How to Grow Tobacco

at what stage of growth do the plants start producing nic?
and it seems my vagold is trying to push a flower spike at only 3 ft tall, would nipping and let a sucker grow out prolong the growth and give more leaf?

Yes.

Letting a sucker take over would certainly get you a few extra leafs . But they not gonna get near as big as leafs on the main stalk .

You get the extra weight and the most smoke from a plant by topping it and then keeping it suckered good . If you top them back to a good size leaf when you top the leafs your leafs will get many times bigger than they are .

Sure they may be some decient sucker growth but farmers know how to get the most from a plant production wise ( yeild) . They do this by topping and then keeping them suckered .

About when a plant gets nicotine well thats a good question and I think they is no hard set of rules that fits all .

Personaly I think it depends on the growing conditions of the plant . Last year 3 foot Va Gold had very little nic in even the bigger leafs . This year a 2 foot plant has good taste and plenty of nicotine .

I really think the amount of rain a plants gets during the growing part has a great deal to do with this . From the last 2 years crop and smoking them both early I conclude that dry hot conditions is one of the major facts that determine just how much nicotine as well as when the plant starts producing it .

Last year 3 foot plants had very little nicotine and never even tasted like tobacco . This year the bottom leafs from a 2 foot plant has a good bit of nicotine and are quite tasty . The only difference is last year it was very wet and cool and this year it's been very dry and hot .

thanks guys,
Lonnie, this is the va you sent, with all the problems here including drought when they were planted up to the 11 this month they are only about waist high and have a nice lil button of what look like buds in the crown
with only being that high and maybe 10 leaves i was really hoping to get a bit more...

oldemagics

Even on a 5 to 6 foot plant the most leafs I got from that strain was 18 to maybe 20 leafs . Plus I'm sorry to say unless you have better luck than we did that this strain just doesn't seem to make much nicotine .

If your like us and like a strong smoke I sure hope you have some burley to blend in with it . I could be wrong and locations being different may help you some but this strain is kinda dissapointing to say the least .

If your having hot dry conditions I do think that will tend to lean in your favor and produce more nicotine than if grown in wet cool conditions .

Another problem I learned was that this strain is very tricky to color cure . It just wants to dry with a greenish tint to it .

Best of luck man I sure hope you have better luck than we did . Yeild wise I think for size and number of leafs it made more baccy than about any I have grown . This MCY and Golden seal just may out do it though the jury is still out on that . However for quality ands nic it just wasn't very impressive .

it has been hot and dry this year, was totin 100 gal every day or two just to keep things green till mid July...
then they shot up to what the are now and stopped again?
got some rain today, but this morning i tried to dig some worms to go fishin and it was crumbly dry over a foot deep
what is maybe i should try to get some mcy and golden seal to try next year, are they similar to the properties of the gold?

EDIT: have your 6 gold and 5 havana that made it after the gorillas in the p.o. got through with them, and about 100 burly...

MCY and Golden seal are both fine burleys . Good it sounds like you have plenty of burley to blend in and up the flavor and the nic .

Be sure to keep you some Havana seeds I really think you will like that plant and how it smokes . Nothing much needed it smokes real good straight off the stalk . And if too strong you can sweat it in a bag for a few days and it mellows fast into a fine smoke .

Most think cigars when they hear Havana and I think it would make a fine wrapper cause of the thin leafs . However theys not the first hint of cigars when smoked as a cigerette .