Growing ordinary tobacco in garden plots will not be difficult, and for this you do not need to be a specialist or expert in this field, because there will not be so many growing secrets. Fragrant tobacco requires more effort: post-harvest processing is required - fermentation. In terms of time, it’s no longer than canning a can of tomatoes. Ardent smokers have already appreciated the advantages and preferred growing tobacco in their garden plots, because this method is equivalent to the process of quitting smoking itself. The family budget will hardly suffer from growing tobacco, and tobacco itself in its pure form does not cause as much harm to the body as the added tar in regular cigarettes. You can watch video lessons that reveal in detail all the aspects of growing tobacco at home, or simply follow a certain algorithm.
First of all, before you start growing tobacco, you need to know that the properties of this product directly depend on the type of soil in which it grows. This plant can adapt to various conditions, regardless of climate. But the plant itself chooses heat. The selected variety for growing tobacco at home may not live up to expectations, because these main characteristics depend on the condition of the soil, temperature and excess air.
- The properties and type of soil will have an impact on the color, size and even texture of the tobacco leaves.
- Its aroma depends on the presence of moisture and mineral salts.
- Excess air will give the tobacco flavor.
The video will help you understand the nuances of growing this plant, its varieties, the necessary conditions and little secrets.
What varieties are there?
In order to start growing tobacco from seeds, you need to buy them in specialized stores. It is there that you will be offered the two most popular varieties: Virginia and Rural. These varieties best preserve the required characteristics of tobacco.
The most common and widely used tobacco variety is Virginia. It has a delicate and soft taste. And although Virginia can adapt to any temperature, the best varieties grow in Brazil and Zimbabwe. Processing of the Virginia variety is easy: to preserve its important properties, a technology called “smoke drying” is used. You can learn more about this method by watching the video above, which describes in detail how to grow this plant.
So, it’s decided - we grow tobacco at home. You can start with seeds or seedlings in order to personally study the technique in detail. After all, it is not only entertaining, but also educational. To grow tobacco at home, you need to use dry seeds or those that have sprouted. You can get them if you soak them in a cloth with the addition of tartaric acid or a small amount of potassium nitrate a couple of days before sowing. This must be done within a day. This method will speed up seed germination, increase productivity and overall development.
After this, they need to be washed, removing excess liquid, and placed in an enamel container in a warm place, periodically moistening the cloth. Under no circumstances should sprouts longer than the seeds be allowed to germinate, as they may simply break off. When the sprouted seeds become free-flowing, they must be mixed with sand or a special mixture.
The end of February and the beginning of March is the best time for sowing tobacco in personal plots. Such plants need to be watered carefully: you should not over-moisten or dry out the soil, then the tobacco will be fragrant and aromatic. Moisturizing should be done daily in equal quantities so that the moisture level in the soil does not fall or rise.
Feeding, which includes solutions of mineral fertilizers or chicken droppings, is very important when growing.
A week before planting, tobacco seedlings must be hardened to the open air.
Landing
The place for planting tobacco should be chosen carefully. It would be good if this was a specially designated place where moisture would not accumulate. Tobacco should be protected from cold wind. The soil must be loosened and well fertilized. Compost or manure is used as top dressing. The area must be cleared of weeds before planting.
Virginia smoking tobacco should be planted from approximately the end of April until the end of May, when the frosts end and warm weather finally arrives. Tobacco seedlings are placed at a distance of 20 centimeters, and a gap of 70 cm is maintained between the rows. This is necessary to ensure that the plant is healthy and large. It is imperative to break off the inflorescences and side shoots of plants.
When planting in the soil, the plants need first feeding; manure with the addition of superphosphate is suitable for this. A solution of sulfur powder and water is also effective. Such care will certainly give good results.
When inflorescences begin to appear, the tobacco bushes should be treated with an infusion made from garlic and onion peels. This procedure must be repeated three times, with a break of almost a week, in order for it to be fragrant. Fertilizers that contain phosphorus, nitrogen and potassium will repel pests.
In order to avoid plant diseases, it is necessary to use special chemicals.
Harvesting
Already in August you can start harvesting. The first thing to do is to pick off the lower leaves of the tobacco. Then they are kept in the sun for two days, and then dried for a month in a dark and humid room. A shed is quite suitable for this, in which you can put dishes with water to maintain the moisture level.
