Having a go at growing in the UK

[whalen]

It was a fun little project from my perspective, became quite involved with seeing it succeed, no doubt you will grow again, give the rustica another go mate! I want to hear about your new venture with the Dark air cured. It will allow you to continue with your learning curve of how to process a proper cured tobacco, no matter how yours turned out. These are hard learned lessons that can only reward you! Kudos.

[crullers]

Thanks for this thread squeezyjohn, it was very informative and interesting. I think I'll give growing my own a try next year and make some snuff as well as snus from it. Now I just have to convince the wife that I need some space in the vegetable garden I'm sure the tobacco plants take up a lot of space.

[squeezyjohn]

The last of my black stalk mammoth leaf has colour cured in the greenhouse now. I'm going to wrap up this Growing Log with a few observations and conclusions.

Can you grow tobacco in the UK?
... undoubtedly yes! This year is has had one of the worst summers for growing and despite having to wait until almost July to plant seedlings out ... and mucking the plants about by then transplanting them again ... I still have some good leaf to show for it! My plants weren't massive but they weren't tiny either (about 10 leaves about 2ft per plant) - with the experience gained this time around and hopefully a better summer, it's very promising.

Rustica, what is it? what does it do?
... all I knew to start with was that it is a wild-type tobacco that can be up to 10 times stronger than regular tobacco. With my Rustica - it is certainly very pokey in the nicotine department - but certainly not 10 times stronger. The plants and leaves are small - they make a nice tasting tobacco when cured. The leaves are rather thick compared to the other one I grew and they did not yellow ... just went brown from dark green and were quite susceptible to moulding towards the end of the process. The main bonus of Rustica is that it is a true weed ... it is far better at germinating and establishing itself as a small plant than the other one I tried. It is so vigorous that if you cut the stalk to the ground it grows another one almost as big in under a month and you can get 2 crops per plant even in England.

Can I cure tobacco in the UK?
Whalen was right! Curing is the hardest part. My unheated greenhouse in the summer months was definitely the best place I had available to colour cure as it was warm and humid enough. However - when the weather gets colder and you get a week of rain you have to watch out for mould. Mouldy tobacco tastes rubbish - it's mushroomy and the texture goes all wrong too - only fit for the bin unfortunately ... the signs are not going fluffy and white - the mould starts as tiny black dots on the leaf and it needs to be brought indoors before that starts immediately otherwise it's ruined. If my harvest could have been earlier I could have got the colour curing out of the way much earlier and beaten the cold misty weather that causes mould. The Black Stalk Mammoth leaves have been curing in my greenhouse which now has a small propane heater that keeps the temperature in check and helps massively.

The next stage ... so I'm told ... is air-ageing the tobacco by hanging for a year or more. Well I'm not sure I agree. I have tasted the tobacco by tasting it at various stages and although while still green it tastes bitter and vegetably - when fully colour cured both the Rustica and Black Stalk Mammoth have a tobaccoey aromatic taste - similar to the smell of a freshly opened packet of virginia cigarettes - it is not hugely strong (the flavour) - but it is definitely aromatic. At this 'just colour cured' stage the tobacco still contains sugars so it is mildly sweet naturally. I have tasted raw "aged" tobacco and that is very bitter in comparison as all the natural sugars have been broken down which makes it much better for smoking. I think for raw chewing tobacco I prefer the less-labour-intensive method of just colour-curing it.

Conclusion
This is the end of the grow-log .. When I get round to making snus from it I will add what it ended up like - but the growing part has been a resounding success. I will definitely do it again - and grow much more. Just the ability to go up to the greenhouse, pinch off a bit of a cured leaf that I know is organic, chew it up and pop it under my top lip with my tongue and get more of a nic hit than I do with stark snus even though it is completely unprocessed - and get a proper taste of natural tobacco that I have never had from any bought product ... it's brilliant!

You can grow tobacco in the UK ... and what's more you should grow tobacco in the UK - there's no better way of understanding what's in your mouth and be in total control of your tobacco vice!

Cheers

Squeezy

[whalen]

well, solid frost warning here! Just harvested 25 seven foot tall plants, upside down in basement now, lot of work, going to stalk cure these plants.

[whalen]

Good save. Nice leaf.I am on mobile typing sucks.

[squeezyjohn]

I really wish I'd grown more this year given how everything has gone in with the EU ban. Next year will definitely be more organised.

[squeezyjohn]

So here's the evidence:

first the Black Stalk Mammoth freshly strung up in the greenhouse.


