Seed to cigar: My journey to grow, harvest, ferment and roll my own cigars!

[HercDriver]

Hey Bruce, I am aware that I should remove the seed pods but I appreciate you pointing that out for anyone reading this thread for information.
The suckers have all been and are removed before they became an actual leaf if that makes any sense. Thanks for the pointers!

I assume you are aware that you should cut off the seed pods so that the plant does not use it's energy to develop seeds. This is called "topping". You can let one plant develop seeds if you want to harvest them but they're so cheap to buy I never bothered. You should also be cutting off the sucker growth. That is the secondary growth on the stem below each leaf.
I'm sure you know these things but I thought I'd mention it for the benefit of those following this thread.

 

[jimmy_d]

Very interesting thread! Thanks for sharing your experience.

 

[HercDriver]

Post 4th of July update! Hope everyone had a safe and fun holiday week/weekend. Happy Birthday America! (unless you consider America's birthday when the 13 colonies considered themselves a new nation )

Sorry the updates have been sparse this past week. Anyway here's some pictures of the progress of the plants. The seed pods were removed and these pictures still show them with the pods. The plants are getting pretty big. Even in my back up 5 gallon buckets they are starting to shoot up!

Anyway heres some pics!

Had some interesting thing happen to this particular leaf. Havent figured out what happened yet. If anyone knows chime in. If not Ill post when I find it.

More tops. I eventually removed all the tops from the three plants except from the Cuban 98 which is doing really really well. I want some seeds from that particular plant.

Had some help from nature on my corn. This little "Golden Jumping Spider" had a Cucumber Beetle for lunch.

Im pretty excited about the 24" CB leaf size. This plant has struggled the whole time and has finally started to get some pretty decent leaves.

 

[blisscigarco]

Post 4th of July update! Hope everyone had a safe and fun holiday week/weekend. Happy Birthday America! (unless you consider America's birthday when the 13 colonies considered themselves a new nation )

Sorry the updates have been sparse this past week. Anyway here's some pictures of the progress of the plants. The seed pods were removed and these pictures still show them with the pods. The plants are getting pretty big. Even in my back up 5 gallon buckets they are starting to shoot up!

Anyway heres some pics!

Had some interesting thing happen to this particular leaf. Havent figured out what happened yet. If anyone knows chime in. If not Ill post when I find it.

More tops. I eventually removed all the tops from the three plants except from the Cuban 98 which is doing really really well. I want some seeds from that particular plant.

Had some help from nature on my corn. This little "Golden Jumping Spider" had a Cucumber Beetle for lunch.

Im pretty excited about the 24" CB leaf size. This plant has struggled the whole time and has finally started to get some pretty decent leaves.

Quite rad. Enjoying these posts. Thanks for taking the time and effort.

 

[HercDriver]

Thanks! I appreciate the feedback. I am always happy to share my experience with others and hope that people may stumble on this thread in a search for information on how to grow and not make the same mistakes I have.

Quite rad. Enjoying these posts. Thanks for taking the time and effort.

 

[Crusader]

The holes in the leaf are from insect damage. A moth worm. When you see that, check under the leaves. Lil basted can do a lot of damage in 24 hrs.

 

[Crusader]

 

[HercDriver]

Update!

So I havent been able to do much around the plants as Ive been working a bunch. Anyway I removed all the tops off of the plants except for the 608. The 608 has been a beast of a plant. So Im going to keep the seeds.

Anyway on to the pictures.

As you can see Im running into a weird issue with the 5 gallon buckets. Theyre light green where the larger pots are a normal green. I definitely have been up to speed on my watering AND I have the proper amount of nutrients in the soil. Ill maybe need to test the soil again.

Here you can see a definitive difference in plant colors. These are both Conn Broadleaf plants.

I grabbed a few leaves I thought were in poor shape and took them off the plants to test hang them under my deck. I want to see how they dry out over the next few weeks. If they dont dry well I have a neighbor who has said I could borrow their shed to hang the leaves.

Here they are after a week of hanging.

Still holding on to their elasticity

So far so good. Im still waiting to see how the plants shape out before I really start pulling leaves. I need to do more research about each plant type to see if they yellow from the bottom up or if I can pull them while still green (some species will ripen and remain green on the stalk).

 

[Crusader]

Hmm. Are they the same species as the darker ones? The only thing I can think of is chlorosis, (lack of nitrogen). It seems the lighter ones are in smaller buckets and maybe something there ended up different. You could give them a little boost of N or just let it be. They seem to be color curing well.

 

[HercDriver]

The example I posted is the same species of plant. I will do a soil test on it and see what the nitrogen levels are.