Tobacco consists of 4 tiers of leaves, which must be labeled so as not to confuse them. With each subsequent tier you need to do the same as with the previous one, only with a break of a couple of weeks. They always start from top to bottom. First, the entire procedure is carried out with the top leaves, they are the most valuable, and then with the rest.
Drying the leaves is already half the job done. That is, after this there will be the last step to obtain excellent fragrant material for smoking. To make quality cigars, you need to use fermented tobacco. This procedure can also be done at home. It’s not difficult to make a specialized cabinet yourself; you can even do it from an old non-working refrigerator.
A heating device and a temperature control device are placed there. You need to understand that not every type of smoking tobacco is fermented using the same technologies, so in order to get fragrant and tasty tobacco, learn from video lessons or books how to track fermentation.
Growing high-quality tobacco by organizing this process at home is only possible if you take into account all the features.
Then you definitely won’t have to worry about the fact that purchasing cigarettes is a big expense, because by growing tobacco for smoking yourself, you can significantly reduce costs and reduce the harm from smoking regular cigarettes.
We wish you success and excellent harvests!
Due to the geographical location of our state, tobacco for cigars and cigarettes in open ground can only be grown in the southern regions. In other areas, greenhouse structures will definitely be needed for this purpose. However, shag shows excellent growth and yield in all regions of Russia, Ukraine and the CIS, not counting the regions of the Far North.
Not so long ago, for many families, growing tobacco on their plots and then selling it was a good business. Fragrant sweet clover was hung in the samosad as an aromatic additive and was quite routinely placed at market outlets.
This enrichment option gained enormous popularity in the dashing nineties. Makhorka acquired crowds of fans against the backdrop of a shortage and the enormous cost of tobacco products. But over time, smoking tobacco was eliminated from the market due to fierce competition from cigarette manufacturers.
Although today the market is simply flooded with a wide variety of tobacco products, due to their low quality and steadily rising prices, more and more people are paying attention to growing tobacco as a source of stable income.
And accordingly, before starting any business, it is worth learning more about its specifics and pitfalls, if any. This article will cover issues related to the profitability of this enterprise and discuss organizational issues.
First of all, let's talk about the method of growing tobacco for smoking and some essential aspects of this matter, which are focused on our climatic conditions.
When it comes to growing smoking tobacco, the climate of the region in which you plan to develop your business plays a major role. Please note that a very small number of varieties have been tested in the climate of our latitude, so purchasing varieties must be approached very practically.
So, the following varieties of tobacco for smoking showed good yields and resistance to climate change:
Trapezond 219.
Anniversary.
Holly 215.
Trapezond 15.
And well-acclimatized shag varieties:
Pehlets is local.
Pehlec 4.
Datura 4.
It has been noticed that the varieties “Kentucky Burley” and “Ternopilsky 14” are in greater and greater demand. Regarding the “Ternopil 14” variety, it was purposefully sectioned for cultivation in the climatic zone of Eastern Europe. It has a rich aroma. The Kentucky Burley variety is also adapted to the climatic conditions of our latitudes. This variety contains very little sugar, so the leaves are not fermented. Once dry, the raw material can be steamed and scored for use.
Tobacco production requires the strictest maintenance of the technological process. Otherwise, you risk losing the precious aroma of the product and incurring financial losses.
Smoking tobacco and shag are grown using very similar technology. The key discrepancy is the rate of seedling maturation. Shag grows almost twice as fast as tobacco. The ripening period for a shag seedling is 70-80 days, and a tobacco seedling ripens in 100-120 days. Seeds of the selected varieties are not planted in open ground; they are planted in specially prepared boxes or flowerpots. Which are located on the southern windows of the living space. This option is acceptable if the volume of planted plants does not exceed the capacity of the well-lit surface of the room. Most often, greenhouses are used to germinate tobacco or shag seeds. It takes 40-45 days for the seeds to sprout and be planted in the ground.
Seeds require preliminary preparation. A day or two before sowing, the seeds are immersed in diluted tartaric acid for 24 hours. The room temperature should not fall below 25 degrees. The solution should be in a ratio of 3 milliliters per 1 gram of seeds. This process speeds up seed development by about seven days and increases germination productivity by 20 percent.
After 24 hours, the seeds are removed from the solution and, after drying a little, placed in an enamel or ceramic container. The seeds should cover the bottom of the container by 30 millimeters. The seeds remain in this container for several days. The seeds must be stirred at least five times a day and not allowed to dry out. The optimal temperature in the room with seeds should be at least 27 degrees.
