They were small plants, about 2 ft 60 cm high when winter hit. They stopped growing until spring, but the leaves stayed healthy—no wilting or browning—and around the end of September, they took off again.
Compared with correctly grown plants they were small, but still over 6' high. 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.
Note: I'll continue this in feet and inches only, for the sake of our American cousins. Be warned: I used the barest pinch of seeds sprinkled into a six-pot seed tray and got over plants! Tobacco seedlings ready for transplanting outside in the sun. Jim O'Neil via Flickr Commons. Tobacco isn't picky. It will grow in pretty much any type of soil you have. It does thrive in rich, well-draining soils, but it'll make do with what it gets.
Keep their soil moist but not soggy when they're young. After they've gotten established, you can water less often. Avoid over-watering. Soon, you'll notice that tobacco is quite an attractive ornamental with small, pretty, pink flowers. So how do you raise the delicate little darlings? Well, short of dynamiting them, running them over with a ten-ton digger, searing them with a flamethrower, or soaking the stuff in weed-killer, tobacco pretty much looks after itself. Treat it as you would tomatoes.
Pull out any small plants or weeds that try to crowd each tobacco plant. As each plant grows, you'll see small tobacco plants suckers or basal shoots starting to grow as side-shoots from the main stalk at the base of the leaves, the same as with tomatoes and that other stuff some people smoke. The same rules apply: pinch out or otherwise remove them. If you want plant them elsewhere, they'll grow for a later crop. When the plants reach maturity, they'll set flower heads at the top.
Pinch them out as well. You may need to stand on something to do it! I suggest that you let only one of your plants go to flower for seeds for next season's crop. Here in New Zealand, nothing much seems to bug tobacco, 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.
Generally, 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. Tobacco plants nearing maturity. Bottom leaves have been harvested from the rear plants. These plants are less than three months older than seedlings. You'll read a lot of unmitigated drivel about 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.
As Mrs. Beeton once said: "To make jugged hare, first catch your hare. If you're not in a rush, take your time and pick the leaves as they come ready.
Around the time that flower heads start to form and the plants are fully grown, the bottom leaves will be ready to pick. If they show signs of yellowing before this, pick them straight away. Don't look now, but you've probably already done it—well enough for the average punter, at least. Curing is basically the drying of tobacco in a moderately controlled environment.
You can make a perfectly acceptable product by 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! The trick 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, though I've found that two or three months 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. He then cuts it and uses it straight away. Harvesting: Fully grown leaves and no, It's not me!
These are the same plants as in the previous photo, eleven days later 25Jan It depends on what you want the tobacco for.
If it's just for the fun of growing the stuff and possibly to use the leaves to make a bug spray, a couple of plants will do fine. If you want to cure and smoke it, put in at least a dozen plants if possible. If you're limited in space, plant as many as you can. This seems a good place to take you by the hand and walk you through some basic arithmetic if you haven't already done so yourself.
You probably displaced 12 cabbages to grow enough tobacco to keep you in cancer sticks for a year. Go figure. I assume that you want to either roll a cigarette or use 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, and repeat this process for several leaves until you have a generous handful. Then proceed in one of the following ways:. Further up the page, I suggested that you let one plant flower for seed.
This has several advantages:. If you want to enhance the flavour of your smoke, dissolve a little honey in a couple teaspoons of alcohol port, rum, vodka, or moonshine and dribble it in as you cut your leaf.
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, but I don't think many would be easier or cheaper than the method I've described, and I know what I've written about works because I've done it. Content is for informational or entertainment purposes only and does not substitute for personal counsel or professional advice in business, financial, legal, or technical matters.
Answer: Dissolve a little honey in alcohol, Rum, Vodka, Port through preference. Answer: From seedling to mature plant in a temperate climate in about three months if planted in late Spring - early Summer; longer if planted later. Answer: It would probably enhance the product but I don't bother and nor do most of the locals that I know. One dampens and presses the leaves for a few days in a shallow tray with a board and a weight on top then rolls up the leaves like a newspaper roll, and slices thin rings off it which are then cut cross-ways for cigarette tobacco.
