Is anyone growing tobacco?

It's always nice to share things with visitors. Of course, with any sort of small holding or homestead, most of the time it's food-based. Besides folk art, what else could I share with people at our future site? Upon reflection of my enjoyment for a fine cigar I began researching growing one's own tobacco.

Upon a quick search, tobacco is a lot more "growable" than I previously anticipated. There are even websites with organic seeds, etc. Has anyone gone down this road? I feel like it would be an incredible value-added crop. I don't drink or drug, but a sharing hand-rolled cigars in my community or with visitors, I feel would give quite a sense of pride. Granted, rolling cigars is a centuries-old artisan endeavor. But it's the principle, the attempt of it. Even if they looked and smoked like crap, you would still be enjoying your own organic leaves. Heck, why not build a peace pipe and smoke your harvest with a helpful neighbor? Also if anyone has experimented, are there any pitfalls or major negative aspects of growing it (does it attract bad stuff/hurt other plants, etc) that I'm not making myself aware of?

Discuss.

I have grown tobacco in the past. Processing is a bit of a chore and since I don't smoke I didn't get very far doing this for my husband. It is a handy plant for other uses like insecticides/good for chicken coops.

It's a heavy feeder but a dramatic looking plant.

I am growing it. I tried 1 plant last year, I started it late and found that it was a heavy feeder. I have added some organic Fertilizer this year and they are super happy. Last year my one decent plant got hit by an intense early frost. I hope to have better luck this year. I don't smoke much, maybe a few times a year but I thought it would be fun to have some that I grew. I also made a pipe from a lightning struck tree on my neighbors property. So this will be a very local experience for me.

Peter Hartman wrote:I am growing it. I tried 1 plant last year...

Peter; That's what I'm talkin'bout! Those look incredible. Are you more or less winging it/online research, or do you have any texts that you would recommend? Please, please keep me posted on the progress of your crop. Furthermore, that's a damn fine pipe. So amazing what one can accomplish with a little know how and some time. The complete process. Well done.

Yep pretty much just winging it. The best resources I have found:

http://digital.library.unt.edu/ark:/67531/metadc85737/m1/6/

http://www.howtogrowtobacco.com/forum/index.php?sid=f0b855d3172c8f1aa93393f4e1e2247c

I think the hardest part is the cure so we will see when I get to that point.

I grow a small amount of tobacco. I don't use it. I just want to have genetics that thrive here in case I ever want to grow a real crop. I gifted a plant to the local medicine woman, and a shaman, and to an Indian for ceremonies. My climate is way too dry to be "fermenting" tobacco, or to be using leaves to roll cigars, so I just end up with flakes. The leaves are waxy and take a long time to dry... There might be a sweet spot in the drying process where rolling would be feasible. I suppose that I'll never know. That's not my thing.

I've grown 3 no-id varieties. One was unsuited to my conditions. Two originally did OK, but I had to select for vigorous growth and shorter season. Some of the plants were just starting to flower when my fall frosts arrived. At my place they don't have problems with pests or disease. I start them in a pot in the greenhouse, prick them out into individual pots, and then transplant into the garden. I harvest either individual leaves, or whole plants. The individual leaves dry down better, but whole plants seem more suitable for ceremonial gifts.

I collect seed pods at about the time they start to turn brown, and dry them in the shed. If I leave them too long in the field they open and spew seeds around. After drying I crush them and pour through a sieve which separates the very tiny seeds from the chaff and stems. Final cleanup consists of winnowing.

Tobacco plants are strikingly ornamental:


Drying whole plants in the shed:

Joseph Lofthouse wrote:Tobacco plants are strikingly ornamental

Wow! See now there's something I didn't even realize as a fringe benefit. To have a few plants as a conversation piece when strolling through the homestead would be fantastic. Seeing an otherwise "foreign" plant in the ground right in front you, is so powerful. When people think tobacco they think cigarettes or cigars, for the most part. At least, here in the northeast. It is of course a part of the larger system. I'm excited to learn more about it's potential benefits; If even just from a soil food web perspective.

I started growing tobacco this year up in zone 3.
I started late, planting the seed on May 1, about 6 weeks before the last frost. I got some properly matured leaves and then the frosts hit and so I cut the entire plants and hung them in the hope they will turn yellow.

Any tips on getting these green leaves into some kind of usable state?