The soil in the greenhouse should consist of three-quarters humus and one-fourth sand. This mixture should reach 10 centimeters in depth. Tobacco seeds should be sown at a rate of 4 grams per 10 square meters. Shag is sown more densely, about 20 grams per the same area. A smoking tobacco seed is deepened three millimeters into the soil, and a shag seed 7 millimeters.
Sowing of prepared seeds is carried out approximately in the last days of February or in the beginning of March. Accordingly, to ensure that the future harvest does not simply freeze, greenhouses need to be heated. On average, a greenhouse occupies up to five square meters. This is an insignificant area for a vegetable garden.
Cultivation of seedlings
Before and after planting seeds in the greenhouse soil, mandatory watering is required. Water consumption is calculated: 1 square meter equals 1 liter of water. In the future, after greater growth of sprouts, watering is calculated at 4 liters per 1 square meter. In parallel with the increase in watering, the temperature in the greenhouse decreases from 27 degrees to 20. Seedlings should be fertilized at least three times during the entire growth period. Fertilizer of the greenhouse soil is carried out with a solution: 30 g of saltpeter, 50 g of superphosphate, 20 g of potassium salt per 10 liters of water. one meter of soil requires processing 2 liters of the resulting mixture. A solution of chicken manure, pre-treated and diluted with water to a consistency of 1:7, is also used. Seven days before planting the sprouts in open ground, watering is reduced. 3 days before picking, the seedlings are not irrigated at all. A hardened plant does not break when bent; its stem remains elastic. To make it easier to remove seedlings from the soil, greenhouses water abundantly immediately before transplanting. The plant is ready for planting in open ground if it has reached 15 cm, and its stem in cross section is equal to or exceeds 5 millimeters. There should also be a couple of developed leaves on the stem.
1. Planting of seedlings is carried out around mid-April and until mid-May or when the ground reaches 10 degrees at a depth of 10 centimeters from the surface.
2. The sprouts are planted in rows at a distance of 70 cm and the distance of sprout from sprout is 30 cm. A depression is made in the soil into which half a liter of water is poured. The root system of the sprout is immersed in a solution of cow dung and clay.
3. The space between the rows requires loosening. Weeds must be removed, and the sprout itself must be fed with a special solution.
4. Planted sprouts are watered no more than three times during the entire growth period. The amount of liquid consumed is eight liters per plant.
5. Planting of the plant begins with the start of flowering.
Control of plant diseases
Tobacco is susceptible to the following diseases:
Downy mildew. The fight against this disease is carried out by treating plants with a solution of 0.4 percent zineb, about five liters per 10 acres, or a 0.3 percent mixture of polycarbacin.
Aphid. This disease requires treatment of plants with rogor or telik.
The collection of tobacco leaves begins with those closest to the ground. Suitable for collection are yellow, dry and whole leaves. The collected leaves are laid out under a canopy. Apply a layer of thirty centimeters for 12 hours. This is done in order to cause the leaf to wilt. The leaves are then strung on cords and hung to dry. The place for drying is selected based on the following parameters: absence of exposure to wind and rain, but the presence of a large amount of sunlight. In the presence of direct sunlight, tobacco leaves evaporate moisture faster. This process may take up to 14 days. A garland of dried leaves is folded in four and hung on a specially equipped hook. This design is called “havanka”. After this, the gavanki are placed on the crossbars for the subsequent drying process, which takes place indoors. Around autumn, dried tobacco leaves are placed in piles. Having previously smoothed out all the folds.
To impart a special aroma, tobacco for cigarettes is fermented. Dried tobacco leaves are placed in a specially designed container and the temperature is raised to 50 degrees with a relative air humidity of 65 percent. The leaves stay in this container for up to three days. Then, for seven days, the humidity in the container is raised to 75 percent, and the temperature is left unchanged. Next, over two days the temperature is reduced and the humidity is brought to 80 percent. And the final stage is cooling the tobacco leaves to ambient temperature, while their humidity should be 11-16 percent.
After all the manipulations described above, the tobacco leaves need so-called resting for 1 month. After this period, the leaves are chopped into strips of 0.5 mm. An 8 cm cigarette with a diameter of 8 mm requires one gram of tobacco to fill.
