Are there any tobacco growers here?

100kwh-hunter

100kwh-hunter

Active member
Joined
Mar 2, 2019
Messages
1,374
Well hello fellow growers, if there are any.
With tobacco,i mean tobacco and NOT weed, or any other thc growing plant.
Without chemicals, just pure clean tobacco.

Anyway:
I want to have my curing and drying room for tobacco back, for the 18650.
In order to do that i am going to build myself a curing chamber/oven.

Now i have been doing this for years, this way:
Hanf the fresh tobacco outside, till it gets flat and weak.(Yellowish)
Hang the leaves inside in a chamber with 35Celcius, and a rh of 85% to ferment
When all is yellow or brown(depends on the kind) the rh is going down to 75 to let it cure.

I am not going to use a crockpot or a old fridge or something that will keep me busy..
But more a custom made oven with proper wooden sheets and insulation!

I ordered from ali a heating pad 300w 230v and a temperature/humidity controller.
I can go all the way with all the combinations, even freezing if it must be done.

But, if i look at yt at the commercial tobacco growers, they start at day 1 at 35c day two at 45c day 3 at 55c.
Everything is bone dry, but in the good color, then they are going to humidify it back into case i guess ~70%.

Does anyone have some experience with this method?, You lost flavor?
Other ins and outs?
Any thoughts?????

Thanks in advance andwith best regards.
 
it is not interesting...but really rewarding!
No chemicals for taste or to keep you addictive, but pure taste how tobacco was meant...you can quit when you run out of your own harvest, if you dont buy chemical enhanced tobacco that will keep you addictive!
What do you want to know?
Most important: you want to enjoy your smoke? or be an addictive?
 
Hi there, i will attempt to grow bacco next spring but im a chooch and dont expect anything, i'm just following this thread because it's informative, thanks!
 
Between the first and second post there was a other message.
It was deleted. i think it was a robot/spam or something.
Anyway in march i will begin to grow a new batch.
It is pretty simple.
The plant ants to finish his life circle, but when do you need to start planting?
When do you need to start with harvesting?
When and how do you need to collect seed?
What are the conditions to dry and cure the leaves?

If your fingers are a tad green, you will manage.
If you want i could give you a push into the right direction.
Dont expect your first harvest to be a success or any smoke from it!
 
Hi mate i have been trying for the last 2 years to get a good harvest of home grown tobacco but i struggle to get the drying and curing right even the growing sometimes so any help you could provide me with would be fantastic in Australia where i live up until 2006 you could legally grow tobacco but the goverment made it illegal and the tax these ars- hole-s put on the tobacco company's is $750.00 per kilo so a 25 gram of tobacco in the shop costs me $53,90 Australian and i smoke 2 of them a week and it's killing me price wise as i am only on a age pension so like i said mate any help would be fantastic or even photos of your curing setup cheers
 
I am not a grower but I do smoke a pipe. I don't smoke "Over the Counter " tobaccos, although I've tried many but prefer quality tobaccos from specialty stores. I do know a lot of work goes into producing it. Here locally in the US state of Missouri there are growers but I couldn't tell you how much is produced.
 
I only encourage growing your own and smoke that, that is healthier than commercial tobacco that will keep you addicted! there are 600! different chemical additives that are approved world wide, that is the unhealthy stuff, nicotine is not addictive, think about that, grow your own and you can quit and smoke any time you like.
Mankind is smoking for at least 8000 years, but from ~1950 when they start to add addictive chemicals and flavors a lot of smoking related lung diseases appeared on stage.

For pipe smokers they really can tell the difference between one or a other plant if they smoke direct from a grower or own harvest.
The older the tobacco get the better the taste, just like wine: enjoy.
Its not about quality its all about the natural flavors and age.