My issue is they seem to be drying green, and I want them to turn yellow before they dry. Is the temperature too cold?

I found that the best curing technique in my arid climate, is to stack the leaves on a screen, and then every day, restack the leaves, so that the outside leaves become inside leaves. Still have to pay attention to avoiding mold.

Hello,
I tried a few ornamental plants 4 years ago in my belgian garden.
I think they worked quite well as pest repellent in the garden, besides being very beautiful plants - much smaller than the photos of this thread though. Specifically, slug damage seemed to be reduced.
Perhaps they will regain a place in a 'Do Not Touch corner' besides foxgloves, near fragile crops.
Have a nice day,
Oliver

I suppose it might be fun to grow a few tobacco plants in garden but here's how you do it old school. Important terminology in " ".
 
First ya got to burn the "tobacco bed". This consists of going out sometime in fall and cutting a whole bunch of brush. Make a pile, say thirty feet wide and a hundred feet long. Then in spring set it on fire and tend to it to make sure the entire area is evenly sterilized. Couple days later when it's cooled ya need to rake it smooth and sow the seeds followed by stomping the "tobacco bed" yes, the whole thing to get the seeds in good contact. Cover it up with, "tobacco canvas", a thin white row cover type material.  (this was replaced sometime in the 1970's with "gassing the tobacco bed" and plastic instead of canvas). I have no first had experience with that and now it is replaced by growing in greenhouses with hydroponic "plugs", no experience with that either.

OK, now the plants have grown and are starting to lift up the canvas. It's time to "pull the tobacco". Get ya some long boards and something to prop them on to use as bridges so you don't walk on the plants and go out and pull the up and put in bundles, I don't remember how many per, two or three hundred I reckon.

Now it's time to "set the tobacco" using a "tobacco sitter". This is a contraption attached to the back of the tractor with a couple of places to sit, a big tank of water, a little plow to make the row and a chain mechanism with little rubber grabbers to stick a plant in. The chain cycles down and shoves the plant in the ground and comes back up for another one. Speed of this operation depends on skill of the sitters. Don't miss putting a plant in as a grabber comes up or you have to go out and fill the empty spots later by hand.

All righty now you're done. All that's left for a while is to hoe the tobacco and when your done with that, hoe the tobacco.  Later if it starts to grow "suckers" you need to go out and pull them off. "Suckering" the tobacco.  Still later it will try to bloom so now it's time to go through and "top" the tobacco. Also, at all stages you need to keep an eye out for tobacco worms, same as tomato worms, and pull them all off.

Now I know that might sound like a lot of trouble but if your patch isn't more forty or fifty acres, you'll be done in no time at all.

Later on, before school starts, the tobacco should start yellowing, especially the bigger lower leaves. The more yellow the better but not brown. Yea! it's time the "cut the tobacco". Go the barn and get the "tobacco sticks" pieces of oak about four feet long and sharp at one end. Load them on the wagon and head out to the tobacco patch and walk up and down the rows "dropping sticks" one for about every four to six plants, depending on the size of the plants. Now grab your "tobacco hatchet" a hatchet with a hammer on the back side and your "tobacco spear" a conical device with an extremely sharp point. Drive a stick in the ground and shove the spear on top. Chop off a plant and split the stalk on the sharp spear and let it slide down, do that until the stick is full, four to six plants. This is generally compensated "by the stick" maybe as much as a nickel per so the faster you are the more you make. DON'T split out a stalk so that it falls off, not even one.

Whew, that's done and about the same time next year the tobacco tar under your fingernails and in your hair will finally be gone. But you don't have that long because in a week or so it will be time to "haul in the tobacco". This is pretty self-explanatory you just go out and gather it all up on the wagon's and haul it to the "tobacco barn" a barn full of "tobacco tiers". This is just a series of flimsy poles, floor to roof just far enough apart to accommodate the tobacco sticks full of plants.

So now it's time to "hang the tobacco". Starting at the top, one kid per level and one on the wagon you need to hand it up to the top. At the top you only have to set it across the tiers rather than shoving it up over your head and nothing falls back down on you. I was smallest, lightest and less fearful of heights, so the top was mine, always, non-negotiable. Plus, I figured if I fell, those under me would cushion the impact on my way down.  Pity the kind on the wagon. Alrighty, it's all hung and nothing to do with it for several weeks. It goes ahead and cures, were it finishes up turning a nice yellow, tan color.