It is generally accepted that tobacco is of high quality if it consists of not only one type of tobacco, but at least two. Regarding shag, its aroma is improved with the help of fragrant clover. This was discussed above.
Let's make a preliminary calculation of profitability for tobacco cultivation. We will define a land plot of 10 acres. To sow a meter square, approximately 0.4 grams of seeds are required. Based on this, 400 grams are needed to sow 1000 square meters. The Virginia variety in retail sales is valued at 1,900 rubles per gram, and shag is 1,500 rubles for the same gram. Based on this, in order to sow 10 acres of space, you should purchase tobacco seeds for 760,000 rubles, and shag seeds for 600,000 rubles. The yield of tobacco per hectare is approximately 2-3 tons, which means that from 10 acres it is 200-300 kilograms, and shag - 300-400 kilograms.
Wholesale sales of shag amount to 400-500 rubles per kilogram. Thus, the gross income from sales will be equal to 200,000 rubles. Let's subtract the costs of seeds and get 140,000 rubles in net income.
Tobacco for cigarettes requires increased care and, accordingly, when selling it, the requirements for it are higher, but the cost is the same.
The wholesale price for unpackaged tobacco of good quality can be 2,000 rubles per kilogram. In this situation, gross income will be equal to 60,000 rubles, and net profit will be equal to 524,000 rubles.
Sales of products
This type of business requires a well-established sales scheme for goods. Retail trade will seriously increase profitability even with small production volumes. It is not necessary to sell tobacco directly in the store; you can sell it through the World Wide Web.
The sale of tobacco products is strictly controlled by law. Therefore, it would be useful to get advice from a lawyer, with whose assistance you can collect the required documents.
Bottom line
Please note that when calculating income, drying and greenhouse costs were not taken into account. In a heated attic you can manipulate the seeds. This process will not be so much financially expensive as it will be labor-intensive. A heated attic will do a great job as a dryer for leaves.
Regarding the costs of approval mixtures. The calculation uses the lowest yield, so the amount of fertilizer applied does not add up to a large number.
Growing tobacco or shag is not at all difficult. We are often asked about this process, and, combining personal experience and several tips, including those sent by our readers, we decided to publish this material. It must be said that the process of growing tobacco is not much different from growing, for example, tomatoes.
general information
Tobacco ( Nicotiana) - a genus of perennial and annual plants of the Solanaceae family ( Solanaceae). Tobacco is grown to produce raw materials used in tobacco products. The following species are most often found in culture:
Ordinary tobacco, or Virginia tobacco, or real tobacco ( Nicotiana tabacum) - a plant up to 3 m high with pink flowers, a tubular corolla with sharp lobes, leaves oblong-lanceolate, sessile. Real tobacco is quite heat-loving, so it is especially productively grown in hot regions. In our country, common tobacco is grown south of 55° northern latitude (this is approximately the latitude of Ryazan, Smolensk, Ulyanovsk, Ufa, Chelyabinsk, Kurgan, Omsk, Novosibirsk and Kemerovo). Common tobacco is cultivated in many countries of the world and has many varieties.
Common shag, or country tobacco ( Nicotiana rustica) - a plant much lower than ordinary tobacco (up to 120 cm in height), yellowish flowers, a corolla with a short tube and rounded lobes, leaves ovate, narrow, blunt at the end. The leaves of this more unpretentious plant contain half as much nicotine.
In the 19th century in Russia, shag was cultivated on an industrial scale everywhere (even in the Urals and Siberia). Even now, some villagers traditionally grow this plant from their own seeds.
Bolivia and Peru are considered the birthplace of tobacco; it was brought to Europe by the expeditions of Christopher Columbus. Traditional areas of cultural cultivation are North America, China, India, Asia Minor. On the territory of the former USSR, common tobacco is grown in Transcaucasia, Uzbekistan, Kazakhstan, Moldova, and Ukraine; in Russia - in Crimea and Krasnodar region. Tobacco is a heat-loving plant, the optimal temperature for it is about 30°C. Moistened, light, loose sandy soils are suitable for it. Tobacco is propagated by seeds, growing seedlings from them, which are then planted in the ground.
The botanist reminds: All parts of the plant contain nicotine (the leaves contain the most nicotine - 0.75-2.88%). Nicotine is a potent neurotoxin and cardiotoxin that produces short-term euphoria. The use of tobacco in various forms and in various ways (smoking, chewing, snorting) causes physical and psychological dependence. Nicotine is extremely toxic. Some of the substances contained in tobacco are carcinogenic. Therefore, smoking tobacco is dangerous to health.
