Growing Your Own Tobacco (updated)

Discussions on growing and cultivating tobacco.
pierredekat

Growing Your Own Tobacco (updated)

Post by pierredekat »

I'm trying something a little different this year: growing my own tobacco. I don't know why it never occurred to me before, having grown tomatoes, peppers, zucchini, herbs, etc., but yeah, it just totally never crossed my mind before.

Well, it's 100 percent legal to grow your own tobacco, here in the US. Just so long as you're not selling it, you can grow as much as you want for "personal use", absolutely no limit whatsoever. Once you decide to start selling it, naturally the Alcohol and Tobacco Tax and Trade Bureau (TTB) wants to get involved.

Tobacco will grow just about anywhere, from Cuba to Canada, and all points in between. Interestingly, some of the worst soil and growing conditions will produce some of the best tobacco.

Home growing tobacco should have a lot of appeal for anyone who's the least bit concerned about what's actually in his tobacco. You can keep it simple with straight air dried Virginia, or you can mix-it-up to your heart's content: blending different varieties of tobaccos, spices, extracts and other flavorings, smoke-curing, soaking in various liquors and liqueurs, steaming, pressing, etc.

The possibilities are pretty much endless. And who knows, your spouse might even surprise you by taking an interest in what you're whipping up in the kitchen these days. I know my Girlfriend's curiosity has been piqued by our discussions so far.

Then I got to thinking there might be some other pipe/tobacco enthusiasts out there with a moderately green thumb who might be interested in doing the same. So I thought I would post some links, in no particular order, that might be helpful for said green-thumb-enthusiasts.

Producing Tobacco Transplants in Ontario (Site has a database of hundreds of publications related to crop production, including tobacco production.)

The Science Behind Tobacco: Growing Tobacco

Crop Profile for Tobacco in West Virginia

Organic Tobacco Production

Tobacco Forums (for home tobacco growers)

Tobacco (at Wikipedia -- includes lots of great tobacco growing and processing information)

As far as getting started, about all you need is access to a little plot of land -- or some 5-gallon buckets, if you wanna go that route -- sunlight, water and seeds, available below and elsewhere:

Ebay search for "tobacco seeds"

Newton Tobacco Seed

Seedman.com (Site features lots of helpful information and links.)

Victoryseeds.com (includes heirloom tobacco seeds, info etc.)

Tobacco Seeds from Plantation House (seeds, info, etc.)

The cool thing about tobacco is: tobacco plants produce seeds out the whazoo if you let them, so once you get started, you'll probably never have to purchase seeds again, just so long as you collect a few seeds along the way.

Cooler, still, is the fact that, by collecting and planting your own seeds, your tobacco plants will acclimate themselves and build up a better tolerance to your own, local growing conditions after just a few generations of seed-harvesting and replanting.

Well anyway, that should be enough to get a pipe/tobacco enthusiast started on the road to growing his own.

This year, I personally am growing Kentucky Burley, Virginia Gold, Havana, Small Stalk Black Mammoth, and Scherazi on various plots of land. I've worked out deals with some friends to split the tobacco with them if they let me plant a row in their backyards.

So far, I'm just in the sprouting and bed-preparation phase, but I'll keep y'all posted, if anyone's interested.

Cheers.
Last edited by pierredekat on Mon Apr 30, 2007 2:05 pm, edited 2 times in total.
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Nick
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Post by Nick »

Sound too cool!!
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flix
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Post by flix »

Pierre,

What a great resource! Thank you very much for compiling such an intriguing list, am very interested in growing my own this year.

--Michael
pierredekat

Post by pierredekat »

Thanks, guys. :D

Here are a couple pictures of where I am so far.

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I purchased these planting trays from Lowes for around $6 each. They come with a clear lid, which is fine when it's really cool. But if the sun's shining, like it is here, the temperature inside shoots up to like 120 (F) degrees. :!:

Image

And here's a closeup of my tobacco sprouts. I sprinkled the seeds on top of the moistened planting mix -- you don't actually "plant" them -- about three weeks ago, and they're approximately an inch tall right now.

The seeds are about 1/4 the size of the head of a pin, so I guess it just takes them awhile to really get going. It's hard to believe these little guys are supposed to reach 6-feet in 90 days.

I dropped approximately 5 seeds in each cup, figuring there was safety in numbers. And it'll break my heart that I'm gonna have to cull all but the biggest plant in each pot, a little later down the line. :cry:

But seeing how small the seeds were, I couldn't see any other way of doing it.

Ah, well, I got somewhere in the area of 4,000 seeds for about $10, so I guess it'll be okay. :wink:
pierredekat

Post by pierredekat »

My tobacco sprouts finally reached the stage where I thought they were ready to go into the ground. So I spent Sunday re-tilling my garden and planting.

