When to plant tobacco in the ground. How to grow tobacco - what do you need to get a rich flavor? Video: growing tobacco at home

01.01.2023

Before growing seedlings, it is necessary to choose a type of tobacco that meets the taste preferences of the gardener and will endure the cold of the middle lane. Tobacco is a tropical plant, that is, accustomed to a hot, humid climate, and not in all regions it will grow as well as at home.

Tobacco is propagated by seeds, which are sold in gardening and agricultural stores. The seeds are small, so planting seedlings should not be very careful. Soaking and laying out the seeds in cups is not required, it is enough to pour the seeds in an even layer on moist soil, lightly press and cover the pot with a film.

Planting tobacco immediately in open ground is not recommended, since the plant is very tender and whimsical. At the first stage, it is grown in greenhouse conditions, and then, when it is old enough, it is transplanted into open ground.

The soil for growing seedlings is universal, neutral in acidity and fertile. There should be records on the properties of the soil on the package. In addition, the soil can also be taken from the garden plot, but in this case it must be cleaned, steamed or ignited, and nutrients added to it.

When the seeds sprout, and this will happen in 1-2 weeks, they can be planted in different pots. At this time, the plant will begin to actively grow, and it will need a lot of sunlight and water. It is necessary to dive plants very carefully, since the roots of tobacco are very long, in a common container they often intertwine and break off during transplantation.

Both planting seedlings and planting in open ground should be carried out at high temperatures. If the temperature in the house and on the street is less than 25-28 degrees, then the plant may not take root or sprout.

Seedlings can be transplanted into open ground after about 2-3 weeks, when the plants will stretch to a height of 15 cm or a little higher, and each will have 5-7 leaves.

Tobacco seedlings simply need to be hardened off. Hardened plants are much easier to tolerate and sunlight, brighter in open ground than in an apartment, and cold soil, and low air temperature. Pots with seedlings are taken out into the street, first for a short time, for ten minutes, and then this time is increased - on the second day of planting, they are left for 15 minutes, then for 20, 25, and so on. After about 2 weeks of regular hardening, the plants will be ready for transplanting to a permanent place.

Transplantation in open ground

Soil for tobacco must be prepared in advance. You can grow a plant both in a greenhouse and in open ground, but tobacco usually feels better in a greenhouse.

The soil on which the seedlings are planted should be dug up 20-30 cm deep, and well fertilized.

Fertilizers can be applied just before transplanting seedlings, and in advance, according to gardeners, tobacco fertilizer is suitable for tomatoes and peppers, or universal for vegetable crops.

The plant responds well to humus, but it is better not to take fresh manure as a fertilizer at all or use it only in the fall.

Watering tobacco is stopped a few days before planting in the garden. If the plant has previously grown in a peat or cardboard glass, then the transplant is much easier and less difficult for the bush - the glass is simply buried in the ground, watered and left. If the seedlings developed in a plastic pot, then the clod of earth along with the stem must be removed, placed in a previously prepared and watered hole, and sprinkled with dry earth on top. Thus, for the next few days, the tobacco seedlings will have enough water, and they will adapt normally.

Landing Care

Complex plant care is not required. It is enough to water them once a day or less often so that the soil is slightly moist all the time, loosen and fertilize.

Tobacco must be watered very carefully. Gardeners recommend pouring at least 5 liters of water under each plant, and when the tobacco grows up, even more. Water is recommended to take warm, settled, without chlorine.

If the plantings lack water, the leaves will become hard, and there will be more nicotine in them, which will affect the quality of the crop.

Two months after transplanting tobacco into the ground, watering is reduced, as the air becomes more humid and the weather becomes colder. Water is added to plants only in case of drought and severe drying of the soil.

Another aspect of tobacco care is stepping and topping. Both are necessary to increase productivity. Pasynkuyut tobacco until flowering. Lateral shoots must be cut or cut off (but this is more traumatic for the plant), and sprinkle the cut with ash.

Topping is necessary to make the sheet stronger. To do this, it is necessary to prevent the tobacco from blooming, that is, to remove all the buds before they open.

Sheet collection

Tobacco is harvested when the lower leaves begin to turn yellow and dry out. At this point, you can cut off the lower leaves, about 3-4 pieces from each stem, and begin to dry and ferment them.

The leaves must be hung in a humid room and kept in this position for about a month, not allowing the leaves to dry out. Dried leaves can be cut or crushed and smoked after 3-4 months, but it should be remembered that such leaves contain much more tar and nicotine than processed ones, therefore, it is necessary to take care of a quality filter for a cigarette or pipe.

For fermentation, dry leaves are sprayed with water, put in jars and simmered at a temperature of about 50 degrees for several weeks. At home, this is quite difficult to do; a fermentation cabinet is needed.

Fermentation is contraindicated for aromatic varieties, which lose all their properties from this process. Such tobacco needs to lie for several months, and preferably longer, to open up. The world's most popular variety, Virginia, needs fermentation.

Tobacco ordinary (lat. Nicotiana tabacum), or real tobacco, or tobacco virginian is a species of herbaceous plants of the Tobacco genus of the Solanaceae family. On an industrial scale, this type of tobacco is cultivated for the sake of leaves, from which tobacco products for smoking are made.

Tobacco is native to Peru and Brazil. The first description of tobacco and its uses was given by Bernardine de Sahagún in the 16th century in his General History of the Affairs of New Spain. The scientist relied on information received from the Aztecs, who called tobacco herb pisitel and used to treat headaches, festering wounds, colds, runny nose, tumors, bloating and other ailments. Tobacco got its scientific name in honor of the French ambassador to Portugal, Jean Nicot, who in 1560 sent the seeds of this plant to Paris.