Is it worth growing?
Let's say you are a smoker, and you are lucky enough to live somewhere in the south of Russia or Ukraine. And you have several acres of land at your disposal. Why not try on the role of Philip Morris or, at least, Jack Vosmerkin, an American?
First, some fun arithmetic. One cigarette contains about a gram of tobacco. And the cheaper the cigarettes, the less there is. That is, the pack contains about 20 grams. If a person smokes a pack a day, he will need about 6-8 kilograms of tobacco per year.
Under favorable conditions, you can get about 30g of smoking tobacco from one plant, and six to seven plants can be placed on 1 square meter. The planting density for large-leaved varieties is 70×30 cm, and for tobacco with medium-sized leaves and shag - 70×20 cm. It turns out that you need to grow 270-300 plants, occupying approximately 40 square meters. m. plot. Moreover, if the tobacco turns out to be too “evil”, it can be diluted with stems.
Features of cultivation
Further in the article we talk about growing ordinary tobacco. If you decide to grow shag ( Nicotiana rustica), then you won’t need many of the tips given; shag is much easier to grow and less thermophilic. For the middle zone, it is sown in May in the ground under a film or covering material, and it has time to grow and produce a harvest.
So, the first thing you should worry about is the seeds and their planting. Seeds are now sold on the Internet on many sites; you just need to choose a store and type of tobacco that is convenient for you.
Tobacco varieties
There are a huge number of varieties of ordinary tobacco. It is worth saying that for the period from 1990 to 2010. More than 20 new productive and disease-resistant tobacco varieties with excellent characteristics have been developed at the All-Russian Research Institute of Tobacco.
As with vegetables, it is better to choose local varieties for your plot. Therefore, we list some popular varieties zoned for the territories of the former USSR:
Trebizond Kubanets. The growing season from planting seedlings to the last breaking is 103-134 days. Technically suitable leaves on average 27 pcs. Nicotine content 2.6%.
Trapezond 92. The variety is resistant to numerous damaging factors and viral tobacco diseases. Has a short growing season. On average, 98 days after planting, the leaves are broken.
Samsun 85. The variety belongs to the intensively ripening varieties, mid-ripening - the number of days from planting to leaf breaking will be approximately 105 - 110 days. The number of technically ripe leaves from one tobacco bush is approximately 50 pieces.
Anniversary new 142. The growing season from planting seedlings to the ripening of leaves of average breaking is 78 days, until the last breaking is 82 days. The nicotine content in the leaves is 2.0-2.1%. The variety has complex resistance to tobacco diseases.
Holly 316. Late-ripening form, intensive type of leaf maturation. Low nicotine content. From planting to the last ripening of leaves, 120 days.
Planting seeds
We recommend growing only a few bushes the first year. This way you will test your strength and learn all the nuances of the process. Therefore, to get started, you will need very few seeds. Tobacco seeds, small as dust. There are about 12 thousand tobacco seeds in one gram, and about 4 thousand shag seeds. To get the annual “norm” of a smoker, you need to sow only a quarter of a gram of tobacco seeds or three-quarters of a gram of shag seeds. You won't have to buy any more seeds. Two or three bushes will produce more than is needed to sow a hectare.
Tobacco seeds remain viable for a long time, so sowing is also possible with old seeds, although it must be taken into account that their germination capacity decreases over time.
Tobacco can be planted as seedlings on windowsills, with or without picking. The required age of seedlings is 40-45 days. But this technique is good only for small (up to a quarter of a hundred) volumes. However, for the first experience we don’t need more. When growing tobacco in large quantities, it is either immediately planted in the ground (in warm climates), or greenhouses and nurseries are used.
Tobacco seeds are sown superficially, scattering them on moist soil.
Important point. The planting depth of tobacco seeds is no more than 0.7-0.8 cm (0.3-0.5 cm for shag). After sowing, they are only slightly pressed into the ground and watered very carefully so that the seeds do not go deep.
You can sow not dry seeds, but hatched ones. In this case, 4 days before sowing, the seeds are soaked in warm, clean water and placed on a damp cloth. This will speed up seed germination and reduce the time of forcing seedlings by a week.
