Tobacco Growing and Curing at Home.
98
Basics
Firstly, a warning. smoking can be bad for your health. So can drinking, singing off key, sleeping with your neighbour's wife, too many fatty foods, too much meat, not enough meat, too many vegetables, not enough veg....... well, you get the picture. This hub is not about health issues or hobby-horses, it's about growing tobacco and curing it. What you do with it then is your own damned business.
Secondly, don't break the law. Here in New Zealand you can buy tobacco seed, grow the stuff, and, if you want to, smoke it quite lawfully. You may not lawfully sell it, barter it or give it away. The same regulations govern brewing, wine making and the distilling of alcoholic beverages. If you live elsewhere check your local legislation to ensure that you comply.
Having got that of my chairy little hest, lets get down to the nitty gritty:
Anyone Can Grow Tobacco Successfully !
Virginia Tobacco, the stuff of commerce, is one of the most hardy plants you'll ever grow. If where you live is warm enough to grow cabbages, tobacco will thrive. If it's warmer there, all the better. I grow it in a tiny section where I live, 400ft. (120 metres) above sea level, with a moderate semi coastal climate. For three months of winter we have occasional light frosts, some bitterly strong winds, some hail. I planted a few seedlings in February last year as an experiment. That's late summer here in the Southern Hemisphere. They were small plants, about 2ft (60cm.) high when winter hit. They stopped growing until spring. The leaves stayed healthy - no wilting or browning, and around the end of September off they went again. Compared with correctly grown plants they were small, but still over 6ft high.(I'll continue this in feet and inches only, for the sake of our American cousins. For those of you more comfortable in metrics, 1 ft. = 30cm.)
I got tired of fighting past the damn' things to get to my garden shed and pulled them out last May, still healthy and hardy, with a root system the size of a football.
What You Need.
- Seeds: You can buy seeds here in NZ from Kings Seeds in Katikati,
www.kingsseeds.co.nz
Elsewhere try local seed merchants, heritage seed suppliers, the Internet, or the above. Check importing restrictions. For North American readers, try Victory Seed Co. in Oregon. http://www.victoryseeds.com/tobacco/backer_cultivation.html This is also a very helpful site. My thanks to You Grow Girl .com for this contact. - Somewhere to grow the seedlings: a sunny window-sill is fine. The seed is tiny, like ground pepper. Put seed-growing mix, or a mixture of fine soil and sand in a shallow container, (a 2 lt.-about 3 pint, ice-cream container with a few drain-holes punched in the bottom is good, or one of those little 6 part seed trays you got some other seedlings in, or a small egg tray for that matter.) Stand the tray in a dish or suchlike so that you can water it without soaking the carpet, sprinkle seed very lightly over the soil, and water. It's probably best to water by standing the container in an inch or two of water in a bucket or the sink to soak, then allowing to drain before you put it on it's dish. Cover with a newspaper, bit of cardboard or some-such and keep damp. In about 2 weeks the seedlings should start showing. Be warned, I used the barest pinch of seeds sprinkled into a six pot seed tray and got over 100 plants! Thin the seedlings as soon as they're big enough, either to individual 4in pots, or about a dozen to an ice-cream container. When they're about 4in high, and after frosts, plant out. See my reply to Patty Inglish's comment, (first one, below) for extra seedgrowing tips.
- Somewhere to grow the plants. The seedlings need to be planted with a minimum spacing of 2ft between plants and the same between rows, although 3ft between rows is better. They prefer full sun but will grow well in partial shade.The leaves can be up to 2ft long each, droop, and grow on a main stalk from ground level up, diminishing in size with height. A full grown plant is 7ft tall, and self supporting.
How Many Plants?
This depends on what you want the tobacco for. Just for the fun of growing the stuff and possibly to use the leaves to make a bug spray a couple of plants are fine. If you want to cure and smoke it, put in at least a dozen plants if possible. If you can't, stick in as much as you can.
This seems a good place to take you by the hand (Not too close!) and walk you through some simple basic arithmetic, if you haven't already done so yourself. Take what you pay a week on smoking (probably around $50), multiply it by 52 to find what it costs you a year(over $2,500?), subtract the one time only cost of the seed ($2.50 buys about 1,000 seeds, down the road from me) and the cost of the couple of cups of seed-raising mix and fertiliser you may have bought. Still over $2,500? Well, you probably displaced 12 cabbage to grow enough tobacco to keep you in cancer sticks for a year, go figure.
Care
Now that you've your tobacco planted out behind the wife's begonias (it's quite an attractive ornamental with small pretty pink flowers), along a wall, down the drive, in a bed of its own, all of the above, where-ever, how do you raise the delicate little darlings? Well, short of dynamiting it, running it over with a ten ton digger, seering it with a flame thrower, or soaking the stuff in weed-killer, tobacco pretty much looks after itself. Treat it as you would tomatoes: Plant it in reasonably rich well dug soil, (with well composted vegetable matter if you've got it) water it regularly in dry weather, give it a side dressing of general garden fertiliser now and again, weed around it, and thats about it. You can sit back, drink your moonshine, (I'm doing a Hub on distilling, later) and watch it grow.
When it gets bigger, you'll see small tobacco plants starting to grow as side-shoots from the main stalk at the base of the leaves - the same as tomatoes and that other stuff some people smoke. The same rules apply: Pinch out or otherwise remove them. If you plant them, they'll grow for a later crop. When the plants reach maturity they'll set flower heads at the top. Pinch them out. You may need to stand on something to do it! I suggest that you leave one plant to flower for seed.
Pests
Here in New Zealand nothing much seems to bug tobacco, - or mine any-way, either from above or below ground. After all, cigarette butts soaked in a bucket of water was an old way of making insect spray that my parents and grandparents used. If you do have problems see your local nurseryman, or talk to a friend who gardens. What works on tomatoes should work on tobacco.
You might try planting cabbage amongst the 'backy to deter the cabbage butterfly; I intend to this year.
Harvesting and Curing
A lot of unmitigated drivel is put about over the difficulty of curing tobacco. I believe that it's an evil plot put out by the tobacco magnates and perpetuated by our respective but seldom respected or respectable Governments to wring money from us unnecessarily. Curing tobacco is basically the drying of it in a moderately controlled environment. There are all sorts of bells and whistles you can add to enhance the end result, but YOU DON'T HAVE TO! You can make a perfectly acceptable product by just drying the leaves adequately, slicing them thinly, rolling them in cigarette paper, and setting them alight, - so put that in your pipe and smoke it!
