Growing tobacco 2009

Last winter when it was announced new taxes were being placed on roll your own tobacco we ordered a sufficient quantity to get us through until we could learn to grow our own or because of crop failure having to abruptly quit.

After doing a bit of research and reading up on it we decided that it was something we should be able to accomplish without too much hassle. So we we set about ordering seeds we settled on using the seedman. The seeds through there are a bit expensive but we had quick service and very good seed germination. We also joined a site on growing your own tobacco. This site was and is quite helpful for beginners.

Here is a photo tutorial of the tobacco growing process. In the photos I give a basic description of the tobacco growing process . This is just our experience and what has worked for us .

some of our thoughts on growing tobacco

It is a lot more work than we had ever imagined.

It requires regular care and maintenance.

It requires a fair bit of room to grow any quantity of smoke. From 3-5 oz of smoking tobacco per plant is all they yield.

It is quite a hardy plant, we left a couple plants out to see what happened with frost and they are still growing and making flowers.

Working with tobacco is a sticky gooey process and tobacco is a poison. Keep this in mind when handling.

Tobacco and tomatoes do NOT do well anywhere close to one another, the risk of tobacco mosaic is great.

Although tobacco is one of the best pesticides you can use, it has plenty of its own pests and issues.

When drying tobacco has a distinct odor to it.

Tobacco can be grown as an ornamental and can be grown as a container plant.

It is a nutrient hog and loves hard wood ashes.

Growing your own tobacco and smoking it is nothing like buying pre rolled cigarettes. I do not know if it is because of all the chemicals in brand name smokes or what but we do not have the cigarette cravings like we used to.The smokers cough has all but disappeared as well since we went from brand name to roll your own to grow our own.

Keep in mind if you grow your own tobacco you will then need something to smoke out of. Papers can get expensive even though they are cheaper than cigarettes, so keep this in mind for the future if you grow your own . Manthing has made us a couple of pipes to smoke from for times when we are sitting around relaxing and smoking. Papers on the other hand work much better for when up and doing.