Who's growing this year?

[Ninakae]

I am interested in trying to grow tobacco plants. Is it too late to start them and have anyone of u made ur own snus from growing ur own plants? Please let me know

[danielan]

Hi Nina, You need 120 days of growing season. I don't know Oregon well enough to say if you still have time. Here in Nebraska, I think I have 120 days left, but it's going to be real close. I don't know anyone who has made snus from their own plants yet. I did read a bit about people here and on another forum making snus from air-cured tobacco, old cigars, pipe tobacco, etc.

[Ninakae]

Thank U danielan, i just thought it would be cool to grow tobacco and make ur own snus. lol i garden alot but never grew tobacco b4

[danielan]

It is cool.

This is my first time. I garden a bit. Mostly just marigolds, mint, horseradish and sunflowers so far.

[Ninakae]

I grow what u grow 2 plus perinnials, and such. I guess i'm going 2 have 2 order some tobacco seeds and give it a try. Also need 2 do some research on homemade snus lol

[Mr. Snuffleupagus]

Here's a couple links for making your own snus if you haven't read them:

http://www.snuson.com/forum/showthread.php?11485-Making-snus-at-home

http://www.snuson.com/forum/showthread.php?14771-Crockpot-Snus-Oven-Snusugn&highlight=crock

[Ninakae]

ty mr snuffle, i'll check them out

[desirexe]

Hey Nina..you could always try growing a smaller plant indoors such as Rustica then your limited growing days won't matter. Not sure this would make the best snus, but just something to experiment with.

[justintempler]

I'm going to end up with 75 DelGold tobacco plants in the tobacco patch.

I've been transplanting a few each day since last weekend. I've got 58 of the 75 in the ground so far. I'm pretty sure now they will survive in the 90+ degree Florida sun. The leaves of the transplants are very thin and have a tendency to wilt. Once they survive a few days in the sun the leaves get thicker. I waited too long on the biggest ones as they didn't have enough roots when going from the cozy styrofoam cups to the soil. I was worried they were going to die. I ended pruning some of the bad leaves from my first transplants. I've got a few spares so if one of them doesn't look worth saving it will get pulled and replaced.

I'm only growing DelGold this year which allows me to grow them to seed. (I don't have to worry about them crossbreeding between varieties.)

Pics next week after I've got them all in the ground.

[danielan]

Thanks for the update! Looking forward to the pics!

[desirexe]

Hey Justin..glad to hear your plants are doing well in this heat & humidity! My outdoor plants are sucking right now, they are just growing extremely slow.

[justintempler]

Hey Justin..glad to hear your plants are doing well in this heat & humidity! My outdoor plants are sucking right now, they are just growing extremely slow.

I still need to put in another 8 plants before I snap my pictures. I need to pick up another bag of of dirt later today so I can finish my transplants.
I am not happy yet with my growth rate yet either but I do think I'm making progress.
I was having problems with leaves dying on me and as much as I hate it, I had use my scissors to do some pruning.
I've gotten more agressive with the watering and stepped up using some fertilizer. It seems to be helping.

The soil here is very, very sandy. I used very little garden soil mixed in. I wanted to do it on the cheap. That means attention to water and fertilizer will be critical.
I'm watering twice a day. First I use gallon milk jugs and hand water around the base of each plant after I've accomplished that, I give the whole patch a shower so the rest of the ground is completely wet.
I started with some Miracle Grow Tomato plant food. Tomatos and tobacco are in the same plant family. I'm going to pick up an economy size package of some 20-20-20 today along with some bugspray

[danielan]

Is 20-20-20 about right?

I've been thinking about this and by what I read, the plants are nitrogen hungry. But on the other hand, too much nitrogen seems to lead to higher TSNA's.

My working plan was to go heavy on the nitrogen early on, then about half-way through the summer cut the nitrogen way back.

For bug control I was planning on sticking to Sevin dust - which seems to work well on everything else around here and be more or less safe on things one might ingest.

[justintempler]

I'm winging it right now. I'm going to start with 20-20-20. I can always cut back later. My priority right now is to get the plants established and healthy.

This was a weed infested lawn before I started and I didn't mix in any compost. The only thing special I did was (after deweeding) was burnt the sod that I dug up and added back in the ash along with a minimal amout of potting soil so I figure my sandy soil needs the the extra help of 20-20-20. I've started a compost pile for next year's garden.

[justintempler]

75 plants in the ground. (+ a few spares in case I have some losses)
I couldn't find a bulk size of 20-20-20 so instead I went with some Hyponex 10-10-10.
I'm banding in 4 tbs. per plant. I cut in a circle 6-10 inches from plant. Spread out the fertilizer. Mix and cover.
How To Grow Tobacco - Question About Fertilizer