To make the tobacco for a good smoke after harvest there are some mandatory rules:
If nature permits it, work with her, if not you must build/adapt a room for curing and drying.
Minimum temperature would be 26 Celsius to let the leaf convert from green to brown yellow red even grey(depends on the species)
But you must prevent that the leafs are drying out before that transformation, keep the RH between 70% and 90% Samsung is much more forgiving than Kentucky burley.
That 70% is a absolute minimum.
I dont know the exact climate of Australia but i give it a swing? dry and hot in September Oktober(harvest time?)
There are a lot of ways to maintained the RH in your room.
A bucket of water over the floor or hang a towel in a bucket to soak up water and let a ventilator blow against it.
Make a steal drum with a heating element in it.
Or get a cheap humidifier
ect
Hang your whole plant instead of leaf only up side down.
Watch out for fungus, keep air circulating.
I have a heater, a humidifier and a dehumidifier in a separate room/shed, Dutch weather is not so easy.

After the color chance reduce the RH to ~40ish 50ish% to let them dry a bit, a cheap dehumidifier in a draft proof room will do the trick.
After this pick the leafs and bundle them.
The main stems could be still green and retain a lot of moister, get them out as quickly when the leafs are in there color.
Remain air circulation and when its dry its done, now the aging is beginning.
Some species are "soft" after 3 months(Kentucky burley as example) some after a year( Virginia as example) Havana about 6 months.
For real good smoke wait double time, pipe and cigar smokers wait at least 1 year to get the full taste.

Next but the most important question: When to harvest? Than comes before curing! if your harvesting is two weeks to early or to late curing can fail.
Most inexperience growers are to early! In general with advice they succeed within 5 years, some ones without advice 10 years or never.
Depends on the species, in general when you take the leaf of the plant with a side way movement you must feel and hear THAT snapping sound if you where breaking celery.
If its to soft it will not snap, to late to hard it will snap like a twig.
A good indicator is the sticky substance on the leaves(most species).
Grow but dont smoke this one: Aztec rusticana, (good hair gel :ROFLMAO: )
This is a very harsh and very high nicotine tobacco!!! to high for smoke, if you really want to smoke: take 100 grams of dry aztec leaf and 500 grams of dry blue tree galutia., mix, press for a week and cut.

In some climates some plants(spices) will start curing them self, also a good indicator.

For some climates the growers must start now, some have to wait till April even may.
Two months before the last frost will appear start with your seed indoors.
The sooner the better.
The plant wants to complete asap his life cycle, the warmer the better thus bigger and earlier you can harvest.
My advice would be:
start now with a batch ~5 plants and every 3 weeks a new batch, watch them grow when you put them outside.
Always leave one plant alone and alive after harvest, watch him crumbling away.
You will learn a lot from this for next year harvest.

Also your soil must be very rich, we trow all our kitchen waste (not boiled or baked ect) and gardening waste on the tobacco fields, they need it.
Dig twice a year: two months before planting outside and after harvest.
And man they love water more than i love beer.....

To get enough seeds:
Take the first plant that will grow flower pots, before they open....bag it with that see thru curtain stuff, i dont know the English name sorry.
When the flower lost his leaves and the pods are visible cut the head and hang it inside with a label.
With this way you are sure that you have maintained the pure string and have enough seeds for years.
Every 5 years refresh the seeds, so build your own seed bank.

Cheers
 
Hi
100kwh-hunter said:
I only encourage growing your own and smoke that, that is healthier than commercial tobacco that will keep you addicted! there are 600! different chemical additives that are approved world wide, that is the unhealthy stuff, nicotine is not addictive, think about that, grow your own and you can quit and smoke any time you like.
Mankind is smoking for at least 8000 years, but from ~1950 when they start to add addictive chemicals and flavors a lot of smoking related lung diseases appeared on stage.

For pipe smokers they really can tell the difference between one or a other plant if they smoke direct from a grower or own harvest.
The older the tobacco get the better the taste, just like wine: enjoy.
Its not about quality its all about the natural flavors and age.