Today, tobacco is grown for the manufacture of cigars, cigarettes, cigarettes and other smoking products, and nicotinic acid is widely used to treat diseases such as diarrhea, dermatitis, glossitis, stomatitis and other diseases. However, it should be remembered that nicotine is very toxic, and some substances contained in tobacco are carcinogenic.

Bloom: within 25-40 days from mid-summer.
Landing: sowing tobacco for seedlings - in late February or early March, planting seedlings in the ground - from late April to late May.
Lighting: bright sunlight.
The soil: light, breathable and well-drained.
Watering: regular as the topsoil dries.
Top dressing: a few days after planting the seedlings, then two more times with an interval of 2-3 weeks. As fertilizers, a solution of complex mineral fertilizer or chicken manure (1:10) is used.
Topping and pinching: half of the peduncles should be broken out: this measure improves the quality of tobacco. Intensively formed after topping (breaking out peduncles) stepchildren should also be removed.
Reproduction: seed.
Pests: peach aphid, tobacco thrips and wireworms.
Diseases: black root rot, dry root rot, black leg (seedling rot), powdery mildew, downy mildew (peronosporosis), white dry spot (alternaria), grouse and viral diseases - tobacco, or ordinary mosaic, cucumber mosaic, bronze (apical chlorosis) ) and white moth.

Read more about the cultivation of smoking tobacco below.

Smoking tobacco - description

Tobacco is an annual herbaceous plant that reaches a height of 3 m. The stem of tobacco almost does not branch. The next whole leaves of different varieties of virginian tobacco can be both narrow-lanceolate and wide-ovate in shape, and their number on one plant can vary from 16 to 60. The lower leaves are decurrent, the base of the leaf is semi-petiolate, the surface is resinous, fleecy. Reddish or pink funnel-shaped tobacco flowers are collected in narrow apical paniculate inflorescences. The main economically valuable features of tobacco are the size of the surface and the thickness of the leaf plate. Tobacco is cultivated in 84 countries of the world.

Cultivation of smoking tobacco

Sowing seeds of smoking tobacco for seedlings

Seeds of smoking tobacco have good germination, which lasts for years. You should know that shag (village tobacco) can grow in the middle zone and even in areas with a cooler climate, but tobacco is a heat-loving plant. How to grow smoking tobacco from seeds? To do this, use both seedling and seedless method. The seedling method is used for growing tobacco in cool regions, and in areas with a warm climate, seeds are sown directly into the ground.

In the photo: The flowering of smoking tobacco

Sowing tobacco for seedlings is done in late February or early March. The seed must first be kept in a damp cloth for a day until it swells, adding a few drops of tartaric acid or potassium nitrate crystals to the water to soak the tissue. This measure will speed up the emergence of seedlings by a week. After swelling, the seeds are washed, dried, placed on a damp cloth in an enameled or ceramic container and placed for germination in a warm place, keeping the cloth moist all the time. On the third or fourth day, small seedlings appear on the seeds.

Don't wait for the sprouts on the seeds to get too long because they break off easily.

When 2/3 of the seeds germinate, they are dried, carefully mixed with disinfected dry sand and sown on the surface of well-moistened soil from humus (three parts) and sand (one part), and sprinkled on top with a layer of the same substrate. The thickness of the covering layer for shag should be 3-5, and for tobacco - 7-8 mm. It is advisable to sow the seeds in separate containers - cups, peat pots or cassettes, since tobacco, like other nightshade crops, does not like transplants, and therefore picks. After sowing, the surface is watered through a thick strainer so as not to erode the covering layer of the substrate. Then the crops are covered with a film and placed in a bright place where direct sunlight does not fall.

Tobacco care during the seedling period

Keep a container with crops at a temperature of 23-28 ºC. Care consists of almost daily meager watering and mandatory two-time ventilation. When the hatched seedlings develop the first pair of true leaves, the temperature is lowered to 20 ºC, and the water consumption during irrigation is increased. At the stage of development of 3-4 leaves, if you planted in a box or container, the seedlings dive into a large container. In the future, fertile soil is sprinkled under the seedlings 2-3 times.

Feeding seedlings of tobacco a solution of 30 g of ammonium nitrate and 20 g of potassium sulfate or chloride in 10 liters of water. From organic fertilizers, it is better to use a solution of chicken manure: 1 kg of fertilizer is poured into a bucket of water, allowed to ferment for 10-12 days, stirring occasionally, after which the infusion is filtered and 4-5 volumes of water are added to it.

In the photo: How tobacco blooms

Seedlings will be ready for planting in open ground at the age of 40-45 days, when the seedlings will reach a height of 14-16 cm, acquire 5-6 true leaves, their stem will become 3-5 mm thick, and the root system will develop sufficiently. However, 7-10 days before planting, the seedlings must be hardened, for which they must be taken out daily for some time in the open air, gradually increasing the duration of the sessions. 2-3 days before planting, watering the seedlings is stopped, and 2-3 hours before planting, the seedlings are abundantly moistened.

Planting seedlings of tobacco in open ground

When the return frosts pass, and the soil at a depth of 10 cm warms up to 10 ºC, seedlings can be planted in the garden. Usually the necessary conditions are formed in the period from April 20 to May 25. The site for tobacco should be sunny, and the soil on it should be light and breathable. First you need to add ash or mullein to the soil for digging.

In the holes located at a distance of 50 cm from one another, half a liter of water must be poured before planting. When the water is absorbed, make a hole in the hole with a peg, place a seedling in it and sprinkle its roots first with moist soil, and on top with dry soil so that the moisture from the soil does not evaporate so quickly.

Garden tobacco care

How to grow smoking tobacco

Growing smoking tobacco is a simple process, but there are certain subtleties in it. Tobacco care consists of regular watering, loosening the soil around the bushes, removing weeds and timely feeding, which ideally should be at least three.