Now we have to wait for it to "come into case". That's a nice cold wet day, generally abut Christmas time when humidity is such that it can be handled without cracking and breaking up. Time to hand it back down and haul it over to the stripping room because it's time to "strip tobacco". Here it's pulled off the sticks and passed down an assembly line of sorts with each station bulling off the various grades of leaves.  Reds for highest price and grandads chewing twists, lugs for medium grade and so on, I don't remember them all.

So that is how you grow tobacco. Or used too, I don't think they even hang it in a barn anymore, instead they have these canvas covered racks right by the fields. I don't think they strip or grade it anymore either, they just bail it up whole and ship it off.

There is still plenty of hard work to it, but now it's all done by Mexicans. Can you imagine, coming up here to get covered in tobacco tar in the hot sun just to send a few dollars back to their families in Mexico, the nerve! Oh well, all the little white boys are busy with summer sports and watching video porn on their cell phones anyway, so I guess it all works out.

A couple things I learned so far this year even though with the late planting I initially counted it as a loss...

The seedlings are super super sensitive. Mist them to water them because if you pour water on them they float off the surface of the soil and die.

They love to drink pee. My main patch I was growing for seed suffered this year. They perked up after applying fetid swamp water a few times but never really thrived. They were so stressed that they flowered early which is good to know when you want seed.

The excess seedlings I planted out at a different location because why not. Every week I watered them with water : pee at 10 : 1. These ones grew like crazy.

Aphids love tobacco. Flies love tobacco. Wasps and hover flies love tobacco. the leaves feel sticky like they have a lot of sugar in them and I suspect that these insects are after these sugars.

Never allow thistles nearby to release their seed. I had a patch upwind release tons of thistle down which then stuck to my tobacco. They stick like velcro and it is a nightmare to remove it all post harvest.

Fermenting the cured leaves in a warm humid environment creates a lot of ammonia. Burning the leaves before fermentation is complete is like burning cat pee incense. Don't do it.

That being said, once the cat pee stink dissipates, there is a lovely cigar aroma. It makes sense to get rid of that ammonia before setting these leaves on fire.

I have grown and enjoyed tobacco in the past. I am planning to do it again, now that I have a place to to do so.

As others have mentioned, curing and processing are much more intensive than the growing part. This forum has a ton of information on the subject.

https://fairtradetobacco.com/

Selecting the right variety for your zone, and your intended use is going to direct the later steps significantly. Some varietals respond to different curing methods better than others, but as usual they are not hard and fast rules,

Cigars are typically made with air cured leaf, and fermented or aged for a long time. There are shortcuts.

Pipe or cigarette tobacco is usually a mix of flue, fire, or sun cured.

https://victoryseeds.com/collections/tobacco

This is a good source for heirloom seeds

I have grown tobacco as a teenager and I quite enjoyed the experience. I grew both N. tabacum and N. rustica (also known as Mapacho).

My method was very simple: I created a well-drained potting mix using some sieved compost mixed with some sand and grit, sowed the seeds, covered and gently tamped them. I let the seeds germinate inside and then moved the pots outside after a few weeks, as the weather warmed. By the end of summer I had a good crop of leaves that I hung, as Joseph and Nick have, by tying them with string and allowing them to cure.

The cured leaves, which took on a leathery texture, I rolled and chopped into a usable tobacco. It was a little rough but I quite enjoyed it at the time. I can't think of anything worse now!

My feeling is that tobacco grows with ease in the UK, without the special care mentioned by Mark Reed. I also know of someone in Spain, in a much drier climate, who sowed some of the N. rustica seeds outside and has found that they have naturalised there without any attention or irrigation. She actually finds them to be somewhat invasive.

What type of soil do you feel tobacco likes? Mine is a mixture of standard top soil and sand, it can retain some moisture, but my tobacco wilts midday still. Perhaps it's not established enough but I don't know.

When I see photos such as ones in this thread the soil looks dry as a bone and quite desert-like with giant plants.

Tobacco likes loose, high organic matter soil. It's a heavy feeder too, so you'll want to have legumes before and after it in your beds. It's a nightshade, so basically whatever your tomatoes like is good.

A couple of things I am thinking about for the coming spring :

Starting my baccy in the ground with a cloche, rather than indoors with a light and transplanting. I think my climate is good enough for this to work, but I may do some indoors for insurance.