Picking The Leaves
As Mrs Beeton once said "Oh Sh-", I'm sorry, I mean "To make jugged hare first catch your hare." The same goes with tobacco: to cure it, first you gotta pick it. You're not in the commercial growing business, you're not paying for labour, and, hopefully, you've a bit of time to spare, so take your time and pick the leaves as they come ready. Around the time that flower-heads start to form and the plants are full grown the bottom leaves will be ready to pick. If they show signs of yellowing before this pick them straight away. Take the leaves, cut a slit near the butt end of the centre rib of each leaf, feed a thin tomato stake or similar through these slits so that when you hold the stick horizontally (that's the way you have to hang them), the leaves hang down about an inch apart, and hang these sticks somewhere dry, out of the way and preferably warm. An attic is great, so is from the garage rafters, provided you still have head-room. You can string the leaves on a length of wire, a chord stretched between two nails, use your imagination.
Keep picking the leaves over the next weeks when you think that they're ready. Too early or a bit of yellowing before picking will make damn'-all difference to the end product; one of the reasons that I suggest that you pick this way is so that you don't get thoroughly sick of slitting and hanging the beastly stuff! It also gives the higher leaves a chance to grow a bit more.
Curing.
Don't look now but you've already done it - well, good enough for the average punter. You've hung the leaves in a warm(ish), dry, preferably dark and airy environment not touching the walls or floor, you've checked them occasionally to see that they haven't jammed up together on their' sticks, or gone moldy, or the mice haven't developed a bad nicotine habit, and you've made sure that they haven't become so dry that they're brittle - dry means they're not rained on, or so wet that they rot. If the brittle bit looks a problem, move them to somewhere cooler, or you could spray them using one of those very fine misters you can buy for a few dollars to do house plants.
The only other basic for curing is time. Time is said to cure all things, and tobacco is near the top of the list. Some say that it should be left hanging for two years. I've found that one year is quite enough. (I turned out a first class flake tobacco from some leaf that I'd left in a box in a corner of my garage for a year, and forgotten about.) A friend hangs his tobacco for about three months, by which time it has both a nice colour and texture, then cuts it and uses it straight away.
Preparing The End Product.
I assume that you want to either roll your own, or stoke a pipe. Preparing the leaf is the same for both: Take a leaf, strip out the center rib and any large side ribs if it's a big leaf, repeat for several leaves until you have a reasonable handful and then proceed in one of the following ways:
- Squeeze the leaves together into a tight bundle and using a very sharp knife and a chopping board slice the tobacco as thinly as you can. cut it cross-ways a few times and you're there. This is tedious, but it costs you nothing other than time, and it does the job.
- Buy a hand operated tobacco slicer. A friend brought one back from Holland a few days ago. He bought it new for around 20euro. It consists of a cast metal cylinder about the size of the cardboard tube at the center of a toilet roll, cut in half length-ways with a hinge on one side and a clamp on the other, so that it can be opened, stuffed full of leaf, and clamped shut. It has a flat plate attached to a worm at one end of the cylinder and a small guillotine at the other, linked to the worm by levers and a ratchet. Operating the guillotine causes the worm to turn and slowly drive the wad of leaves down the cylinder. A fiendish device, but I suspect not much faster than cutting by hand.
- Claude Desgroseilliers has sent me the following suggestion. It's brilliant."I use a hand operated pasta machine to slice my tobacco leaves, my machine has two attachments, one for spaghetti which I use to cut the tobacco." http://www.kasbahouse.com/villawareonline/images/atlas.jpg)
- Try my way, I'm basically a lazy bugger: Do the first way suggested, but don't muck about trying to fine cut everything. Fast and rough is good enough.Then chuck the lot into a food processor with a sharp bottom blade fitted and zap it until the fineness of the flake suits you. This also has the advantage that if you think that the tobacco leaf was a bit dry, or you want to enhance the flavour, you can dissolve a little honey in a couple of teaspoons of alcohol (port, rum, vodka, moon-shine) and dribble it in as you zap.
Harvesting Seed
Further up the page I suggested that you let one plant flower for seed. This has several points of merit:
- You don't have to fork out another $2.50 for seed. In fact, a little bit of bartering will get your money back.
- You may have had difficulty getting seed in the first place. Problem solved!
- The seed will have adapted to your environment.
- I can't be bothered, think up a few for yourself.
Presuming that you did this, what do you do next? Well, here goes another list:
- Let the flowers bloom and die off. Little green capsules about 1/4in long will be left behind. (These have some glorious botanical name it doesn't matter a bit about. You know what to look for.) You'll have lots of them.
- Let them dry out, they'll turn dark brown and eventually start to split.
- At this point pick them. This is sequential; they are ready over a period of weeks, think of the fun you can have. Actually each capsule has dozens of seeds so one picking of ready seed-heads is more than ample, unless you have several acres you want to plant out.
- Put a fine sieve in the top of a clean dry bowl, or on a sheet of paper, break the seed-heads into it and rub the central core to get the seeds off.
- Gently shake the sieve. The seeds will pass through, most of the rubbish will stay behind.
- Store the seeds safely. Wrapped in a spill of paper or square of toilet tissue and placed in a little jar or pill container is fine. Keep in a cool dry place out of direct light.
And that's about it. I hope that you learned what you wanted from this article. There are other ways to grow tobacco, and other ways to cure the stuff. Some are undoubtedly better. I don't think many would be easier, or cheaper, and I know what I've written about works, because I've done it.
Have fun, good luck, and thanks for dropping in.
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Comments
Thanks Patty for the warm comments. Actually, no wife, dammit. The situation's vacant but I don't get applicants these days. Probably something to do with hanging from the rafters by my toes, - or being flat broke! I've noticed that to women a bloke's attractiveness increases in direct proportion to the size of his wallet. A very practical outlook which dates back several million years. Even in the relatively recent era of Alli Oop, (phonetic, I don't really know how he chipped his name) The Ug with the biggest club had the best chance of providing for all the little oopses, and the hairy little lady neanderthals knew it. Nothing's changed.
My little piece of paradise is more cubical than spherical( - I may be a square but I've been around) but yes, the multi-dimensional concept applies. There's no tobacco in at the moment, it's officially the last day of Winter down here. I'll be starting my seed later today between bouts on the web, - in an ice-cream container of course, and putting them out in my mini-hotbed to grow. Antipodeans please note! It should more accurately be called a "cold frame" as it has no extra heating, and is actually a rectangular wall cabinet with a mirrored internal back, a glass shelf and glass sliding doors closing the front. Sort of a basic drinks cabinet. (You notice, Patty, that I just can't avoid talking about booze. I think I'll go and have one........... [long pause], well, thash better; nothing quite like a nice pot of tea. Watch out for my Hub on distilling, hope to write it soon) The cabinet was chucked out by our local charity shop a couple of weeks back as too scruffy to sell, so cost me nothing - and boy does it work well. I put several lidded containers of chili and leek in it to sprout, and on checking them a couple of days back found it was so hot in the containers that I had a well steamed worm. The lids came off rapidly! The cabinet's sitting just outside the double doors of my lounge facing north and is big enough to raise sufficient seedlings to keep my garden supplied all year. (It's drizzling here at the moment, and I went to see how the seeds are coming on as I wrote this, -in my slippers, which remain dry.) The moral is: Don't make the job unnecessarily awkward. If you have to put on boots, a sou'wester, a woolly hat, and beat if a hive of bees whenever you need to check your seedlings you probably won't bother - and they'll turn up their little toes and die. If you can do as I do - take a short break from what I'm doing, make a cup of coffee, and have a quick squiz at what's growing on the window-sill or just outside the door, you'll be on top of of any problems that may arise. Watering, too hot, slugs, whatever.
