Quote Originally Posted by cigaro View Post
I smoke mostly Nicaraguan cigars and would like to know if anyone knows if pesticides, fungicides or other chemicals are used on the tobacco that is grown there? I don't want to be smoking chemicals that may be harmful. Of course I don't inhale, but it occurred to me this morning that I don't really know the growing conditions of the tobacco. And, being a foreign country, I wouldn't know how to find out. Except by this forum. Thanks!
Here is what Nestor Plesencia says about "organic" cigars (he is know for his line of Plasencia Reserva Organic Cigars):

"We grew organic tobacco since the year 2000. It’s been a great learning experience because all the process is fascinating; we have learned a lot of the biology of the environment and the tobacco plant itself.

We used organic fertilizers such as cow manure and chicken manure also we used humus which is a product produce by earth warms while they ate the cow manure. Tobacco plant is a heavy feeder so a lot of fertilizer is required. Fertilizer was one of our biggest treads because you have to have a plant completely grown in 90 days but with this kind of fertilizers we achieved our goal.

Then we have to fight against diseases and bad insects and we used organic pesticides for that as well as biological control with natural enemies for those pest.

In the fermentation process we have our biggest enemy which is "Lasio", but there is a way you can kill the bugs and the eggs without using any chemical fumigations and that is with temperature. If you froze the tobacco at a temperature of -20 degrees celcius for 72 hours you kill all the Lazio and the eggs that are in the tobacco. And this is the process that we use in our operations.

Organic tobacco is also more labor intense and the certification process is expensive and time consuming, but we are willing to do it because we love it and we put a lot of effort trying to get the best out of our fields and our plants.

As I said before this process in fascinating and we still learning with every crop. This is only a small explanation of this incredible tobacco and we are very proud to be able to offer to you in a form of a wonderful cigar."



Bottom line - like it or don't... There are chemicals in the cigars you smoke.