Using the solar food dehydrator as a curing chamber. I should be able to hang full stalks in there. Maintaining an appropriate level of humidity concerns me. I certainly don't want mold in my dehydrator.

I grow our native wild tobacco in my gardens, and also have some tree tobacco started in the greenhouse. I’d like to grow some smoking cultivars in the future. Curing is the tricky part, in the desert, but I suspect I can utilize the heat and humidity from our hot springs to make it possible.

Ted Abbey wrote:I grow our native wild tobacco in my gardens, and also have some tree tobacco started in the greenhouse. I’d like to grow some smoking cultivars in the future. Curing is the tricky part, in the desert, but I suspect I can utilize the heat and humidity from our hot springs to make it possible.

Sun cured varieties like Samsun might be a good choice for you as a smoking option. Or air curing in the house you have more humidity available.

I wonder if the moisture from the hot springs would have a high level of dissolved minerals, which may impart some weird flavors or worse.

Brent Bowden wrote:

Ted Abbey wrote:I grow our native wild tobacco in my gardens, and also have some tree tobacco started in the greenhouse. I’d like to grow some smoking cultivars in the future. Curing is the tricky part, in the desert, but I suspect I can utilize the heat and humidity from our hot springs to make it possible.

Sun cured varieties like Samsun might be a good choice for you as a smoking option. Or air curing in the house you have more humidity available.

I wonder if the moisture from the hot springs would have a high level of dissolved minerals, which may impart some weird flavors or worse.

Thank you for the tip on the sun cure variety, and if I try the steam cure, I will post results. Here is a pic of my tree tobacco:

Tree tobacco (N. Glauca) flower..

Lil tree tobacco..

I grow rustica, and dehydrate it as insecticide.  I don't know if it is any good, to be honest.

To me, a reason to grow tobacco is a smoking alternative.  Can some grow enough tobacco to met their habit?

A question from a non smoker.

My great Grandfather(born 1885) grew his own chewing tobacco. Granny(born 1892) would make his plug tobacco in a bread pan. She would cut the center vein out of the leaves, lay them in the pan and brush the leaves with molasses or honey. She would keep stacking until it was about a half inch+ high. Then she would cut that into little squares, wrap them in wax paper and seal them with an old iron. Then stack them in a little cabinet on their back porch. Grandpa made his own twist. He hung that in an out building to cure. Grandpa would stop every morning on his way to work(he had 3 steam powered saw mills) and get a plug and a twist. He carried plug in one pocket and twist in another. He would take a bite of plug and a bite of twist. That’s how he chewed his tobacco. Granny only dipped snuff(Tube Rose). She started dipping when she was 4 YO. She passed at 99 YO. Growing your own tobacco is just matter of skill. Grandpas tobacco patch was about 50-75’X100-150’ in size. That would probably provide an individual with about 1-2 packs of cigarettes a day. There are basically two types of tobacco. Dark Burley and cigarette/light tobacco, Virginia(bright leaf), Burley and Turkish. Cigarette tobacco is usually cured in a kiln(air dried), Chewing/pipe/cigar tobacco(Burley/Dark Burley) is usually heat and smoke cured in a tobacco barn.  

Anne Miller wrote:To me, a reason to grow tobacco is a smoking alternative.  Can some grow enough tobacco to met their habit?

A question from a non smoker.

Tobacco is very easy to grow, and it's a huge plant. Easy to grow enough for one person. I grow it mainly for the flowers and plant, not for smoking, other than a very occasional cigar. I chew a little too.

I grew tobacco for the first time this year after being offered a start. The plants grown by a friend in full sun got aphids and stayed small and never flowered, while my plant, which was planted in a place with morning sun and consistent moisture, got much bigger and flowered but did not set seed. This was N. tabacum, tall, large leaves, and light blue flowers.

I visited some neighbors however. They have tobacco growing wild in their garden. They volunteer every year and are less than two feet high. I am sure they are N. rustica or else some other wilder, hardier variety.

There are a lot of uses for tobacco. One good reason to keep them around could be to purge internal parasites. They are also said to be useful in dislodging ticks and parasitic maggots. I have been wondering if they could be any use in treating emerald ash borer. They are useful for headaches, toothaches, indigestion, asthma, and other complaints, of course, using caution—they can be deadly poison if used to excess, causing paralysis and convulsions. There is some overlap with the uses of lobelia, which as far as I have heard is much less toxic.

