Tobacco growing

[Bobby Bass]

I am toying with the idea of growing some tobacco next spring, I have a green house so the long germination of seed to plant should not be a problem and I have seen videos of a guy in Brained who has been doing it for years. This put me on the idea that it can be grown this far north. Anyone have any experience in growing their own? As in Tobacco that is

[pushbutton]

Have not done it yet, but is also on the list for next year. From my casual research, it does not appear the growing is the hard part, but rather the picking at the right time and what can be a rather technical drying process, Well, that and then proper blends for making it palatable. We'll see...should be fun though....already got, but have not had the time to play with my "botanical oil reducer" Figure these would be a good skill sets to learn if the economy does ever get tipped on it's head.

[delcecchi]

Folks used to grow cigar wrapper tobacco in Wisconsin, and Connecticut.

Check out history...

http://www.thedailypage.com/isthmus/article.php?article=30644

[Bobby Bass]

Been doing some light reading on the net, lots of thoughts depending on who you read as to the difficulty of growing your own, common thread is if you can grow tomatoes you can grow tobacco. The drying is not that hard but the curing is what makes it interesting. Have read that it is ready to smoke anywhere from 45 days to 2 years. Good thing I am a pretty casual cigar smoker and not a couple of pack a day smoker so I can wait and experiment with different leaf. Might just be a hobby to get into.

[delcecchi]

There is even a HSOforum "how to grow tobacco" .com

[pushbutton]

The drying is not that hard but the curing is what makes it interesting.

Your splitting hairs on me there bud Think I am going to be getting 4 or 5 types from Pinetree Gardens, have you looked into a supplier yet?

[Bobby Bass]

From what I have read you are better off just growing one type of tobacco as they do not take to being cross pollinated. My Buddy is also looking at growing some so we are looking at two different plants, I think one will be the Virginia leaf am open to suggestions for the second choice. As for my comment about drying I have a few sheds and an open boat house where leafs can be hung to try and left to cure for a long time.

[pushbutton]

Also read that but have 8 acres and was hoping that would leave enough space between the different varieties. Yeah for sure a Virginia, see a lot of Burleys mentioned as well. Did notice a Hungarian strain that you might be interested in as the lower leaves are used for cigars while the upper are for pipe and smoke blends. I don't actually smoke, but might try out a Greenwood strain for chew...lol. If you and your buddy want to, as well as any one else ....wants to try this, and exchange some different strains....would think the more the merrier!

[Bobby Bass]

Hey Push I found a site with a lot of different seeds and I think they also had some chewing tobacco Try looking for the Tobacco Seed Co. I was wondering about the cross pollination aspect myself since everything I have read says to top the plant as soon as it flowers. I have some space here to plant and then we have a few other places where we have gardens. I did see several varieties that mature in less then 60 days so it looks like we can grow it up north. Exchanging leaf might be a good idea especially cigar leaf for wrapper. I spent some time last night reading up on making cigars, think I should have started this 20 years ago.

[givetoget]

My cousin grows a good bit of it up north. With great results. he starts them inside early them transplants outdoors when its time . He also does several different kinds (keeps them apart while growing and experiments with blending, different drying and curring technices. He started it as a small hobbie and now hes at thirty or fourty or more pounds dried at the end of the year. Yes he smokes ALOT but does give some away.

[Bobby Bass]

30 to 40 pounds, that is a lot of leaf! any idea how many plants he is raising to get that big of a harvest?

[givetoget]

Bobby the one garden I seen was raised beds (3 of them) made of landscape timbers, one timber wide by about 4 long. What are timbers 8ft, so about 8 x 32ft three of them.That was by the house then he had more over by the pole building which looked like a bigger patch, I didnt walk back there to look at that one.He said they would get 5-7 ft tall depending on the kind of plant. I did say dang how much of this do ya need, his reply was oh its a hobbie and last season from harvest to harvet he used just over twenty lbs. Now I don't know how many cigs you get from a pound but that sounds like a heck of a lot of butts.

[delcecchi]

Chaw?

[Bobby Bass]

Chew takes some work from what I have been reading, the curing process for that is usually done in a smoke house and can take 10-12 weeks. SO the chew is actually smoked before it is chewed, go figure. For myself I am looking at growing some leaf for cigarettes and most likely that will be blended with some store bought till I get the hang of it and also growing some leaf for cigar wrappers. With any luck this time next year I should have a home made cigar smoldering in the ash tray next to the keyboard.

[delcecchi]

Good Luck. I think rolling cigars is one of those things that is harder than it looks.

http://youtu.be/h2jGpVohq6Q

[Bobby Bass]

Received my tobacco seed order yesterday, I went a head and put in an order with Leafonly as they had seeds in stock and the ones that I wanted. I ordered a Havana long leaf, Sm Black Mammoth and some Virginia Gold. I have found out that I can grow different varieties in the same plot. I ordered from LeafOnly because they sell seed in small (25-50) to a pack for less then 3.00 and only a postage stamp for delivery. When I got the seed packs there is more like a hundred seeds to a pack. Tobacco seed is about the size of a dot of pepper. Couple of weeks from now I will start them indoors and we will see how big I can get them before moving them to the greenhouse and then into the ground. The leaf that I will be growing can be used for cigarettes and also as a wrapper and filler for cigars.

[Down Deep]

I grew up in KY the home of tobacco farming. When I was in college I worked for farmers planting and cultivating their fields. Raising tobacco is simple enough as long as you remember that the plants are magnets for all kinds of worms and other buggy pests. The commercial growers used lots of sprays to control these and they used neutralizers on the insecticide once the bugs were gone. I would say that some sort of spray would have to be used to control bugs and worms. The grower also has to cuts suckers off the plant stems to keep the leaves growing. Then the curing process of cutting, hanging with proper air flow and then processing at a time when the humidity is high. By the way 35 lbs is a lot of cured plants.

[Bobby Bass]

Planted my seeds in their little starter seed houses today, they were not kidding about how small the seeds are!

[minky]

This is a very interesting thread.

I never knew tobacco could be grown in MN.

[delcecchi]

http://sherburnehistorycenter.blogspot.com/2010/12/tobacco-is-minnesota-cash-crop.html

[Dotch]

I remembered hearing about this as a kid. I thought del being slightly older than I might have actually seen it...

http://www.hometown-pages.com/main.asp?F...SubSectionID=21

[delcecchi]

I remembered hearing about this as a kid. I thought del being slightly older than I might have actually seen it...

http://www.hometown-pages.com/main.asp?F...SubSectionID=21

[Bobby Bass]

Update: seeds have now been planted for 5 weeks and they are growing but o so very slowly. Very low rate for germination but I only need about thirty plants so I should make that. The cherry tomatoes that I started at the same time look like redwoods in comparison!

[Bobby Bass]

Tobacco update: Well did a real good looking over the tobacco trays and it would appear that I am growing more weeds then tobacco. After doing some research I think I have about six plants which gives me at least one plant of each of the three varieties that I planted. First lesson here learned is that I need to start a lot more seeds to actually get to a tobacco seedling. Still with the six plants I will now baby them and then I will decide if I am going to put them in the ground or just try to grow them in large pots. The pot idea might may be the way to go as I will be able to keep them in the greenhouse and control the temperature much better. Or I might try some in the garden and some in the greenhouse, this is a learning experience so I am experimenting

[delcecchi]

Tobacco and Tomatoes might not be real compatible, if that is a factor. The T in VFNT is for Tobacco Mosaic Virus.