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The bigger sprouts are about 3-4 inches tall, and I figure they can handle a good hard rain at this stage.

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It sure took me a lot longer than I thought it would to reach this point, but apparently tobacco just doesn't grow that much until it reaches 80 (F) degrees.

They'll live down to freezing, but they're just kinda hangin' out until the temperature hits 80, the magic number for their mysterious growth spurt.

I have 15 plants in the ground so far -- 11 Virginia Gold and 4 Scherazi -- and I'm hoping to get some more plants into 5-gallon pots over the next week or so.

I'll put a half-dozen Kentucky Burleys into pots, a few Havanas and Small Stem Black Mammoths, but that's still gonna leave me with literally hundreds of sprouts I'd love to find a home for.

So if any of you are planning on being around Houston over the next month or so, PM me and I'll totally hook you up with some free tobacco seedlings. :wink:
pierredekat

Post by pierredekat »

So I'm finally getting around to taking some more pictures. Here is what my Virginia Gold looks like, as of 07/24/07.

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This year has been a total washout. It's been raining nearly every day for the last two months, and we probably haven't had more than about 15 minutes of sunshine all summer.

So my Virginia hasn't been doing very well. I lost two plants after the stalks split because of all the rain. Nutrients are getting washed away as fast as I can put them into the garden, and brown spot has been a real problem because of the damp conditions.

But my Havana has been doing exceptionally well thus far.

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Apparently the rainy weather we've been having has really agreed with Havana tobacco. That, or it could be that I'm growing these things in good quality potting soil in 5-gallon pots.

Perhaps by growing them in pots, I've avoided root-rot, nutrient leaching or whatever it is plaguing my Virginia. Or it might even be that my Havana seed was better acclimated to a southern coastal climate.

My Virginia seeds came from Canada, and they may not have been ready for this sauna we call Houston. But hopefully, if I can collect some seeds from my biggest plants, next year's Virginia will do a lot better.

But I gotta tell you, I sure hope I can develop a decent pipe tobacco out of Havana, because if I can, that might just be all I'll grow next year.

The plants I'm standing next to are over 6-feet tall, and they haven't even begun to form buds yet. So I wouldn't be a bit surprised if they wind up in the 8-10 feet tall range, before all is said and done.

Cheers.
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Post by KurtHuhn »

When I grew a few tobacco plants a couple years ago, I grew them exclusively in 5-gallon pots. They did so well that I wondered if there was any use even putting them in the ground. In fact, it will be a tossup when I plant my own seedlings in the spring, since the soil conditions should be prime for tobacco growing in my area.
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Post by Nick »

Very cool! I might have to try my hand at it next year.
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Post by souljer »

Great. Thanks for doing this and sharing the experience.

Keep updating with pix of the progress. It'll be great to see this at the various stages of growth and production.

Are you planning on aging any for months, or will were you planning on just drying and maybe pressing, etc.?

The last shot will be you with your favorite pipe; loading and lighting. Ahhh, and it only took a year... Damn right that's a fine tobacco!!
www.TotemStar.com - Some of my pipe related art
pierredekat

Post by pierredekat »

Souljer wrote:Are you planning on aging any for months, or will were you planning on just drying and maybe pressing, etc.?

The last shot will be you with your favorite pipe; loading and lighting. Ahhh, and it only took a year... Damn right that's a fine tobacco!!
Thanks, guys. :D

I'll go ahead and give y'all a little more information about how I'm treating my tobacco, thus far.

Of course, my plants are still growing, but I have also been harvesting leaves along the way. I've learned that once I start seeing a leaf turn from green to yellow, it's usually just a matter of days before the whole leaf turns green->yellow->brown.

If you leave them on the plant, they'll turn brown, but wind up being something like brown crepe paper, as best I can describe it. But if you harvest them when they first start to yellow, hang them someplace warm with moderate humidity, they turn brown, but they'll dry thicker and a lot less crumbly.

So I'm harvesting leaves as they start to turn, and I'm hanging them at my non-air-conditioned storage shed. I started to hang them in the rafters of my garage, but then it hit me that I have too many chemical odors wafting around my garage: gasoline, motor oil, etc.

But my storage shed has a pretty neutral smell, so that's become the spot to hang my tobacco. And there it hangs, probably a hundred leaves, so far, hanging on galvanized wires stretched hither and yon, sorted by variety.

And the vast majority of it is looking very nice, brown, dry but not too crumbly, and really starting to smell like tobacco. But there are a few leaves that are more questionable: some that stayed a little on the green side, some that are a little spotty looking, etc.

So I'll eventually sort the leaves according to their quality, and the nicer leaves will probably be left more natural, while the more questionable leaves will get buried deeper into the toasted batches, pressed, etc.

