Well the threat of frost/snow in two days forced me to harvest my tobacco. I had about 50 plants this year and they just went nuts, I had a late germination and thought it was pointless to continue in June. I left the plants in the garden for two weeks in flats due to a heavy work load. My wife found a friend that had some room in their field, so I put the plants in late and reluctantly. I put in a row of Maryland Catterton, White Burley, and a nice heirloom Virginia. Then we had a drought, for a month, and I had just given up. then, I got a call from a friend saying how nice my plants looked, I said Huh? went over and was shocked to find them waist high, a nasty tiny storm had missed us and just dumped on the plants. I spent a lot of time cultivating, watering, and then topping, and then the Tropical storm Irene just dumped 14 inches of water. Well the plants just sucked the water up, grew two feet in a week, and the leaves were pointed strait up and just as green and sticky as can be, really awesome growth. I went over and harvested, and had to make two trips in the pick up truck to get them all! Just overwhelmed with tobacco just now, I will be priming them all day tomorrow. The tips are just so long and dense, just overwhelmingly perfect. I have access to a greenhouse for overwintering, and will cure it in the same greenhouse next summer.

That must be such a satisfying thing to do, congratulations, and I’m glad it turned out ok despite the less than ideal conditions.

Wow! 50 plants! That’ll make a huge amount of snuff! I only managed to plant about 8 this year, and I’ve harvested all but 2. Thanks for the heads up on the weather. It looks like my last two are coming in tomorrow, too! Harvest day always feels so rewarding. Congratulations! Can you tell me more about your ‘overwintering’? I’ve got my 6 plants hung full stalk in my garage, which is somewhat climate controlled, but also has limited sealing to the outside, so the humidity fluctuates a bit. This worked well for me last year, but I’m interested to hear about your process, especially at that scale. That’s just a lot of leaves!

Any pics for us perverted bastages?

Congrats Whalen! You truly have a great hobby.

@puffpuff - My over winter plan is the same as yours! Normally tobacco is harvested in warmer humid areas with enough summer left to hang them hot and humid. So I just reverse that, and it takes twice as long. And yes, it is an overwhelming amount of leaves! Pain in the patootee to deal with, I mean a labor of love. @Pot Poe - I never have been fond of manipulating images all the way from the camera to the interwebs, all ways a labor of love also. I guess I should have taken some shots in the field, I can take the shots now and turn them back right side up I guess. I was kind of busy with the sudden freeze warning, slashing and stacking. It was not until the back of the truck was full and I was only half way through that I realized just what kind of volume I was dealing with. Thank goodness it will only shrink in volume from now on, it was raining cats and dogs, the wet tobacco has to be dried now. I will take some shots today before they tops wilt, the growth spurt is impressive. The people with the plot of land just informed me that the tobacco was directly where the giant heap of manure was located, this was some ten years worth of milk cow dung that had been a mountain. So the plants had ten years worth of compost tea to sip on. Explains quite a lot to me now! The perverse situation here is that due to a almost terminal TAD affliction I am set with quality snuff, for a lifetime. I felt a strange compulsion (Pact Act) to acquire mass quantities of Fubar and Wilsons back when I had the means. I feel some what vindicated about the Fubar though, that first batch was the best IMHO. I am sure that I get the same rush handling a package of vacuum packed 50 gram tubs that the 1% get handling gold bars! Although I still shovel it up my nose with gusto. I just feel drawn to make my own snuff for some reason, probably just a no income TAD progression. I have about 6 dollars invested in seeds for this crop, the rest is sweat equity. I am convinced that anyone can grow it, it is the next step that causes me grief, curing and grinding. Curing tobacco is an art.

Happy Harvest Festival. I’ll take a pinch of Grunt with you to celebrate your achievement.

Here’s to a successful cure! (pinch of Grunt)

Hell, lets just all have a pinch of Grunt! On three- One, two, Three- oh yea! Man I am tired of tobacco today! Cutting and stringing all day. I got some photos and will post. Anyone up on what size file I should make them?

And then there were 4 pinches left of my 1st batch Grunt. For the photos, if you can, try to keep them less than 800 pixels wide, or they won’t fit on the page. Around 600x400 pixels is usually good. I’m not sure what tool you’re using, but many image programs have an ‘Export for web’ function that will resize it properly.

I too feel drawn to make my own snuff, and can’t really explain why. Unfortunately, I don’t have the land/room to grow tobacco at the moment, but I will dedinitely do it one day… I had to chuckle when I read that it only cost you $6 formore tobacco than you could fit in your truck.