And here's a leaf which is nearly successfully colour cured of the rustica - it's been harvested a little over a month

as you can see there's still a little bit of green on these leaves and I'm not sure it is going to colour cure more than that - when chewed raw it packs a ridiculous punch - there's as much nicotine in a piccanell sized roll of it as there is in the strongest stark snus (and it lasts a hell of a lot longer than a snus) - however it's only been air-curing for a month or so and the flavour is not great - it still tastes slightly sour and has a flavour similar to something like a cross between tea leaves and chewing on a grass stem. I'm hoping it will continue to develop it's flavour if I hang it for ages (maybe taking it in if it gets too cold and damp in the greenhouse/shed.

Cheers

Squeezy

[squeezyjohn]

OK - quick update. The black stalk mammoth have continued to grow pretty big leaves despite staying short and not flowering and the rustica leaves are still completing colour curing in the greenhouse while the sucker crop is still growing almost as big as the smaller plants I had to start with.

BUT ... last night it frosted (or extremed? I can never remember) - not enjoying the taste of Thunder Frosted, I decided on a daring rescue plan and harvested the lot of Black Stalk Mammoth leaves at 3am with a head-torch!

I'm currently threading the leaf on to wires for hanging in the greenhouse with the rest. There's actually a surprisingly big amount of leaf for only 5 plants. It was saved from the frost just in time. I was going to post some pictures of the plants before the harvest - but it was very dark! I'll post some pics of the green leaf hanging once I've finished it.

Now lets see if it cures!

[Ansel]

can you send cash/cheque by recorded delivery?

[chainsnuser]

There certainly is a bank in the UK that is willing to handle such a transaction for a lower fee. My own bank is very expensive for German standards (but I can reach their agency by feet within 10 minutes, if needed, that's why I stick with them) and there it would cost me around 6 Euros at maximum. (EU bank transfer plus currency exchange). Such a transaction is something that every apprentice can do. You don't need to call for the bank manager. But yes, some banks are indeed ridiculously expensive.

I'd google around a bit for a cheaper bank. I'm not sure if Paypal can do a regular bank transfer, but I'd check them too, of course.

Edit: oh yes, I've just begun to harvest my tobacco (Kentucky, Rustica and Java Besuki). This time I'll try to mostly sun-dry the leaves to avoid the mold. Farmers here in the region even use some kind of heated storage where they keep the leaves in a dry climate, at 40°C for some days (somehow imitating the climate of the plants' native countries). Well, our farmers aren't dumb, but I prefer to try it the natural way first, before investing in such a device. Your field report about the Rustica leaves was very encouraging, Squeezyjohn. Thank you for that! I'll try the same once the first leaves are dried. Thanks to the hot August my plants are looking normal now (more than 5 feet high and still growing in case of the Kentucky variety). There's a rather horrible weather forecast for next week and an uncertain outlook for the rest of September, but I'm optimistic this year.

Cheers!

[Mdisch]

Wait, wait, wait - You're charged for transferring money inside the EU? What kind of bank do you have? Okay, usually there is a 2,5-8% transaction fee, but that is just ridiculous!

[Skell18]

Just a quick note to say that the Tobacco & Match Museum in Stockholm have very kindly sent me some Alida tobacco seeds for experimenting with next year. They sent them on trust with their bank details to pay the money to.

The cost to me is 40 SEK (just under £4) - unfortunately with my bank - sending this money (within the supposedly free-trading EU!) will cost me £25 + £9 international fees - a total of £38 to buy something worth £4!

I will do that - as I have been trusted by the nice guys at the museum ... but let it be a warning to others who might think buying stuff internationally is a good idea.

Anyone know a cheaper way to send an international bank transfer?

Paypal is your friend

[squeezyjohn]

Just a quick note to say that the Tobacco & Match Museum in Stockholm have very kindly sent me some Alida tobacco seeds for experimenting with next year. They sent them on trust with their bank details to pay the money to.

The cost to me is 40 SEK (just under £4) - unfortunately with my bank - sending this money (within the supposedly free-trading EU!) will cost me £25 + £9 international fees - a total of £38 to buy something worth £4!

I will do that - as I have been trusted by the nice guys at the museum ... but let it be a warning to others who might think buying stuff internationally is a good idea.

Anyone know a cheaper way to send an international bank transfer?

[Skell18]

Looking good matey

[squeezyjohn]

Some photos of the whole rustica plants I cut down as the leaves were all looking mature and I want them to cure as nicely as possible by air curing in some sunny weather predicted for the next week or so.


These plants are about 3 foot high and the largest leaves are about a foot square.

Meanwhile back in the ground: the leaves on the largest Black Stalk Mammoth plant are growing larger by the day - about 2ft long at the moment for the largest ones - but the plant is still only about a foot high!

It looks healthy enough!

Cheers

Squeezy