Lets Grow Tobacco,Introduction

Welcome to my new blog, in future posts i will work towards giving a personal insight into all aspects of growing Tobacco, the plants themselves, seed strains and much more besides so if your like me and just love growing Tobacco or just the thought of what it my involve read on and follow this thread.

So where on earth do you start, well first you need to think about what you want from this, is it because your just fed up with paying such highly inflated prices for your Tobacco do you want to make a business out of your hobby or maybe you just love growing plants.

Some of the things i would think about before jumping in are, where will i obtain my seed, you can get seed from almost anywhere but is it viable ? does the seller grow there own Tobacco this can make a big difference as tobacco seed has a viable germination span of 2-3 years, has the seed been sitting around for years which would make for bad germination rate and weak seedlings so ask the vender before you buy.

How much should you pay, don't pay the earth for seed this usually means the seller buys in his seed in and as such cannot be sure of its purity or age and has to sell it at this price to cover his costs this type of seller will usually sell you 100-200 seeds this is because he needs make his bought in seed go further, 500-1000 should be more like it. At the other end of the scale are sellers sometimes found on ebay and the like that sell their seed very cheap, ask yourself this are you getting what you paid for, take a look at the photographs a lot of these sellers don't even know what they are growing the photographs my be of an ornamental Tobacco when in fact they are selling there seeds as Virginia Tobacco and have no idea of the heritage of the plant.

What strain of Tobacco do you want to grow, Tobacco plants grow with ease in the UK so growing them is not usually a problem what comes next can be, curing.
Ornamental strains sun-cure and usually come from Europe, if started early and harvested early they can be cured in the sun without much trouble.
Virginia strains are usually flue-cured which means they are keep in a heated area, this does not mean you cant cure them you just need a few more tricks up your sleeve.
Burley Tobaccos are air-cured so they can be hung out in the open air under cover to keep the rain off.
Fire-curing Tobacco applies to many types of Tobacco put simply it just means the Tobacco is put in a heated area where the smoke from a fire is allowed to permeate the leaf.

Will you be growing for seed or leaf, if you are growing your Tobacco to smoke then there is a few tips to remember first and foremost all flower buds should be removed from the plants as they grow this will encourage larger leaves and leaf production helping you obtain a much larger crop from your plants, you can also plant closer together as you are only interested in a maximum harvest.
growing for seed, you will need to give the plants more room, by doing this you will allow the plants a better opportunity to get vital nutriments from the soil, a free flow of air amongst them and helping you to easy move around the plants to collect seed heads, the next tip is very important for growing for seed. Tobacco Plants are self fertile so they do not need any other plants to set seed but they also cross pollinate which means if you are growing more than one strain in the same area you will get hybrid seeds/plants this means they will either not germinate or not breed true to type, so you will need to use a technique called blossom bagging which i will go into at a later date this will keep your strain pure.

At this point i would like to thank you for reading this article, i think that is enough for you to soak up at the moment stay tuned for more info and tips, until my next blog i wish you happy growing and hope to see you back soon.

Madhouse bill. ​