Started with the goal this year of learning to grow, cure, and process my own tobacco.
After some research I decided to go with the the following varietals:
-Yellow Twist Bud, YTB (Burley)
-Canik (a black sea Samsun Turkish oriental)
-Yenidje (AKA Xanthi Yaka, a Greek oriental)
I bought all my seeds from Northwood Seeds - http://northwoodseeds.com (great experience)
As an amateur gardening/growing enthusiast, I had plenty of equipment to start.
Germination was wildly easy and successful. In fact, too successful. The seeds are so small its hard to titrate the amount deposited. As a result I had seeds touching and growing together. This made transplanting tricky as the plants became intertwined.
My original intention was to go from starter plugs, to Dixie cups, to being planted into the ground. A mixture of laziness, weather, and a hectic personal life resulted in me leaving most the plants in Dixie cups save for the Yenidje - I crowded all the yenidje plants into a 5 gallon fabric pot.
Yenidje:
Canik:
YTB Burley:
As you can see, the Orientals don't mind being crowded. The Canik in the Dixie cups are up to 4 feet tall.
The YTB, on the other hand, is obviously stunted by the small root space.
The weather here, in Contra Costa County, in the California Bay Area, is arid and hot in the summer. It does still get pretty cool sometimes at night.
Despite these temperature swings, there's been no sign of distress from the plants. Leaf has been harvested in the "Priming" method, IE the leaves are picked from the bottom up as the leaves turn yellow, and when they can be readily plucked of the plant.
The Canik and Yenidje have been sun cured on a bench, when I have the motivation to do so, otherwise everything is air cured, sometimes on the plant.
Expectations so far have been low, but despite the small space used to grow, it's been quite the producer.
Even in the Dixie cups, the Burley can churn out some decent sized leaves:
Leaves cure to a light gold/yellow color easily, a week's worth of harvest looking like this:
Today my curiosity got the better of me, and I had to test the fruits of my (lack) of labor. In the case of the Yenidje and Burley, I found some crispy lugs already dried. In the case of the Canik, I sampled a leaf I had hastily sun-cured.
Tasting notes
Yenidje - It's got that characteristic unflavored soda note! And wow it's it smooth. It burns real easy to a light gray ash, and is ultra smooth. Slightly floral with some minor fall leaf litter smell/taste, and a persistent but slight sweetness. A small cigarette ammonia-like element pops up that does not steal from the pleasant experience.
Yellow Twist Bud - Not as good at taking a light, and has a light hint of cigarette essence. Tastes of light walnuts and brown super buttery smoothness. The big surprise is the hint of sweetness, and the pleasant almost oriental like vegetal taste. Very light, and this one is the only one where I noticed any nicotine, so if imagine it's on the medium spectrum.
Canik - This stuff was the real shocker. This stuff is good to go. Wow this stuff is good. Slightly vegetal, slightly buttery, and a persistent sweetness that is amazing. I could smoke this stuff all day. Not a chance of bite or anything bad to say. I'm pretty shocked how well this one turned out. Almost like an aged bright Virginia. Some light complexity in terms of a light light hint of earthy-minty-meaty, rounded, and full flavor.
I'm happy with my first go at things. Next year, for simplicity, I'll stick to a couple fabric pots and call it a day. I plan on making a "Lug Plug" with the bag of leaf shown above, and will probably make another plug or two with the top primings as they're cured. I'll let the plugs age a couple of years and use them as stand alone blends or add them to others as the need strikes.
The fact that the oriental varieties are not topped or trimmed for suckers, makes it easy to grow seed for many years to come.
Just one plant grows quite the amount of seed pods:
I highly encourage anyone that is remotely interested in growing their own to do so.
After some research I decided to go with the the following varietals:
-Yellow Twist Bud, YTB (Burley)
-Canik (a black sea Samsun Turkish oriental)
-Yenidje (AKA Xanthi Yaka, a Greek oriental)
I bought all my seeds from Northwood Seeds - http://northwoodseeds.com (great experience)
As an amateur gardening/growing enthusiast, I had plenty of equipment to start.
Germination was wildly easy and successful. In fact, too successful. The seeds are so small its hard to titrate the amount deposited. As a result I had seeds touching and growing together. This made transplanting tricky as the plants became intertwined.
My original intention was to go from starter plugs, to Dixie cups, to being planted into the ground. A mixture of laziness, weather, and a hectic personal life resulted in me leaving most the plants in Dixie cups save for the Yenidje - I crowded all the yenidje plants into a 5 gallon fabric pot.
Yenidje:
Canik:
YTB Burley:
As you can see, the Orientals don't mind being crowded. The Canik in the Dixie cups are up to 4 feet tall.
The YTB, on the other hand, is obviously stunted by the small root space.
The weather here, in Contra Costa County, in the California Bay Area, is arid and hot in the summer. It does still get pretty cool sometimes at night.
Despite these temperature swings, there's been no sign of distress from the plants. Leaf has been harvested in the "Priming" method, IE the leaves are picked from the bottom up as the leaves turn yellow, and when they can be readily plucked of the plant.
The Canik and Yenidje have been sun cured on a bench, when I have the motivation to do so, otherwise everything is air cured, sometimes on the plant.
Expectations so far have been low, but despite the small space used to grow, it's been quite the producer.
Even in the Dixie cups, the Burley can churn out some decent sized leaves:
Leaves cure to a light gold/yellow color easily, a week's worth of harvest looking like this:
Today my curiosity got the better of me, and I had to test the fruits of my (lack) of labor. In the case of the Yenidje and Burley, I found some crispy lugs already dried. In the case of the Canik, I sampled a leaf I had hastily sun-cured.
Tasting notes
Yenidje - It's got that characteristic unflavored soda note! And wow it's it smooth. It burns real easy to a light gray ash, and is ultra smooth. Slightly floral with some minor fall leaf litter smell/taste, and a persistent but slight sweetness. A small cigarette ammonia-like element pops up that does not steal from the pleasant experience.
Yellow Twist Bud - Not as good at taking a light, and has a light hint of cigarette essence. Tastes of light walnuts and brown super buttery smoothness. The big surprise is the hint of sweetness, and the pleasant almost oriental like vegetal taste. Very light, and this one is the only one where I noticed any nicotine, so if imagine it's on the medium spectrum.
Canik - This stuff was the real shocker. This stuff is good to go. Wow this stuff is good. Slightly vegetal, slightly buttery, and a persistent sweetness that is amazing. I could smoke this stuff all day. Not a chance of bite or anything bad to say. I'm pretty shocked how well this one turned out. Almost like an aged bright Virginia. Some light complexity in terms of a light light hint of earthy-minty-meaty, rounded, and full flavor.
I'm happy with my first go at things. Next year, for simplicity, I'll stick to a couple fabric pots and call it a day. I plan on making a "Lug Plug" with the bag of leaf shown above, and will probably make another plug or two with the top primings as they're cured. I'll let the plugs age a couple of years and use them as stand alone blends or add them to others as the need strikes.
The fact that the oriental varieties are not topped or trimmed for suckers, makes it easy to grow seed for many years to come.
Just one plant grows quite the amount of seed pods:
I highly encourage anyone that is remotely interested in growing their own to do so.
