Okay, first post so thank you for all of the valuable information I have gained from you guys and gals over the past few months. I live on a small farm in North Central Ohio. I am starting to plan for my first tobacco crop for the upcoming season. When I am finished, I like to have tobacco for use in snuff, chew (lose leaf) and some pipe / twist tobacco. I’m thinking about thirty to sixty plants in total, which should be more than enough for my own personal needs. What stains should I be choosing to plant? I was thinking that I should need some burly but what variety? I would also like a higher nicotine plant to mix in for my snuff. What pants should I be looking at for an aromatic vanilla blend for the pipe /twist tobacco? I also plan on doing this by all by curing and sweating in a barn, with no artificial heat. It will take longer, but I have the time. Any suggestions are greatly appreciated. I know this is a fairly vague question, so I will try to respond to questions and comments on at least a daily basis. Thanks again.
Hi @Bdillender It sounds like I am right across the lake from you so our climate is pretty much the same. I have no info for you as far as your questions above but I have been mulling over the idea of growing some plants of my own albeit not nearly as many. Whatever you decide on, please keep us posted and good luck!
Yeah, I am thinking of doing an entire write up complete with pictures through the process. I’m sure that not all of the steps will be exactly perfect, but that is part of the learning process. I most likely won’t use this site for the write up, simply because I am not very good with the interwebs. I have learned how to post pictures on one site so by default, that will most likely be the location. I will post updates with links to the write up, and try to answer questions about it on both sites. Thanks again.
^great growing info
Thanks for the link to FairTrade. Maybe some of the bigger guys here might try to steer me in the right direction with some trade secrets for snuff. There doesn’t seem to be too much information on the strains used on my Google machine. For being a product that has been being made for hundreds of years, you would think finding information about it wouldn’t be so difficult. It seems like many people have their own way of production, but they leave the steps to make it so vague that I question if they actually know what they are talking about. Off to read for a few more hours. Be right back.
I knew a family that had been growing tobacco for personal consumption for a long time. They used to uproot the whole plant and hang it upside down from the stalk then spray it lightly with water as it dried. I don’t know why they sprayed it like that. However they made tobacco they seemed to like with this very basic process. I think that while you can put a lot of effort into bulk curing methods the slow but easy diy method of just drying it out seems to work fine.
I knew a family that had been growing tobacco for personal consumption for a long time. They used to uproot the whole plant and hang it upside down from the stalk then spray it lightly with water as it dried. I don’t know why they sprayed it like that. However they made tobacco they seemed to like with this very basic process. I think that while you can put a lot of effort into bulk curing methods the slow but easy diy method of just drying it out seems to work fine.
They spray it with water to help keep the plant alive while it color cures. If the plant dies and dries while it is still green, it will stay green. As the leaf is turning brown, there is a lot of things going on, on a microscopic level which makes the leaf suitable for use in the type of tobacco you are trying to process.
http://snuffhouse.org/discussion/6032/snuff-making-101/pl @Bdillender I’ll be happy to help with any questions you have.
Here is a google translated German site with specifics. http://translate.google.com/translate?hl=en&sl=de&u=http://www.tabakanbau.de/de/poolinfo.php%3Fid%3D8320&prev=/search%3Fq%3Dschnupftabak%2Brezept%26hl%3Den%26client%3Dsafari%26tbo%3Dd%26rls%3Den&sa=X&ei=GUXpUKOcJqbAigLp34CYCQ&ved=0CGwQ7gEwBg
I am very interested in growing tobacco to make snuff. Me and a buddy built an indoor grow room as he already had grow lights for when he would grow peppers indoors. So far we have 4 different varieties of seeds. Rapa Nui (Easter Island Rustica) and Virginia Burley are already in grow trays sprouting. My buddy also has some Nicotiana Rustica Kessu and some Little Dutch Nicotiana Tabacum. This will be a learning process, but fun at the same time.
They spray it with water to help keep the plant alive while it color cures. If the plant dies and dries while it is still green, it will stay green. As the leaf is turning brown, there is a lot of things going on, on a microscopic level which makes the leaf suitable for use in the type of tobacco you are trying to process.
Thanks for letting me know. As a kid I took some leaves off one of their plants (with permission) and wondered why they stayed green. Learn something new everyday.
In response to your variety selection I suggest growing half Burley the rest Virginia with a couple of Rustica plants that will be easy to reseed. I would ask the guys over at fair trade as to which varieties of the types (Va and Burley) would be good choices for the curing method you will be choosing.
I registered over there, still waiting on the confirmation email. Might be because Gmail doesn’t update on my phone as fast as a hard line. I’m thinking that I will try two different burley varieties, a rustica like you have suggested, little Duch, and a couple of Virginia varieties. As of now, I am planning on ten plants of each variety for a total of 50 plants. I wanted to do more, but my wife is ticked that my tobacco garden will be bigger than the vegetable garden. Thanks again for all of the help so far.