I am planting my first round of seeds. I have a variety, many for cigars, cigarettes, snus and pipe tobacco. For those of you who have grown and blended your own tobacco, how did it turn out and what sort of blending did you do to make tasty blends?
Growing and Blending Tobacco: Questions
- Thread starter fishmansf
- Start date
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I have found that age is all that you need for a tobacco leaf to be tasty, unless you don't like the taste of tobacco.
The cigar leaf is going to be tough. You'll most likely need to build a cardboard kiln. There are youtubes on this.
Virginias will need to be cured in a structure of some sort too. I built a small shed for this. You can search on here for "pipesmagazine cosmic crop" to see my set ups. I posted lengthy threads for a few years in a row.
The first year, you won't like the taste, but after you've let the leaves set up for a few years, it becomes much more tasty. The key is patience.
The cigar leaf is going to be tough. You'll most likely need to build a cardboard kiln. There are youtubes on this.
Virginias will need to be cured in a structure of some sort too. I built a small shed for this. You can search on here for "pipesmagazine cosmic crop" to see my set ups. I posted lengthy threads for a few years in a row.
The first year, you won't like the taste, but after you've let the leaves set up for a few years, it becomes much more tasty. The key is patience.
I am a philistine pipe smoker, but I find stogies made from a single air cured burley leaf (generally the tips) to be as satisfying as a cigar. I’m not shitting on cigars, but I feel unless one is smoking them somewhat regularly a significant amount of the flavour/experience comes from the wrapper leaf being in the mouth and the way the ember burns down the leaf.
Edit: a friend of mine who used to smoke cigarettes has recently started growing Samson Maden. He finds that on the very rare occasion (3-4 times a year) when he feels like the flavour of tobacco, this has been the most satisfying variety to smoke.
If I were to only grow and smoke one variety it would be goose creek red. I’m happy with it straight, and would then consider stoving, making cavendish, casing and a mixture of sun vs air cured approaches and growing conditions to provide a larger flavour profile. But as cosmic says, if you like the flavour of tobacco, you just need patience
Edit: a friend of mine who used to smoke cigarettes has recently started growing Samson Maden. He finds that on the very rare occasion (3-4 times a year) when he feels like the flavour of tobacco, this has been the most satisfying variety to smoke.
If I were to only grow and smoke one variety it would be goose creek red. I’m happy with it straight, and would then consider stoving, making cavendish, casing and a mixture of sun vs air cured approaches and growing conditions to provide a larger flavour profile. But as cosmic says, if you like the flavour of tobacco, you just need patience
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Awesome, I don't have a shed but my folks do. It'll give me an opportunity to swing by and say hi.
I don't have goose creek specifically but I do have a red va variety. Thanks for the tips.
You can actually cure burley in the attic, also. And, you can cure Virginias like burleys, but then they just taste like burleys.
I have had some of Cosmic's tobacco and it was fantastic!
Goose creek red is a dark air cured Virginia, think along the lines of Gawith brown ropes.
I’m not sure of your climate. But here we just hang our curing leaves under the porch/soffit. Somewhere out of the rain. The cardboard box cure is also a good technique and very easy. I’ve done this when my harvest was too late in the season. I then sun cure in a window once they have turned yellow in the box. Just requires a bit of monitoring to avoid rot.
I have a kiln, which I like using. But if you are happy waiting for a few years before digging into the leaf you don’t actually need one.
Angry sunburnt bald British men?And
Just like @simong Ever since Gawith changed their sauce recipes
Nothing likes to eat tobacco except tobacco worms, and if you’ll just check them each day, you’ll see them well enough to pick then off by hand.
I did have a neighbor who was stealing greens from my garden, so one year I planted tobacco where my kale and collards were. She stopped stealing them. Nothing worse than a plate full of stewed tobacco.
Ken Oath!
Lolz!
Not quite sure how to respond.
Crikey.... You know you're getting old when you can't outwit a kiwi!
Just starting to see very small burley and Va plants in my starter. This is my first try on a lark. Lot of work it seems to me. Makes me wonder how they can sell it for so cheap considering the time and labor.