The Tobacco Plant Project

[mrtr33]

Current participants: Smoked!, ashauler, mrtr33

Purpose: To grow tobacco, in an effort to learn more about our hobby. I enjoy growing a vegetable garden each year, and I grew two small Argentinean tobacco plants last year. The two plants were great conversation starters with the neighbors (both cigarette smokers) and with my wife’s gardening friends. This year I plan on cutting back the size of my vegetable garden, and tending to a few more tobacco plants. It’s more of a time issue with the vegetable garden than it is an obsession with tobacco plants, however. My only goal is to get large, healthy plants. While the varieties chosen were specifically picked because they were good cigar tobaccos, I don’t personally plan on cultivating these plants for cigar rolling/consumption. I think the furthest I plan on getting is drying the leaves. The others may feel differently, however.
Hopefully, this thread will end up educational, and we’ll all learn something from it. Anyone with a comment or suggestion is more than welcome to post – especially any growing resources.

Materials: A few weeks ago, I initially asked if anyone would be willing to split some seeds with me. Tobacco seeds usually come in quantities larger than what I need or can handle, even with germination rates hovering around 80%. We all decided on three varieties: Small Stock Black Mammoth, Long Red Leaf and Florida Sumatra. I’m also going to send Smoked! and ashauler a few seeds from last year, the Argentinean seeds, to see if maybe they have better luck than I did. I won’t have the space for one more variety. Each of us will start with approximately 15 seeds of each variety, except for the Argentinean, which there will only be about 10 each.

Procedure: The last frost here last year was approximately in the middle of March, which sounds about right. While tobacco is a hardy plant, it’s very delicate in getting started; they must be started indoors in peat moss, for best results. I am going to send out the seeds (probably tomorrow) to Smoked! and ashauler, and we should probably start getting them into the ground relatively soon. I have researched this a bit (and I know Smoked! has as well) and the best way to get these started is in little peat moss pellets – the little Jiffy greenhouses work just fine. It’s important to set the seeds on top of them, and not to bury them. Then, water from the bottom, and not the top. After about 6 weeks, gradually begin to introduce your seedlings to the outdoors. Remember, there is only an 80% germination rate expected!

Comments, suggestions, etc. welcomed. We hope to be meticulous about pictures and updates throughout this process.

[mrtr33]

This post is to keep track of all resources initially consulted, plus others that other people have to include.

Tobacco Growing and Curing at Home: This New Zealand tobacco grower puts an interesting spin on tobacco growing, in an attempt to show just how easy it is to grow tobacco. He claims to not even smoke tobacco, he just enjoys growing it. Probably only one-third of the page is his actual directions, the rest of the page are reader comments and his responses. While there is a good bit of information in his responses (and the reader posts), you really have to hunt for it.

Growing, Nurturing, and Harvesting - Tobacconist University: Lots of good pictures, lots of information here. I guess the only thing I'm confused about is when they choose to start putting their plants in the ground. While it seems to me like they are growing in the northern hemisphere, I wouldn't dare start any plant here in August. Many of the other resources I have consulted also suggest beginning your seedlings about 30 days before the last frost.

Starting and Growing Tobacco from Seeds: Does a good job of explaining the process of getting tobacco plants started. Also includes a few theories on transplanting as well. This site is also the only one that provides some good methods/theories for fertilizing in the early stages of tobacco growth.

Growing Tobacco in the Home Garden: A short writeup of growing tobacco in the home garden from the University of Florida. It goes into specific pH levels of soil for optimal growth, and ideal outdoor soil growing conditions. But about a quarter of the article talks about curing the tobacco, which is outside of the scope of this project.

Growing Tobacco An Age Old Tradition: A few good tidbits of information, such as using compost instead of soil for the tobacco plants. There are better sites with better information, however.

And finally, with all respects to hex......

There are a couple of forums solely dedicated to growing, curing, and preparing tobacco to smoke. I'm only posting these as a reference for this project, and these communities are interested in cultivation of all tobacco forms, including cigarettes and snuff. I haven't joined either forum yet, simply because I haven't finished searching those forums to see if I can't find the information I'm looking for, because search is my friend.

How to Grow Tobacco: A forum dedicated to growing tobacco, curing it, aging it, and smoking it. Their growing section is pretty good, and it seems to be regularly updated. It even talks about cloning tobacco plant varieties. Could be a good resource of information on down the road, but for right now, my only interests are in getting the plants started and transplanted.

Tobacco Talk: Not as updated, and there isn't as much information. There are a few good nuggets of information that can be found here, and their "getting started" section is much smaller and condensed.

[mrtr33]

Because we all know, this thread is useless without them......



The seeds. While most all seeds look pretty much the same, these are the Small Stock Black Mammoth seeds in question. The dime is for reference.

[SirPuffsAlot]

This is a very cool idea, are you (mrtr33) the only one that's got experience with growing?

[mrtr33]

This is a very cool idea, are you (mrtr33) the only one that's got experience with growing?

I can't speak for the others, but I also don't know that I'd call myself experienced. I raised 2 plants last year, the biggest of the two featured in my avatar. I've done a lot of research since then, and hope to have bigger plants this year. But I'll probably end up making all the same mistakes again.

[mail man]

The one thing I have found about plants in general, is that they will only grow as big as the pot they are in allows them to grow.
That plant would have Probably grown larger if it was in a larger pot, just my experiance.

Keith

[ashauler]

This is a very cool idea, are you (mrtr33) the only one that's got experience with growing?

I have never grown a tobacco plant. I have been around gardens and farms my entire life, so I ought to be able to at least not kill them. I'm planning on growing a few in pots, to intentionally limit their size for ornamental purposes.

I'll most likely talk my Dad out of a row or two in his garden to allow other plants to do as well as they will. I have much research to do on the specifics of tobacco and am looking forward to the experiment.

[EdgeMan]

I am thinking about growing some in a pot on my balcony. So I started looking around and found a couple of interesting links...

Here
and
Here