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Growing Tobacco

ahortator

ahortator

Well-known member
Veteran
Hi. I have a Nicotiana tabacum strain you can find from time to time growing scattered here. I think it must be a old heirloom strain growing feral. Its main difference with most strains is they have white flowers instead the usually pink ones.

I have grown Wisconsin 38 and Virginia Gold strains. But I stopped growing them because they were very prone to pests and diseases. This one with white flowers is a very healthy and resistant plant.
 
S

Sign

Member
I've been growing tobacco for the last 8 or 9 years. Growing tobacco is completely legal in any amount for personal use in the US. Each year I grow between 50-200 plants, of many different strains- rustica, dark leaf, bright leaf and cigar types.

The growing part is easy, you just need to watch for horn worms and aphids, animals don't bother them. Once the crows nest or seed head forms you break it off above the first leaf that is big enough that you want. The higher the leaf the more flavor, the lower the leaf the better it burns. Once the seed head is topped the plant starts trying to grow suckers in earnest. You need to break these off at every node or leaf size suffers.

As the leaves begin to ripen you can break them off from the bottom up. Storing them in a cardboard box in a warm but not hot(in the 90's but below 100f as measured from inside the leaf pile) location. This will help the plants yellow up and lose chlorophyll. If the leaf is brown anywhere it will be lost. So you need to break down the pile every few days to ensure even heating.

Once the leaf is yellow you need to string them up so they can dry down and get brown. Once the midrib is completely dry you can get them on a humid morning when the lamina is pliable otherwise the leaf shatters.

From this point onward the cycling humidity/dry cycles will age the leaf or you can put it in a "kiln" I use a refrigerator that is heated by a crock pot keeping it moist and at a steady 120-130 degrees f. A year or 2 aging in a location that is warm and slightly humid at times like humid in the morning and dry in the evening let's the tobacco finish. The kiln drops that time down to a month.

Growing tobacco is very easy, processing it is some work and time, but that's pretty much it in a nutshell.
 
Green Squall

Green Squall

Well-known member
ahortator said:
Hi. I have a Nicotiana tabacum strain you can find from time to time growing scattered here. I think it must be a old heirloom strain growing feral. Its main difference with most strains is they have white flowers instead the usually pink ones.

I have grown Wisconsin 38 and Virginia Gold strains. But I stopped growing them because they were very prone to pests and diseases. This one with white flowers is a very healthy and resistant plant.
Click to expand...

I wonder if that's what the Native Americans smoked?
 
Andyo

Andyo

Active member
Veteran
virginia tobbaco

virginia tobbaco

I grew virginia tobacco in the uk in organic soil.
40 odd years ago when we had long hot summers.
I found it cured well if steamed in black industrial bin bags by heating in september sun till colour change then hanging in the dark in a well ventilated shed = Golden virginia tobbaco.
The roll ups will go out easily because no potasium nitrate added !A
 
pop_rocks

pop_rocks

In my empire of dirt
Sign said:
I've been growing tobacco for the last 8 or 9 years. Growing tobacco is completely legal in any amount for personal use in the US. Each year I grow between 50-200 plants, of many different strains- rustica, dark leaf, bright leaf and cigar types.

The growing part is easy, you just need to watch for horn worms and aphids, animals don't bother them. Once the crows nest or seed head forms you break it off above the first leaf that is big enough that you want. The higher the leaf the more flavor, the lower the leaf the better it burns. Once the seed head is topped the plant starts trying to grow suckers in earnest. You need to break these off at every node or leaf size suffers.

As the leaves begin to ripen you can break them off from the bottom up. Storing them in a cardboard box in a warm but not hot(in the 90's but below 100f as measured from inside the leaf pile) location. This will help the plants yellow up and lose chlorophyll. If the leaf is brown anywhere it will be lost. So you need to break down the pile every few days to ensure even heating.

Once the leaf is yellow you need to string them up so they can dry down and get brown. Once the midrib is completely dry you can get them on a humid morning when the lamina is pliable otherwise the leaf shatters.