The first time tobacco is fed a few days after planting the seedlings in the ground, then after 2-3 weeks the second top dressing should follow, and 2-3 weeks after the second - the third. As fertilizers, a solution of chicken manure (1:10) or a solution of a complex mineral fertilizer prepared according to the instructions is used.

In the photo: Blooming tobacco

To obtain better quality smoking tobacco, the bushes should be trimmed, that is, about half of the flower arrows should be broken out of them. After this procedure, the tobacco will begin to actively form stepchildren, which also need to be removed.

Pests and diseases of smoking tobacco

Diseases of smoking tobacco

Tobacco can get fungal diseases such as black root rot, dry root rot, black leg (seedling rot), powdery mildew, downy mildew (peronosporosis), white dry spot (alternaria). Tobacco is also affected by bacterial ripples and viral diseases - tobacco, or ordinary mosaic, cucumber mosaic, bronze (apical chlorosis) and white moss.

Disease control measures. As for viral infections, it is useless to fight them: you just need to remove and burn diseased plants. Against root rot, use Benlat's 50% wettable powder. And against bacterial grouse, peronosporosis, powdery mildew and other fungal diseases, preventive spraying of seedlings with a suspension of Zineb or Polycarbacin is effective. In general, the most reliable protection is preventive tillage and seed treatment before sowing. From fungal and bacterial diseases, tobacco seeds are treated for 15 minutes with a solution of Formalin: 20 cm³ of 40% Formalin is dissolved in 1 liter of water. Two liters of such a solution are consumed per 1 kg of seeds. The soil is also shed with formalin solution.

In the photo: Growing smoking tobacco on the site

Pests of smoking tobacco

Of the pests for tobacco, peach aphids, tobacco thrips and wireworms are dangerous.

peach aphid, which gives up to 18 generations in a season, sucks juice from tobacco leaves and leaves its excrement, skins after molting and corpses in them. In addition, she is a peddler of such dangerous incurable diseases as white moth and cucumber mosaic. Aphids deplete the plant, slow down its development, reduce yield and impair the taste of tobacco. The fight against aphids is carried out with Rogor and Metation preparations, and for preventive purposes, regular and thorough weeding of beds and daily inspection of tobacco leaves are very important.

Tobacco thrips- as small as aphids, a pest that gives up to 7 generations over the summer. Thrips bites tobacco leaves and sucks the juice out of them, from which the quality of raw materials and the yield of tobacco are sharply reduced: the affected leaves are poorly fermented, dry unevenly and become brittle after drying. In addition, thrips, like aphids, carry viral diseases. Tobacco infected with thrips should be treated with insecticides.

wireworms, or drupes- These are yellow-brown larvae of the click beetle, hard to the touch. They live in the ground, damage the roots, make moves in the stems of young plants and eat away the core in them. They are very difficult to fight, so you need to try to prevent them from appearing in the soil. If you find wireworms on the site, then two weeks before planting tobacco, treat the soil for digging with a twelve percent Hexachloran dust, and the next day, in the evening, pollinate the soil with Metaphos dust and harrow the area to a depth of 3-4 cm.

Collection of smoking tobacco and storage

Smoking tobacco in the country is grown on average from 15 to 17 weeks. When the tobacco leaves stop growing, they begin harvesting. At this time, the leaves reach their greatest density. Ripe tobacco leaves are lighter in color. Cleaning is done in the evenings, starting with the lower and largest leaves. Then, when the middle leaves ripen, they are also removed.

The collected leaves are dried, kept in a dark, well-ventilated room at a temperature of 25-30 ºC. During the drying process, the tobacco is fermented. Many ferment already dried tobacco in an electric oven at 50 ºC. Do not be afraid of electricity consumption: it is minimal.

In the photo: How tobacco blooms

What is tobacco fermentation and why is it needed? Fermentation is the process of changing physical properties through biological or chemical influences. The natural fermentation of tobacco leaves is achieved by storing them for a long time. Dominican tobacco, for example, is fermented for 5 years when stored in bales or oak barrels. With the artificial method, fermentation is significantly accelerated. In order to ferment grown tobacco at home, you must proceed in the following order:

dry tobacco leaves without traces of greenery (if there are green spots on the leaves, they must be cut out, because areas with chlorophyll are not fermented) are moistened on both sides from a spray bottle, stacked one on top of the other and covered with polyethylene;
a day later, the middle vein is removed from each leaf, checking the degree of leaf moisture, on which the quality of fermentation depends: the leaf ready for further processing should not be raw and at the same time should not break at the bend. It should be dry and elastic, like a thin cloth. Too wet leaves will have to be dried, and dry leaves should be moistened and kept for some time in piles under polyethylene;
leaves ready for fermentation are cut into strips. The noodle cutter copes well and quickly with this. The crushed tobacco is placed in glass jars, filling them no more than 2/3, so that later the tobacco is mixed by shaking. The jars are closed with twist lids, placed in the oven and set to 50 ºC. The fermentation process lasts from 5 to 7 days. Do not forget to shake the tobacco in the jars from time to time so that it cures evenly. There should be no condensation on the walls of the cans, and if it appears, the tobacco must be poured out and dried, after which the fermentation process is resumed. On the second or third day of the process, the tobacco begins to smell like honey or fruit, and this is a sure sign that the fermentation is successful;
the finished tobacco is poured onto a flat surface, slightly dried, and then placed for storage in any hermetically sealed container.