The optimal temperature for germination of tobacco seeds is +25ºC - +28ºC. If the temperature is lower, this can delay the germination of plants, or even destroy them.
It is impossible to over-water or over-dry seedlings. It is better to water a little almost daily.
Transplanting
Seedlings are planted when they reach a height of 15 cm, have 5-6 developed true leaves and a well-developed root system. At this moment, the danger of spring frosts outside the window should pass, and the soil at a depth of 10 cm should warm up above 10°C. This period varies in different regions, but approximately it is from the end of April to the end of May.
A week before planting, you need to start hardening the seedlings, reducing watering and acclimating them to the open air. 2-3 days before planting, watering the seedlings is completely stopped, watering abundantly 2-3 hours before planting.
Plant the plants one by one in the holes, after pouring 1 liter of water into them. In general, the process is very similar to planting tomato seedlings. And of course, every transplant is a shock for the plant. Therefore, it is advisable to preserve the soil in which the seedlings grew on the roots.
Care
During the growth period, it is necessary to regularly loosen the soil, remove weeds, feed and water. You can feed the plants based on the fertilizer rates for tomatoes. Watering is usually limited to two or three waterings per summer, spending 6-8 liters of water per plant. It is better to underwater the plant than to overwater it.
An established tobacco bush can have roots up to several meters long, and many tobacco growers consider watering mature bushes to be harmful. However, it would be a good idea to water the tobacco a few days before harvesting.
In flowering plants, inflorescences are broken off (topping) and side shoots are regularly removed (pinching).
The soil
Tobacco is planted on fresh soil; in the absence of such, it is placed either after fallow, or after winter crops or other plants that make different demands on the soil in terms of nutrients. For this reason, tobacco should not be planted, for example, after beets and potatoes.
The best soils for tobacco should be considered sandy loam, characterized by the presence of potassium and nitrogen, necessary for the tobacco plant.
Like all immigrants from the New World, tobacco rapidly depletes the soil. But the remedy is known - fertilizers solve this problem perfectly.
The best fertilizer for tobacco is cow manure. Bird droppings and cakes are also considered useful fertilizers for tobacco. On soils poor in lime, liming is used; it has a beneficial effect not only on the crop, but also on the completeness of combustion of the tobacco plant.
Harvesting begins when the color of tobacco leaves changes from green to yellow-green or light green. Since even one bush will have leaves of varying degrees of color, harvesting can take several weeks.
Pests and diseases of tobacco
Tobacco is damaged by a number of pests - gnawing cutworms, wireworms, beetles, etc.
Peach aphid, greenhouse aphid, tobacco aphid. Dangerous pest of tobacco. A widespread species, it feeds on many cultivated and wild plants. Peach aphids colonize all organs of the tobacco plant and suck the juice from them, which leads to a decrease in the yield and quality of the raw material.
Blackleg. Manifested by lodging and mass death of seedlings. The base of the stems becomes thin and rots. A brown or white coating appears on the affected surface. The pathogen persists in the soil.
Powdery mildew. Observed shortly after planting seedlings in the ground. Separate spots with a cobwebby-mealy coating appear on the lower leaves; then the coating becomes continuous and covers the upper leaves. The fungus overwinters on plant debris. The disease reduces photosynthesis and leads to plant suppression. Reduces yield and quality of raw materials.
Black root rot most often affects seedlings, but adult plants are also affected. On affected seedlings, the leaves wither, turn yellow and dry out, the roots turn brown or black and often die. In mature plants, the leaves wilt and black and white spots form at the ends of the roots.
Mosaic . The leaves of diseased plants have normal green areas that alternate with light green areas. Later, the tissue dies in patches. The main source of plant infection is post-harvest residues of diseased plants, both in greenhouses and in the field.
Bacterial grouse. Oily or weeping spots appear on the tips of the leaves of young seedlings or along the edges of the leaves. In damp weather they rot and the entire plant becomes infected. Round chlorotic spots appear on the leaves of mature plants, which merge to form areas of dead tissue. The causative agent of the disease persists in tobacco leaves, tobacco dust, and equipment.
Tobacco drying and fermentation
Well, the most important part of obtaining smoking tobacco is its drying and fermentation. Let’s make a reservation right away: if you don’t smoke and have no previous experience with tobacco, it will be quite difficult for you to determine the degree of readiness. You can either fail to dry it or rot it. However, let me remind you that our grandfathers grew and dried shag without having a higher education.
