Grow your own tobacco??

tccox

Do any of you grow your own tobacco?? I no longer smoke but I believe if I did, I would have to give it a try. I know a lot of you make a little of your own wine and beer, as do I, so why not grow your own weed?

There are tons of sites on the internet telling how to grow and cure your own. I think I would like to give it a try, if just for grins! Are there any tobacco growers on board who could give some hands on ideas? I think I would like to try it, if just for grins. Tom

Those who beat their swords into plowshares will plow for those who dont.

gunnut505

Get your seed from a reputable source.
Move your plants indoors when it's gonna freeze.
Don't, repeat Don't start with cheap Burley; it'll take forever to mature enough that you can use the leaves.
Never let the leaves start to mold!

If you know it all; you must have been listening.<br>WEAR EAR PROTECTION!

pulsarnc

this can be an expensive thing to do.seeds are over $100.00 an ounce and have to be started in a greenhouse or specially constructed plant bed.when they are 8 to 10 inches tall they are transplanted to the field
It takes alot of looking after from then to harvest time .The leavesare harvested over a period of time as they are ripening.They then have to be cured using high heat in a special barn.atfter curing theleaves can then be shreded and mixed to taste with other types of tobacco.Depending on where you live you might even have a legal problem with the feds because of disease issues if your backyard crop infects a major growers crop and causes a major loss to their crop could get sued! Also the growing is regulated as to how much each person can grow but overall if you could get the seeds and only greww a few plnts inthe backyard in all liklihood nobody would really care just seems like aloy of work. By the way i did this for thirty years


stupid people should not be allowed to breed

jjmitchell60

Most of the cigarettes are a blend of white burly, dark burly, and flue cured or so I am told. Now I have a lot of experience growing white/light or as we call it around here, burley tobacco. Last big crop was 100,000+ pounds or 50+ acres! If you want to grow burley, start you plants inside in a window in foam cups or outside in a green house. Once the plants get to be 6 to 12 inches tall you transplant them in a plot. They will grow till they bloom and when the bloom you want to walk right up to each plant, reach out straight with your hand and where your hand touches the stalk you want to break out the top there. That is called topping. The reason you do it at shoulder high is the plant will still grow afterward. Now you need to spray it with MH-30 to control suckers or if you want it to be organic, you need to walk through it once a week breaking out the suckers. When it begins to turn yellow then you are getting close to cutting time. After you cut it, I always let mine lay on the stick in the field for a couple of days, barring any rain of course, to let it wilt down. You then hang it in a barn or shed to cure. After it cures you wait for a rainy day so as to be able to strip it from the stalk with out it crimbling all over the place. After it is stripped it needs to be dried, really dry. It is then destemmed and chopped up into real small pieces. All the steps above are more complex than I let be said but you should get the jest of it. It then is blended with dark burly and flue cured for a certain taste. I will take some pictures this year of tobacco growing practices and post them. Living here for most of my life, I take it for granted that not everyone knows how or what it takes to grow tobacco. I was never around flue cured so I do not know what their ways are. I do know that in Georgia they use a method called priming tobacco where they strip the bottom leaves while the stalk is growing in the feld.

OK, some of you in other tobacco states let us know the process for you varity of tobacco.

The statistics on sanity are that one out of every four Americans is suffering from some form of mental illness. Think of your three best friends. If they're okay, then it's you.
Rita Mae Brown

jltrent

I use to grow 12000 pound of burley every year (straight 14 and 14 LA brand) until I couldn't get any decent help when I needed it. I have also smoked some of my home grown tobacco and without all the additives and flavoring it taste pretty generic. I bet though without all the chemical additives health wise it wouldn't be bad for you.

As far as growing it without any experience would be pretty hard if you were trying to do it for a living, because from the green house(or tobacco bed) all the way to the stripping table you better know what you are doing if you want top dollar from the tobacco companies.(They look for any reason to screw you)

pulsarnc

Here in NC it is all fluecured and like i said earlier i did it for about twenty years [typed wrong in first post]To do it nowadays would be probaly a 3 or4 hundred thousand dollar investmentto get strted back in the business from scatch.As the crop matures the leaves are picked or primed a few at a time from the bottom of the stalk upwarwds to the top.We used to say it was a thirteen month crop because of the amount of work and time involved. Profit margins are slim and you have to make it on volume Plnts are started in late jan to feb tranplanted in mar to spril and harvest statrs in june and runs into sept

stupid people should not be allowed to breed

tccox

Thanks for some very interesting info! In my senario, only one variety would be grown for personal use, there would be no blending. JJ, I see that you are in KY. I do see the tobacco hanging in the barns when I go to IN. I live in MS and have never seen a plant up close, just what I can see from the interstate. I doubt if there is a single tobacco plant growing in this state.
What would be the strength of home grown? Can you make cigarette, pipe and chewing out of the same stuff?
I am just real curious as how the old timers got their tobacco? Surely there was a lot grown locally in most states?? Tom


Those who beat their swords into plowshares will plow for those who dont.

tccox

I keep forgetting to add what got me started on this thread: The price of cigaretts today and all the talk about adding several dollars more per pack. I can just them at over five bucks a pack!! When I quit, I was up to 3 packs a day and more if I went out and had a few cold ones with the boys.

I do see a very serious drawback of growing your own: Who the heck are you going to sue when you find out you have lung cancer!! Tom

Those who beat their swords into plowshares will plow for those who dont.

allen griggs

tccox--email me at reltney2001@yahoo.com

n/a

Tobacco tis an evil weed
Tis the devil that sows the seed
Stains your fingers,
Stinks up your clothes,
and makes a chimney out of your nose.
.

Classic095[^][^]
[:D][^]




Lil' Stinker's Opinion

BlueTic

Can you mix it with the green weed???? Call it wacky tabacky - sorry guys - I just took some pain killers and my fingers just keep typing on their own[:D][:D][:D]

IF YOU DON'T LIKE MY RIGHTS - GET OUT OF MY COUNTRY (this includes politicians)

kris

anybody roll their own cigars?

it is good that we meet in the struggle of life or death.. .....it shall be life!

tccox

BR/Classic: so true about the smell!! I can only now realize how bad smokers stink!! I smoked for 30+ years and never knew how much I stank until I quit. I can smell a heavy smoker a mile away. I can even smell smoke in people's hair who have been exposed to smoke.

Just don't ask me what I think about beer breath now!! Tom

Those who beat their swords into plowshares will plow for those who dont.