Eventually, after everything has hung and cured a few months, I'll get to the real alchemy part, the voodoo, the stuff that no tobacco proprietors ever want you to know too much about:

* My best Virginia leaves will get steamed in mason jars on the stove, in a double-boiler setup. The lower grades will probably get toasted in the oven at 350 (F) degrees for however many minutes it takes to turn it a darker brown.

* I have a little Burley, and the better grades will be left more natural, while the lower grades will get toasted, sauteed, etc. (See below).

* The Havana is going to be like a giant canvas, on which I will "paint":

***** One ounce will get mixed with cocoa, and either steamed or cased with a little brown sugar, whatever it takes to get the cocoa to bond to the tobacco, basically.

***** One ounce will get steamed with either dry anise or anise extract and stored in a mason jar for awhile.

***** One ounce will get steamed with maple syrup and stored in a mason jar for awhile.

***** One ounce will get spritzed with black walnut extract and stored in a mason jar for awhile.

***** One ounce will get spritzed with almond extract and stored in a mason jar for awhile.

***** One ounce will get steamed with this kind of fruit or that kind of fruit extract and stored in a mason jar for awhile.

***** Yada, yada, yada...

* And some of my Virginia and Havana will probably get fermented: basically you store it moist/green in a low-oxygen environment and let tiny microbes do their worst. You keep an eye out for mold, but let little buggies munch away on the sugars, leaving behind their own unique, earthy funk in the process. A lot of tobacco is treated this way, actually: perique, traditional cigar and cigarette tobacco, etc.

Finally, I'll come to the "blending" part. Like everything above, this is going to take a lot of trial-and-error. I'll take a pinch of this, a pinch of that, a pinch of the other thing, poke them around in the palm of my hand to mix them up a little bit, put them in a pipe and smoke them.

If I get something that seems pleasing, I'll try it again on a slightly larger scale, tweaking the recipe, or not.

And if I still like what I'm getting, I'll mix up several ounces of the mixture, put it in a mason jar, and let the flavors mingle for awhile.

It's going to be a lot of experimenting, really. And trying to keep good records of what works and what doesn't. But unlike the bigger tobacco producers, I'll certainly share my recipes, once I come up with a few I like.

Of course, it doesn't have to be all that complicated, either. I like to cook, so I'm planning on going all-out with it. But there's certainly nothing wrong with straight air-dried Burley or Virginia, especially if you grew it yourself, and it only cost you a few cents a pound to do it. :wink:
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Post by Calumet »

Hello pierredekat,

First of all thanks very much to give a serious insight in tobaccogrowing.

I live in Belgium and in the french speaking part of my country it was all
tobacco the farmers planted over there,but all this was a honderd years ago.
Today there's not much left any more exept the tobacco drying cabins.
By Jah guidance I did spent a nice holliday with a couple of friends who's father owns such a cabin ,now used for lessure activities,over there.
A beautiful place.
Soit,Now I got in my garden a plant from over there growing.
It looks long not as nice as your crops,cause I didn't realy looked after it.
Then I discoverd your thread on this forum.And it arroused my enthousiasm again.
I post some pics. and could you tell me by looking at them what kind of tobacco it is?Cause I realy don't have a clu.
I read that your harvesting along the way,just when the leaves turn yellow.
So I am gonna start right away.


Kind regards
Frank
Belgium




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pierredekat

Post by pierredekat »

Awesome, Frank!
Calumet wrote:I post some pics. and could you tell me by looking at them what kind of tobacco it is?Cause I realy don't have a clu.
If I had to guess, I'd say that yours is an heirloom variety called "Little Dutch" tobacco. I'm basing my guess on the spear-shape of the leaves, the larger cluster of blooms/seed-pods, and your geographic location.

Definitely save those seed-pods. Tobacco is self-pollinating, so you only need one plant to make literally thousands of seeds.

Let the seed pods stay on until you're harvesting the last of your tobacco or until they start falling off or looking like they might open up on you, let them dry out, open them up, and save those tiny little seeds in a cool, dark, dry location.

Next year, sprout them in a tray and later plant them in the ground.

If it is "Little Dutch" tobacco, that would be really cool. For whatever reason, lots of heirloom and regional varieties of tobaccos have been lost along the way.

That's sad, because their unique flavors and qualities have been lost, as well. So keep that strain going, if you can. And keep us posted about how it smokes.

Cheers.
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Post by kbadkar »

Great stuff!! I'm inspired. Next year, tobacco will be growing in my little plot. There is a native California tobacco plant that grows wild, but it probably isn't the best smoke. Is Southern California too dry to grow tobacco? It seems like reknown tobacco growing regions have high humidity summers. Pierre, do you have any tobacco type suggestions considering the low humidity? How about seed sources? I vaguely remember you mentioning that before, so I'll try to search for it.
pierredekat

Post by pierredekat »

kbadkar wrote:Great stuff!! I'm inspired. Next year, tobacco will be growing in my little plot.
Cool!
There is a native California tobacco plant that grows wild, but it probably isn't the best smoke.
Certainly wouldn't hurt to give a little a try.
Is Southern California too dry to grow tobacco? Pierre, do you have any tobacco type suggestions considering the low humidity? How about seed sources? I vaguely remember you mentioning that before, so I'll try to search for it.
I wouldn't think Southern California would be too dry. But of course, you'll want to plan on watering at least every other day, if not every day.