Varieties of smoking tobacco

There are a great many varieties of tobacco, and the work of breeders to develop new varieties continues. The most popular in the household are the following varieties:

Gold Virginia- tobacco with a fruity aroma and a delicate sweetish taste. This variety is the basis for many smoking blends;
Kentucky Barley- a variety with a pleasant nutty aroma, does not contain sugar, so it does not need fermentation. That is, its dried leaves are steamed and immediately cut for smoking;
Maryland- light, light air-dried tobacco with a wonderful aroma and taste, known since 1828. This is a high-yielding variety of early ripening;
Walkers Broadleaf- one of the earliest varieties that can be grown even in the northern regions;
American- an early ripe semi-aromatic, disease-resistant tobacco used both for cigarettes and cigars and as pipe tobacco;
Dukat Crimean- easily fermented aromatic tobacco with leaves up to half a meter long;
Turkish Trebizond is an aromatic variety for cigarettes and pipes, easy to ferment and resistant to adverse conditions. The variety was named after the city of Trabzon;
Herzegovina Flor- tobacco with a unique taste and aroma comes from the former Yugoslavia. In the people, this variety is called Stalin's tobacco;
Virginia 202- early ripe strong and fragrant tobacco, resistant to many diseases and practically does not require watering during cultivation. The variety is distinguished by reliability and unpretentiousness;
Barley Original- strong tobacco, which is the basis for most smoking mixtures;
Oriental Samsun- fragrant tobacco with a low nicotine content. Most fragrant when grown in dry soils. With watering, it loses its taste and aroma, but its yield increases;
Soviet large-leaved- this disease-resistant variety is distinguished by its productivity and high smoking qualities of oriental tobaccos;
Silk Leaf- a versatile large-leaved aromatic variety used both for cigarette and pipe blends and for the production of cigars;
Dubec- Turkish variety, which is considered the best aromatic tobacco in the world. This is tobacco for true connoisseurs;
Peric- aromatic oriental tobacco, known to smokers all over the world. After drying, the leaves of this variety are fermented in barrels, like cabbage, so that they acquire their unforgettable pungency and aroma.

In the photo: Smoking tobacco

Rustic tobacco, or shag, deserves a separate story. This tobacco was brought from North America to Europe at the same time as smoking tobacco and differs from it in its short stature (100-120 cm), branched stem with a ribbed surface, greenish-yellow flowers and even smaller seeds. Rating 4.29 (21 votes)

After this article, they usually read

You have decided to plant tobacco. No, this is not the dashing nineties, during which there was a catastrophic shortage of all goods. Yes, and more often, then they grew shag. Today, growing tobacco at home is becoming fashionable, and we have the opportunity to get high-quality, fragrant and inexpensive tobacco grown on our site. If you have acquired such a harmful and pernicious habit as smoking, then you should not allow strangers to cash in on you. Why pay huge sums of money to manufacturers for packing cigarettes, in which instead of tobacco there will be an incomprehensible substance impregnated with various synthetic compounds? Just need to know how to grow tobacco for smoking in the area.

Growing tobacco at home

Sowing for seedlings

Growing tobacco in your garden is quite simple. First of all, you should do seedlings. After all, tobacco has a rather long vegetative period and it may not have time to gain the right amount of taste and aroma, especially if it is sown directly into the soil. Gardeners who see tobacco seeds for the first time most often say that this is some kind of dust, because they are very tiny. And if they are simply sown in the ground, then the harvest may not wait at all. To properly sow tobacco seeds, you need to purchase a wide container, the height of which will be no more than 7 cm. It will be better if you have a separate cassette for each seed.

The soil should be from fertile soil, which contains clean sand, it must be poured in one layer and at the same time well moistened and leveled. Some gardeners advise watering the soil with settled water before planting the seeds. This should be done very carefully, because there is a chance to wash the tiny seeds.

Pre-soaked seeds in water, carefully spread on the prepared ground or pour onto the surface and level, while maintaining a distance. If this is not done, then the shoots will shade each other. Despite the small size, the seeds from above must be covered with earth. The layer should be no more than 0.6-0.7 cm. Close the container with glass or transparent plastic and put it in a bright place with a high temperature of 26-28 degrees.

Once a day, you need to remove the condensate that will collect on the inside of the glass or turn the glass over to the other side. If you notice that the soil has begun to dry out somewhat, you can sprinkle it with a spray bottle. Shoots appear in 8-10 days.

After the sprouts have hatched, the temperature should be lowered to 19 degrees. If this is not done, then the seedlings may stop and no longer grow. The cover must be removed after 4-5 true leaves appear, and the seedlings can already be picked. If the seedlings were in separate cups, then you can not do this.

For the first two or three weeks, it may seem that the seedlings do not grow at all and are in one place. However, this is not the case at all, it is just that at this time root system grows and only after its complete formation, the above-ground part becomes stronger and gains all power. So that small bushes do not fall off and do not lie on their side due to the weight of their own leaves, you can spud them or sprinkle a little soil on the roots.

A very important factor is the monitoring of soil moisture, because if you moisten it too much, you can earn a black leg and, accordingly, the complete destruction of all seedlings. Growth needs bright light from 8:00 am to 8:00 pm. To do this, you can and should use the backlight lamps. It is strictly forbidden to put seedlings in direct sunlight, because small and thin leaves immediately burn.

3 weeks before transplanting seedlings into open soil, it is necessary to feed the seedlings with any potassium-phosphorus fertilizer. Tobacco is very thermophilic and at temperatures below 4 degrees, may die. Therefore, seedlings should be planted in the soil at the end of May, when all frosts are behind.

Planting seedlings in the ground

Tobacco is planted according to the scheme that must be followed. The size of the hole is 35 cm by 55 cm (the principle is the same as for seedlings of pepper or tomato). From 0.6 to 1.5 liters of clean, settled water is poured into the planting hole. Then they make a talker from the earth and plant a plant bush. It will be very favorable for further growth if it is deepened by 5 cm, thus additional roots will be stimulated.

To determine whether a plant is ready for transplanting into open soil, its leaves can be counted (there should be 5-7 of them) and at the same time they should be well developed. It is better not to touch the seedling by the leaves. because they are very delicate and thin. If even a small scratch forms on the leaf, then spores of the fungus and various bacteria can penetrate there. Therefore, it is better to use the transplant method along with a clod of earth.