I have also swept a fresh leaf to purify spaces energetically.

I remember reading that fermentation increases the toxicity (carcinogenicity) long term, but cannot speak to this experientially. It may be that the raw leaf is more wholesome.

I've managed to grow some Nicotiana Rustica to the point that it set seed. It grew under shaded conditions and still managed to thrive somehow.

I'm growing the plant hoping to get it more locally adapted. I'm adding it to my pollinator garden mixes for some diversity.

Years ago when I work on farms that grew tobacco. We didn't plant tobacco seed directly into the ground. We planted tobacco slips. Young plants abot 4-6 inches tall.

I need to grow some next year for sure!  My stash of old chewing tobacco has finally run out.  A tea of tobacco is the only thing I know of that will drop large numbers of aphids dead, and quick!  Nothing else works for me...not soapy water, not D.E.  My rutabagas have them bad right now and I'm out there rubbing and smushing every week.  I've been around some kids that grew it years ago....it's pretty easy once you get the very fine seeds to come up.

Alder Burns wrote:I need to grow some next year for sure!  My stash of old chewing tobacco has finally run out.  A tea of tobacco is the only thing I know of that will drop large numbers of aphids dead, and quick!  Nothing else works for me...not soapy water, not D.E.  My rutabagas have them bad right now and I'm out there rubbing and smushing every week.  I've been around some kids that grew it years ago....it's pretty easy once you get the very fine seeds to come up.

In S Illinois you have a plenty long growing season. I grow it from scattered seeds in N Illinois without trouble. I just scatter seeds over bare dirt. A few always grow.

If you have to buy seeds that might not work, since you don't start with thousands of seeds. I literally use handfuls of seeds. If you have few seeds you probably want to start them indoors a month before last frost. Even 2 months. Sprouts of tobacco are so tiny they are almost invisible, and take a long time to get big enough to transplant.

But transplanting is a breeze. Very tough and hard to kill. Just pull them out of the potting soil and stick them in the ground. Not much care needed.

Alder Burns wrote:I need to grow some next year for sure!  My stash of old chewing tobacco has finally run out.  A tea of tobacco is the only thing I know of that will drop large numbers of aphids dead, and quick!  Nothing else works for me...not soapy water, not D.E.  My rutabagas have them bad right now and I'm out there rubbing and smushing every week.  I've been around some kids that grew it years ago....it's pretty easy once you get the very fine seeds to come up.

  What is your tea recipe? How strong?    I got a cauli that is being murdered by aphids right now.  It needs a cuppa!   I have dehydrated tobacco rustica.  Thanks.

Alder Burns wrote:I need to grow some next year for sure!  My stash of old chewing tobacco has finally run out.  A tea of tobacco is the only thing I know of that will drop large numbers of aphids dead, and quick!  Nothing else works for me...not soapy water, not D.E.  My rutabagas have them bad right now and I'm out there rubbing and smushing every week.  I've been around some kids that grew it years ago....it's pretty easy once you get the very fine seeds to come up.

really good to know about this.  I'm also considering growing tobacco for barter purposes, and this would be a great fringe benefit!

@ Brian White I never measured or anything, just aimed for a good dark brown tea.  Put a drop or 2 of dish soap in it to help it stick.  The mythology I remember reading is that if you make tea with 2 cigarettes worth in boiling water, and then drink the water, it's a guaranteed fatal dose!  So it's pretty strong stuff.  There actually used to be a commercial insecticide based on this, called Black Leaf 40.  I haven't heard of it in a long time, not sure if it's still around...

Alder Burns wrote:@ Brian White I never measured or anything, just aimed for a good dark brown tea.  Put a drop or 2 of dish soap in it to help it stick.  The mythology I remember reading is that if you make tea with 2 cigarettes worth in boiling water, and then drink the water, it's a guaranteed fatal dose!  So it's pretty strong stuff.  There actually used to be a commercial insecticide based on this, called Black Leaf 40.  I haven't heard of it in a long time, not sure if it's still around...

Gotta be real careful with nicotine! Even too much handling of green plants can cause a reaction if you are not already addicted. Be very careful with strong tobacco tea. Keep it in kid-safe containers, or don't even make it if kids are going to be around.