Cuba Cigars | Sowing & Cultivating |
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Sun grown tobacco (strung) Pinar del Rio Province
After having
planted tobacco and carried out the first waterings come the works that
guarantee an appropriate development of the field for achieving an appropriate
yield and quality of the leaf, these works receive the name of replant
and retrasplant and they are carried out in the following way:
Replant
After four or five days the plantation will be watered and the dead plants
will be substituted to guarantee the field with plants coming from the
seedbed.
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Retransplant
Eight or ten days after the transplant the rest of the dead plants are
substituted by seedlings from the double furrows, and this activity is
aided by a little shovel. The selection of the plants regarding sizes
in the moment of the transplant is very important to achieve the biggest
uniformity in the plantation.
Cultivation
work
The
first cultivation will be carried out 8 or 10 days after the transplant
with a cultivating machine of fine grills to eliminate the undesirable
plants and to facilitate the activity of covering the furrow, at this
time will be applied a slight watering and the appropriate fertilization.
The
cultivating machine. One of the most important tools of the Cuban
peasant. This instrument is able to carry out many works when the farmer
has the whole game of grills that it needs. Many peasants consider hoeing
and hilling around the plants two fundamental activities to obtain good
results in the cultivation of tobacco for fillers.
The cultivating
machine can be pulled by the ox only if the animal is well trained, if
not a second man is needed to guide the animal so that it does not abandon
the furrow.
The hilling
around the plants will be carried out 18 or 20 days after the transplant,
passing the cultivating machine two times with fine and wide grills or
in heart form, with the objective of facilitating hilling and to eliminate
undesirable plants. At this time the rest of the fertilizer is applied.
For hilling
around the plants is feasible the use of the Creole plow because it deepens
when breaking the ridge, what contributes to a better development of the
roots of the plants when facilitating more air and the movement of water
in the soil.
Hilling with
hoes is one of the most difficult works carried out in the cultivation
of tobacco in Cuba by peasants, (that is to hill the earth around plant
having three fundamental purposes: to hill the earth around the stem to
sustain it, to stimulate the development of the roots and to improve the
drainage of the soil and with it to evacuate the possible excesses of
water), all the above mentioned facilitates a better anchorage of the
plant and a bigger resistance to wind and rain.
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