Home grown tobacco UK

[foomar]

Decided to have another attempt at growing tobacco this year , did alright back in the 80,s but sucessive wet autumns led me to give up.

The bare seed are tiny and with my eyes i could not handle them , trying out three commercial strains available as F1 hybrid in pelleted form.

If anyone is growing or had previous sucess would love to hear about it , quality of even the brand leaders in rolling tobacco is poor and costs me more than the bud i smoke it with.

Even if its too rougth to smoke i can make insecticide out of it.

 

[audioaddict]

Very interesting, I had considered trying this myself when I started growing the other, but now I have given up smoking it (officially!) so I don't reckon it's something I would want to get into... but definitely interested to see how you get on.

 

[JGP]

Goodluck dude, hoping we have a nice sunny autumn

 

[Big Eggy]

it's often grown as an ornimental plant but i have know idea on the requirments for a harvest.. I'm assuming the final product is affected by drying and curing just like MJ.

 

[Hazyfontazy]

ive grown tobbacco under lights ,,it gets very stinky and very sticky ,,uk law only allows u to grow 10, anymore and they want tax lol (this may have changed since i grew tobbacco in 2000)

i let the leaves dry naturally and kept them flat then just shredded them in a paper shredder ,i dont know where the seeds for mine came from but i was not impressed with the smoke ,nice experiment though

 

[Rysam]

Im gonna follow this closely, I've been toying with the idea of learning to grow cigar tobacco and rolling some cigars, I have the time to wait and a good stick is near the same price as herb.
I just burned a 20$ Ashton last nite, and a couple Romeo y Julietas. Poof 40$ gone.

Like good herb, it's all about the cure and Im sure I can't do any worse than a backwoods or swisher.

 

[Harry Gypsna]

cheeky bastatrd government here expect you to declare your homegrown baccy and pay the same tax as if youd bought it at the shop--thats their law..
yeah right. Actually, with the amount of tax money at stake, maybe if we got cig smokers growing their own, theyd divert some heat off us LOL

 

[lil skunk baby]

interesting... might have to grow some for armegeddon

 

[Tuco Ramirez]

I grew tobacco few summers ago.. I noticed that its a very difficult plant to grow when its still small. I started with probably 30 seedlings and only one survived to the end. But after couple of months from seed the plant started to harden up and grew faster than I would have ever imagined. If your planning to grow it outside I think that UK is still too far north for the leaves to get fully ripe before the summer is over. Maybe you have to continue growing it inside in the autumn.

 

[shafty420]

nice idea be keeping idea on this

 

[foomar]

Two weeks nearly and nothing showing yet , canna is easier to start than most plants it seems.

After a quick bit of research , turns out my part of the world was planted extensively with tobacco and was only stopped for political reasons by 1700 , English lords allowed no competition to their Virginian plantations.

1598: In the House of Lords by Lord Harris, asked that English and Irish farmers might be permitted to test whether tobacco could be produced in this country at a profit.

1619: A London merchant, John Stratford, purchased spare land in and around Winchcombe and planted tobacco. See next section of these notes.

1619: Act banning Tobacco growing in England passed — just as first crop in Winchcombe ready to harvest.

After which much of the land on the Cotswolds was turned to growing flax but despite the ban illegal tobacco growing continued on a substantial scale and fourteen plantations in Worcestershire were known of. In Winchcombe the parish's tithe barn was used to dry the leaves, and houses in North Street to store the cured tobacco.

1631: Charles 1st Proclamations were read out in Gloucestershire. Privy Council write to Justices of the Peace in Gloucestershire and Worcestershire demanding immediate action. This lead to a number of arrests but the practice of growing illegal tobacco and selling (sometimes as Virginia tobacco) continued.

The North American variety that was grown in Worcestershire was said to be slightly hallucinogenic, which may have explained the vehemence with which it was defended.

With 300 years of breeding since then , i doubt these modern hybrids will bear any resemblance to what they grew.

 

[Tuco Ramirez]

Two weeks nearly and nothing showing yet

Did you put any soil on top of the seeds? Tobacco seeds are so tiny that there shouldn't be anything on top of them. And it also helps is you give as much light to them as possible even though they haven't sprouted yet.

 

[ImperatorofJah]

Nice Idee Foomar cigarettes are expensive

nice day

 

[Me2]

Hi Foomar,
As Tuco suggested don`t cover the seeds. It helps if you give them some bottom heat and a misting or two to keep them damp. You`ll need to get a wriggle on as it takes a while to get them big enough to plant out.

 

[foomar]

Gave up on the first batch , might have dried them out at some stage as they are sitting on the surface more or less , paying more attention this time as it is geting late in season for sure.

Will even buy some plants if i have to , not too expensive with baccy so overtaxed and an expected 50 g each in pots , can finish in the greenhouse if running late or the autumn is dire.

 

[Me2]

They are very slow to germinate so i wouldn`t give up on them just yet, the pelletised seed may take a little longer. Get another batch on the go for insurance and if all else fails grab some seedlings off ebay etc. They should get to a good size in 4 months if you put them in a sunny spot.

 

[DocLeaf]

Its illegal to cultivate tobacco for consumption in the UK (except in a Liverpool where there's an old by-law), but it can always be grown for looking at Glass house conditions are ideal.

 

[Me2]

Its not illegal to grow some for personal use, you have to pay customs and excise the duty when you shred the leaves

 

[sso]

grow some tobacco myself.

it looks like many ornamental plants and fat chance id tax myself unnecesserily.

i find government a bloody useless thing and would not want to support it unforced.

besides, no law is law unless its forced. unless ya want to police yourself.

heck, ive smoked for a long time and i did not know what tobacco looked like, till i grew it myself.

 

[paulo73]

Very interesting foomar, thanks for sharing.
I got a few thousand amazonian tobacco seeds that a brazilian friend send to me last year.
Sadly i didn´t found the time to read, learn and start working those ones.
Maybe the fact that i don´t really smoke baccy nowadays is responsible by my lack of interest
I will try to learn with all you guys and maybe in a near future i´ll start some tobacco seeds.
ATB