I can't suggest anything other than perhaps swapping it amongst your mates for something with less Kick. Answer: I remove the stems because they're woody and would produce lumpy tobacco. Answer: You could try packing small lots at a time in vacuum-sealed plastic bags. Question: Do you think putting a few dried mint leaves in with my tobacco leaves will give it a menthol taste?
I want to try it. Answer: Home grown tobacco doesn't naturally stay burning. The bought stuff has additives to keep it going, such as saltpeter potassium nitrate, the main ingredient of gunpowder. You could try misting the almost dry leaves with alcohol, like rum or vodka. This will help preserve the tobacco after it dries, and may prolong the burning. Otherwise, just bite the bullet and buy an extra box of matches.
Answer: Yes, but as it has a root ball the size of a football, you'll need a large tub. Question: Is it worth continuing to harvest the leaves after the tobacco plant has flowered? Or is it better to harvest the whole plant once it has flowered? Answer: I know people that have done both, so it's really up to you which is handiest, I don't think that it makes much difference to the end product.
Answer: Most of my friends who grow tobacco just dry it before smoking it, so no, don't bother. Answer: I've never struck that problem, and it hasn't been mentioned before, so it's probably not an issue. Question: How long would tobacco take to grow in a tropical climate like Australia? Answer: I don't know, it's been many years since I was in Australia, but I would guess a tobacco plant would take around three months or less to grow there. Question: When the bottom leaves go yellow before flowering starts, do I cut off the yellowing leaves and dispose of them or keep them?
Answer: You keep them, yellowing means that they're partly cured. Wash off any dirt, though. Question: Is planting tobacco summer start of January ok?
When is the best time to plant? Answer: The best time is November, give or take, but January's fine for a later crop. It should reach full size without problems. Question: I am a cigar smoker and I often put my stubs in my wife's flower bed.
Low and behold, I have 2 tobacco plants growing, which surprised me as the cigars I buy are aged. I live in Kansas and they are growing like crazy. They are about 20 inches now. Do you have any advice on how to grow these for cigars? Also, is it possible for the plants to grow too fast? Our temps range between 70 and degrees in the summer. Answer: This is a new one on me as I didn't know that tobacco grew from leaf propagation. Tobacco does grow like crazy once it gets going, about 3 months from seedling to 7 ft plant even in my temperate climate in Summer.
Just let the plants grow as shown in my hub, don't fuss over them as they're hardy, just make sure that they have at least a 2 ft spacing from each other or other plants, they'll transplant OK at this size if you have to, but better if you don't as it checks their growth, not a great worry.
When the plant is mature, harvest the leaves as normal and check google on making cigars, - I haven't made them but I know that there are some good sites with common sense instructions around.
I'd also suggest that you let the plants flower and save the seed, you'll get enough to plant half of Kansas and be very popular with your smoking friends!
Question: I have been hanging first tobacco leaves for two weeks in the green house and they going brown already. How soon before I can smoke them? Answer: Let them become almost dry but not brittle, take out the middle rib and any others that are large who wants to smoke ribs? You'll learn by experiment to get the tobacco the way that you like it. Question: What do you think of using a humidifier to keep some moisture in the air while curing?
Answer: You can surely use a humidifier and see how it goes. You could also try spraying with a mister one of those cheap mist sprayers that you can get from garden supply shops Just remember that you want the leaves to dry, not go mouldy.
I'd suggest that you just hang the leaves to dry without assistance in a shady airy spot and see how they go. If you get problems then sort them out with humidifiers or what have you. Have you ever tried soaking leaves to flavour them? Answer: You can spray the leaves with a mister using rum, port, dissolved honey or whatever takes your fancy to both flavour the tobacco and help it burn. Pots in the greenhouse should be fine, tobacco's very hardy. At the worst, the plants will stop growing over Winter and come away again in Spring, and be a bit stunted, but the leaves will still be useable and you'll get plenty of seed for next season.