To make the tobacco for a good smoke after harvest there are some mandatory rules:
If nature permits it, work with her, if not you must build/adapt a room for curing and drying.
Minimum temperature would be 26 Celsius to let the leaf convert from green to brown yellow red even grey(depends on the species)
But you must prevent that the leafs are drying out before that transformation, keep the RH between 70% and 90% Samsung is much more forgiving than Kentucky burley.
That 70% is a absolute minimum.
I dont know the exact climate of Australia but i give it a swing? dry and hot in September Oktober(harvest time?)
There are a lot of ways to maintained the RH in your room.
A bucket of water over the floor or hang a towel in a bucket to soak up water and let a ventilator blow against it.
Make a steal drum with a heating element in it.
Or get a cheap humidifier
ect
Hang your whole plant instead of leaf only up side down.
Watch out for fungus, keep air circulating.
I have a heater, a humidifier and a dehumidifier in a separate room/shed, Dutch weather is not so easy.

After the color chance reduce the RH to ~40ish 50ish% to let them dry a bit, a cheap dehumidifier in a draft proof room will do the trick.
After this pick the leafs and bundle them.
The main stems could be still green and retain a lot of moister, get them out as quickly when the leafs are in there color.
Remain air circulation and when its dry its done, now the aging is beginning.
Some species are "soft" after 3 months(Kentucky burley as example) some after a year( Virginia as example) Havana about 6 months.
For real good smoke wait double time, pipe and cigar smokers wait at least 1 year to get the full taste.

Next but the most important question: When to harvest? Than comes before curing! if your harvesting is two weeks to early or to late curing can fail.
Most inexperience growers are to early! In general with advice they succeed within 5 years, some ones without advice 10 years or never.
Depends on the species, in general when you take the leaf of the plant with a side way movement you must feel and hear THAT snapping sound if you where breaking celery.
If its to soft it will not snap, to late to hard it will snap like a twig.
A good indicator is the sticky substance on the leaves(most species).
Grow but dont smoke this one: Aztec rusticana, (good hair gel :ROFLMAO: )
This is a very harsh and very high nicotine tobacco!!! to high for smoke, if you really want to smoke: take 100 grams of dry aztec leaf and 500 grams of dry blue tree galutia., mix, press for a week and cut.

In some climates some plants(spices) will start curing them self, also a good indicator.

For some climates the growers must start now, some have to wait till April even may.
Two months before the last frost will appear start with your seed indoors.
The sooner the better.
The plant wants to complete asap his life cycle, the warmer the better thus bigger and earlier you can harvest.
My advice would be:
start now with a batch ~5 plants and every 3 weeks a new batch, watch them grow when you put them outside.
Always leave one plant alone and alive after harvest, watch him crumbling away.
You will learn a lot from this for next year harvest.

Also your soil must be very rich, we trow all our kitchen waste (not boiled or baked ect) and gardening waste on the tobacco fields, they need it.
Dig twice a year: two months before planting outside and after harvest.
And man they love water more than i love beer.....

To get enough seeds:
Take the first plant that will grow flower pots, before they open....bag it with that see thru curtain stuff, i dont know the English name sorry.
When the flower lost his leaves and the pods are visible cut the head and hang it inside with a label.
With this way you are sure that you have maintained the pure string and have enough seeds for years.
Every 5 years refresh the seeds, so build your own seed bank.

Cheers
Click to expand...
Hi mate Thank you for such a wonderful and informative description on growing and curing tobacco this will be so helpful to me and i can't thank you enough summer here in Australia starts in December and finishes February the only problem is the heat the last 3 summers it got so hot in the middle forties that it cooked the fruit on my plum trees in their skins and this year the weather has been all over the place so i think i need a growing room for the tobacco only and with the equipment you have mentioned 2 weeks ago i took a tobacco pod out of the fridge that has been there for over 3 years and sprinkled them on a little pot of seed raising mix and now i must have a hundred little seedlings that i need to repot i wasn't sure if any would sprout and it looks like most of them did and do you know what i find truly amazing you can have a tobacco seed smaller than a pepper grain and yet it can grow to over 8 ft in height anyway mate thank you again for your help cheers
 
