Last Summer's Tobacco Grow

[Majikoopa]

This time last year I ordered some heirloom tobacco seeds. After just a few days of waiting I recieved two strains in the mail- Zimmer Spanish and Mohawk. Zimmer Spanish is a classic strain that was grown throughout the southern United States until the late 1800's when more advanced strains came out. It was used primarily for cigar wrapper and filler.

Mohawk tobacco is really interesting. It is sometimes called "sacred tobacco" (and sometimes "Devil's Tobacco) as it was a wildly occurring Native American strain of tobacco with 9 times the nicotine as the kind we put in cigarettes these days. You can actually hallucinate off of it if you soak some in water and drink the juices (NOT RECCOMMENDED).

Anyway, just thought I'd post some pics of last year's harvest. I grew it all 100% organically with bat guano, worm castings, blood meal, etc. This year, after having cured all winter it makes GREAT spliff material, spliffs, cigarettes, cigars, and even shisha.

 

[superbolan]

very nice, thats definitely on my agenda. home made wraps and shisha would be killer

 

[Phedrosbenny]

Very cool...Thank you for sharing it.I have been kicking around the idea of doing this myself.These days you have to do what ever you can to save money.

I just have to mention that too much "Nicotine" taken at one time will kill you.I once saw it listed in a ancient poisons...I am not absolutely sure about the souce.But i would find out.Its better to be safe than sorry.

 

[Majikoopa]

Thanks guys. Haha yeah I would definitely not consume the Mohawk tobacco in such a matter, but I guess some ancient cultures used it for hallucinatory purposes. On another note, another tribe of Native Americans in mexico tipped their arrows with a mash made from the Mohawk tobacco to poison them so yeah, I'd definitely not do that.

The Mohawk does serve one GREAT purpose in this year's garden though-- soak a bunch of it in hot water, strain it out, let the liquid cool and you have 100% organic pesticide to spray on your plants. It was always very satisfying last summer to find a pile of dead grasshoppers near my niccotiana rustica (Mohawk) every morning. A few chews on the wrong plant on the outside of my garden kept those little suckers away from my tomatoes in the center

As far as saving money, a pack of seeds gets you 1000 seeds. 1 four foot tall plant produces 25 dinner plate sized leaves. I grew twelve in my garden last year and I only kept the smallest amount of that harvest and still have a trashbag of tobacco left in my closet! $10 for 30 pounds of tobacco man. You gotta do it

 

[Phedrosbenny]

I think your right...I gotta do it...lols

 

[JohnnyATL]

spraying nicotine on your maters. sounds like some tomaccos are gonna grow

 

[Majikoopa]

Oh I sure hope so! I've always wanted some tomacco... they taste like grandma!

 

[keat]

How do you cure your tobacco?

I read somewhere it has to be cured in 50C with 90% air humidity, is that true?

 

[xmobotx]

what I've heard is the 'climate of cuba'=70/70 just like you want your humidor

idk btw

 

[Majikoopa]

What I did actually since I live in a super dry climate is I just dried out the leaves while hanging. Whenever I want some or anticipate needing some more in the coming months I'll seperate out a large gallon bag or so and just spray a little bit of water in there and add just a capful of jack daniels or some other kind of nice alcohol (if you enjoy the flavor). Then I just let it sit in the bag in a dark place and make sure to move the leaves around in the bag about once a day. This cures it on a small scale that you can control easy. A lot of methods involve a large pile in a humid room, but you can get mold that way pretty easily and possibly destroy your whole crop. I hope this helps

 

[keat]

What I did actually since I live in a super dry climate is I just dried out the leaves while hanging. Whenever I want some or anticipate needing some more in the coming months I'll seperate out a large gallon bag or so and just spray a little bit of water in there and add just a capful of jack daniels or some other kind of nice alcohol (if you enjoy the flavor). Then I just let it sit in the bag in a dark place and make sure to move the leaves around in the bag about once a day. This cures it on a small scale that you can control easy. A lot of methods involve a large pile in a humid room, but you can get mold that way pretty easily and possibly destroy your whole crop. I hope this helps

Thank you that was really helpful!

 

[blackone]

Nice man - i stopped smoking tobacco in february but this makes me want to start again;p

 

[rocket high]

how long does the seed to finnished product take?
i see poland has started growing their own tobacco i would like to grow some in scotland ..might be hard but im up for a challenge

 

[Majikoopa]

keat- No problem buddy! I had a hard time getting questions like that answered when I was growing tobacco so I'm glad somebody can learn from my hits and misses.

Rocket High- It takes an entire summer to get a batch done growing but then it can take much longer depending on how you want to cure it. If you want cigarettes it can take like a month or two but for cigars it could take years to cure it right.

 

[Sheriff Bart]

N. tabacum

N. sylvestris

N. Rustica

N. gluaca

 

[Majikoopa]

Nice are these from your garden? I've been wanting to do some N. Glauca, but I haven't been able to find much information on it.

 

[White-rhino]

I've thought about growing some, but @$15/lb (grown, cured & chopped up nice) from the local store its not quite worth the trouble yet.

Someday. But its much better on the lungs to buy RYO tobacco in my opinion. I can smoke a pound (2 cartons) over a couple or three weeks and be unfazed. Then buy & smoke one pack of Marlboro lights and wake up hacking and lungs all fucked up. Then there's the fact that its $100 a pound or more for prepackaged cigarettes, (mostly taxes)

 

[blackone]

Well better get started now and have a personal supply of seeds before they ban all tobacco farming...

The day they ban it is the day I will start growing and smoking tobacco again, hehe.

 

[White-rhino]

It looks a lot like the weeds that grow along the corn field next to my house so shuld be fairly easy to grow when/if it is banned.

I don't see them banning it though - too much of a built in easy theft source for government. $10-11 a pack in New York, and soon to be everywhere else. Where else will they get that kind of money to steal? Using the guise that smokers cost society more and therefore should pay their share. When in fact, smokers cost society about 50% less per smoker in health care costs. Mainly because they live 15 years less and tend to die quickly once sick.

 

[Majikoopa]

It looks a lot like the weeds that grow along the corn field next to my house so shuld be fairly easy to grow when/if it is banned.

I don't see them banning it though - too much of a built in easy theft source for government. $10-11 a pack in New York, and soon to be everywhere else. Where else will they get that kind of money to steal? Using the guise that smokers cost society more and therefore should pay their share. When in fact, smokers cost society about 50% less per smoker in health care costs. Mainly because they live 15 years less and tend to die quickly once sick.

Depressing but true. I find it very interesting that such a life-threatening plant like tobacco is completely legal to grow right in my garden and buy at the grocery store when something as benign as cannabis is illegal. Why not tax the hell out of marijuana? That'd be a great revenue booster. Anyway it makes me glad I'm stocked up on tobacco seeds for the next 1,000 years