Cultivation - Tobacco Growing

[seeingred]

Swim recently read up on the history of Tobacco. It seems that American Cigarettes are fed with Apartate which starves the plant for Nitrogen. There are also other additives in cigarettes like licorice and sweetners.
There are different techniques to drying cigarettes: air drying, fire drying, and sun drying etc. Swim is starting to think it would be fun to grow swim's own tobacco. Not to sell to anyone of course, but for swim to enjoy on their own. Are the substances in the cigarettes put in their by people or are they part of the tobacco plant leaves.

The one question: Is home grown tobacco, completely organic, and well dried much better than the commercial cigarattes you buy at the store?
Would it be worth the process? Is it as dangerous? There seems a lot more to tobacco and it could be used even as an entheogen too. But just for the fun of growing it, would it be worth it? It it less cancer-causing?

[AquafinaOrbit]

From what SWIM has read it is honestly to long of a process to really be worth it. Quality tobacco is cured for up to 2 years before it is usable. As a pipe smoker SWIM recommends SWIY go to a good pipe store and simply by some imported tobacco such as Old English. It is rather pure and sure it could be rolled if wanted.

[Panthers007]

Rolling pipe tobacco is next to impossible. These tobacco's are cut differently. The pipe tobacco is finer cut for slow burning in the pipe. Rolling tobacco is more coarse and stringy - allowing air to flow through it as it burns. The pipe tobacco will just clog and be impossible to smoke as a cigarette.

Pure tobacco intended for rolling or for smoking in a pipe are not sprayed with half the Merck Index of chemicals. They are much to be preferred for health and economic reasons alone.

[Beeker]

The tobacco shops in my area sell a pound ( 16oz.) of low quality cigarette rolling tobacco for $10US and the good stuff that wasn't at the bottom of some warehouse bin is $20US for 16 ounces. Do you know how many cigarettes you can roll with that?

Unless it's made illegal just go buy it because it's a lot harder then Cannabis to grow and cure ... or so I've heard.

[FrankenChrist]

My granddad grows tobacco plants in his greenhouse. It keeps insects away, people all used to do this back then. However, I've been to the principality of Andorra, which is full of homegrown tobacco, and saw that it is not impervious to disease.

I was surprised to find out that tobacco plants that are still green have this sticky and sweet layer. Up till then I thought the sweet tastes in tobacco smoke could have only come from additives.

It's easy to get molds on it when you dry it though, you have to know what you're doing.

You can't just grow your own and expect to use it as any kind of tobacco. There are different kinds, and different parts of the leaf.

[AquafinaOrbit]

Sorry, never rolled tobacco myself. Would it be possibly to shred pipe tobacco for rolling or that also a no go?

[Panthers007]

Just tell SWIM to buy some commercial rolling tobacco like Top or Bugler. These are pretty cheap and, if gotten in a can - fresh. There are many other varieties available as well. Google: Rolling Tobacco.

Pipe tobacco is simply the wrong consistency.

[seeingred]

Originally Posted by Panthers007

Just tell SWIM to buy some commercial rolling tobacco like Top or Bugler. These are pretty cheap and, if gotten in a can - fresh. There are many other varieties available as well. Google: Rolling Tobacco.

Pipe tobacco is simply the wrong consistency.

I have only been smoking for 3 weeks regularly. It's really mostly because it is relaxing and seems to help with anxieties as well as being too introverted and not being able to chill out. Not because it might look cool or anything, and actually it is enjoyable....but there is a noticeable change in the taste the more I do it. The cigarettes seemed to at first slow me down and lesson the nervousness, now it seems to just drives me a little nuts. It helps me write....although cigarettes aren't really used for psychoactive purposes anymore in society...Im wondering if maybe there is a way to make it psychedelic like the Native Americans used it to induce visions...because no one uses it for actual mind expansion like the Native American did.
I have been having visions and feels that there is a spiritual feeling to smoking.
but this is stupid. I really should just quit...if it is so freaking addictive and bad for me.
Maybe I am self-medicating but it seems to work for awhile....because I hate adhd drugs like Ritalin and all that other crap.

[Euthanatos93420]

Swim spoke to one man who worked in industrial tobacco fields. The man reported many of the people he worked alongside had developed nerve damage up to an including full loss of touch and in some cases taste senses.

Swim is of the opinion however that this is likely due to cultivation methods rather than just nicotine alone although this is not to say that swim thinks that nicotine is not responsible...just not WHOLLY responsible.

The inclination to reject Big-Agra and Big-Tab and grow one's own entheogens is great. Even so...nothing beats education, it is synergistic to everything. Knowledge is power. Do one's research.

[wisol]

Go for it mate. if you can be arsed that is. the growing is the easy bit tho. after that it has to be dried to fix the brown colour and then it has to be cured preferably with high temp (40c+) and high humidity for at least for weeks. its tru that the older it is the better tho. one advantage is homemade cigars. save you lots of $$.

[Dracula]

If SWIY just wants to grow tobacco for cigarettes the seeds are easy to get a hold of and the plants will grow pretty far north, up to Michigan and Wisconsin. The process from seedling to getting them acclimated outdoors takes a little bit of work, but is not all that difficult.

