[vegmandan]

OK, I know I'm stupid being a smoker but I was wondering if there is any chance of growing my own tobacco and if anyone might know where i might get any seeds from.? :shock:

[compostqueen]

When I was a kid I was always with my dad on the plot and on his site there were loads of Italians and Hungarians and they all grew their own tobacco and had all these ramshackle wooden drying sheds with the tobacco leaves hanging in there.  I expect you would have to pay Gordon the tax on it    They say it's like growing tomatoes but I don't know cos never grown it. Apparently seed is easy to buy  

[Motivator]

Hello this looks like the site you need .

http://www.coffinails.com/

[vegmandan]

Cheers.

That's the stuff,just checked it out,cheers .

They seem to have run out of Golden Virginia....  

Gordon won't get a penny,like brewing your own beer.    

[gobs]

Yes, like tomato, is only as much true, as say, for aubergine. They need warmer. Frosts and wet can damage crops.

As you have plenty of time till next growing season, it'd be worth to look out for varieties, as this will mean a diff to length of season, size, soil needs and quality. Also, once you have seed, the world is your oyster as it's viable for 10 years at least. Most commonly grown are the rough and robust - Virginia :?: types -, from which you can harvest 20-40 leaves a season, if you have one, that is.

They germinate well around 25C, where I'm from, used to be sown in March and planted out in May at about 5-7 leave stage. Then they need 3-5 months, depending to full harvest, which starts in July. Continuous harvest, leaves are not ready at the same time.  So you might think of a poly or gh as they aren't really frost hardy.

Starts flowering in June time, flowers are cut off, unless for seed and plants are side shooted. It's a good idea to use gloves for handling the plants at these later stages as nicotine, what have you not else in them, is readily absorbed through skin. Young plants are unlikely to have much as it's produced in the roots.

The bottom 3-5 leaves are not harvested. Break the leaves off when they lose colour, thread them - used to do back to front, no idea why - and were hung in sheds or dried in pollys. Care must be taken that fungi don't set in during drying.

Good luck.

[Aunt Sally]

Hello this looks like the site you need .

http://www.coffinails.com/

A very aptly named site too  :roll:

[Trillium]

One thing few tobacco growers realize is that the tobacco growing area is unuseable to other plants for several years. It contains the tobacco mosaic virus which is toxic to other plants. You'd have to keep a dedicated spot forever, which in an allotment is unfair to future renters. Before the next crop can be planted, the ground must be either chemically sprayed or steamed to kill fungi and viruses which will affect the tobacco's next growth season.

In Ontario, tobacco is grown only in the warmest and longest growing areas because it's so very frost sensitive. And those areas are now shutting down, partly to the reduced demand for tobacco, partly to the growing need for edible crops in quickly diminishing designated farming areas. Prime farmlands and orchards are quickly turning into housing monsters  :cry: