, not have to throw too many away.

 

[Chicken]

i agree..

 

[BigBonner]

Great question, Chicken. I need to start about the same time as this season but be more consistent. I started on 03/23 with 4 varieties followed up by germinating a bunch more over the next 3 weeks until I had most of the varieties that ended up planted in the garden. But, then on 04/06 the cold dry winds wiped out 6 seed flats. Their replacements were not started until 04/19. Then a few more varieties got started on 05/01. Those are doing OK and are growing well.

Next year I want to get most of what will be planted to start germination by Mid-March to Mid-April. Then keep those seedlings warmer, more protected from the cold winds AND provide some light. I'm looking at your setup and the way you did things. I do not have enough light fixtures and will need to round up some salvaged stuff if I try that. I need to rig up a greenhouse with some shelves, a heat source and an alternative light source since in March and April we can go for several days of little or no sunshine here in Baccyville.

I may start as many as 3,000 plants with a goal to sell 1,500 seedlings in April and May - just local sales. I think if I can get some simple road signs placed all over the area, go to local farmer's markets and come up with other ideas it could generate a bunch of sales. I thought you came up with good ideas this season for selling plants. So did deluxestogie. His labels on those seedling sets looked great. By steering a bunch of people to join FTT where folks like us can help provide information on growing their own tobacco, it will expand the base. You and Deluxe are leading the way in getting folks to join FTT.

BigBonner has cornered the market for selling plants to FTT members and I do not think any of us should be in direct competition with him. I believe if I sold a dozen seedlings to someone, got them interested in joining up here, then it could generate extra sales for him because he raises a lot more varieties then I care to, or want to raise. Plus, I will be buying some more seedlings from him next season for my own use. We should get more folks here to pre-order from him so he can plan things out better and hopefully he can actually make a profit!!! And, not have to throw too many away.

Tom_in_TN
Go ahead and sell all the plants you can it won't hurt my feelings .
I tried to get pre orders and no one but Drbob committed to the preorder plants . I had several varietys that I didn't sell the first plant out of them and some only a few plants .
I would say I tossed 8000 plants that got too big .
With every sale I make I send them here to FTT for information .

 

[deluxestogie]

My own effort to introduce transplants for sale locally never got off the ground. My mistake was preparing a selection of three varieties with understandable names (Golden Burley, Virginia Bright and Havana 263) individually potted, 18 per tray. It was an attempt to create a market that hasn't previously existed here. Not only did the different varieties reach marketable size at vastly different times, the variation within each single variety was too great to ever make up a full tray. This is the result of dealing in small numbers. I'm still uncertain if I will go through all the work next year, especially for the paltry profit attainable with non-industrial quantities of plants. If I do, I will probably limit the production to clipped plants in 48-cell trays (4 plants per section) of a single variety or two.

New Hope Seed does transplant pre-orders only, with a firm (and prominently posted) cut-off date. After that, they sell the available leftovers. [I haven't noticed a parked Cadillac in any of the photos yet.]

Seeds are a different story. All the work of marketing them is in the packaging of them. Still, the potential profits are tiny. Skychaser has been producing an admirable quantity of seed from a large number of varieties, and selling it wholesale only (http://www.nwtseeds.com/index.htm; very nice site), but I believe the project has yet to produce a significant income. He does not do sales to individuals--probably a wise choice.

Bob

 

[wazzappenning]

just a thought, but seeing that bigbonner had 8000 plants to toss, i was wondering if the tobacco companies he does business with (or others) would want them (at a lower cost of course) but it offsets some of your loss.

 

[BigBonner]

just a thought, but seeing that bigbonner had 8000 plants to toss, i was wondering if the tobacco companies he does business with (or others) would want them (at a lower cost of course) but it offsets some of your loss.

Thats just from plants of different varietys that I raised for home growers this does not count my burley left in the greenhouse and outside float bed . I had over 15,000 burley alone left over .
I always try to have extra plants . This insures me that I will have enough to plant my acres and incase I have a wash out in a field .

Big tobacco only show's up when they buy the leaf . They care less whether we live or die .

 

[Tom_in_TN]

Long overdue update to my grow log:

Got the Xanthi Yaka and Izmir Ozbas plants in the dirt near the end of June just before the summer heat wave hit with full force. I started planting about sunset and did not finish until late, late night. The transplants not only survived but thrived with all the sunshine and rain that followed.

I do not use chemical fertilizers and no pesticides either. So, when the moths came in July there were a lot of tender leaves to eat and the caterpillars did a bit of damage. They are not tobacco hornworms but a smaller caterpillar. Can anyone identify the type of caterpillar from the photo below?

The Xanthi Yaka were not damaged very much but they loved the Izmir Ozbas. I thought my efforts to raise a bunch of ootz leaves was going to be cut in half. Not true....the Izmir Ozbas still had some more growing to do and the tip leaves are looking pretty decent. They are beginning to flower. The undamaged plants are mostly 6' or higher.

Here is a pic that shows the damage is below the ootz leaves


Here is a photo of the caterpillars I collected.


Other plants were not affected and have reached heights of 7', measured to the crows foot.


These ootz leaves have good size.


The Xanthi Yaka flowered and has good size and vigor.


In another thread I posted some pics of the Crimson Clover cover crop that was chopped and tilled in. That's all the fertilizer they got.