Now, if SWIY wants to work with tobacco for cigars or pipes things get a lot more interesting and difficult. A lot of care and dedication must be given to the tobacco plant and its leaves so they're in practical perfect condition. Not only that, but one will not achieve the same effects just grown anywhere. Like grapes, these need a specific soil condition, climate, and so on that will affect the flavor in so many ways. Not to say it won't affect ciggarette tobacco, just not as noticeably. Another thing to consider is the amount of time for curing and aging for cigars and pipe tobacco.

Either way, they're fun to grow. Just make sure SWIY gives them plenty of room to grow. They will not do well at all in pots!

[VSOP~on~tap]

growing tobacco is WAYYYYYYYY worth your effort!!!! it is NOT hard, and it does NOT take too long. Infact, in just one harvest you COULD grow and entire lifetime supply basicaly. And tobacco never gets bad it gets better with age just like wine and when it gets too dry it can always be re moistened and if it gets too wet it can always be dried a little. honestly it keeps getting mellower with age, however fresh tobacco even or freshly cured tobaccco can DERFINATLY be smoked and is very good....jsut a different flavor .........its like pot.....everyone has tasted fresh pot and NICELY cured pot......just way different flavors.
in one harvest you can grow hundreds of pounds of these leaves, and YES they are better for you, NO the 600 chemicals you hear about are NOT natuarly in the leaves those are the Additives. plus if you grow it yourself it will be organic and wont be radiated. plus its delicious you can make your own cigars and let them cure in a humidor box and also make a bunch of cig tobacco and stuff it into filter tubes if you like and you can also make snuff which is very fun and awesome and you can make dip
my point is its WELL worth the time spent ( a few months to grow it....at least a few months to dry and then cure it)
you can smoke fresh leaves even as long as they are dry. (by fresh I mean uncured green leaves) lotsa farmers used to roll up a leave theyd find out in the feild while working and just smoke it
peace

[Dracula]

SWIM doesn't mean to start a flame war or anything but I'm having a little bit of difficulty agreeing with your claims...

First, tobacco can very well get bad with age. And there's no proof that older tobacco is better tobacco. Tobacco that is properly aged has the potential to be great, but that does not always occur and is better left to the families who's recipes have been tried and tested for hundreds of years... The same thing is true of wine. Most wines do not turn well with age. Many hit their peaks at 3-5 years and then begin to decline in taste, especially true of many white wines. Depending on the variety of grape and the conditions under which it was bottled will dictate whether it has an opportunity at aging well.

Tobacco requires roughly 8 weeks of curing before it can be smoked to be considered close to, "very good." SWIM realizes that many people have many different opinions on taste and preference but before tobacco can be even legitimately smoked it cannot be green.

Please find a source that states that farmers would just grab a leaf, roll it up and smoke it in the field. SWIM has honestly never heard of this and would appreciate a source.

If one makes there own cigars, they're not going to be curing them in a humidor. Humidors do NOT cure tobacco. They replicate the humidity of the environment of Central America so that they can be smoked under perfect conditions.

Again, I don't mean to flame, but this post is full of misinformation. SWIM realizes SWIY cannot post links to sources, but SWIY could at least reference them if SWIY believes what they're saying to be true.

Originally Posted by VSOP~on~tap

growing tobacco is WAYYYYYYYY worth your effort!!!! it is NOT hard, and it does NOT take too long. Infact, in just one harvest you COULD grow and entire lifetime supply basicaly. And tobacco never gets bad it gets better with age just like wine and when it gets too dry it can always be re moistened and if it gets too wet it can always be dried a little. honestly it keeps getting mellower with age, however fresh tobacco even or freshly cured tobaccco can DERFINATLY be smoked and is very good....jsut a different flavor .........its like pot.....everyone has tasted fresh pot and NICELY cured pot......just way different flavors.
in one harvest you can grow hundreds of pounds of these leaves, and YES they are better for you, NO the 600 chemicals you hear about are NOT natuarly in the leaves those are the Additives. plus if you grow it yourself it will be organic and wont be radiated. plus its delicious you can make your own cigars and let them cure in a humidor box and also make a bunch of cig tobacco and stuff it into filter tubes if you like and you can also make snuff which is very fun and awesome and you can make dip
my point is its WELL worth the time spent ( a few months to grow it....at least a few months to dry and then cure it)
you can smoke fresh leaves even as long as they are dry. (by fresh I mean uncured green leaves) lotsa farmers used to roll up a leave theyd find out in the feild while working and just smoke it
peace

Reputation Comments on this post:

post provides no useful information

[thunderbyrd]

Swim grew up on a tobacco farm. swim, like a dumbass, started smoking when he was 13. every now and then, subject would run out of cigarettes then go to the barn with rolling paper and try to roll a smoke from the tobacco there. he is allegeged to have also tried a pipe. swim was unable to acheive satisfaction in smoking barn tobacco. it didn't want to burn right for one thing. HOWEVER, if a person was a tobacco chewer or snuff dipper, the barn tobacco (which is always called, around here, ''long green") is perfectly adequete. swim knows because swims father is a life-long tobacco chewer and has observed his father chew long green many times, tho it is not his preferred chew.

the tobacco we grew is called "burley" tobacco, other strains may be more suitable for smoking. commercial cigs tend to be blended with other strains of tobacco, also with various mysterious chemicals. swim wishes he could quit, he has been smoking 37 yrs.