rodagaster said:
the heat the last 3 summers it got so hot in the middle forties that it cooked the fruit on my plum trees
Click to expand...
Plant your tobacco in 5 gal buckets, when its getting to hot remove them into the shade or car port.
If summers is starting in december you must transplant them outside in oktober and start growing in august.
In the Netherlands right now atm ~5C and a lot of rain and wind, last week some snow.....
Funny how big and small the whole world is at the same time.
Sinds your are dealing with one pod, i have the feeling you have a hard time to get tobacco seed?
I would strongly suggest to store them ouside the freezer, minimum temp +5C and in a dry dark cool corner with airflow.
Oke this is optimum for storage, anything close will do, some airflow is mandatory.
I would advice to let a plant fully mature and bag it for all the seeds.
Btw what breed/strain are you growing?

Yes those seeds are very small, i usualy mix it with fine dry playing sand on a paper and "shake"the paper to spread it more evenly on the "nursing" tray.
In this way when you must transplant you can pick more easy the bigger ones without to much root damage.
Within theire first week to 2 weeks of grow there wont be much roots, but after that, it will take them a full month to recover from the root damage.

Cheers
 
100kwh-hunter said:
Plant your tobacco in 5 gal buckets, when its getting to hot remove them into the shade or car port.
If summers is starting in december you must transplant them outside in oktober and start growing in august.
In the Netherlands right now atm ~5C and a lot of rain and wind, last week some snow.....
Funny how big and small the whole world is at the same time.
Sinds your are dealing with one pod, i have the feeling you have a hard time to get tobacco seed?
I would strongly suggest to store them ouside the freezer, minimum temp +5C and in a dry dark cool corner with airflow.
Oke this is optimum for storage, anything close will do, some airflow is mandatory.
I would advice to let a plant fully mature and bag it for all the seeds.
Btw what breed/strain are you growing?

Yes those seeds are very small, i usualy mix it with fine dry playing sand on a paper and "shake"the paper to spread it more evenly on the "nursing" tray.
In this way when you must transplant you can pick more easy the bigger ones without to much root damage.
Within theire first week to 2 weeks of grow there wont be much roots, but after that, it will take them a full month to recover from the root damage.

Cheers
Click to expand...
Thanks mate the seedlings i have are from a burley strain from memory and i will follow your instructions and if you don't mind i would like to share my progress with you cheers .
 
That was my intention, please do.
I would like to see how others do it.(struggle...)
End of next month i will start also.
Burley is more a "bulk" tobacco, a level 3 nicotine, you have any other strains? for blending or taste?\
Like my personal favorite: Monte calme.
Best
 
100kwh-hunter said:
That was my intention, please do.
I would like to see how others do it.(struggle...)
End of next month i will start also.
Burley is more a "bulk" tobacco, a level 3 nicotine, you have any other strains? for blending or taste?\
Like my personal favorite: Monte calme.
Best
Click to expand...
Hi mate i think i may have only burley seeds so i will have to have a look on ebay and see what is around so were does Monte calme come from i am not familiar with the name cheers
 
Ammley said:
I don't grow tobacco, but this is a really interesting idea!
Click to expand...
Mind you, in some countries it is illegal to grow your own.

It is a wicked world, in the Netherlands it is legal to grow for own use(not weed btw) but it is illigal to make your own moonshine, but legal to make max 90 liters of wine per year, in poland it is exactly the other way around, you can make more alcohol than you can drink, but no growing tobacco.
Importing or exporting seeds can be tricky, some won't even leave the country cous that other country is illegal to import....

Btw my whole crop was destroyed in beginning of the year.
Ground was still to cold for the bacteria's and fungesses to to there job, then hard wind, very heavy rainfall, hail, very heavy wind and rainfall, invasion of snails, the last survivors where eaten by caterpillars and more snails and more strange wind plus to cold for to long....
Yep mother nature was saying it is time to quit smoking......
Take an educated guess, see you next year...gloves are off.
Even my grapes for wine are not even at 25% as what they should be around this time of the year....
 
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