Anybody growing tobacco?

A friend gave me a flat of white burley tonight. He had alot of success with germination this spring and has more than he needs. It needs to be transplanted, so I'm going to do that tomorrow. Just curious if anyone else grows tobacco.

I've been growing Nicotiana Rustica for the last few years this is also called "sacred" or "shamanic" tobacco

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Nicotiana_rustica

I only have about 15 plants, some of them in pots, this year, but its enough to play with.

My buddy gave a bunch of us flats to take home. We're all going to try different curing methods and compare results.

Hopi Tobacco is really strong and I got to feelin pretty loopy off it, almost trippy... It's a strong smoke. I don't grow, but I will next year. Nicotiana spray sure is a good repellent for pests though I gotta say...

i grew some last year for a friend
it was slow growing at first but ended up pretty good. curing was an other matter
watch out for slugs, they were the only thing that bothered it

I didn't do a good job of curing last year, basically just dried it till it was crispy which made it too harsh to smoke by itself.
I think the idea is basically to dry it very slowly, but leave a bit of moisture which causes it to burn slowly and consistently.
I'm not sure if curing effects the nicotine content or not, but "rustica" is supposed to be almost 10 times the content as more common varieties.

Moisture is frequently added back to tobacco during and after the curing process, it doesn't hurt it to re-hydrate. We are all pipe smokers, so the end result will be fun to try out and determine who did the best job.

A friend of mine is selling seeds this year from a plant called 1,000-year-old tobacco.  These seeds were apparently found in a native burial site in Michigan.  They were in some pottery that had been sealed with pitch and they were really carbon dated to about 1,000 years ago.  Someone got them to germinate successfully and has been propagating the seeds.  My friend grew them last year and they are the strangest, most beautiful-looking plant.  They look almost prehistoric.  This is in Canada and I am not sure about the logistics of shipping over the border, but I love the idea of spreading this beautiful heirloom ceremonial plant.  Here's a link to his website:  http://www.annapolisseeds.com/page_32.html

I forgot to say I am growing five or six of these tobacco plants myself this year.  They are fuzzy leaved and appear to be dealing well with our very wet spring.  I quit smoking last year but I will have to try these if they come out all right!

That sounds pretty cool. I'm in Michigan, I wonder what part of the state they were found in. Any pictures? I didn't see any on the site you linked to.

You can see the tobacco plants in this four-minute video about Owen's awesome heirloom seed farm, at about the 2:17 mark.  But watch the whole thing, because Owen rules!

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wsSPccJUJKc

Thanks.

Willy_K wrote:
I forgot to say I am growing five or six of these tobacco plants myself this year.  They are fuzzy leaved and appear to be dealing well with our very wet spring.  I quit smoking last year but I will have to try these if they come out all right!

Ha.. thats what I said.

I ordered the seed before I quit though, and me, I just cannot
leave ANY seed laying around without trying to grow it.

So I grew about 8 plants.

Then, I had to try it.
I smoked all of it.

But...if we all grew our own, who would pay the Governor's salary?

LivingWind wrote:
Hopi Tobacco is really strong and I got to feelin pretty loopy off it, almost trippy... It's a strong smoke. I don't grow, but I will next year. Nicotiana spray sure is a good repellent for pests though I gotta say...

Don't spill it on the ground.  It will kill everything where it soaks in.