Growing Tobacco - Summer project

[benfica_77]

A good friend of mine and I are growing two tobacco plants each. One Brazilian and another Italian. I'll be ready in about 55 years to source tobacco to Hamlet / Prez for nudies. 

https://www.tobaccoseedscanada.com/product/braziliancigar/29?cp=true&sa=true&sbp=false&q=false

https://www.tobaccoseedscanada.com/product/italiancigar/35?cp=true&sa=true&sbp=false&q=false

Here are the little babies so far. We have experience growing a different herbal plant that's legal in Canada curious to see how this differs. 

If anyone has experience happy to hear any pointers. 

I wonder if I play Bruce Springsteen the plants will yield better 😂😅

[Gubbins]

Doing the same thing. Looks like mine are a few days behind yours. Will update when I get chance.

[rcarlson]

13 hours ago, benfica_77 said:

I wonder if I play Bruce Springsteen the plants will yield better 😂😅

They'll die immediately.  

[JoeMoylan]

That is awesome!


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[Li Bai]

I tried too during COVID

Five different seeds, Virginia Gold, Havana, Kentucky, Criollo and Corojo.

I've planted them in my backyard (had around 20m²) but the weather hadn't been kind that year, plus I'd made some rookie mistakes when harvesting came...I still have those grown leaves in my smoking lounge but I couldn't make anything of it.

It was a fun experiment though! 

Quick question for you @benfica_77. Why only 4 plants?? 

[benfica_77]

13 hours ago, Li Bai said:

I tried too during COVID

Five different seeds, Virginia Gold, Havana, Kentucky, Criollo and Corojo.

I've planted them in my backyard (had around 20m²) but the weather hadn't been kind that year, plus I'd made some rookie mistakes when harvesting came...I still have those grown leaves in my smoking lounge but I couldn't make anything of it.

It was a fun experiment though! 

Quick question for you @benfica_77. Why only 4 plants?? 

Good question. It was a pilot run this year, when experimenting i like to keep the scale small at first. Learn from it and then expand the next year.

[Li Bai]

4 hours ago, benfica_77 said:

Good question. It was a pilot run this year, when experimenting i like to keep the scale small at first. Learn from it and then expand the next year.

My take is that with 4 plants there's a chance they all fail (like my Kentucky did), if you have more seeds, I would plant two dozens and then select the stronger ones but I'm not that experienced either. 😅

[benfica_77]

4 hours ago, Li Bai said:

My take is that with 4 plants there's a chance they all fail (like my Kentucky did), if you have more seeds, I would plant two dozens and then select the stronger ones but I'm not that experienced either. 😅

Appreciate the guidance.

[mwaller]

I tried my hand at growing cigar tobaccos for a few years before the pandemic. It was a lot of fun, but didn’t produce anything with an aroma or flavor that remotely resembled a cigar 😂

The plants themselves are pretty easy to grow, and the modern strains can produce some impressive leaves in a temperate climate.  

When your seedlings get a few more leaves, consider removing half of the 2-3 largest leaves to stimulate growth.
 
Curing the leaves properly is one of the biggest challenges for home growers. Most Caribbean tobaccos are harvested one leaf at a time, then hung up to “color cure” in a high humidity environment.  If the humidity isn’t high enough, the leaves will dry green.  

After color curing, the leaves need to be fermented. Commercially, fermentation is performed by creating massive piles (“Pilons”) of leaves that trap moisture and heat sufficiently to sustain fermentation. At home, you may need to create a “tobacco kiln” or find some other way of supplying the heat and moisture necessary to ferment your leaves.

If you want to learn more, check out the Fair Trade Tobacco forum - it’s the go-to site for home growers.  

Have fun!

[Gubbins]

This is where mine are currently at.

Have about 7 different pots. They’re starting to gain a bit of momentum now. Growing in England, so not the most naturally sunny place, no additional help from indoor lights etc.  started them probably a couple of weeks late. But they’re kicking on, and we’re having a week full of sun, so hopefully that gives them some additional help.

Added diluted tomato fertiliser to the soil when I moved them into the larger pots about 5 days ago. Probably 3 weeks + in total. First try at this, been an enjoyable experience regardless of the outcome.

[HDGSN]

Here’s what I’ve got this year. They go in the ground in the next 7-10 days. They germinated over a week earlier than I expected, so they’ve gotten bigger than I wanted before reaching the last frost date.

- Dominican Wrapper

- Cuban Criollo 98

- Havana 263

- Havana 608