Your Questions About Gardening

GardenersCardiff answers:

Here are some places to start.
Http://edis.ifas.ufl.edu/AA260
http://www.virtualseeds.com/tobacco-main.html
http://www.ryomagazine.com/july/review.htm

Home

Googling ‘tobacco growing’, ‘making pipe tobacco’, etc., will give more info.

GardenersCardiff answers:

If only I knew in what state you live. Different types of tobacco are raised in different locations. Flue cured, and fire cured in the eastern coastal regions. Maryland well in Maryland and surrounding areas. Burley is for the most part a highland tobacco, raised in the Appalachia Mountains and the area west into Kentucky and Tennessee. The difference is basically how each are worked and processed. If you want tobacco for a flower garden, the hardest part of raising it might well be finding plants to set out. If you want it for your personal use, be aware that the tobacco you buy in stores has been aged (sometimes for years) to mellow the taste and bitterness before processing into consumer products.

It doesn’t appear that I have answered your question, but maybe this gave you some information that is helpful.

Virginia tobacco will most likely be burley or flue cured. Either way the seed are very small. The best way to start plants is in a float bed. You will need a styrofoam tray that is divided into sections ( usually 100 0r more to each tray) . Fill the tray with potting soil, gently pack each section to firm the soil. Place one seed to each section. Do not try to cover the seed. We use a machine to seed the trays. Place the seeded tray in water and cover with plastic sheeting raised above the tray. In a manner like a small greenhouse. The seed should sprout in about two weeks, and be ready to transplant in about six to eight weeks. Plants should be transplanted when they are about 1/3 meter tall. Transplant 1/2 meter apart in rows 1 meter wide. Cow manure makes a great fertilizer for tobacco. It’s best to plant in the evening to avoid wilting. Add a small amount of water when planting. When plants bloom break out the tops, usually about shoulder high. Weekly after topping you will need to remove sprouts (suckers) that will grow above every leaf. Allow tobacco to grow for six to eight weeks after topping. How you harvest the crop will depend on how you plan to cure your tobacco. Flue cured requires barns specially designed for that purpose. With flue cured you pick off the leaves. Burley is harvested by cutting the stalk, then “speared” onto a stick before being hung in a barn or on a scaffold outside. Each leaf is graded by leaf texture and color after curing.
Hope this helped.

GardenersCardiff answers:

It’s probably not as easy as you might think, but it is possible and it is legal. It is not legal to raise it to sell, unless you have a special license to do so from the government. But for your own personal use, it is permissable and there are many web sites with helpful information. That said, I wish you would quit smoking. It is really a deadly habit.

However, if you want to investigate it further, here is an excellent web site from a reputable source (the University of Florida) that goes through the ins and outs of it.

Http://edis.ifas.ufl.edu/aa260

Here is another site that has some great information and also excellent links to other related topics:
http://www.growtobacco.net/is-growing-tobacco-illegal