School me on Easy Tobacco Growing

[Briar Lee]

The first thing you should know is I’m lazy about gardening and I want an easy way, to grow tobacco. I’m pro insecticide, because I’m so lazy I don’t want to do the work organic gardening requires.

And if my tobacco crop should survive to harvest, I’m lazy about curing it, too.

I have low expectations of smoking home raised tobacco. If I can grow some that’s smokable, I’m happy.

Tobacco seeds are ridiculously cheap.

Is there some native variety of tobacco I can plant like a game plot and just watch and see how many come up?

Northwood Seeds Providing organically grown seed for home gardeners

We feed old watermelons to our chickens and on the chicken fence there’ll be watermelon vines and volunteer watermelons.

Any advice on getting volunteer tobacco started?

It would be neat to say to a friend, here try this home grown tobacco.

Any advice, is much appreciated and sorely needed.

 

[The Amish Tyrant]

The first thing you should know is I’m lazy about gardening and I want an easy way, to grow tobacco. I’m pro insecticide, because I’m so lazy I don’t want to do the work organic gardening requires.

And if my tobacco crop should survive to harvest, I’m lazy about curing it, too.

I have low expectations of smoking home raised tobacco. If I can grow some that’s smokable, I’m happy.

Tobacco seeds are ridiculously cheap.

Is there some native variety of tobacco I can plant like a game plot and just watch and see how many come up?

Northwood Seeds Providing organically grown seed for home gardeners

We feed old watermelons to our chickens and on the chicken fence there’ll be watermelon vines and volunteer watermelons.

Any advice on getting volunteer tobacco started?

It would be neat to say to a friend, here try this home grown tobacco.

Any advice, is much appreciated and sorely needed.

There is a tips section on the website you provided. Also, @cosmicfolklore grows his own tobacco (I believe).

I'd be interested in following this thread for how successful the "lazy" or beginner "course" is.

I have a black thumb, so any prospect of success is slim to none (but tobacco is dead when you smoke it, right).

 

[spicy_boiii]

Yellow Twist Bud was insanely easy to grow and air cure.

 

[Fralphog]

This has got my interest. My wife and I live on an acre and have a big garden.
It would be really fun to grow some baccy at home! I’m wonder if there’s a variety that grows better in Idaho?

 

[Fralphog]

Well, if you want to skip all the work of growing it, then just buy the whole leaf.
Check this out: Pipe Leaf - All Natural Whole Leaf Tobacco - https://www.leafonly.com/pipe-tobacco-leaf

 

[The Amish Tyrant]

Yellow Twist Bud was insanely easy to grow and air cure.

Details please.

Inquiring minds want to know.

 

[Ahi Ka]

https://fairtradetobacco.com/BeginnersHomeTobaccoGrowingFAQ.pdf

 

[mortonbriar]

I don't know exactly what month you will be starting, (climate wise) but you can get seeds germinating (thats the plant life version of ruminating) in trays coming into spring, while they are sprouting read up on the thread Ahi Ka provided above...

I recommend everyone try it, even if all you have is a balcony off an apartment, 2 or 3 plants is a rewarding little pile of leaf to play with.

 

[spicy_boiii]

Details please.

Inquiring minds want to know.

Easy to cure, heirloom, burley varietal. Resistant to weather, moisture, bugs, abnormal growing containers in my experience/research.

The land of homegrown is a pandora's box waiting to be opened. Visit fairtradetobacco forums for alot info.

I also found it easy to sun cure oriental varietals.

 

[mikethompson]

@cosmicfolklore definitely needs to chime in here.

 

[cosmicfolklore]

@cosmicfolklore definitely needs to chime in here.

I skimmed this last night, but I wasn’t sure exactly what he was asking. Can a lazy person grow tobacco…. Certainly. But, if you want to grow something you can be proud of, you’ll research, research, research.

You can use pesticides, but (for me) that negates some of the reasons I grow. I do use a bit of BT spray when the worms show up. But, I still get out and check them daily.
if you want easy curing, then burley is what you want. But, you’ll still need patience and check them daily.