Answer: Spray it with a fine mist of water or water and alcohol - port, vodka, rum; or water and something sweet You can get a cheap mister in most garden supply shops and a lot of discount places.
Answer: You can make alcohol from any vegetable matter. It won't taste like much but it won't kill you. Answer: It's fine with light frosts. Growth will stop until the weather warms up, then continue, but the plants will be smaller. Question: Should I pinch off leaves that begin to get white spots? It's only a few. The rest are green and some of the bottom leaves that don't get much light are a yellowish color.
Answer: The bottom leaves are possibly ready to harvest, I can't accurately assess why some of your leaves have white spots as it's a problem that I haven't encountered so far. I'd suggest that you leave them for the time being but monitor them and if the spots increase noticeably remove the offenders.
Question: I bought some homegrown tobacco but it has a dark greenish look to it. Is that safe to smoke? Answer: Curing tobacco is pretty much just letting it dry until it turns goldish. If you feel that yours is too green and limp still, try putting some in an oven at a low heat c or less for half an hour or more to dry it to a better colour.
If you over-do it and it gets too brittle a fine mist from a cheap hothouse mister should fix things. I know people who smoke tobacco at every shade, as the whim and their approach to curing takes them, and they seem no worse off than off the shelf smokers.
Probably a lot better off as fewer additives to the final product and they're a damn' sight richer. Question: What strain of tobacco do you grow? I just save some seed year by year. Your stuff sounds pretty swish, have fun smoking it. Answer: The leaves normally dry from the bottom of the plant up.
I assume that you're in the northern hemisphere, which means that you are in late Autumn, so I suggest that you pick the leaves and hang them to dry.
As they dry they will yellow. Putting them in an oven at VERY low heat for an hour or so will also dry them ready to cut and smoke but I can't guarantee that they'll yellow as much as slow drying.
This is important, as a good seed starting mix will be fine textured and allow seeds to lay on top of the soil. Course mixes will allow the seeds to easily wash into the soil, preventing germination.
You can usually find a fairly good seed starting mix at most garden centers, Miracle Gro is pretty good, or you can use a cacti plant growing mix in a pinch, as these are usually rather fine textured mixes. Before sowing the seeds, we soak the soil thoroughly, this is important, as this will prevent you from having to water the surface for a time after sowing.
We then sprinkle the seeds onto the surface of the soil, we sow ours rather thickly, as we plant to transplant the seedlings into larger pots a couple of weeks after germination. We then cover the flat with a clear plastic dome to help keep moisture trapped against the soil surface, you do not have to do this, but it really saves you time and effort.
If you do not cover the container with plastic, be sure to mist the soil surface daily, if you allow the surface to dry out for only a day, it can kill the germination process. I think I bought way too many seeds, how long will tobacco seeds keep in storage? You can store extra tobacco seeds for years and still get good germination normally we change out our seed crop yearly, so if you buy from us you know the seeds are fresh. Store seeds in a dark, dry, cool place such as a linen drawer. How long does it take tobacco seeds to germinate?
The majority of varieties will start showing germination in days, or even a little sooner, but different varieties do germinate at different speeds, it is not unusual for some to take as long as two weeks to show signs of germination, and this can stretch into weeks in cold soil and in summer heat.
What should I do when I see the first signs of germination? As soon as you seed the tiny green specks appear, remove the plastic cover if you have one in place. From this point on, you need to make sure the seedlings have good air circulation in order to prevent "damping off", a common fungi disease in greenhouses. Even though you are providing air circulation, it is still important to maintain good soil surface moisture.
Bright light is also important, not directly in full sun, but in bright, indirect sunlight area. What about fertilizing new seedlings? Most seed starting mixes contain a small amount of starter fertilize. Use this solution weekly until seedlings are about 3 inches tall, then switch to full strength. If I have planted seeds too close together and need to separate seedlings, when do I do this?