From this point onward the cycling humidity/dry cycles will age the leaf or you can put it in a "kiln" I use a refrigerator that is heated by a crock pot keeping it moist and at a steady 120-130 degrees f. A year or 2 aging in a location that is warm and slightly humid at times like humid in the morning and dry in the evening let's the tobacco finish. The kiln drops that time down to a month.

Growing tobacco is very easy, processing it is some work and time, but that's pretty much it in a nutshell.
Click to expand...

wow man, a very interesting process
thanks for sharing
not to stray off topic but how do you "dry" your cannabis?
 
S

Sign

Member
pop_rocks said:
wow man, a very interesting process
thanks for sharing
not to stray off topic but how do you "dry" your cannabis?
Click to expand...


I've been thinking of trying the tobacco finishing process with cannabis but of yet I just "cure" it like everyone else. One thing with tobacco is if you let it dry green it's going to taste crappy and it's nearly impossible to get the chlorophyll out, weed still tastes good green so clearly it's not apples to apples.

I was thinking of adding some cannabis to the middle of the pile when I color cure this years crop. The thing with tobacco is it's very hard to color cure well in the wrong environment unless you are dealing with a lot of it so I figured it would be pointless applying a process on ounces that only works best with many pounds. The Malawi cob thread seems like people are kind of going down that road in a parallel but different process. One day.
 
Defacto

Defacto

Member
In my youth, we grew 5 acres tobacco and I helped on a couple other farms. (USA, Wisconsin)

I doubt that you can grow anything resembling decent cigarette tobacco in Canada.
(We couldn't in Wisconsin. Ours was used as cigar wrappers.)

(I do agree that quitting smoking makes the most sense.)

We never wore gloves and tobacco is all seriously hands on. Never heard of any illness
from tobacco before except back ache. :)

As far as "drying," it is like cannabis and needs to be cured or it crumbles to dust.
Good luck and happy gardening
 
JustSumTomatoes

JustSumTomatoes

Indicas make dreams happen
All the irony that growing tobacco in the U.S. is ok, but the wacky tobaccy is illegal. I personally think you should be able to grow whatever you want, except giant hogweed, that stuff sounds like a living nightmare.
 
S

Sign

Member
Yeah it's a little ironic. Good tobacco is really good though.

As to growing it in Canada, it grows just fine there. I know people in various provinces that grow it. Cigarette tobacco is just bright leaf that has been flue cured. The general rule of thumb is if you can grow tomatoes you're set.
 
ahortator

ahortator

Well-known member
Veteran
Green Squall said:
I wonder if that's what the Native Americans smoked?
Click to expand...

I don't know. I am in the opposite shore of the Pond. It seems an old heirloom strain. Who knows who brought it here!

It grows 10ft tall with huge leaves. Guatemalan Maya Mopan tobacco looks pretty close.

yp6XIMN.png


M0Yc54R.jpg


I have been looking, with no luck, for someone who can send me a few coyote tobacco (Nicotiana attenuata) seeds, which seems one of the species used by Native Americans. It is likely the Nawak'osis in the Blackfoot legend.

https://peopleofonefire.com/news-12300-year-old-camp-site-with-tobacco-seeds-found-in-utah.html

https://westerndigs.org/ice-age-hun...-bird-bones-and-tobacco-found-in-utah-desert/

I wonder which tobacco species they grew 12,300 years ago in Utah.
 
ahortator

ahortator

Well-known member
Veteran
chakras

chakras

Active member
BobbyIronsights said:
It turns out, growing up to 15kg of tobacco for personal use in Canada, is perfectly legal.

It also happens to be that I spend more on cigarettes each month than on MJ.:thinking:

I have found a Canadian supplier of Canadian grown seed, They sell for 5 cents a seed, which seems reasonable. I have read a bit, and growing seems straightforward, although they are slow to get to even small seedling stage, about a month.

I was hoping to start them in soil and run them in hydro of some sort With a 4/600 watt. I know too much sun will make them harsh, so we'll see. Maybe fluorescents are a better idea.

I'm an apt dweller, but I was hoping to start them inside, in about a 20 sq foot area, and move them out to my large balcony with a 6 foot by 8 foot area in the spring. I hope that's enough space.
Click to expand...

Wow. I guess in BC that would work. I thought it needed to be quite warm...
 
chakras

chakras

Active member
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