Sorry Patty for using my reply to you to disguise a quick tutorial, but I had to sneak it in somewhere.Oberleutenant Maxi is drilling the eels on the college sports-field just up the road. They're having a major problem with the goose-step, - keep falling flat on their faces. The worms are of course in mourning .Much wailing and gnashing of masticulators.
And now a little confession for those who've persevered so far. I don't smoke, I never have, apart from the very occasional cigar. But I DO grow, and make, reasonably good smoking tobacco. I'm not biased by an urgent craving to smoke what I've made, and the smokers who I've used for quality control, when I think that it's ready to use, are enthusiastic.
To the queries from another site (B.T. Evilpants), 1- NZ1689 membership # (when signing in use 1,not I) 2- Sorry, no nude bathing, just pub quizzes and erratic AGMs, 3- my forte is loosing pens. Are you founding and/or management? (private answer, please)
I had an uncle that raised bees and built a solar powered house - only took 30 years 1950 - 1980. :) I saw in once in the 1960s, half-baked, as it were.
So what does one do with tobacco if one does not smoke? I hear it makes a good poultice.
I suppose the eels have invented their own electrical conveyences by this time, to replace the goose stepping.
Interesting hub.
Patty: Dock makes a better poultice I believe, as does a mustard paste. I'm loathe to suggesting using tobacco for one, because of the chance of one's system absorbing nicotine. Smoke it if you wish but why push your luck? Tobacco infused in a bucket if water is a time honoured insect spray. This year I'll be scattering plants around my garden to deter the Cabbage White Butterfly, which is a pest in New Zealand. (If it doesn't work, back to Derris Dust.)
Your maternal concern about the eels is heartening. I overcame the goosestepping problem by contacting your friend in the swamp. He sent 7,000,000 pogo sticks on approval. If B.T. gets elected, he gets Florida, if B.T. cans out, he gets the eels. They can now alternately goose-step and straight arm salute as they bounce by.
talford: Thanks for dropping in. I see that you've had an enlightening life, my best wishes.
I wish I could draw a picture of 7,000,000 pogo eels...laughing to hard to hold the pencil,
I have experimented a bit and have found a strong tea in cold water of cured tobacco leaves snuffed up the nose is a great substitute for smoking the herb. It tastes _great_! Perfumey. Tiniest bit of a 'burn'. A drop goes down the hatch to yr tummy and oh is that nice. Do overdo it.
It has the same 'dose-response curve' of smoke herb, with no combustion products, no lung wear-and-tear, no offensive stink to non-partakers, and no federal taxes payable.
I will still smoke, 'cuz I love the practice. But I'll supplement with the liquid snuff to avoid a chemotherapy and narcotic habit in the future. I'll snuff even while doing chemo- and no Doctor can fault me!
Joe on Pender Island, British Columbia canada
Thanks Joe for your input. I've found when "zapping" the leaves in a food processor that a small amount of fine powder is left which makes excellent snuff. I'm still waiting for one of my more elderly English ( or old Pommy, if you wish) friends to show up from his world wanderings to give an expert opinion on its quality.
That's a cute little white mouse you got over there...hehe. By the way I like your play of words "chairy little hest". I personally don't smoke but was curious about this as our domestic helper in India used to chew tobacco leaves. Didn't know tobacco could be grown in one's backyard. Looking forward to more informative hubs from the kiwi land.
As you probably read, I have never smoked either, but after all the mystique shovelled around about growing the stuff, (and more-so, the difficulties in curing it) and finding nothing really helpful on the web I had a bash myself, dispelled a lot of perceived myths and wrote of my results.
I pinched the mouse from one of Patty Inglish's hubs until I can get a picture of myself that shows a reflection. lol, TOF
You pinched from the best (Patty Inglish is an amazing writer). As they say imitation is the best form of flattery. So here's to the lovely mickey mouse...LOL
What a fun read to be sure! Tobacco growing peppered with humour - and you make it sound sooo easy. Just make sure those 'baccy companies don't get you now!!! :)
Great hub, even for a non-smoker like me. They're impressive looking plants aren't they? I didn't know you grew tobacco down under, but why not? You've a more favourable climate than we do, and a sweeter, slower pace of life. I was in NZ 12 years ago for a visit, and absolutely loved it.
Thanks team.
I had an embryo 'baccy plant (self seeded) lurking under my rhubarb over Winter Amanda, its now three foot high and rising. as I said above, short of dynamite or bulldozing, tobacco will grow pretty-well anywhere. I've visited hubs from you all. I have impressive "fans"!
TOF- You are really funny and intelligent. The way you said you said that you don't believe in reincarnation(I though you were supporting those who rubbish the eastern belief) but then immediately you said that was in another life... that made me laugh out loud. In India they have a quote "When we have friends like 'you' we don't need enemies"...you are one little naughty mouse....hehe
Yep, all six feet and 185lb of me.
Excellent Hub.
My grandparents ran a tobacco farm, raised their kids there. My grandpa chewed snuff. Still, I learned more about growing tobacco here than from my dad or grandma and grandpa. Of course, I only lived on the tobacco farm until I was 10 months old so I guess it's understandable that I don't remember a thing about it. Funny thing is, none of them smoked cigarettes and I do.
Can't wait to read the distillery hub. Tips on debauchery for free! Love it.
Shirley, I was born in the tobacco growing heart of New Zealand. My mother's grandparents were among the first settlers there, and like you I was about ten months old when we left.
I've just been to see how my mate Wally the Dutch from over the road's tobacco is coming on. Nice little plants about the size of a cup and saucer at the moment. from this point on they'll go ape. Thanks for your interest.
I have saved thousands of dollars, making my own smokes. Now I can grow the tobacco, and be totally self sufficient!
B.T. For in-depth information on how to grow those smokes go to any tomato growing site. The properties and techniques are very similar I'm told. You do need a more enclosed space as the plants are quite susceptible to pests and diseases, such as light-finger and fuzz.
Hi The Old Farm, I never ever even thought of growing home grown tobacco! very cool!
Be careful, the government will not be happy about this hub!:D
Yeah, gidday compu-smart, nice to hear from you.
