Growing Tobacco?

Have any of you ever tried growing your own tobacco? Has it turned out well for you? I am mulling it over. My husband chews tobacco and the prices just keep going up. I have tried everything besides divorce to get him to quit and none have worked. I hate paying so much money for an addiction. I would like to try to grow our own and try to make plug tobacco. Maybe the stuff I make will be yuckie enough to drive him to quit!! LOL!!

I tried growing tobacco here in z6 once.
Wanted to see if i could. Tobacca has long growing season and our growig time is'nt long enough and it froze before it was er uh ripe?
I don't have
a clue if it could be started inside and transplanted.
Vickie

It is possible to grow tobacco in zone 6. We are in the heart of the burley belt, and could answer any questions you may have about it. DH and I grew tobacco for years, and it is not a difficult process.

Let me know your questions, and I will help all I can.

Defoecat, When do you plant tobacco? The instructions i got with my seeds said to plant after all danger of frost was past. By Nov. 1st it still was'nt big enough to pull. Thats when i was told it could'nt be grown here in the Ozarks. This was abt 10 yrs ago. Think i got the seeds at Shmways.
I'll try again if you can tell me how many weeks from planting till harvest. I did'nt mean to lead anyone astray. How big are the leaves supposed to be?
Thanks
Vickie

Vicki, usually the seeds are planted about now, and transplanted into the ground about May 15, when they are about 6 inches high. They need fertilizer, worked into the ground before planting, then again in about 60 days. The leaves at maturty can be as long as 3 feet, and 8-10 inches across at their widest point. The plants themselves can grow to be 6 feet tall. The plant will bloom about July 15, and the top should be broken off 6-8 inches to allow the growth to go into making the leaves bigger. The plant will start to produce suckers,at the junction of the leaves to the stalk, they need to be kept pinched off. The plant will begin t yellow, indicating that it is ripening. The whole plant should be cut down when it is ripe, and hung upside down to dry in a barn or a shed where it will get plenty of air circulation until it is completely dry, including the stems. The curing process will depend upon the weather. When it is completely dry, you pull the leaves off the stalk. You will need to braid the leaves into a twist, but wait until the tobacco has moisture in it from the rain or dew or whatever weather conditions will cause it to be moist. After that process, it can be used in any fashion you choose.

Feel free to keep in contact with me during the growing season with any questions that you may have.

Thanks, You know i'm so tempted to try and get seeds. i will GOOGLE for seeds. There are a couple of people i'd like to show the results to. Never realized that all those plants were started any where but the fields. Were they transplanted by machine?

Yes they are transplanted using a machine, but it still involves people to put the plants into the machine, and make sure that they are set out right side up!!

If you want to try the seeds, keep in touch with me, and I will try to offer any advice that I can, based on our past history of growing tobacco commercially.

defoecate you are a great resource for us. I probably will not try to grow any this year as I feel I would be a little behind. Did you grow tobacco for smoke or chew? Do you know anything about making plug tobacco? I have not had a hard time finding sources for seeds but I can't seem to find any info on how to actually make the chew. Any ideas?

NIkki

Have you tried to google it. You can find most everything else on the internet, why not that. The tobacco we grew was sold to the large tobacco companies, and was used in making cigarettes. I have never tried to make my own cigarettes, because they are made from a blend of several different tobaccos, but it probably wouldn't be hard.

I love google, I google everything. I found stuff on making cigarette tobacco but not chew. We don't smoke so not very usful.

If you are interested in trying some this year, the seedlings will be ready in about 2 weeks. I could send you a couple of them for postage. We don't grow tobacco anymore, but have friends who do, and I could get some plants from them. JLMK

I've never grown tobacco but I'm going to try it this year for cigarettes. When I was researching for seeds, I ran across a site that has tobacco varieties that are grown specifically for chewing tobacco. I've never used this company but felt you might be interested in the link. If you scroll down the page to tobacco seeds, you will see that the first section is for chewing tobacco selections for seeds.
http://www.seedman.com/Tobacco.htm

Again, I've never grown it so I don't know how reliable this information is.

Does tobacco require water about the same as field corn? Are there any critters that like to munch on it? I'm thinking I could grow some in the field next to our corn when we put it out or our alfafa field. They are both in river bottoms so there is usually a heavy fog that comes in the evenings. The corn does really well there. I won't have any room in my garden this year but if they can make it with the stuff in the fields I would like to.

Velnita, thanks for the link, I checked it out and will probably order seeds from them next year. :)

Water requirements about the same. It would do okay planted with the corn, but don't let the corn shade it, as it requires full sun. The only thing that I know of that likes to munch on it is aphids, and tobacco worms, both can be taken care of with chemicals, but if you are growing it for your consumption, a good rinse with water, or neem oil.