On the 4th day after the tobacco is transplanted into the soil, it must be fed with organic fertilizers. No more top dressing is necessary, since it is the minerals that remain in the sheets and then enter the lungs along with tobacco smoke. Smoking tobacco can be bitter and have an unpleasant odor if organic matter that is rich in nitrogen gets there.

A long and powerful root can find useful substances at any depth. If during the growth of tobacco it is very hot and the sun bakes, then it is very important in the first weeks to make an artificial shade for small sprouts. It can be a canopy made of lightweight non-woven material or gauze, and you can also use metal arcs and cover them with a cloth. The main thing is not to remove the light, but to avoid sunburn.

Tobacco care in the garden

There are several pest control options.

You can manually collect all the pests. This method is acceptable if you only have a few tobacco bushes.
Various insecticides can be used. The method will be more justified for a large plantation.

In order not to add unnecessary chemicals to nicotine, the area where tobacco grows should be kept clean and all weeds should be removed in a timely manner.

If the plants are unhealthy, then the most common cold snap below 15 degrees can completely destroy the entire plantation. It will depend on the health and general condition of the plant whether it will withstand the temperature drop or not. If the bush is very weak and frail, then most often it will not be able to live up to its so-called technical maturity. There are several ways to get rid of the disease:

If you follow the advice, then all actions must be carried out under a magnifying glass, since grains of sand with their sharp edges can scratch the seeds. Separate wet seeds with a needle.

It is impossible to grow tobacco in your garden in those beds where nightshade crops are already growing, because in this case there is a risk of earning various viral diseases from their relatives.

On soils that are poor in fertilizers, it will be necessary to fertilize with potassium-phosphorus fertilizers three times per season. At the same time, it is very important not to violate the dose and the recipe, because if there is an excess of minerals in the soil, the tobacco will become very rough and will smell bad.

So that during the growing season the leaf does not fade and does not become unsuitable for smoking, it is necessary to destroy all weak sheets in time.

Harvesting and drying

With quality care and compliance with temperature growing conditions, good tobacco can reach 2.5 m in height, and in this case there will be more than twenty leaves. Collected leaves should be left for drying indoors, the humidity in which will be high (about 90%). If an attic or a barn is used for these purposes, then additional water containers must be installed there. Thus, the raw material must be cured. However, it should not dry out and become brittle. After drying is done, we will get another product, which we call smoking.

In order for it to become of better quality, as well as to acquire a bright and rich aroma, and the necessary strength, it must be fermented. It is easy to do this on the Internet You can find more than one recommendation on this issue. There are a lot of different tips and recipes and you can use completely different technologies and additives. Most common:

cognac;
cocoa.

After the tobacco is processed in this way, its taste will be of high quality and unusual. By following the growing instructions, and by properly making and fermenting, smoking tobacco can serve as an unusual and a wonderful gift for those who love good, and most importantly, high-quality smoke.

Growing tobacco at home will bring a pleasant feeling to the gardener. And let the Ministry of Health warn ...

Virginia tobacco seeds.

The variety of tobacco is unique in the ability to cultivate in Russia, Canada, or any climatic zone from 8 to 2. The height of the plant, even when grown in the Urals, is 2 meters. From each plant, you can collect up to 0.6 kg of tobacco leaves, of course, I mean raw, in dried form, the weight will be much lower, and in finished form, about 60 grams of tobacco. One pack of Virginia tobacco weighing 50 grams is sold in stores for 480 rubles, respectively, you can calculate your savings, due to your own harvest.

Virginia tobacco leaves reach a fairly large size, which means that the plant does not like drought and requires timely watering. Does not require a greenhouse, grows well in open ground.

The cost of 1000 seeds is only 200 rubles. 100% prepayment. Seed germination 98%. Any quantity of seeds is available.

If you buy 100 tobacco seeds or less, no one will guarantee a high percentage of seed germination, which is why, even with a planned planting on 1 acre, you need to stock up on the largest number of seeds. Summer happens once a year, and if we buy seeds in small quantities, we can lose a whole year. And the point is not only in the similarity of tobacco seeds, but also in the ability to plant them, and then care for them to the finished result. The remaining seedlings in the box do not need to be thrown away yet, they will continue to grow for some time, in the same home conditions, more on this below. There were such cases, after planting the plants in the ground, it rained heavily, and all the seedlings were simply mixed with the ground. If there were seedlings in stock, one could simply plant new plants in the ground. In general, tobacco seedlings can be sold very profitably in your city.

Tobacco seeds are very small in size, in one poppy seed, 6 tobacco seeds can fit, which means that planting plants requires caution in order to avoid damage to the root system. If tobacco seeds are spread between wet tissues, they will certainly germinate, but we can hardly touch them without damaging them. That is why the seeds must be sown in loose soil, from which we can extract the plant with the root, without damaging them.

The taste of Virginia Tobacco, ready-made, when smoked, changes every year, and this depends on different weather conditions. If the summer was very hot, then the tobacco will be strong enough. If, when growing tobacco, the plant received little moisture, then the taste of tobacco will be stronger. If tobacco is grown in more clay soil, then the tobacco will be stronger. As you can see, the taste of tobacco and its strength depends not only on the weather, but also on the soil.

Growing Virginia tobacco, from start to finish.

Tobacco seeds must be stored in a dry and cool place, for example, in a wooden box, which is placed in a waterproof bag made of polyethylene or aluminum foil, in the refrigerator door, where the temperature is +5 degrees. In dense polyethylene, without air, tobacco seeds suffocate, and there is a high probability of a complete lack of seedlings. But we should not forget that sometimes seedlings appear only after 3 weeks, after sowing the seeds.

