Here is are a couple pics of my tobacco plants.
I don’t know anything about growing tobacco plants but, to me, they look beautiful, a nice job, well done. You deserve some congratulations.
These received very little care besides some weeding and watering when we hadn’t had rain for awhile. They make me proud. I don’t know what I will do with them I know very little about curing or processing tobacco. I will try to make something that will hopefully be up to snuff;)
Those look great, should be nice for snuff. I grew some for the first time this year and the tomato caterpillers (horn worms) ate the crap out of them but I salvaged what I could and it turned out really good. I wasnt willing to spray them with anything but had to keep an eye on those pillers. Going to try hydroponics next time, a couple of plants should yield a good amount of snuff.
Beautiful. Nicely done. There are some good sources online for curing techniques. Here’s a few. I have a friend that converted an old double door restaurant refer into a tobacco fire curing chamber. Works great. I gifted him some wild cherry wood from one of our trees we lost in a storm. He re-gifted me with several hands of his homegrown TN-90 Burley he fire cured over that wood. http://www.leafonly.com/tobacco\_leaf\_harvesting\_curing\_and\_fermenting.php http://www.howtogrowtobacco.com/forum/viewforum.php?f=6
Awesome! I can’t believe more people don’t grow. I mean it’s not simple, but it’s relatively easy and very rewarding. I estimate a yield of about 200g of snuff per plant, depending on how moist you like it. I could grow most of my usage (if I had to!) with about 30 plants. But that would start to be a lot of work, unless using pesticides. The most I’ve attempted is 14. It takes some effort to keep the worms and aphids off that many plants. Great links provided by @chefdaniel . Most of my edumacation on tobacco curing came from HTGT. The rest is from my experience. For curing, what I’ve done is just snip the whole plant at the bottom, and hang them upside down out of the rain, but where they’ll have access to some variation in humidity. I use my garage, so more dry than wet. I have left them hanging for between 6 months to a year. After 6-8 months, wait until you have 2-3 days of high humidity in a row and you can pull the leaves from the stalk without crushing them to dust. Then box the leaves up in cardboard for another 6 months. Then they’re ready for snuff making. There are definitely ‘faster’ ways to do it, but many risk mold development. When curing, if it’s consistently moist they’ll mold and consistently dry and they’ll never cure properly. So going back and forth is good. Keep us updated if you make it to snuff!
@puffpuff: is it OK to leave them hanging in a shed through a cold winter (extended periods below freezing), or should they be moved indoors?
I can’t say for sure, my garage is attached to the house, so it never freezes. It is not sealed particularly well, though, so it does get quite cold, but certainly above freezing. That said, I don’t think it would hurt them, but I do think it would slow the curing process some. But that’s ok, just add some time.
My friends around here that grow small batch (<5 acres) “prime” the leaves from the bottom up as they begin to curl during late summer. They hang it up from the rafters in a wide open carport for over a year with temperature extremes from -10F to +100F with no issues. There’s sufficient space between the leaves and plenty of air circulation year round. When they’re ready they stack the leaves up in cardboard boxes and forget about them until they need them. Most are working with weed that is 7-10 years from harvest; then again, they’ve been doing this for generations. 90% grow burley varieties, but some of the gents up on the Highland Rim also grow some Virginia types that are cold resistant…same varieties that are grown in Canada, with good results. They air cure and flue cure as well as light fire cure over oak. Good stuff.
Thanks guys, I’ve had 20 Black Mammoth hanging in my shed for nearly 2 months now and the leaves are looking nice. Wasn’t sure if I needed to move them inside or not, I think I’ll leave them.
These received very little care besides some weeding and watering when we hadn’t had rain for awhile. They make me proud. I don’t know what I will do with them I know very little about curing or processing tobacco. I will try to make something that will hopefully be up to snuff;)
I found them to be very low maintenance as well and got very lucky with regards to pests and disease. Did you save any seed for next year?
If they make it before they get frosted, I will certainly save the seed, but they are just now flowering, so, I don’t know if they will make it in time.
Great looking plants! I’ve really wanted to try to grow a few myself but I live in an apartment so it would be nearly impossible 
Yours look pretty much perfect though.
Thanks guys, I’ve had 20 Black Mammoth hanging in my shed for nearly 2 months now and the leaves are looking nice. Wasn’t sure if I needed to move them inside or not, I think I’ll leave them.
Yeah, that sounds like a plan. It is hard to leave them for ‘too long’. It’s easy to take them down to early. When air-curing, I shoot for 8 months to a year, and I don’t feel bad if it goes longer than that. @OleFactoryHugh , If they’re flowering, cut the flowers off (except for one plant for seeds). The flowers should be cut as soon as they show, then 2-3 weeks later, they’re ready for harvest.
@puffpuff thanks for the advice. I don’t think they will make it much longer with cold weather on the way, we’ll see.
Has anyone here made snuff with the black mammoth tobacco?
Yes, that’s one of the varieties that I’ve grown and made snuff with. Unfortunately, while I know I’ve made snuff from Black Mammoth, I can’t testify if it’s better or worse than other varieties. Why? For the last 4 years, I’ve grown 2 plants each of five different varieties + a couple extra of one or two. Black Mammoth being one of them. But every year I’ve managed to mix up my labels so by the end I haven’t been 100% sure which is which, and it becomes even harder to identify after the curing. So Black Mammoth has been in my blends, but I can’t swear which ones, or how much!
I was gifted a few hands of air cured small stalk Black Mammoth about ten years ago from a friend that has a ‘boutique’ farm here in Middle Tennessee. He’d had it his barn for two years and boxed for two more years before I got it and aged it another two years, so six total. Very dark brown, great nicotine content and a nutty scent when snuffed. When smoked in a pipe it was boring as hell; bland, biting and beastly to keep lit. As a snuff it was great, but it would benefit from some sweeter leaf; red flue cured seems to have the best residual sugars and less of a ‘grassy’ note than other flue cured leaf. YMMV. Have fun with it…if you want to trade for some I’m interested.