The government is not happy about a lot of things that I do, and I'm sooo worried, however growing tobacco is perfectly legal here in Godzone', and so is making hooch, as I said in the intro'; so they can go, squat and cluck to their heart's content.
very good hub
What an interesting ~ curious read. I had to find out more and hit the motherload. There's a lot being done with the evil tobacco leaf these days.
Five or ten years tobacco farmers could wind up being heroes in the pharmaceutical industry curing all sorts of wicked bad diseases.
In the US Stanford University is testing an injectable cancer vaccine in genetically engineered plants.The private sector; researchers and bioengineering entrepreneurs have used tobacco plants as hosts for processes that may produce new antibiotics, vaccines, cancer treatments, blood substitutes, biodegradable plastics and industrial enzymes and solvents.
Top tobacco dawg J.J. Reynolds created a subsidiary, Targacept, to compete with Eli Lily and Abbot Laboratories to treat Alzheimer’s.
A group of biomedical scientists from the University of Central Florida have established that insulin capsules produced from transgenic tobacco plants that can cure diabetes in mice.
Early tests suggest the leafy pariah can actually grow complex medicines, from blood thinners to a possible AIDS drug.
Who would have known that pharmaceutical tobacco could retain a higher price and be a gold mine. Cha Ching Bling Bling.
check out my sources for more
http://community.seattletimes.nwsource.com/archive
http://www.thetandd.com/articles/2008/09/01/busine
Great hub! I'm from Virginia tobacco land. So i definately appreciate this hub
Gidday Diggersstory. You and BT Evilpants should get on well. Thanks for the expansion on the uses of the evil weed.
I've just returned from visiting my old mate Wally the Dutch (from over the road) where we carried out Quality Control on a batch of home brew that I helped him bottle a couple of months back. At the same time I did a running check on his little plot of tobacco - only a couple of dozen plants, quite enough to keep him in bug spray for the rest of the year. (He's got a large garden) The biggest plant's four foot and rising, he should be picking the first leaves soon
But strewth mate, transgenic tobacco? So mice that normally don't get diabetes are artificially infected or whatever with it and then "cured." It'll take a lot of generations down the line before I'm happy with the proof of a lack of side effects.
luvintkandtj: Welcome aboard. As you've read, it's Virginia seed that I've used, and it makes, I'm told, a fine tasting smoke. It certainly grows prolifically.
You're a feisty little fella, aren't ya? Thanks for tribute. Interesting hub. You're wrong about Obama.
Hello Stefanie,
Do you mean that I got his five cypher code screwed up? That's twice this unigobble. Why do you think I was dumped on your glorious and admirable planet? - Actually that's an evasion. I'm here to teach how to grow tobacco - and strawberries. Love.PC49.
Tobacco smells bad and who would want to grow this? A waste of good crop land.
Hi,Why? Me, because I want to. Fair enough reason?
Interesting hub. I love the smell of pipe tobacco.
Hi Nickny79, Thanks. One of my memories of high school is of a teacher who smoked aromatic pipe tobacco. You would always know when he'd been in thee corridor.
I miss smoking. It will be 10 years in February. Thanks for the hub. If I ever fall off the wagon and get the urge to grow my own, I'll be sure to look you up.
Now you have done it. I am going to enlist a fellow cigar smoker and move this to the next level
That must be an old memory, if pertained to any sort of tobacco smoking in school! I was a teacher myself--I should think I'd be fired on the spot, tenure notwithstanding, if I ever dared to smoke a pipe in the corridors!
rockinjoe, You'll realy have fun when I get around to doing a hub on distilling then. I'll bring the temperance bunch out of the woodwork with that one, I bet.
Verax,I'm looking forward to your cigar hub.
Nick: I was born ten thousand years ago, and there's nothing in this world that I don't know. - I've seen Peter Paul and Moses play ring around the roses. (it's written in the scriptures that it's so!)
When I worked for FEMA I talked with a few old folks in the deep south whose personal tobacco patches had been destroyed by whatever the current disaster was. They said they would not be able to get new seed because the tobacco companies were making it very hard for individuals to grow their own. They all said it was much better, smoother, and not as deadly as commercial tobacco.
I also knew an elderly lady whose father had a small tobacco farm in Virginia. She said that she and her siblings spent hours and hours picking bugs off the tobacco and that it was all grown completely naturally and people didn't die from smoking back then. She thought that the reason tobacco is so deadly now is all the chemicals that are used in its production.
I don't smoke, but good HUB! Thanks! :)
Thank you Suzanne. I agree, of course with your elderly friends. I feel that home grown tobacco is usually far less lethal than the commercial stuff, as less non-degradable poisons are used in growing it.
For what it's worth, I also think the same of home grown vegetables, for the same reasons. The degree of potential danger is obviously inherently different.
TOF,
Wouldn't it be wonderful if we could all access locally grown fruit, veg, (and tobacco?) Where did it all go wrong?
I do reasonably well, Amanda. Although I'm in a suburban stand alone unit. A garden space of 25x18 feet keeps me pretty well supplied.
Not everybody has the time, space or inclination to garden though. Farmers' markets, flea markets and a bit of a search for local growers will often help. Try the web for suppliers in your' area - you may be surprised.
I do use the farmer's markets in Shoreham and Lewes, and we have a local greengrocer who uses Sussex growers as far as possible, but the supermarkets where most people shop are another matter entirely! Our little garden is smaller than yours, north facing, and dominated by the kid's trampoline, but we do grow tomatoes and herbs in pots in the summer, and I once grew a pumpkin which virtually took over all the available space all on it's own!
Wow, The Old Firm this is an extensive & fantastic hub! Excellent comments, all around, too, very interesting reads. I'm trying to quit smoking right now, but I wonder if I'd started smoking stuff that I had grown myself all those years ago if I wouldn't be as miserable as I am right now. I completely agree that it is the additives & extra junk they put in commercial tabby that is killing people.
Hi Nicole, thanks for the kind words. I've had a quick look at a couple of your hubs and I'm sure that you're not at all miserable, you're far too ebullient for that.
As tobacco won't keep smoldering on its own, it had minute amounts of saltpetre (potassium nitrate) added to it in the early days to keep it burning. Cheap alcohol (rum) was also used, as well as to preserve and flavour it. Honey was sometimes used to do the last two. I doubt that these would cause you much harm, probably far less than continual lungs full of hot, irritant laden smoke, but the current method of commercial production loads the leaf with poisons which accumulate in the body. This scares the hell out of me.