In the middle of February, in ready-made boxes with moist soil, we make furrows into which we fill tobacco seeds, then sprinkle the seeds with earth. Then cover with dark polyethylene, and leave for a few days. During this time, the seeds will gain moisture, swell, and germination will begin. Every 3 days we look, but do not water, the soil was wet when we planted the seeds.

When shoots appear, remove the film, and water from the spray gun, so as not to damage the soil with a jet of water, and not to expose the roots of the plants. When 3 - 4 leaves have grown, it's time to transplant our young plants.

And now, in addition to watering and fertilizing, we need good lighting, which is not enough for plants in winter. A little lower you can get acquainted with the lighting device, which is specially designed to illuminate seedlings in the winter. You can buy special lighting for seedlings from us.

Thus, we take care of the seedlings until May - June. In climate zone 2, it is recommended to plant tobacco seeds in mid-June. Until the tobacco leaves are fully ripe, 3 months are enough, which is about 90 - 110 days.

The lowest leaves ripen first. In tobacco, these leaves have a very weak taste. We tear off the leaves, tie them 4 pieces into a bundle, and hang them on a pre-prepared stretched rope for further drying. After a few days, we tear off the middle leaves, then the top ones. The uppermost tobacco leaves have a strong flavor and are of better quality than the lower leaves. But if you pick the top leaves first, then there will be no fortress in them.

We dry the leaves of Virginia in the shade so that the room is blown with fresh air. After complete drying, we take a bottle of vodka, add 60 - 100 grams of raspberry or other syrup to vodka, stir, insert a spray bottle into the bottle, then spray from the spray bottle onto a connected bunch of leaves. After 20 minutes, the leaves are slightly soaked, and they must be put in a plastic bag, tightly closed, so that they are completely saturated with moisture from the solution. Then the leaves become very soft, now you can cut the midrib. To do this, cut the sheet lengthwise, next to the vein, remove the vein, and fold the halves of the sheets in half, on top of each other in piles.

After that, the stacks must be put under the press for three days. Then we take it out from under the press, and you can cut it finely into tobacco. For this purpose, a manual noodle cutter is suitable for us. After cutting tobacco, it is necessary to dry it for several days, just in the open air, or in a few minutes in the oven. Then other varieties of tobacco can be added to the tobacco, thereby achieving a unique taste.

There are a lot of fermentation methods, I described the simplest one. Moreover, we do not add any chemicals, and glycerin, which is necessarily added in pipe tobaccos sold. We received tobacco without chemicals, and most importantly, tobacco grown on our own and with knowledge.

For residents of the northern regions, we recommend growing shag, this is a win-win option. Regardless of the weather for the coming summer, you can grow a good crop of tobacco by growing shag. The smell of the smoke of our shag is vaguely reminiscent of the smoke of Cuban cigars, of course the tobacco is strong, but it can be fermented in the same way as Virginia, and after fermentation we will get a wonderful tobacco, not strong, with a pleasant smoke aroma. Perhaps not all varieties of shag are fermentable, but our shag is well fermented.

It is easy to get tobacco on your site.

The method of growing tobacco for smoking or processing vegetables is almost the same as the technologies for cultivating other nightshade crops.

There are two varieties of this culture:

1. Tobacco ordinary- a plant up to 3 m tall with pink inflorescences. Real tobacco loves heat very much, for this reason it develops well in hot regions;

2. ordinary shag- a plant no more than 120 cm tall, with yellowish inflorescences. In it, the content of nicotine is less than 2 times contain twice compared to conventional tobacco.

Photo - shag

From one bush, under suitable conditions, you can collect about 30 g of dry tobacco, 6-7 bushes are grown per 1 m2. Varieties with large leaves are planted according to the scheme 70x30 cm, and shag and varieties with medium leaves are planted according to the scheme 70 × 20 cm. If you have grown too strong tobacco, you can make it weaker by mixing ground stems.

Varieties of smoking tobacco

There are many varieties of this plant. As with growing vegetables, it is best to sow locally bred varieties.

Popular in the former USSR:

T Rapezond Kubanets. This variety has a growing season from sowing seeds to the last leaf breaking of 103-134 days;

Trapezond 92. Resistant to viral diseases and various factors affecting the plant. The variety has a short growing season, the leaves are broken in 95-100 days;

Samsun 85. Refers to mid-season, fast-growing varieties; leaf breaking is carried out at the age of 105 - 110 days;

Anniversary new 142 . An early ripening variety, 78-82 days pass before the leaves break. The variety has complex resistance to various diseases;

Holly 316. A variety of late ripening, leaves develop intensively. The plant contains little nicotine, the period until the end of withdrawal is 120 days.

Sowing tobacco for smoking

Tobacco seeds are very small, for this reason they will need very little. A gram of shag contains about 4,000 seeds, and about 12,000 of tobacco.

In addition, you will not need to buy them further, 2-3 plants will provide so many seeds that are enough for a hectare. The seeds of this crop remain viable for a long time, you can get seedlings from the old seed, of course, you need to take into account that their germination will decrease.

Growing tobacco for smoking is done using seedlings, it can be obtained even on the southern windowsill.

The required age for planting seedlings in the ground is 40-45 days.

If you need a lot of tobacco, then in the southern regions, sowing is done directly into the ground or seedlings are grown in greenhouses and greenhouses. Sow seeds superficially, just scatter them on pre-moistened soil.

Attention! The sowing depth of seeds of this crop should not exceed 7 mm (3 mm for shag). Having scattered the seed on the surface, it is slightly pressed into the soil and gently moistened so that the seeds do not sink into the soil.

You can sow seeds that have already hatched, for this they are soaked for 4 days and laid out on a damp cloth, this method will reduce the germination period by 7 days. For germination, the optimum temperature ranges from 25-28 degrees. Strongly watering seedlings of tobacco is not worth it, it is advisable to moisten them a little every day.

Planting seedlings

Seedlings are planted in the garden after they rise by 15 cm (5-6 leaves are formed).

