Homestead mailing list

[Clansgian AT wmconnect.com]

In a message dated 6/23/2008 11:42:10 AM Eastern Daylight Time, 
vdjor AT yahoo.com writes:


> >question one, does anyone have any experience with
> growing tobacco?  ..... Someday would like to try growing
> some.  If anyone here has any experience I thought it
> might be a good starting place for my research.

I have never been a user, but alas, this being tobacco growing country (used 
to be, anyway), I've had the misforture as boy and man of working in the 
growing and curing of it.  

Miserable stuff and backbreaking work for 13 months or more.

The seeds are like dust and are readily available at feed'n'seeds in areas 
where tobacco is grown (used to be grown).  In the old days you started them 
in 
tobacco beds which had been gassed to kill all weeds and fungus spores.  The 
beds are started in January or February and covered with straw to keep them 
warm.  In the latter days of tobacco culture, the seedlings were done in hot 
houses and sold to the farmer.

The tobacco is trasplanted after serious danger of frost passes.  It must be 
hoed vigorously as it cannot compete against anything.   It sends up a 
massive 
seed stalk that has to be cut off and and a fungicide applied to the cut.

At the right stage, when the leaf is mature, losing some of its green but not 
yet turning yellow, it is cut and placed upsidedown in the field on racks or 
poles to cure.  THen it is taken inside the tobacco barn to finish curing.  
In 
the northern areas where tobacco is cultured (as around here) it is air cured 
by spearing the leaves near the base with tobacco sticks (like tomato stakes) 
and hanging it up in barns.  In costal areas and more southern areas it is 
flue cured, that is, dried in heated curing sheds, else it is in danger of 
hosting mold. 

Growing a few stalks of tobacco (which yields several pounds per stalk) would 
be an easy task, just pretend it's a pepper plant and you won't go far wrong. 
 If you are anywhere near where tobacco is grown, approach any grower and ask 
to buy half a dozen planst or so.  Else start the seeds indoors but much 
earlier than you'd start pepper seeds.  The seeds are as fine as dust so you 
can't 
precision seed.

But ....... the tobacco you buy for your pipe has been washed, rinsed in a 
chemical solution, and processed with sugar and other additives.  The stuff 
you 
cure from your own plot will be a harsh substitute for it.

"The oaks and poplar trees grew tall
  Around our mountian farm
  Corn in the bin
  And tobacco in the barn ..."  (From "Cumberland Plateau")   </HTML>