Growing My Own?

[cwarmouth]

I'm dabbling with the idea of putting in some tobacco plants. I know that growing them will be no problem, it's what to do with them after they are grown (i.e. curing). I live in SW Idaho, USA which, contrary to popular opinion, is not cold and snowy year-round. It is a high desert climate so it gets over 100 degrees in the summer and has a very low relative humidity, which may affect drying and curing.
I'm not not so much concerned with the practicality of the matter ("it would be easier/cheaper/faster to just buy it") nor am I interested in large scale faming. Just in growing a few plants in the garden.
Can anyone point me to threads on the topic? I feel like I must be blind because I'm sure that it must get discussed here.
Thanks!

 

[jitterbugdude]

Look up "FairTradeTobacco" forum.
The very low humidity will be a problem with curing. If you grow Virginias or Turkish you can sun cure them to a nice yellow color. Burleys/Cigar types might be tricky due to the low humidity. There are plenty of guys that cure in your type environment. They get creative with humidifiers and even pouring water onto the ground where the leaves are hanging.
Good luck.
edit: btw, get your seeds in soon. Typically, you seed about 8 weeks before your last frost date.

 

[davek]

I grew a few plants from these folks last year. Starting seeds is a challenge too.
http://www.newhopeseed.com/tobacco_plants.html
Fair trade tobacco is a great site.

 

[cwarmouth]

Thank you, guys. I know I have a lot to learn and will definitely look into the Fair Trade site. The Newhope Seed site looks great too.

 

[jaytex1969]

I got inspired by Cosmic's rope production thread and sprouted some old seeds I had lying around.
I watched a poop-ton of YouTube videos, both good and bad, until I got a fair understanding of some of the stages of processing.
I expect my first attempt, with my 5 or 6 plants, to range somewhere between mediocre failure to mediocre success, I'm mainly concerned with the learning experience for now.
We "noobie" baccy farmers should band together on a thread and share discoveries as we go.