Dude... WIRED had an article in what goes into the average "commercial" smoke... (The picture in the article looked an awful lot like the "Morley's" CSM on the X-Files smoke & I think we all know what those were supposed to be...) and did you know?, this is one of the grosser all natural ingredients they cited... they use some sort of glandular extract from beavers. So now whenever I see anyone smoking a "Morley" I can't help but tell them they are smoking beaver balls. *grin* As for being miserable, I'm a wreck right now. When I'm not eating I'm chewing and when I'm not chewing, I'm drinking. And when I'm not doing either of those I'm smoking. I'm *so* pissed off at these big brand companies for putting all this extra & highly addictive / poisonous crap in our cigarettes.
Now I am realy scared. My particular apprentice intake had the official nickname of "Beavers". Now not only do I have to avoid government bureaucrats, income tax officials, the SWAT squad and irate husbands with long memories, I've got to be on the look-out for tobacco company hit men with big syringes!
Sounds like you're "misery"is just standard pre-Christmas build-up. The only thing you missed is spending far too much money on junky toys that fall to bits within minutes. (Toy drums don't though. You can hit the bloody things with an axe and they just get louder. DONT BUY THE KIDS DRUMS!!)
*giggle* thanks, The Old Firm. I think I agree that drums are off the list.
Couple of things ... Thanks heaps for you valuable info :)
But wait! There's more!
How long does it take for the bakky plants to reach maturity?
Do I pick and hang leaves as I go? Or a big bang when the plant hits maturity?
How long does it take from woe to go to have a smokable result?
Could I sneak a few plants in around Auckland City Council parks and reserves?
Thanks heaps for your site ... very informative :)
Hi YAY, answers:
1) A mate planted seedlings in early October and picked his first leaves yesterday.
2) Pick and hang as you go. (Bottom leaves first.)
3) Allow 3 months from planting seedlings to picking your first leaves plus a MINIMUM of 3 months drying, but 6 months makes a far better product.
4) Tobacco is insensitive to the ownership of the land it grows on, you may not be so lucky. As I said above tobacco growing is quite legal in NZ, selling it isn't, so why mess about growing it surreptitiously?
Good luck with your growing, I'm transplanting self sown seedlings in the next few days so you've still time for a crop this year.
Cheers, TOF
Hey TOF,
Once again great hub. I love it when people create their own products usually manufactured by companies. Got another?
WR
To lazy to write it at the moment Writer Rider, I'm having too much fun stirring it on other hubs, but it'll probably be on making moonshine, which I've done with skill and dexterity, and carried out quality control on with enthusiasm (when I can snatch the bottle momentarily from the frenzy of over-enthusiastic members of the self appointed quality control panel)
Backy, Booze, the third hub should be a Doozy! Thanks for commenting Stefanie.
Cheers, TOF
Brilliant Hub! We won't be allowed to grow baccy (or distill for that matter) but I'm gonna show a few mates this for info - too blooming cold here anyway I suspect.
Hi Ken, tobacco would probably grow in Edinburgh, it's bloody hardy, I don't know The UK laws regarding it's growth, though. As for 'stilling, surely a Scottish National Heritage protected cottage industry? (One of the first things that I was taught on my arrival in Australia to start my apprenticeship was strict observance of the eleventh commandment - "Thou Shalt Not Get Caught!")
I smoke cigars but I think it would be too much trouble for me to grow my own tobbacco. It is nice to know how to do it though.
Foxility, your probably right. The tobacco growing's easy, however I've been told that correct cigar rolling requires the use of a dusky maiden's thigh, both rare and frowned upon these days. Thanks for your comment.
TOF
Very true, TOF, very true. As we say in the U.S, whatever floats your boat and saves your lost remote. I'll enjoy it as long as it's very witty and original.
Well, Writer Rider, that's certainly deep and profound. It must be as I haven't a bloody clue what it means. (But then, I'm just a rambling wreck from Wagga Wagga Tech.)
I hope that you like the pretty pictures I added to the hub. Took most of them myself last week!
Love, TOF.
Hi ya TOF! Loved it along with all the comments and your almost second hub replying to Patty. My Papaw. a Kentuckian, grew his own tobacky and he and Mamaw would cure it in some kinda mixture and roll it up into twists for chew/chaw. They both chewed it. I tried it and puked when I was about 5. I still recall Papaw telling me, "Now Chuckle-doodle-doo if you spill that can I'll take the coal shovel to you!"
The can was a Maxwell coffee used for a spitoon in the house.
Well, anyway, loved the hub and am waiting on your next one about shine, since that's in muh blood too!
TOF,
It means write what you want. Nothing negative, beautiful pictures. Might as well pick up a bad habit seeing as how America's going down a certain type of creek. My grandfather used to smoke cigars as well, his cigar smoke was such a pleasant smell.
Thanks Writer Rider.
Love, TOF
Growing tobacco is legal in the UK.No tax .You are supposed to pay duty only when it has been cured.You are supposed to inform the customs and exise people when you have cured it.Hope they are not holding there breath waitng.
Great site
Thanks Frank, Helpful information for UK hubbers. If customs and exise complain, look dumb and say that you didn't even know that it was sick.
Cheers,
TOF.
Well old boy, I se you did add the poor old woman with a joint in her mouth on here. good. Love the new look too. it suits you. They ought to make a stamp out of that one. It would hot. He kinda looks like Old Mac with a mustache.
Who's Old Mac?
"I shall return."
Oh, yeah. Too loud, too late, wet pants going and coming.
(Couldn't resist that, he wasn't too bad)
The only experience I have with tobacco in any form was a large pinch of "Red Man" chew given to me by my grandaddy. He was always very discreet about his "spitoon", as I do not ever remember seeing one, and he did not tell me what to do with it. I enjoyed the first 1/2 second or so, then swallowed. I puked for weeks. Turns out, he was teaching me a very painful lesson. Not that I've ever SEEN a woman chew, but around these parts, it probably wouldn't be uncommon.
Won't be using your techniques, but I do think one cannot have too much knowledge. Okay, well, maybe.
I've never seen ANYONE chew tobacco, not a habit down here. I think rolling your own isn't very lady-like, however a lot of women do it for economy. Tobacco products, especially cigarettes are taxed to hell in NZ. Thanks for having a look PM.
Then you wouldn't appreciate the occasional road-side billboards around here sporting the picture of a man with only half of his lower face admonishing smokeless tobacco. But then again, I don't either. Gross.
I have enough problems with pictures on the news of a midget with very little forehead and his arm in plaster from falling over when clambering down some stairs, who is apparently our Prime Minister!
Now that's some PM Firm. And about ol' Mac, he was a snit and pompous old ass. Truman did right by firing him.
Thanks CC, that's an "h", not an "n", I take it?
Hello stranger! Is the call of the tobacco stronger than that of HP?? :D
Hi Shalini, it was the call of the Irish Knife-Hand, who very neatly flicked out a gall bladder that was surplus to requirements; so now when someone tells me that I've got a gall saying something I can prove them wrong. (The lengths that some people will go to to prove a point!)
