The following adventure is all about growing cigar tobacco from seedlings here in Wichita, Kansas.

I started the seedlings from PUNCH on March 30th.

I used peat trays and a standard flourescent shop light approximately 6 inches above the trays. There were a total of 100 peat pots, scattered about 5 to 10 seeds per pot.

April 11, the seedlings had sprouted. I moved the covering (used press n seal) up about 5 inches with straws propped around the top for height.

April 14, started the Havana 513B seeds I had ordered online two years ago and grown ornamental plants from. The hope is that the seeds harvested after a rough spring in the Kansas climate will make the new seedlings more resistant to the intense winds, heat and cool evenings.

The 513B seeds were sprinkled into an egg tray about 5 to 10 per pot. I cut a window in the top of the container and covered with press n seal.

April 14 the PUNCH seedlings are already about 3/4 of an inch in height and doing very well.

April 16 the PUNCH seedlings are filling in the trays nicely. Took a photo to commemorate the progress.

April 20 separated 20 PUNCH seedlings from the primary

April 22 separated 50 PUNCH seedlings from the primary.

April 23 tested ALASKA organic fish fertilizer on 30 of the PUNCH seedlings. Took another photo.

April 24 went to La Gloria Cubana rolling event at Cigar Chateau. Fun! Learned about portions of Ligero to use, how to cut away. Charisma, the cigar representative for General said that the trim pieces are shipped for use in medium-filler/short filler blends. I think I would reconstitute them for my purposes, based on the cigar notes, it wouldn't seem like there would be much to estimating ligero component for reuse in blend.

I guess we'll see if the seedlings make it to maturity. That alone will tell me something, then make it through curing, fermentations... we'll see.

I also asked about the chavetas (knives used for trimming the cigars). Turns out someone makes them in their factory. Let me know if you ever see chavetas available for purchase at Williams-Sonoma.

I am also continuing to separate out the seedlings into new trays. They are doing really well. It amazes me how well they do with transplant. No shock from a single one yet, although I have been pretty careful.

April 25 separated primary tray into 72 additional seed trays. Now have about 300 seedlings. Several of the trays are filled with seedlings almost twice the size of others now. The organic fertilizer did wonders.

Prepared the bed in the back yard two days ago; it's about 12 feet by 20 feet (slightly more space, too, with a dog leg area and space behind). I found a site online that offered a rough estimate for plant space - 3.2 feet by 30 feet (96 sq ft = 50 plants), so at about 240 square feet I should be able to place about 100 plants or so.

There are a few additional spots where I intend to place a plant or two. The big thing to keep in mind is that when I tried to grow some plants two years ago, I lost about 90 percent of the seedlings in the first few weeks.

I began hardening off about 100 of the seedlings today. It's the process of exposing them to indirect outdoor sunlight and moderate wind to toughen them up prior to planting. I will continue to offer the first set a chance to acclimatize to the conditions here in Kansas, and will begin to do the same with the other trays (of smaller seedlings) over the weekend.

April 28 hardening off, took some photos of all the trays on the front steps. No seedlings have died or gotten weak as a result of hardening off, all seem to be doing well. They have doubled in size from the previous week and continue to thrive.

I have pushed most of them down so the leaves are right above the soil level. Seems to help with the plant strength, leaves are increasing in size nicely.

April 29 - yesterday about 50 of the plants wilted from the day's sunlight outdoors, so kept two of the weaker trays inside today to recover under artificial light. The others did very well and are going back out today for more soft sunlight. High should be 74-76F, so should be a great day for them.

May 5 some of the plants now have five or six leaves. Tonight we are supposed to have rain; I may test transplant some into the shade/covered spot on Wednesday/Thursday to see if they can acclimatize to the outdoors yet. Temperatures are forecasted to remain moderate (low of mid 50s, high in the mid 70s) and I am interested to see if the plants placed outdoors will significantly outpace the indoor/hardening ones.

May 10 planted some of the tobacco plants in the shade garden.

May 11 overnight results for the transplants were good, planting more in the shade garden and full sun patches today.

May 14 got busy, haven't planted any more yet. Many of the seedlings are about 3 or so inches in height with leaves the size of quarters. The ones planted in the shade garden are doing beautifully, even several "weak" test ones.

Need to plant the seedlings soon. They seem to do much better planted than in trays. The shade garden plants, even small ones, are becoming more vigorous with each passing day.

 

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Excellent., Wednesday, 21 July 2010 Written by Jamie Bright  - See all my reviews  - #1 Reviewer Would love to hear some follow up. I'm trying to grow some tobacco varieties this year.