Tobacco seedlings die from spring frosts, the soil should warm up to a depth of 10 cm. 7 days before planting the seedlings, it is necessary to harden the plants, accustoming them to open air.

For 2-3 days, watering is stopped, moistening the soil well only 2-3 hours before planting in the ground.

Seedlings are placed one at a time in each well, having previously poured 1 liter of water into them. A transplant is a shock to a young plant. For this reason, it is necessary to save, not to destroy the earthen ball on the roots.

tobacco care

During the development of plants, it is necessary to systematically loosen the soil, water, feed the plants and remove weeds.

feed them with the same frequency and in the same quantity as tomatoes. Watered infrequently, 6-8 liters per bush is enough, spending 2-3 waterings over the summer.

A well-developed tobacco bush has a root system that has grown several meters; experienced tobacco growers argue that watering adult plants of this crop is harmful.

In bushes with formed inflorescences, they are cut off and it is imperative to pinch the plants.

soil for plants

Tobacco is best grown on fresh land, it is planted after winter crops or fallow. Tobacco should not be planted after potatoes and beets.

Sandy loamy soil is best suited for this culture, in which there is a lot of nitrogen and potassium.

Tobacco is best fertilized - with cow dung, bird droppings are a good top dressing for it.

In areas with high acidity, the soil is limed, it has a positive effect on plant growth, and on the completeness of combustion of the final product.

Harvesting begins when the color of the leaves changes.

Since leaves of different colors can be found on one bush, their harvesting lasts several weeks.

Major diseases

Blackleg. Seedlings begin to lie down on the ground, after which they die, the stem above the soil turns black and becomes thin.

Mosaic. In diseased bushes, leaves with alternating light and green areas. After some time, light spots die off, infection occurs from the remnants of ill plants.

Bacterial ryabuka. Formed along the edges of the leaves of seedlings, weeping or oily spots. With high humidity, they begin to rot and spread throughout the bush. The causative agent of the disease is on tools, tobacco dust or on leaves.

Drying and fermentation

Responsible work in the preparation of tobacco is the drying of raw materials and subsequent fermentation. After harvesting, the leaves are hung in a ventilated area, it is necessary to install a container with water nearby to increase the humidity. The leaves will dry for about a month.

After that, the dried tobacco leaves are moistened from a spray gun and stacked in piles, placed in a plastic bag and incubated for 24 hours for complete moistening. As a result, they should not be raw, but only wet. Then they are put in glass jars, in which fermentation will take place.

Fermentation is a process that takes place for several weeks at a temperature of 50 degrees. This operation with raw materials is carried out to reduce the content of tar and nicotine, improve the taste and reduce the strength of tobacco. This process can be carried out in an electric oven at a temperature of 50-60 degrees. It is often more convenient and easier to dry not whole leaves, but pre-crushed raw materials.

Ready-made tobacco is used for processing plants, in smoking pipes, cigarettes are rolled from it (cigarette paper and special machines can be purchased at specialty stores). You can even make a cigar out of it - this is an interesting and fairly simple job.

What they just do not grow in garden and summer cottages, avid gardeners in vegetable gardens. An unexpected option is smoking tobacco. Why not? For a gardener-smoker, a good way to stock up on your own.

Features of the growing process

The main feature of tobacco is a wide variety of varieties. They differ greatly in the way they are planted, cared for and harvested. For example, shag is the most unpretentious option. If you grow ordinary tobacco in the garden, you will have to make a little more effort. He loves warmth more than water.

IMPORTANT! To grow tobacco in a garden, it is better to know in advance which variety is suitable for a particular area.

In general, tobacco is planted, processed and fed like many other plants. For example, the process of transplanting smoking tobacco seedlings into the ground is very similar to planting tomatoes. It follows that everyone can grow tobacco in a garden.

Planting seeds

In order to get seedlings of tobacco, seeds should be sown. Tobacco is quite capricious and heat-loving, therefore it requires proper care and knowledge of the process. At the first stage of interaction with him, it is recommended to plant a small number of plant units in order to understand the principle of its cultivation.

Tobacco seeds have some features:

the size. They are so small that they look more like dust. Hence the peculiarities of planting the seed of tobacco for smoking: it is enough just to “scatter” them over the surface of the earth and only slightly press;
germination. Tobacco seeds retain their germination property for a long time. This means that fairly old seeds can also be sown;
number. A quarter of a gram of tobacco seeds is sufficient to obtain a result in the volume of the annual "smoker's supply". Such a small amount of material gives a decent yield.

Due to these features, a specific fit is required. Tobacco seeds are not planted deep. The maximum depth of their planting is up to 1 cm. To do this, simply scatter them on the surface of the soil and only slightly press into it. After that, carefully pour a thin stream of water. If the pressure is too strong, the seeds will easily wash out and spread over the surface, going beyond the allotted limits.

ATTENTION! Tobacco seeds can also be planted slightly germinated, this will speed up the seedling germination process. To germinate seeds, you need to soak them in water 4-5 days before planting.

Temperature is an important factor influencing the rate of seed germination. It should be in the range of 25-28 degrees, otherwise the seeds may not sprout at all.

Video - tobacco seed planting technology

Planting seedlings in open ground

How to understand that tobacco seedlings are ready to move into the open ground of the garden? There are a number of signs for this:

seedlings have a height of about 15 cm;
leaves have formed on it, on each unit there are about 5 plants;
the root system has developed sufficiently;
frosts have passed and the likelihood of their occurrence is minimal. This factor is extremely important, since any sudden drop in temperature can destroy the entire crop.

ATTENTION! Before transplanting into open ground, tobacco plants must be hardened off. Otherwise, they will not be able to adapt to the changed conditions.

The essence of hardening is to reduce the frequency of watering and the periodic removal of seedlings to the open air. This will help strengthen the plants and make them a little more resilient to the environment.