Drying
After harvesting, the tobacco leaves are hung to dry in a ventilated area, and it is advisable to place containers of water there to increase humidity. The leaves dry out within about a month.
Then the dried leaves must be moistened with clean water from a spray bottle and placed in piles, covered with polyethylene, and kept for up to a day for uniform moistening. The leaves should become soft, but not soggy. After which the leaves, either whole or cut, are hidden in sealed glass containers (jars) for fermentation.
Fermentation
Fermentation is a biochemical process that occurs at a constant temperature of 50 degrees for several weeks. Tobacco is fermented to reduce strength, change taste for the better, and reduce nicotine and tar. This can be done, for example, in electric ovens at a temperature of +50 ºC - +60 ºC. Sometimes it is more convenient to dry cut leaves rather than whole ones.
The resulting tobacco can be smoked in pipes or wrapped in cigarettes; fortunately, wrapping machines and tissue paper are now sold in many places. Finally, you can try making a cigar - it's easy and interesting.
Of course, our material does not pretend to be a detailed textbook, and many subtleties were left untouched. And if you start growing tobacco in any serious way, you will need to study this issue more. But in order to get the first harvest, you already know enough.
Many gardeners have come up with the idea of growing natural smoking tobacco in their garden or backyard. However, such tobacco requires careful attention and care. Before planting tobacco seeds, you need to familiarize yourself with some recommendations, as well as the basic rules for planting and proper care of this plant. So, to grow tobacco you need:
1. Grow seedlings
High-quality planting of plants is carried out only through seedlings. To grow tobacco seedlings you need:
Already in mid-March, plant tobacco seeds in a warm place (at least 19 C);
If smoking tobacco is being planted, its seedlings should be planted in peat;
Before planting, mix small seeds with dry sand;
Distribute the seeds as evenly as possible over the ground in the tray;
Do not cover the tobacco seeds with soil, but press them slightly into the ground;
Ensure good lighting is allowed in the area where the seedlings grow;
Cover the tray with a glass lid or transparent cellophane;
The first shoots will appear in 2 weeks; after 3 weeks, almost every tobacco plant will have its first leaf. All this time, the soil moisture should be regulated (the soil should be neither dry nor wet);
If second leaves begin to appear on the tobacco, it means it’s time to replant each specimen in separate small containers with soil;
Watering should be done as the soil dries out;
Before planting in garden soil, seedlings must be hardened off.
2. Choose the right quality variety.
The most preferred variety for growing in the garden is aromatic tobacco. It is also used as a smoking mixture after collecting and drying. During flowering, it will not perform a decorative function, as it has an unremarkable appearance. But there will be plenty of aroma and fragrance. In addition, fragrant tobacco, due to the phytoncides it contains, will protect other garden crops from pests. Other types of tobacco that do not have strong phytoncides cannot be planted next to potatoes, since the resulting tobacco pest affects the root crops.
3. Determine landing time
Smoking tobacco should be planted early in the summer season, but stable warmth should already be established.
4. Make a correct landing
Tobacco should not be planted under trees, sheds, or other areas that receive insufficient sunlight. This plant loves loose, fertile soil. During planting, an exact distance of 20 cm should be maintained between plants. Immediately after planting, the tobacco must be watered and fed. The second feeding is carried out only when the plant begins to bloom.
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Avid gardeners grow whatever they grow in gardens and summer cottages. An unexpected option is smoking tobacco. Why not? For a gardener-smoker, this is a good way to stock up on your own.
Features of the growing process
The main feature of tobacco is the wide variety of varieties. They differ greatly in the methods of planting, care and harvesting. For example, shag is the most unpretentious option. If you grow ordinary tobacco in your garden, you will have to put in a little more effort. He loves warmth more, less water.
IMPORTANT! To grow tobacco in the garden, it is better to find out in advance which variety is suitable for a particular area.
In general, tobacco is planted, processed and fed like many other plants. For example, the process of transplanting smoking tobacco seedlings into the ground is extremely similar to planting tomatoes. It follows that anyone can grow tobacco in a garden.
Planting with seeds
In order to get tobacco seedlings, you need to sow the seeds. Tobacco is quite capricious and heat-loving, so it requires proper care and knowledge of the process. At the first stage of interaction with it, it is recommended to plant a small number of units of the plant in order to understand the principle of its cultivation.