Love, TOF
<<<<<<<<<<<<hugs>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>
Welcome back TOF - good to see you on the Hubtivity Highway again! The lengths you go to....LOL!
He still has plenty o' gall though ain't he? hello Firm! ya finally answered yer phone
Hi y'all. And now I'm off to bed.
Goodnight then.
Claude Desgroseilliers has made a brilliant suggestion about using a pasta cutter to slice tobacco. I've added it above, with a link to view the device. Thanks Claude.
That should work fine. I use one for lots o' things.
Yeah CC. It works for Claude
Damb pages are slow tonight. How ya doin'?
Sorry Charlie, just been having a coffee with Wally the Dutch, I'm fine. Got to go out in a few hours to a lodge meeting, and have a bit of prep to do so won't be too active for the next six or so hrs. Listening out, though.
I see you're writing like it's going out of fashion. Keep 'er up, mate
I'll look for ya later bud. I need to rest. Have a fine time at the ladies lodge meetin'.
I wish. Boys only.
Gawd, you have a 97 score on here. Just checking to see if yer OK?
97? I missed that, Back down to 94 now. Yep AOK, been catching up on gardening, - and sleep. Cheers, Carlie. TOF
That's an important topic there. Hope you're all caught up.
Off to work on the sleep bit again now. Good news about Ashley, PM's got some scum neighbours.
Hey Firm? knoc knoc. are you ta home old man?
Alive and kicking old friend.
I'll be an sob if it ain't the tof. hey
Well, dammit, is that all? I'm fixin ta go ta bed here
TOF!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
Where you been??
CC, you said that 20 minutes ago when you lost the battle!
Okay, so I lived in New Zealand for six years and many people grow their own smoking stuff and it ain't the tobacco you're thinking of. I always wondered why there was a long wire with a plug on the end coming from the trapdoor in my cupboard, coming from inside the roof. One day I decided to go and look. It was a whole farm in my roof! The previous owners had been cultivating their own smoking product! So, The Old Firm, yeah, we know what you're really growing....lol
LM, Iwas till I saw the old bastard is back
Hey CC, you can't go sleep, I've just woken up!
haha, well now I just may reconsider now. hey ya gotta join this old farts fan club now
I'll get right on that.
yep have joined old fart's fan club, if he doesn't smoke the weed he grows, does he put it in his anzac biscuits and eat it?
I reckon you'll find that out when you meet him. haha he's a pest LM, I tho't you were a member alredy
He is playing possom on us now
nah, if he's in NZ, he's watching rugby league on telly as we chat on his hub
Oh yeah, forgot that. also he has a lot of catching up to do
Firm, ya really need to join laughing mom, you and I know her very well. we used to have lot's of laughs at her expense, poor kid, so much goes over her head, hint, hint
Hey, rugby league leaves me as cold as last weeks mutton, don't think much of union either, (I'm an anti-social Bastard,- and the Indians are kicking our arses at cricket!!) I'm more of an itelec..- innerlek..- interlic... smart arse.
I had a neighbour drop in for coffee just after I kicked this thing into life, I've just thrown him out and I'm so hyped up on coffee I'm bouncing of the walls.
Yeah, Gidday Cindy, nice to meet you, watch out for Charlie, he's got a thing about toads!
hahaha, she's met me firm, she luvs me, too late haha hey wait and meet blondepoet, she's going to look to look you up.
Oooooooh - he's back! You elusive Old Firm, you! Missed you!
You also need to check out Frieda Babbley, another one that is just wonderful and witty. I'll lead her to you too. the more the merrier haha
Hey CC you still up? My bum is numb
Yeah, I jus read the lil turd dropping. haha twas good. I had to reboot and clean up my pc
lol, I seriously have to stand up now. Jeez, 1.48pm and I haven't even got dressed yet!
Hey Cindy my bum is numb too. My buttocks get sore from sitting down too long.Oh sorry TOF lol I was distracted.This is excellent,so much info here, I may just become a tobacco grower myself who knows
My friend just told me it is illegal is that right surely not
Hi blondepoet. Having cleared 350 odd (some VERY odd) emails , I'm back. Read my intro at the top of the page regarding the legality of tobacco growing in NZ, I don't know the present laws in Oz, however, if you can buy the seed there through a merchant, it must be legal to grow. It's available here as an ornamental, -pretty pink flowers and a long blooming period, but it's still the tobacco of commerce!
Thanks for missing me Shalini, nice to hear from you.
Oh I'm so tickled my new friends have found you firm. Now watch out for blonde, she'll steal yer heart man. woo-hoo
Thanx for this great hub! I lucked into it by looking up curing tobacco. Heck, I just grew it, aged it, shredded it with a Toledo meat slicer, and smoked it. I'm glad to know I didn't miss anything by bypassing all the frills. It's just now turning spring in the topheavy northern half of the world, and I'm starting with some new Burley seeds from Tennessee. I've got about two pounds of baccuh left from last crop, hoping I can hold out til I get this crop cured. The Supreme Soviet just sent the tobacco tax out the wazoo and turned supervision of it over to the USKGB, so I'm hoping to get a few pounds stashed away before the Black Maria's start rolling around at 3:00 AM.
It's gonna be one very interesting millenium. Cheers, and hang onto your hats, boys and girls! - Georgiaboy
Sorry about taking so long to reply Georgiaboy, I've had a few computer bugs, and a lot of other things to do, so have just got back on the web, and cleared about 150 emails.
The first frosts are just thinking about it here, and we're still picking leaf. Growth has slowed down dramatically though. Wally the Dutch (that's him in one of the photos) is still getting leaves from the plants he was harvesting in late January. He cut the top two feet out of those plants about the start of April and is drying them as well. What was left just kept on growing!
Cheers
Reallly great article, thanks TOF. I've got a question: my friend gave me totally dry tobacco leaves (they are about 2-3 yers old and they were hanging in an attic. They're completely brittle. Is spraying them reasonable or are they trash and i can't make a good smokes of it?
Hi Michal, I've seen leaves so dry that they're real bummers rejuvenated with a fine spray so give it a go, you'll probably end up with a reasonable smoke, (and if you don't, you've lost nothing!)
Good luck.
TOF
Good to see you back TOF :)
Just passing through Shalini, good to hear from you.
Thanks for setting my mind at ease regarding growing and harvesting/curing tobacco suitable for private consumption as a cigge smoker for years i am harvesting my first crop now May 09 and am looking forward to the cashflow increasing(D.P.B Dad) as the tobacco starts to cure. Was a bit disapointed to find out i may have to wait 3 months for it to cure but i guess like a lot of good things it takes time as the younger generation of woman will find out if they sample the older stud with the amazing Technique.A quick yarn for ya.
Two bulls one wise the other not so wise were standing on a hill perving on a couple of dozen heifers. being breeding season the young one says to the old boy come on lets race down there and nail a couple of them but the old boy says na lets walk down there and nail the lot.
