Growing Tobacco

[seefoodlover]

Does anybody here grow their own tobacco??? I thought it would be pretty cool to make all your own stuff, roll cigars, make shisha, the works.

[teq]

Good in theory, bad in practice. In order to produce enough to smoke, you would need to devote a pretty large area.

I was thinking about doing it for home use and then potentially taking it to retail if it was good enough.

Food flavors come to mind..... Cheetos or Pizza anyone?

[r1v3th3ad]

I want to grow Nicotina Rustica or the generic...but I'm broke, so no seeds for me

[seefoodlover]

Found seeds on ebay, like three dollars including shipping roughly, for about 1000 seeds, if you have 5 bucks to spare

[texas_mustang]

it destroys the soil. i know that much

[NickReppinThe909]

it destroys the soil. i know that much

how so ? you have a link to back this up ? i have grown virginian tobacco a few times in my orange grove and then planted tomatoes the next season and they grew fine

[teq]

i have grown virginian tobacco a few times in my orange grove and then planted tomatoes the next season and they grew fine

Ever grow tommaco? lol

[NickReppinThe909]

i have grown virginian tobacco a few times in my orange grove and then planted tomatoes the next season and they grew fine

Ever grow tommaco? lol

naw im not a very talented botanist i dont think i could do it

[teq]

Not familiar with The Simpsons reference? =/

[Jeff_T]

Damn you...
just thinking the same thing.

[NickReppinThe909]

i do not watch the simpsons but there is really a such thing as tomacco

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tomacco Edited April 22, 2008 by NickReppinThe909

[iamscott06]

i do not watch the simpsons but there is really a such thing as tomacco

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tomacco

Holy shit thats funny as hell! I had no idea... o.O

[Bushbr]

i do not watch the simpsons but there is really a such thing as tomacco

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tomacco

Holy shit thats funny as hell! I had no idea... o.O

thats if you trust wikkipeda. just cuz something has sources and sounds legit doesn't mean it is. thank god for that too or else i might not have graduated form highschool lol

[iron molly black]

Where I live in CT they did (and still do) grow shade tobacco for cigar wrappers, supposedly the best quality in the world. I worked the tobacco fields for a couple of years. Not very much fun! And if there was ONE blemish on a leaf, it was no good. They TOTALLY baby those plants from start to finish! The workers, not so much...lol.

[mathuv]

Where I live in CT they did (and still do) grow shade tobacco for cigar wrappers, supposedly the best quality in the world. I worked the tobacco fields for a couple of years. Not very much fun! And if there was ONE blemish on a leaf, it was no good. They TOTALLY baby those plants from start to finish! The workers, not so much...lol.

you could have used the scrap leaves for shisha.. or were they sold too? id imagine they were sold to be used in cigarettes?

[iron molly black]

Where I live in CT they did (and still do) grow shade tobacco for cigar wrappers, supposedly the best quality in the world. I worked the tobacco fields for a couple of years. Not very much fun! And if there was ONE blemish on a leaf, it was no good. They TOTALLY baby those plants from start to finish! The workers, not so much...lol.

you could have used the scrap leaves for shisha.. or were they sold too? id imagine they were sold to be used in cigarettes?

Well, we weren't around the "finished" dried leaves. They were hung up on strings attached to "lathes" in big, temp controlled barns with gas heaters and slats to open/close on the sides to cure. When they were done curing, they would take them down for sorting and such to sell. The curing process takes a really long time. I suppose we could have snuck in easily enough and go some though, but we didn't think about it back then. After working with the stuff, we didn't want to be around it anymore. The fresh tobacco is extremely sticky. My arms would be covered with it, and then the dirt would stick, nasty. And working with the machinery to thread the leaves onto the string and lathes was pretty dangerous, too. Someone always threaded their fingers along with the leaves every season, no guards to prevent it. And then there were guys in the rafters over your head hanging the lathes, and occasionally they would drop one, hopefully not on YOU! Fun times...lol. And all for about $3.50 an hour!

[r1v3th3ad]

i have grown virginian tobacco a few times in my orange grove and then planted tomatoes the next season and they grew fine

Ever grow tommaco? lol

Beat me to it...

But ya, I would grow mine in giant potted plant mathingies
that way I can move 'em about during different weather + up to school with me

[mushrat]

Where I live in CT they did (and still do) grow shade tobacco for cigar wrappers, supposedly the best quality in the world. I worked the tobacco fields for a couple of years. Not very much fun! And if there was ONE blemish on a leaf, it was no good. They TOTALLY baby those plants from start to finish! The workers, not so much...lol.

Ya, CT broadleaf is a fine tobacco. It's darker and almost oily/gritty but the figars that are 100% ct broadleaf are quite good. Munniemakers (sp) come to mind.

[mushrat]

Where I live in CT they did (and still do) grow shade tobacco for cigar wrappers, supposedly the best quality in the world. I worked the tobacco fields for a couple of years. Not very much fun! And if there was ONE blemish on a leaf, it was no good. They TOTALLY baby those plants from start to finish! The workers, not so much...lol.

you could have used the scrap leaves for shisha.. or were they sold too? id imagine they were sold to be used in cigarettes?

