Is anyone growing tobacco? I was given this and am not sure if I’m going to find space for it or not.
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I tried last year and the seeds didn’t germinate.very very tiny seeds
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Haven’t grown tobacco for years.
but, if the seed are viable
then I could get them to grow.
(Not that I want to as I don’t smoke or chew.)
Burn a brush pile, then mix the seeds with lime dust or wood ashes, and scatter in the burned area. Weeds will be killed and the tiny seeds won’t have to compete.
Cover with cloth or canvass…to create partial shade.
That’s the quick way. Obviously other preparations could be or could have been taken.
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@BlueBerry
The old timers i grew up around used that exact method more or less. They burned a brush pile and then grew all their tobacco in the ashes. That was as you said to eliminate weed competition
Should mention they pulled plants and hung them upside down in a barn when ripe and the large leaves was for their use. It looked kind of like a lattuce board they hang them from. The stock was used for something to but i cant recall what but i know they used the entire plant. They only went through the process once with me
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I have never grown tobacco but is was somewhat common to find in Southern and especially SW Wisconsin 30 or more years ago. I still see a few old tobacco barns in the area but nobody growing it anymore. Local farmers would start their own seeds and plant an acre or 2 at most.
I heard it as a labor intensive crop as it was all hand hoed to control weeds and the flower buds were taken off as they formed.
They would pick in the fall and hang the plants upside down in the tobacco barns. Most of the tobacco grown in my state was for cigar wrappers years ago and then it switched to being used for chewing tobacco.
The price must have dropped as I have not seen a tobacco crop in a long time. Even the old tobacco barns still standing are in sad shape.
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Yes but only because it reseeds like crazy and its almost weed like. The blooms of some varieties are very floral at night.
No, not a ‘price drop’…per se. Rather a withdrawing of federal government having a “minimum support price” on burley tobacco and dark/flue cured tobacco. And the farmers were given a cash buy-out option for their base/poundage to QUIT GROWING it.
Now, Phillip Morris and other tobacco companies buy most from Africa or Asia or contract with a given farmer each spring to buy their crop at a certain set price.
I have grown it and still could. But, I have no interest…unless it be a plant or two just for the heck of it. Hemp would be a less hazardous crop, if a person were going to grow row crops other than corn in zones 5–7.