How to Grow Tobacco

Might as well join in on the discussion, we went through curing / fermenting a few years ago on this board, we went from farther curing to fermenting because it was confusing. We always called it drying/color curing and farther curing it to remove impurities by heat , plastic bags,sun, aging etc, actually you don't ferment it you go through a process for removal of these enzymes to mellow and get a greater flavor from the tobacco. Putting tobacco in piles is composting under regulated control. When composting the starches and ammonia change to sugar therefor causes the heat build up ,breaking down the piles, airing the tobacco cools it and removes the Co2 so in the next piling the heat can build up again, heat no longer builds when the sugars and ammonia is gone, All ways take farther aging or aging alone to become a real good smoke, cigar, cigarette or pipe. I also see where some picks a dry leaf off the ground and it smokes good, More than likely went through enough composting for it to be smokable, and someone else picks a leaf off the ground and really gets a hit from it that leaf could have enough bad enzymes in it that wasn't composted out, mixed with the nicotine could give quite a hit. There is quite a difference in the same strain grown in different soils in different zones and most of the time that isn't taken into consideration. I'm not an expert but after GYOT for twenty years through trail and err I have learn quite a bit the hard way, you guys don't know how good you have it here, when I stared there was nothing......tobaccoanna

tobaccoanna, totaly true was in the mid 70's when i grew my first tobacco, was hard times for me then, an had gotten the nicotine habit around '73, so like you there wasnt much if any information on how to grow your own back then, much of my info came from the older generation who grew it because they "had" to, if they wanted smokes or chew. but trial and error was the way i came up also. after awhile it kinda became second nature for me. i never started it inside, was always outside under tarps, cloth what ever i could find to cover it with. lost a bunch but also the tuffest lil plants made it through which made it to the field. when it yellowed it went to the corn crib an hung up on wire, nails, poles untill it color cured. hehee i remember the first i grew it dried green .. gosh that was nasty stuff but i figured it out.. an alway grew lots more than i could smoke an found out that the longer it was stored away the sweeter it got. mine was stored in "toesacks" (sp?) burlap bags feed came in back then. usualy under a pile of corn that got tossed into the crib. so when i wanted some more i had to dig it out. bring it back to case and cut it up to roll into cigs. or small cigars if i dint have any papers. but something thats been done for hundreds of years .. now seems to becomeing an exacting science of everything being perfect, from the land to each lil step from growing to smoking. dont think the Indians had all the tech. that we have .. nor the sailors who transported it from here to where ever in the world.
but hey im here to learn bigger an better ways .. plus beat the tax man .. LOL

Hi --

Good to see you two joining in!

I've only been growing tobacco 6 years, two years seriously. For the first 4 years all I did was grow the plants to put in pots and sell as live plants. Well, I had two field crops in that time of burley, about 35 plants each time, but I never bothered to cure and smoke it. Tried to air-cure some once but the barn leaked and it all mushed up.

Thanks to this website and some others, we were able to successfully produce a cured crop of tobacco last year that we could actually enjoy smoking! The very first time! This year will be better and I'm sure we'll improve a lot more as people like you two give us tips.

Bob

tobaccoanna

I couldn't agree more with that !! I think we use the term ferminting very loosely when tobacco is concerned . I also think with one exception that all were doing is removing impurities with one of many heat type treatments not an actual fermintation .

I do think that this perique tobacco actually goes through a fermintation process though . This is just opinion , my opinion at that but how I see it anyhow . Wouldn't we all like to crack that little secret

i gots kin folks that live down there, so im doin my best to "swindle" the secret past the borders .. hehee

I do something similar to that. When I hang them (after they've dried from rinsing off), I'll push the whole row together and let them sit in one large bundle. Usually 3-5 days. It seems to help them yellow faster. I just check them to see when they get to the point where they start sticking together. Then they're separated and allowed to continue the color change/dry before they go into the box.

I think part of why it does this is that the heat does build a bit by them being all bunched together. And It keeps things moist. Nothing worse than dried green.