Yes the hanging test leaves seem to be color curing pretty well .

Hmm. Are they the same species as the darker ones? The only thing I can think of is chlorosis, (lack of nitrogen). It seems the lighter ones are in smaller buckets and maybe something there ended up different. You could give them a little boost of N or just let it be. They seem to be color curing well.

 

[HercDriver]

Another update!
So Ive really just been on cruise control. Been out of town the last four days and came back to check on the crop.

Few pictures for the update. Im probably going to wait a week or two to start pulling some leaves.

So I think I was over watering the second batch. As they were really really yellow. I started watering ever other day and the new growth seems to have gotten its color back. I also noticed the yellow leaves did not have the sticky residue that my first batch of normal green ones. The new growth seems to have this residue which leads me to believe the plant is recovering.

The bottom of the secondary plants are still yellow

My pods are starting to drop their flowers so hopefully Ill get some seed pods for next year.

 

[blisscigarco]

Hey BOTL,

I wanted to start a thread to showcase my journey from "Seed to Cigar". I purchased four different strains of seed from Sustainable Seed Company to try out. They are Connecticut Broadleaf, Habano 2000, Cuban 98 and Havana 608. I searched the web far and wide and watched as many tobacco growing videos as I could. I started my seeds in small starter pots then moved them up in size each time the plants got too big. I continuously weeded out the less healthy plants each time I moved them to a new pot. I was finally left with one primary plant in a large pot and a secondary in a smaller pot just in case the primary one didnt initially survive. Im located in Norther Kentucky for those interested in the environmental conditions.

On to what people are care about most. The pictures!

I do have some questions for the experience growers. Im having some issues with my plants. Ive posted pictures of each plant and the respective leaf that has the issue. Ive done some research online and looks like it could be anything from overwatering, underwatering, PVY disease and a few others. Anyone experience any of these?

Habano 2000 - the leaves on the bottom are starting to show small yellow circles. Which looks like PVY.

Cuban 98 - Also looks like PVY.

Connecticut Broadleaf - this plant is showing the biggest hit on its main leaves. It looks like a potassium deficiency or its a result of over watering. It may be over watering because the leaves are still soft and have color. Or maybe some sort of sun burn. But its in the tip of the plant which also could lead me down the path of potassium deficiency.

What kind of seed is Cuban 98? Is that an American-style or a Caribbean style of plant? Is it related to Criollo98?

 

[Crusader]

That bottom leaf is what is referred to as a "sand Lug". Typically they get more heat as they are closer to the ground in the field and will stress them out more. I believe most of the pro's toss the bottom leaf anyway. Also, when you don't top the buds, the plant will put a lot of energy into making babies so it might stunt the plant a bit; and if they are not bagged they will easily cross pollinate. Just one of those pods will give you seed for a long time.

 

[HercDriver]

I ordered from Sustainable Seed Co. Under their listing they relate it to the Criollo 98. Hope that helps.

What kind of seed is Cuban 98? Is that an American-style or a Caribbean style of plant? Is it related to Criollo98?

 

[HercDriver]

I want seeds form this particular plant so I didnt top it. All of the other plants were topped. I didnt bag it since its the only plant I plan to get seeds from.

That bottom leaf is what is referred to as a "sand Lug". Typically they get more heat as they are closer to the ground in the field and will stress them out more. I believe most of the pro's toss the bottom leaf anyway. Also, when you don't top the buds, the plant will put a lot of energy into making babies so it might stunt the plant a bit; and if they are not bagged they will easily cross pollinate. Just one of those pods will give you seed for a long time.

 

[Pennywise827]

Tagged for updates. Very interesting thread.

 

[Stu71584]

very cool. Growing tobacco is so labor intensive. Its a wonder cigars can be so relatively inexpensive...

 

[HercDriver]

Hey guys and gals! Sorry its been so long. Been slammed at work.

Anyway I started priming the plants and hanging them. The neighbor has an unused shed that they lent me to hang the tobacco leaves. Pretty nice if you ask me!

The secondary plants are still struggling other than the tops which are a proper green. The bottom leaves are definitely not of good quality and are suffering from some spotting.

I pulled all the leaves off Im going to use for now. I pretty much have let the plants run wild and see what happens. I came back from a trip and they had all started to flower. Which is fine because I got the seeds I wanted from the one plant while it was the only one with flowers.

Havana 608 plant seeds that did REALLY well on the porch in the pot.

Heres the plants running wild! lol

 

[Marc L]

Nice!

 

[Pennywise827]

To me, this is so very cool.

Thanks for sharing.