Friday, May 21, 2010

garden 2010-tobacco update


Yesterday we planted another round of tobacco plants into the garden.  We still have one round to go yet and we are thinking of trying a few guerrilla style as we will have more than will fit in to the garden area that we have set aside.

The plants have stayed very small this year and  I am curious as to the reason why. We did kick them to the GH very early this season  and last season grew them under  lights in the shack. I am wondering if the warmth factor in the shack was a reason   although  the GH gets plenty warm even on very cool days.  Last season I used our own soil, this year I used purchased soil, I wonder if that could be a reason as well.

Some of the plantlings are still under two inches tall and  just starting to get more than two leaves. No matter I threw the tiny babies in the ground anyway, I was sick of tending them. They are in true  tobacco fashion  starting to  go in to their growth spurt as  the ones that we planted last week  have doubled in size already.

Here is a view of the planted tobacco patch. This pic only shows about a quarter of the bed, this is our largest  bed on the property and is about 150x40. The remainder of the patch will also be planted in tobacco. I have also planted 3 squash or melon plants in each row of tobacco. This could be interesting to watch this garden grow.

2 comments:

  1. This will be our first year growing our own tobacco. I didn't realize how long it takes to germinate. I started it early indoors but it is just now starting to come up.

    I am sure we will get lots of tobacco to use but I am hoping for a long enough season to get seed.

    How do you cure it? I am planning on trying various techniques to see what we like best.

    We are both very excited about this new frugal project!

    ReplyDelete
  2. We cure it hanging under the car port however when it goes below fifty or so it stops curing and needs to be moved where it wont go below that. The good thing is it takes a dang hard frost to kill the tobacco off in the fall and once it starts growing it grows quick.. good wishes to you with it,, your lungs will thank you too

    ReplyDelete