The process of landing in the ground is not much different from the standard. Each bush is planted in separate holes, after pouring plenty of water into it. In addition, it is worth planting tobacco with a small amount of soil so that the root system is not badly damaged. This will help the plants to more easily survive the stress of transplantation and “get sick” faster.

Care and feeding

Tobacco care involves doing the following regularly:

weeding from weeds is necessary as they appear;
loosening the soil around the plant. This helps oxygen saturate the soil and nourish the root system of the tobacco;
top dressing. It is similar to that which is made for tomatoes;
watering. Tobacco does not like abundant watering, it is better to water rarely, but plentifully. In total for the summer (not very hot) 3-4 times is enough.

When to harvest and how to dry it?

Growing tobacco is not such a responsible process as harvesting and drying it. The result directly depends on the correct implementation of these actions. Improper drying or fermentation can negate all efforts to grow tobacco for smoking.

Tobacco that has changed the color of the leaves should be removed. If at first, at the stage of maturation and growth, they are green, then ready for harvesting, they are closer to yellow. If there are leaves of different colors on one bush, then they should be collected as soon as they are ready. Hence, the harvesting process is sometimes delayed for a long time.

Drying tobacco takes place in several stages:

Pests and diseases

To protect the crop from pests, it is worth knowing which ones threaten tobacco.

Name	Symptoms, characteristics	Danger
peach aphid	A pest that infects the leaves of a plant	It threatens with the complete destruction of the crop or a significant decrease in the number
Mosaic	Appears as the name suggests. Some of the leaves remain green, some turn yellow	Lack of treatment threatens to destroy plants
Blackleg	The plant lies down, the stem becomes thinner, withers	plant destruction
black rot	Plant wilting, drying	Harvest death
powdery mildew	White-yellow coating in the form of cobwebs on the leaves, gradually full coverage of the plant	Reduces yield, adversely affects the quality of tobacco

Diseases can completely cover the entire plant and move to neighboring ones. Treatment is carried out in the same ways as for other plants. Copper sulphate and other means are well suited for processing, depending on the degree of damage to plants.

Video - step by step instructions for growing tobacco in the garden

Thus, growing tobacco for smoking in the garden is real. To do this, it is enough to take care of it approximately the same as for other plants. Tobacco does not like abundant watering, but loosening should not be neglected. In addition, air temperature is important. After harvesting, it is important to properly dry and ferment it. It's a shame to lose the harvested tobacco crop at the last stage, so the drying process should be taken with special responsibility.

Growing tobacco at home, despite the general trend towards smoking cessation, is becoming increasingly popular. The thing is that ground tobacco is an effective natural remedy for pest control. In addition, some traditional medicine recipes recommend using tobacco leaf in the manufacture of medicinal products for external use. Therefore, for many gardeners, the question is relevant: how to grow tobacco at home?

When deciding to start growing tobacco at home, you should definitely take into account that the taste characteristics of the product depend on the area and soil where the culture grows. So, for example, the texture of the leaves of a plant grown on soils with a low level of moisture and a minimum content of mineral salts will be very thin, and the shag will be non-aromatic. And, conversely, in bushes grown on silty or clay soil, the leaves will be small, but dense and fragrant.

Growing tobacco from seeds at home

Contrary to the fears of newcomers to the business, growing tobacco at home is not difficult. It is important to make the right choice of crop variety. For warmer regions where tobacco is traditionally cultivated, almost all plant varieties are suitable; in the temperate climate zone, the varieties Trapezond 15, Cigarny 17 and Bryansky 91 are recommended for cultivation. For a personal plot, the varieties of tobacco "Trapezond 15" and "Trapezond Kubanets" are perfect, which ripen in 3-3.5 months, which is almost a month earlier than other varieties ripen.

How to plant tobacco for seedlings?

As for any crop that requires a long period of warm temperature to grow, it is more expedient for tobacco to use a seedling method of growing.

Planting tobacco for seedlings is carried out in late March - early April. You can sow dry seed material, but agrotechnicians assure that hatched seeds grow better. To do this, 4-5 days before planting, seeds wrapped in a cloth are soaked in warm water diluted with a few drops of tartaric acid. Soaking time - day. The procedure reduces the distillation period by almost a week, and has a positive effect on further and increased yields.

Then the seeds are washed and placed on a damp cloth in an enameled (faience) dish in a warm place. It is necessary to ensure that the cloth is wet at all times. When the seeds hatch on the 3rd - 4th day, they are dried and mixed with clean sand or humus. Seeds are sown in pots or wooden boxes with nutritious soil, while the embedment depth is 0.5 - 0.8 cm. After planting, the soil is watered from a spray bottle.

When growing tobacco seedlings, it is important to observe the irrigation regime: it is necessary to water little by little, but daily. It is advisable to pick seedlings in the “ears” stage, when 3-4 true leaves appear. 2 times fertilize seedlings with mineral fertilizers or infusion. A week before planting in the ground, the seedlings are hardened with air and the number of waterings is reduced.

Planting seedlings of tobacco

When the height of the seedlings reaches approximately 15 cm, and the number of leaves increases to 5-6 (this number does not include cotyledon leaves), the seedlings can be planted in open ground. In this case, it is necessary that warm weather is already established. A furrow is prepared in advance, holes are made in it. Half a liter of water is poured into each hole, the hole is deepened with a peg, and a bush is inserted vertically into it. Wet earth is pressed against the roots, and dry soil is poured on top so that less moisture is lost.

During the growing season, regular loosening of the earth, watering and weeding should be carried out. Tobacco is fertilized in the same way as tomato fertilizer. When flowers appear, the inflorescences break off. It is also necessary to systematically carry out pinching - the removal of lateral shoots.

How to grow tobacco for smoking in the garden