This year, I planted too much. I’m leaving some details off of the forums. But, I did learn to keep it manageable. I won’t do that again. Never more than 100 plants.

@rajangan might be a good source of info. I wish Jitterbug was still active. I still turn to my books and ask others when I run into issues.

I do better with specific questions. When it’s too broad,my brain has problems keeping the answers small enough to respond.

 

[cosmicfolklore]

Reminds me of a song about the lazy farmer who wouldn’t hoe corn…. but, you can use landscape fabric to keep down weeds and suppress the horn worms some. You can air dry, but read everything you can about curing. If you just hang some plants, you’ll still have to keep an eye on them, and you’ll want to know when and what to look for.

This year, I had the luxury of a North Carolina tobacco farmer down the road from some of my land to refer for information…. when I could understand what he was saying, ha ha. But, you won’t find him online.

 

[bullet08]

Figs are only things I enjoyed growing. Instant gratification. Tobacco will drive me nuts.

 

[makhorkasmoker]

"Wild tobacco"--Nicotiana rustica--is ridiculously easy to grow, and it's easy to cure too, in various ways. I enjoy smoking it in small amounts on its own, and a pinch will pep up a weak blend. The room note is horrible though.

 

[cosmicfolklore]

"Wild tobacco"--Nicotiana rustica--is ridiculously easy to grow, and it's easy to cure too, in various ways. I enjoy smoking it in small amounts on its own, and a pinch will pep up a weak blend. The room note is horrible though.

Yeh, I think his key words were, "something he could be proud of," ha ha.

Any advice on getting volunteer tobacco started?

Yeh, this part just sunk in... this is what had me thinking that this was just a spoof post when I first read it last night.
I mean, sure, you can just throw some seeds off into the brush and see what happens. Will you get something? ummmmm... maybe, but probably nothing you would share with buddies and brag about. And, tobacco has such a slow rate of growth in the beginning, that it would be best to start your seeds inside a month or more before you plan to plant. Otherwise, it will be about three or four months before you can pick out what is tobacco growing amongst the weeds. And, tobacco will do so much better without competition from other plants. They get stunted and may not develop more than one to two feet. Definitely, none of the varietal specific flavors or essences will develop this way.


I love helping folks get started growing, but... you will have to do some of your research on your own. Too many times, I get really broad questions, or regional ones... like "what grows where I live?" These would require me to type out books worth.

You can grow any variety anywhere... but, read to make sure that regions are/or not mentioned in the varietal descriptions. And, if you live somewhere with a short growing season, look to see if you can find fast maturing varietals.

 

[rajangan]

The laziest way to get tobacco in MO that you would be proud of and was worth it would be to grow a bright tobacco and then sun cure it. Pick leaves that are yellowing, put them in a cardboard box, check the box at a lazy every 4 days, pull out the fully yellow leaves, twist tie/pipe cleaner them in hands of 5-10 and hang them in the sun until the ribs are dry.

Keep them at a humidity that won't produce mold or pressure seal them at slightly higher moisture level and wait 6 months.

Done.

 

[rajangan]

Oh, and you don't even have to start your own seeds. You can buy seedlings from Big Bonner in the fair trade tobacco forum.

 

[cosmicfolklore]

The laziest way to get tobacco in MO that you would be proud of and was worth it would be to grow a bright tobacco and then sun cure it. Pick leaves that are yellowing, put them in a cardboard box, check the box at a lazy every 4 days, pull out the fully yellow leaves, twist tie/pipe cleaner them in hands of 5-10 and hang them in the sun until the ribs are dry.

Keep them at a humidity that won't produce mold or pressure seal them at slightly higher moisture level and wait 6 months.

Done.

I've never done this. Do you mean to say that it is a better tasting tobacco than a burley?

 

[rajangan]

I've never done this. Do you mean to say that it is a better tasting tobacco than a burley?

Personally, yes. Burley usually requires the use of a kiln (or significantly more aging), and that's one more thing to build, store, and operate. I was focused on what is the most simple, start to smoking. You know, like along the theme of laziness.

 

[rajangan]

I would string them rather than use hands, but once again, laziness.