Catch ya later Bob
Hell Bob, you must be old. I remember hearing that one fifty years ago.
Cheers Mate.
Hey, TOF! It's good to see you!
Hi sweetheart
Hey frim. How grow the whiskers? great to see ya
All trimmed down for the play- and gingery. I look almost civilised!
How's it going, I enjoy your happy hubs.
Foreman of the Jury
Gee thanks firm. happy hubs. haha Forman of the Jury, that the play? dint know you were an actor, I'm envious. would not be able to, stage fright ya know an' I'm shy. LOL
I'm doin' well enough, just busy with stuff and living. Trying to survive my dam allergy to lawn mowing and pollen with all the flowery sex going on out of doors. Birds an' bees ya know? LOL
The play's "Twelve Angry Men", the part's the mug at the top of the table in the jury-room; and I'm no actor, I got sucked in.
Don't let all that out-door sex get you down; if you can't lick 'em, join 'em.
Cheers, TOF
Out door sex is best. LOL I shall let it get me down.
Glad to know your OK fats, you had us all in a panic. Don't strain your' little tin ticker, ol mate.
Cheers. TOF
question to anyone who might have the answer we two moms have decided to grow tabacco we have recived our seedlings and are proud to say they are growing. Our question is if we wanted to make a cigar from the tabacco would it require a diffrent kind of tabacco plant or a combination of tabacco plants and what is the best way to sell cigars or ciggs without getting into trouble. And were is the best or chepest way to get supplys. USA
CC had mentioned to me to come and check you out. I grew up on a tobacco farm in North Carolina and can tell you more than you ever want to know about the stuff...how we got up early to pick the leaves and we'd throw them under our arms while they were wet and cold as we walked down the tobacco rows...stopping only when we could carry no more and depositing them in a "slide"...often pulled by a mule....how the tobacco juice built up on our hands.....was a black and gooey mess hard to get off.....of my grandfather sleeping by the barn to stoke the fire during the night to cure the tobacco....of picking the choice dried leaves called "wrappers" to wrap around bundles of dried leaves........well, anyway I know a couple of things about baccy....LOL
Sorry that I can't help you 2moms, - outside my realm of expertise. You could try R. Blue, he sounds up with the play.
Gidday RB, Check my fan mail on you profile. I didn't know that you were a baccy brat. I too was born in tobacco and hop growing country here in "Godzone" (but left when still a toddler)
How's Charlie's book coming on, published yet?
Cheers, TOF
I just askes a question..I did not ask to hear about your life sounds like you really do not have an answer to the question so why would you write such &&%%#@
2moms:
I grow and cure tobacco.
I don''t make cigars. I don't sell tobacco, - it's illegal to in New Zealand. My answer to you told you that.
I did not reply to you about my life, that reply was to some-one with considerably more manners than you. Kindly save your PMS for those who appreciate it. I don't.
2moms... there are indeed different varieties of tobacco along with different methods of curing them. The type of tobacco I am familiar with is "flue cured" tobacco. It is picked leaf by leaf as it ripens and is then heated to dry the leaf. This type of tobacco is used mostly for cigarettes, snuff, and pipe tobacco. In Kentucky they grow "burley" tobacco which is harvested by cutting the entire plant and hanging it upside down and air curing it. Sorry but I was only involved in the growing process and not in the processing. I'm sure a bit of research on your part will give you your answer.....however the best way to learn a trade like this is to apprentice. Cuba would be my first stop.
TOF....Charlie is currently off the Hubs....I didn't get a chance to talk to him before he left....but I believe he was put off with hubpages about the Hub challenge. I believe his book is "in the works".
Thanks for sharing.
R. Blue: Thanks for the help. Also, I'm now in communication with Charlie, I thought that you knew.
Cheers, TOF.
UK Magazines: Nice of you to drop in.
2moms you need to find a farmer in the South for supplies and a Cuban woman to show you how to roll them.
This ol hub still here? fine turd dropping I must say.
I'm taping my fingers waiting for another one hub TOF.
TOHMyth, Thanks for the input. I heard that it had to be a young Cuban woman. Not a lot of them around here. (That's why I don't make cigars.)
'wus, - still stoned in the back yard mate? Nice photos.
WR, wot, and drag down my Hub score? (PS, I write with taped fingers too - very slowly!)
Cheers all,
"Sigmund".
Wonderful hub, I have been trying to view it, but my mcafee site advisor wouldn't let me. I guess I can now though. Thanks for the info!!
Thanks annvans. I wonder what's up with mcafee? I'm glad that you put it in it's place. Cheers.
How does one determine when tobacco needs to be cured? Does it run a fever?
One way of curing it is hanging it up the flue. In these times it can be a swine of a job. Also when it appears to be getting off colour is a good time to try curing it.
Wanna buy a watch?
Cheers.
When would you say the best ime to harvest the bottom leaves is, yellow, green or inbetween.
Thanks from Montana
Ed, I replied to you a few hours back but it seems to have disappeared somewhere along the way, so here goes again. Both Wally the Dutch (from over the road, that's him in the photo with the leaves) and I have found that there's little difference between picking green, or as they colour. the curing goes just as well. If they're fully yellow they've had a bit of a head start, that's all, but I suggest that you keep them in separate bunches when curing for consistent drying.
Wash off any dirt splatter on the bottom leaves as soon as you pick them, (it's a lot easer then than later) and let them dry off before you hang them to cure.
Have fun with your growing,
Regards, TOF.
Thanks for the reply the info is appreciated
Ed
Glad to help Ed.
How does one know when it's time to pick? I suggest an expensive yet reliable wrist watch.
Actually, I found a crowd advertising on your' get rich site that sell watches that take 14hrs video/audio for about $50 US, and tell the time. (I might try them out with something cheap like a GPS dongle to check their reliability - they're Chinese of course.)
How's the 2D static vectoring these days?
Cheers, TOF
Hello, I have 50,000 plants growing this year and am breeding hybreds for cigarette tobacco. I have found that a 3 way mix in tobacco makes for a better smoke, and trying to geneticly fix a "One size fits all" for home growers so they don't have to plant verities of tobacco for a perfect smoke. Burley, Golden seal, NC129, have been the past crosses with the traits I'm linebreeding for. Have you a single verity your "samplers" prefer?
Hi Mike. I bought my initial seed from Kings Seeds in Katikati NZ three years ago and have been propagating from seed that I save each year since. On checking their' current catalogue I see that they are presently selling Golden Newt, so assume that's what I have.
http://www.kingsseeds.co.nz/ Go to shopline -flowers-hardy annual. It's, sold as an ornamental which of course it is, probably to avoid some silly law or another.