The most common insect problems expected would be budworms, aphids and hornworms. Diseases that damage tobacco may include those that attack other plants or they may be specific pathogens for tobacco. Identify the pest problem and consult the appropriate pest control guide for information.
While some tobacco plants are grown around the home for ornamental purposes, which includes the flowers, plants that are grown for cured tobacco should normally be topped as soon as the flower forms. Topping, or removal of the terminal bud, allows the upper leaves to get larger and thicker than they would in an uptopped condition.
The top can be removed by breaking it out or cutting it off, preferably before any flowers open. Soon after the top is removed, and before if topping is delayed, axillary buds or suckers develop at each leaf. The best way for the home gardener to prevent the suckers from reducing yield and quality is to remove them by hand. Suckers should be removed when they exceed about an inch in length.
It may be necessary to remove suckers several times. Heirloom seeds are the gardeners choice for seed-saving from year-to-year. Learning to save seeds is easy and fun with these books. Before you harvest, consider which varieties you might want to save seeds from so that your harvesting practice includes plants chosen for seed saving. Be sure to check out our newest seed packs, available now from Heirloom Organics. The Super Food Garden is the most nutrient dense garden you can build and everything you need is right here in one pack.
The Genesis Garden s a very popular Bible Garden collection. See all of our brand-new seed pack offerings in our store. Seed Resources. Organic Tobacco Seed. Heirloom Tobacco Seed. Organic Seeds. Organic Vegetable Seeds. Organic Herb Seeds. Organic Sprouting Seeds. Heirloom Seeds. Heirloom Vegetable Seeds. Heirloom Herb Seeds. Seed Catalogs. Heirloom Organic. Another deterrent to home production of tobacco is the need to age the cured tobacco for one to three years or longer.
The following suggestions are not based on any experience or research information, but are only the opinion of the writer. However, some producers of home-grown leaf have developed harvesting and curing techniques that are satisfactory for them and often they share their experiences with others.
Tobacco may be cured with heat added or it may be air cured. There does not appear to be any practical means for the gardener to use heat to cure the tobacco because of the facilities that are required. Again, some producers of home-grown tobacco have built curing facilities and may offer them for sale. Tobacco could be cured without heat if a building with good air circulation is available.
Proper curing should take a few weeks in order to have good quality. Tobacco that cures too fast will be green and not have good aroma and flavor, while mold or rot may develop if curing is slow. A building that can be opened and closed as needed to control the relative humidity and drying rate is desirable.
Curing procedures need to be developed for individual situations. Harvesting could be accomplished by either removing leaves from the stalk in the field and curing them or by cutting the stalk off at ground level and hanging the entire stalk in the curing facility for the leaves to cure.
The leaves would then be removed from the stalk after they have cured. If the leaves are removed in the field, there should be four or five harvests at intervals of weeks, starting with the lower leaves.
The first harvest would be at or soon after topping and when the leaves show a slight yellowing. If the entire stalk is cut for curing, it should be about weeks after topping. The lower leaves would be partially deteriorated at this time.
Provide adequate space between stalks to allow for satisfactory drying of the leaves. All commercial tobacco is aged for a year or more before it is used. Unaged tobacco is harsh and does not have good flavor. For the home gardener, aging will probably be as difficult or even more so than proper curing. Aging may require as long as years and does not occur unless temperature and moisture conditions are favorable.
If the tobacco is too dry, there is no aging and if it is too moist, there will be decay of the leaves. Unfortunately the proper temperature and moisture content vary widely.
The home producer would need the knowledge and skill to properly age the tobacco or be willing to experiment with the tobacco. The same would be true for adding flavoring agents during or after aging and before the tobacco is used. First published February Revised November The use of trade names in this publication is solely for the purpose of providing specific information. It is not a guarantee or warranty of the products named and does not signify that they are approved to the exclusion of others of suitable composition.
Seed Packs. Indoor Seed Starting. Seed Starting Calendar. Seedling Care.
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