Tobacco seeds have some features:
- size. They are so small that they look more like dust. Hence the peculiarities of planting tobacco seeds for smoking: they can simply be “scattered” over the surface of the ground and only slightly pressed;
- germination. Tobacco seeds retain their ability to germinate for a long time. This means that fairly old seeds can be sown;
- quantity. To obtain a result equal to a smoker’s annual supply, a quarter of a gram of tobacco seeds is enough. Such a small amount of material produces a decent amount of harvest.
Due to these features, a specific landing is required. Tobacco seeds are not planted deep. The maximum depth for planting them is up to 1 cm. To do this, simply scatter them on the surface of the soil and only slightly press them into it. After this, carefully pour a thin stream of water. If the pressure is too strong, the seeds will easily be washed out and spread over the surface, going beyond the allotted limits.
ATTENTION! Tobacco seeds can be planted slightly germinated, this will speed up the process of seedling germination. To germinate seeds, you need to soak them in water 4-5 days before planting.
An important factor influencing the rate of seed germination is temperature. It should be within 25-28 degrees, otherwise the seeds may not sprout at all.
Video - technology for planting tobacco seeds
Planting seedlings in open ground
How to understand that tobacco seedlings are ready to move into the open ground of the garden? There are a number of signs for this:
- seedlings have a height of about 15 cm;
- leaves have formed on it, there are about 5 pieces on each plant;
- the root system has developed sufficiently;
- frosts have passed and the likelihood of their occurrence is minimal. This factor is extremely important, since any sudden drop in temperature can destroy the entire crop.
ATTENTION! Before transplanting into open ground, tobacco plants must be hardened off. Otherwise, they will not be able to adapt to changed conditions.
The essence of hardening is to reduce the frequency of watering and periodically remove the seedlings to the open air. This will help strengthen the plants and make them a little more resilient to the elements.
The process of planting in the ground is not very different from the standard one. Each bush is planted in separate holes, after pouring plenty of water into it. In addition, it is worth planting tobacco with a small amount of soil so that the root system is not severely damaged. This will help the plants survive the stress of replanting more easily and “get over it” faster.
Care and feeding
Tobacco care involves regularly performing the following actions:
- weeding from weeds is necessary as they appear;
- loosening the soil around the plant. This helps oxygenate the soil and nourish the tobacco root system;
- feeding It is similar to what is made for tomatoes;
- watering. Tobacco does not like abundant watering; it is better to water it rarely, but abundantly. Just during the summer (not very hot) 3-4 times are enough.
When to harvest and how to dry it?
Growing tobacco is not as responsible a process as harvesting and drying it. The result directly depends on the correct implementation of these actions. Improper drying or fermentation can ruin all efforts to grow tobacco for smoking.
Tobacco that has changed the color of the leaves should be removed. If at first, at the stage of maturation and growth, they are green, then when they are ready for harvesting, they are closer to yellow. If the same bush has leaves of different colors, then they should be collected when ready. Hence, the harvesting process sometimes drags on for a long time.
Tobacco drying takes place in several stages:
Pests and diseases
To protect the crop from pests, it is worth knowing which ones threaten tobacco.
| Name | Symptoms, characteristics | Danger |
|---|---|---|
| Peach aphid | Pest attacking plant leaves | Threatens complete destruction of the crop or a significant reduction in the quantity |
| Mosaic | Appears as the name suggests. Some leaves remain green, some turn yellow | Lack of treatment threatens plant destruction |
| Blackleg | The plant lies down, the stem becomes thinner, withers | Destruction of a plant |
| Black rot | Plant wilting, drying out | Death of the crop |
| Powdery mildew | White-yellow coating in the form of a cobweb on the leaves, gradually completely covering the plant | Reduces yield, negatively affects the quality of tobacco |
Diseases can completely cover the entire plant and spread to neighboring ones. Treatment is carried out in the same ways as for other plants. Copper sulfate and other means are well suited for treatment, depending on the degree of damage to the plants.
Video - step-by-step instructions for growing tobacco in the garden
Thus, it is possible to grow tobacco for smoking in the garden. To do this, it is enough to care for it in approximately the same way as other plants. Tobacco does not like abundant watering, but loosening should not be neglected. In addition, air temperature is important. After harvesting, it is important to properly dry and ferment it. It’s a shame to lose the harvested tobacco at the last stage, so the drying process should be treated with special responsibility.