I can vouch for it's hardiness. It's nearly mid-winter here and there's been several frosts in the last few weeks, of down to -4 C, and some plants which self seeded in February are thriving and still growing, although more slowly than ones planted in late November/early December (photographed above.) The tallest is over 6ft and they're nearing harvest readiness.
It looks like you're growing in a big way Mike, what acreage are you planting?
Best of luck, TOF.
Hello again, I've planted 11 acres, Kind of small compared to 600 of corn and 160 of alfalfa I used to farm, but this is just kind of a fun thing, With the tax laws changing in the states on tobacco, 10 new Tobacco companys have started up here in Oklahoma and I am growing certified seed for them. The leaf it's self is secondary this year. I don't think the verity's I have will stand the winters here, it can get to 0 F here in January. Right now it's pushing 100' F with 90% humidity, and the tobacco is loving it so far. I've added a little to much nitrogen, as the plants are out growing the roots at this point. I have a chem-a-gation system that mists the plants with liquid fertilizer and I haven't got the mix perfected yet.
Do you go to the Horse races there? I also raise Thoroughbreds and have a son of Southern Halo for our Stud Horse, I hear that blood line is doing well in your part of the world.
I don't follow the horses Mike but several of my friends do, and an old bloke I play cards with and his twin brother have owned and trained gallopers most of there lives as a hobby.They've one at the moment that's stabled and trained about half a mile from where I'm sitting now at home and which is showing good form, - several minor placings in reasonably prominent country races.
Yes, NZ has a good bloodline, a lot of our stud are sold internationally.
Considering the amount of seed that I get off a few plants, 11 acres is one Hell of a lot of seed. I hadn't realised that the tax on tobacco had eased Stateside, sounds a good time to get into growing there.
Best wishes,TOF
Hello, The tax laws haven't eased, they've gotten worst. It just that some states aren't as bad as others. Some of the major tobacco producing states are taxing at $28.75 per pound. The state that we are in is taxing on a percentage of the gross. Which is a lot less than the per pound rate, and that is why the manufacturing company's are moving here. The taxes and the economy here is a mess. The prices have gone up so much no one can afford to buy anything.
I think it's going to get worst instead of better. Lots of jobs are being lost because the companies are charging so much they can't sell anything, and instead of lowering their prices, they close down. The price of fuel to distribute products over the country has caused the price of things to double or triple. It's a mess. That's why I got out of the alfalfa hay business, We were selling hay for $80 a ton, yet it was costing the buyers $300 a ton by the time it was delivered. The livestock it was feeding was'nt worth the price of the hay at that price, so most livestock producers quit. Now, there's no market for the hay because it's priced to high. The farmer, and the rancher both go broke because of it. The equipment manufactures are losing clients because of the farmers /ranchers numbers are going down, So with less sales, they jack up the prices to cover expense's, then they go broke, and all their workers lose their jobs, It's a mess. The crime in the city's is starting to expand. Food prices are going up because the farmers are forced to quit, Bread is $5,00 a loaf, people without a job, can't pay the price, so they're starting to steal food. They get caught and fill the jails, so they let the dope dealers out so they have room for someone trying to feed their kids. It's a mess. It's caused from a greedy people, greedy corporations, and a greedy government. One better be self sufficient these days, and be able to enjoy the priceless things in life, like sunrises and sunsets. Going fishing, growing a garden, home cooking, and spending time with family and teaching the old ways of making, growing, and fixing the things one needs yourself. The USA is going back to the 1930's.
Mike. Sorry for the delay in replying. I agree with your comments on the cost spiral. It's madness to price yourself out of existence, as many companies are doing. The Government, (mine too) seems to endorse this stupidity, and turn a blind eye to monopoly trading and price boosting collusion by major companies. The fuel industry and the electricity suppliers are a couple of examples.
Self sufficiency where possible is an admirable aim, but local and national government appear to be covertly hindering that goal where-ever they can.
No matter, we still get by. My little garden reduces my food bill well, even in winter; You are adapting to use your land more profitably. Nil illigit ad carborundum. We won't let the bastards grind us down.
Cheers, TOF.
Hello, Yes , we'll get by. I have sandy ground here, so the roots of the tobacco plants can go deeply and easly, but there not rooting like I think they should. What size of a root system do you get on your plants? Are you transplanting or planting direct? If transplanting, what size are the roots compared to the seedling? I'm getting 3" plants with 1/2 inch roots.
Hi Mike, One in the morning here so I'll leave the checking until tomorrow PM.
I still have self seeded plants of various sizes, as well as a few full grown ones that I've harvested but haven't pulled the stalks yet. I can tell you that I pulled out the stalks for the old bloke over the road (Wally) a few days ago and it took me all my strength for some of them, and I'm a fairly hefty 200 lb. The root-balls were a mass around 9in round, (or what came out of the ground was, a guess that the finer roots stayed behind)
I usually start the seeds off in little pots; a light sprinkle brings up hundreds of the buggers, literally, and then re-plant one to each same sized pot , but the seed is so fine and prolific you could probably sow in trays and then thin to one or two inches apart. Just chuck out the thinnings, times money and labour costs. Remember, a couple of dozen plants are all That I need, and you're doing thousands.
More tomorrow.
Cheers
Mike, I dug out one of my old plants a few minutes ago so as not to destroy too much of the root system The root-ball was a mass of fibrous roots measuring 24 X 18 x 10 inches deep.(this was a 7ft plant) Also pulled a seedling at the top end of the second leaf stage - 4 1/2in across the two larger leaves, three "hairy" roots spreading out and down longest 3 1/2in plus.
Hope this helps, TOF
Hello, We start ours in flats with a potting soil and sand on top of that, and then lay the seeds on top of that. We mist them, and then cover them with clear tops that let the light in, but keeps the moisture in also. I think I have a bit much N in the water i'm misting with. They seem to be growing without the need for much root system. The older ones out in the field are doing great now and putting down the roots like they should be. It's the one's in the 72 cell trays that I'm have the trouble with, They develope more leaf than root in this time period, when I think they should be getting more root growth. P & K are OK in the soil samples of the fields, but I haven't sent in a sample of the potting soil we purchased for a seed starting medium. Maybe I should check on it. We still have thousands in the flats, and transplanting them to the 72 cell trays. Most of the earlier verity's we have out in the field are doing great, once the roots take ahold after transplanting..
Thanks for the info Mike. I would say that getting your mix tested is a wise option. Let me know how you go.
Cheers,
Peter.
Patty Inglish, MS says:
10 months ago
You and your wife, flowers, and tobacco live in a lovely different world and I feel that I live in a mad vortex several days a week. Commendations to you for this intriguing and informative Hub. I imagine all the eels and worms are smoking high quality craftsman's cigarettes at their union meetings. I can imagine your property to be Sphereland as compared to Flatland.
Best wishes to each tobacco plant!