Well, we weren't around the "finished" dried leaves. They were hung up on strings attached to "lathes" in big, temp controlled barns with gas heaters and slats to open/close on the sides to cure. When they were done curing, they would take them down for sorting and such to sell. The curing process takes a really long time. I suppose we could have snuck in easily enough and go some though, but we didn't think about it back then. After working with the stuff, we didn't want to be around it anymore. The fresh tobacco is extremely sticky. My arms would be covered with it, and then the dirt would stick, nasty. And working with the machinery to thread the leaves onto the string and lathes was pretty dangerous, too. Someone always threaded their fingers along with the leaves every season, no guards to prevent it. And then there were guys in the rafters over your head hanging the lathes, and occasionally they would drop one, hopefully not on YOU! Fun times...lol. And all for about $3.50 an hour!

not to mention the increadible nicotine buzz im sure from handleing the leaves.

[mathuv]

Where I live in CT they did (and still do) grow shade tobacco for cigar wrappers, supposedly the best quality in the world. I worked the tobacco fields for a couple of years. Not very much fun! And if there was ONE blemish on a leaf, it was no good. They TOTALLY baby those plants from start to finish! The workers, not so much...lol.

you could have used the scrap leaves for shisha.. or were they sold too? id imagine they were sold to be used in cigarettes?

Well, we weren't around the "finished" dried leaves. They were hung up on strings attached to "lathes" in big, temp controlled barns with gas heaters and slats to open/close on the sides to cure. When they were done curing, they would take them down for sorting and such to sell. The curing process takes a really long time. I suppose we could have snuck in easily enough and go some though, but we didn't think about it back then. After working with the stuff, we didn't want to be around it anymore. The fresh tobacco is extremely sticky. My arms would be covered with it, and then the dirt would stick, nasty. And working with the machinery to thread the leaves onto the string and lathes was pretty dangerous, too. Someone always threaded their fingers along with the leaves every season, no guards to prevent it. And then there were guys in the rafters over your head hanging the lathes, and occasionally they would drop one, hopefully not on YOU! Fun times...lol. And all for about $3.50 an hour!

...wait no... i earned more than that sitting at a desk from 9-5 answering a telephone :/ but at least tht job sounds more inteserting

[iron molly black]

Where I live in CT they did (and still do) grow shade tobacco for cigar wrappers, supposedly the best quality in the world. I worked the tobacco fields for a couple of years. Not very much fun! And if there was ONE blemish on a leaf, it was no good. They TOTALLY baby those plants from start to finish! The workers, not so much...lol.

you could have used the scrap leaves for shisha.. or were they sold too? id imagine they were sold to be used in cigarettes?

Well, we weren't around the "finished" dried leaves. They were hung up on strings attached to "lathes" in big, temp controlled barns with gas heaters and slats to open/close on the sides to cure. When they were done curing, they would take them down for sorting and such to sell. The curing process takes a really long time. I suppose we could have snuck in easily enough and go some though, but we didn't think about it back then. After working with the stuff, we didn't want to be around it anymore. The fresh tobacco is extremely sticky. My arms would be covered with it, and then the dirt would stick, nasty. And working with the machinery to thread the leaves onto the string and lathes was pretty dangerous, too. Someone always threaded their fingers along with the leaves every season, no guards to prevent it. And then there were guys in the rafters over your head hanging the lathes, and occasionally they would drop one, hopefully not on YOU! Fun times...lol. And all for about $3.50 an hour!

...wait no... i earned more than that sitting at a desk from 9-5 answering a telephone :/ but at least tht job sounds more inteserting

Actually, this tobacco wasn't the Broadleaf, that was grown at a few farms as well, but that was "sun" tobacco, this was "shade" tobacco (grown under nets), which is higher quality but much more labor-intensive. Each freakin' LEAF was babied as it grew. You got money taken away if you bruised leaves or hurt a plant. It supposedly is the best cigar wrapper in the world.

I didn't notice any nicotene buzz, but hey, we were smoking cigs all the time anyhow. And yeah, the pay seems bad now, but it was like 1980, and I was 14, with no other bills, and it was the only place you could work at that age, so, that's what we ALL did in the summer. We weren't LAZY! lol You could actually make a bit more if you made "day pay" by completing so many "bens", the distance between two poles in a row (enough to fill a bin with leaves), then you would get paid piecework (by the ben) instead of hourly, or if you were working in the shed, by the lathe. They don't hire kids to work anymore, it's all migrant workers, kids are too lazy. It was very, very hard work, for low pay.

BTW, where I grew up is known as the Tobacco Valley. So we still have things named Tobacco Valley this and that. Not so popular nowadays...lol.

[oldthompson]

I'm growing tobacco for the first time this year. I have ten hasankeyf rustica growing along with two other types of rustica, maryland, virginia, burley, and two kinds of chinese flue-cure cigarette types.

The hasankeyf seem easy to grow compared to some of the other types, believe it or not the chinese stuff is growing the fastest.

Hasankeyf rustica is what some turks smoke in their hookahs, which is kind of how I ended up here. My friend's kid has a four hose hookah that kind of looks like an end table, I'm trying to learn how to smoke that hasankeyf right.

If you put -how to grow tobacco- into a search engine you should get plenty of sites. With the FDA taking over tobacco regulation, everybody who enjoys their freedom to smoke should think about growing their own.