As far as varieties are concerned, I think your best bet is to sprout four or five different varieties the first year, see which ones thrive, over the course of a month or so, and put the best two or three into the ground.

Up at the start of this thread, I listed some seed sources, along with a link to a pretty good tobacco growing forum at Plantation House.

And you might want to consider tilling as much organic matter into the soil as you can, through the fall and winter months: banana peels, grass clippings, leaves, table scraps ... dog poop. :lol:

Seriously. Tobacco likes a lot of nutrients. The big tobacco producers will mix wood ash into the soil every year. But I'm thinking if you mix a little cruder organic matter into the soil over the fall/winter, it will not only provide nutrients, but it will also act as a sponge to hold moisture in the summer months.
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Post by Calumet »

Hi Pierre,
Thanks for your speedy respons.
An for figuring out what kindda tobacco I have here.
I would be happy to send you some seeds of the
"Little Dutch" tobacco.
I am gonna be more serious towards the plant in my garden.
But I would like to ask you a few questions more.
How to recognize the better quality leafs?
Is it just the ones growing higher on the plant?

I'll keep you posted on the evolutions in my garden.
And will ask you some questions concerning drying and preparing later.
Maybe you have some links towards websites about curing and flavouring.
First we'll try to harvest some of the'baccy'.

Kind Regards

Frank
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Post by Nick »

Frank could be growing Semois? Being Belgium and all. Great stuff!
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Post by Calumet »

True true, Semois it must be! I didn't know it was known at all. The cabine that I mentioned in my previous post is just 100 meters away from the Semois-river. The tobaccoplant was given to me by a friend who took some plants from the semois'-region' some years ago. Do you have any clue if it's a strong kind of tobacco? And if I have to prepare it in some way to get it smokable.?
By the way heres a picture of the Semois river,and snooze our dog.
Image

Keep it growing!
pierredekat

Post by pierredekat »

Calumet wrote:Hi Pierre,
Thanks for your speedy respons.
An for figuring out what kindda tobacco I have here.
I would be happy to send you some seeds of the
"Little Dutch" tobacco.
Wow! I'll PM you my mailing address. Thanks! :D
I am gonna be more serious towards the plant in my garden.
But I would like to ask you a few questions more.
How to recognize the better quality leafs?
Is it just the ones growing higher on the plant?


That depends on what "better" means to you. To me, "better" might mean "more robust flavor", and to you, it might mean "milder flavor". But a lot of it will depend on how the leaves end up, once they're cured.
Maybe you have some links towards websites about curing and flavouring.


As far as curing, a few of the links I posted above go into pretty good detail about different ways to cure tobacco.

As far as flavoring tobacco, there is very little information available, but you can pick up little tidbits on a few of the pipe tobacco producers' websites.

I don't think it would be right for me to link to them and tell you "this webpage here has a good article on how you can copy their tobacco". But you can google around for "pipe tobacco flavoring" and come up with a few ideas.

You probably won't find any "recipes", per se -- I know I didn't, anyway -- but you can get some ideas about specific ingredients: anise, cocoa, maple sugar, honey, various fruit and nut extracts, etc.
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Post by Calumet »

Found some usefull information on:
http://www.pfeifenbox.de/articles/2004_en/soapy_en.htm
But maybe that the process used isn't quiet the right way to do it
Or are there no limits? Just make your own brew?
I aim to get a mild Aromatic smoker.
And I have a pack of Semois tobacco at home,But to tell you no lies
it's horrible,they call it the not for no reason "La langue du chien"
So if this is the baccy growing here I will come out like that I might try somthing else next year.
What in your opinion would make the mildest smoke?
Is it in the size of the leafs or the matter of curing?
Drain the leafs in water?I 've heard somthing like that but I prefer to here it from a pro. :lol:
Yes Pierre you got me started here.I might have some more questions up my sleve,but all in due time.
It would be the best if I could smoke my 'own grown' im a selfmade pipe.Sittin' on my porch, what more does a man need?

Know what you are smoking! :lol:

Frank
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Post by Nick »

My expirience with Semios has been that it is a full bodied smoke with a medium degree of nicotine. I also have noticed that it tends to burn quickly. I have a blend that a buddy sent me which is very tasty. I believe it is essentially Semois mixed with a bit of deer tongue. The deer tongue seems to take the heavy cocoa edge down a bit. You might try mixing it with some perique. That would be very interesting I think.
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