US Nicotiana Germplasm Collection 2013 Nursery

[JessicaNicot]

so i dont know how many of you also experienced yesterday's squall line. it was pretty intense. a giant oak tree nearly missed my neighbor's house. we went out to the nursery today to check the damage.

this downed pine tree near our field took out a power line. the national weather service doplar radar tower behind our field was running via a generator. trees are down and power is still out all over the state and unfortunately 3 people in NC died. its like a huricane came through.



the storm completely ruined this float house at the station (not the one our plants had been in).



the field itself wasn't really impacted by the storm. a few sizeable branches broke off the nearby trees and flew into the field but fortunately didn't hurt any of the plants.




and as for the scald i was worried about:

a few plants were hit pretty bad, but overall not as bad as i had feared.

 

[Knucklehead]

Is the float house insured? Overall you got off pretty light. It could have been alot worse.

 

[DGBAMA]

that is a nice looking grow area and plants. seeing everyone else, I feel so far behind. First year blues........so much to do and so little time. I will be better prepared next year (I hope).

 

[workhorse_01]

Thank GOD no more people than that lost their lives. The field looks beautiful.

 

[NRustica]

It's always amazing how nature can really mess up some things and leave others completely untouched next to it. Glad the field wasn't terribly damaged.

 

[BarG]

I can fix that float house, Where's my hammer? A little humor never hurts!

 

[JessicaNicot]

HOPEFULLY by the end of the week i'll have some photos together for a step-by-step guide on bagging plants.

 

[rainmax]

Hardly waiting on that contribution. I still need to sew my bags.

 

[BigBonner]

Is the float house insured? Overall you got off pretty light. It could have been alot worse.

Around here where I live there is no insurance that will cover a greenhouse plastic .
I have a hay hoop barn with a canvas top . I can insure everything but the trap covering it .

 

[JessicaNicot]

Around here where I live there is no insurance that will cover a greenhouse plastic .
I have a hay hoop barn with a canvas top . I can insure everything but the trap covering it .

im unsure about whether it was insured, either in part or wholely. some of the parts are able to be reused but the poles and plastic are complete losses. i think it will ulitmately be up to the nc dept of ag and ncsu (who jointly run the research stations) regarding whether to rebuild the float house at either clayton or possibly in reidsville (which lacks a float house and traditionally has had their transplants grown in clayton).

 

[skychaser]

Question: What does the "rank" number mean given to the various accessions?

 

[JessicaNicot]

Question: What does the "rank" number mean given to the various accessions?

to be honest, i dont have a clue what youre talking about.

 

[NRustica]

to be honest, i dont have a clue what youre talking about.

If you do a search you get something like this: http://www.ars-grin.gov/cgi-bin/npg...cotiana+tabacum&submit=Submit+Text+Query&si=0

And next to each result there is a rank #

 

[skychaser]

When you search accessions, there is a rank number given with each accession with 1000 being the highest. Also, you have the option to sort by rank.

Examples for Dixie Bright:

http://www.ars-grin.gov/cgi-bin/npg...nk&si=0&si=1&.cgifields=si&.cgifields=reverse

PI 551300 - Nicotiana tabacum - DIXIE BRIGHT 244 - North Carolina, United States -- rank: 1000
PI 552383 - Nicotiana tabacum - DIXIE BRIGHT 101 - North Carolina, United States -- rank: 956
PI 552355 - Nicotiana tabacum - DIXIE BRIGHT 27 - Maryland, United States -- rank: 956
and so on...

 

[FmGrowit]

The "rank" has nothing to do with the accession, but the relevance of the keywords searched.

 

[JessicaNicot]

The "rank" has nothing to do with the accession, but the relevance of the keywords searched.

im pretty sure you're right (well, maybe, there's a guru next to me spouting nonsense about it). apparently its analagous to the way google determines the order of search results to return. (again, MAYBE)

 

[skychaser]

The "rank" has nothing to do with the accession, but the relevance of the keywords searched.

Aha!! If I search Dixie Bright Nicotiana I get the results I posted above. But if I search Dixie Bright 27 Nicotiana it comes up alone instead of number 3 in the list, and gets a rank of 1000 instead of 956. I have wondered about that for 2 years now and never caught on to that pattern. lol Yer a freekin' genius FM

 

[JessicaNicot]

ok guys, here you go: Jessica's Guide to Bagging


1. Select your mature plants

i know that many of you may look at this and think that it looks a little late, but i think this is optimal. there are several benefits to waiting for the flower head to expand: the stalk is generally a little thicker and you get a chance to see what sort of habit the head has (compactness, number of branches, etc) which will make it easier to decide how much to cut back.

2. Trimming back

i snap off all the suckers that are forming at the top of the stem and cut off all open flowers and capsules that have begun to form. there is no set number of lower floral branches to snap off, but i think i generally leave the crows foot plus one. this will generally produce a sufficient amout of seed. if you try to keep all the floral branches you're likely to end up with a busted bag later in the season.

3. Spray with insecticide. i dont have a picture of it but we have a backpack sprayer that we use to spray the flower head and top of the stalk with a solution of Tracer.

4. Put the bag on

this is sort of an unnatural pic. im right handed so normally im holding the top of the bag with my right hand (instead of my phone) with my left hand in the bag guiding it over the flower head. you might lose a couple buds in the process of fighting with the bag. no big deal.

cinch the bag closed with one hand and attach the zip tie about the width of your fist below the base of what's left of the flower head. if your stalk is puny or you're in a high wind environment, id recommend fastening the bag a little lower.

we use these short zip ties that you can undo. they're nice because you can reuse them and you can also readjust the bag throughout the season if need be.

 

[leverhead]

Thank you, great pictures! It is hard photographing a two handed job. I need to look at those bags again.

 

[BarG]

Great post. What type of plastic bag are you using?