Tobacco Cultivation

[mark80]

So pee on my plants?

Ok cool...

If you want

My point was that KNO3 is a naturally occuring thing, so no need to be scared of it. Your only using a little bit, and seeing as though your smoking anyway the minute amount won't mkae any differnce.

[Ace]

So pee on my plants?

Yep - that'll increase nitrogen levels, as well as likely many micro-nutes. Probably help encourage micro-organisms too.

Aren't you supposed to cut fertz. back two weeks before harvest....

If it's anything like cultivating other herbs/vegies, then I'd think so. This is to cut down on excessive crap at the time of harvest. Not sure on the parameters for 'bacco, but hydro (and even soil-grown) cannabis (from what I understand) is usually just fed plain distilled/tap water with no added nutes for the final week or two before harvest (again, from what I have read - never grown the stuff). If growing organically, there will still be more than enough goodies in the soil for the plants to utilise, so excessive crap on top is not needed (and is only going to bring down the quality of the final product). I'm sure there would be a few methods available online - perhaps google 'pre-harvest fertilising techniques'.

[Teotzlcoatl]

Will do...

Thanks everybody!

Anybody got any other tips?

[Auxin]

Generally you dont want to pee on your plants unless your making some kinky phytosexual BDSM porno (come to think of it a spiked collar would look good on my watering can). Usually people dilute the pee then water the soil the plants in. The tomato and pepper people (tobacco basically likes the same stuff as tomatoes) usually pee in a 5 gallon watering can and then fill that with water. For an added boost some folk add to that a bit of 'compost tea' from a bucket of rich compost and water.

And ffs remember to handle tobacco seedlings by the leaves, never the stems.

[Vertmorpheus]

Yeah some nitrate spray can help if you want a more commercial burn... it can cause you to become impotent though, despite being naturally occuring (lead is natural too, but its not real good for you). I think smoking can do that ANYWAY so whether u wnt to up the odds of the odd not being...up... is up to you

Generally tobacco leaves are VERY high in nitrates anyway, hence why they make good green manure... if you worry about the burn rate, you can get nitrated papers, or a good roast seems to help.

There is enough nitrate in most commercial green leafy veg to pose a health risk to newborns... a good way to try n buffer it is to grow in very very compost rich soil rather than just dumping "fert x" into shitty soil all the time.

And approach with caution anything about sugar honey or molasses... it can work wonders but can leave u a smouldering spitting stalling mess of charcoal and sizzling too.

Some of those commercial spirit essences (gert strand, still spirit etc) for making your own booze are handy if u want things more fruitylicious, or you can find plans to make essential oil stills and a rough list of oil by weight in common herbs n spices at www.homedistiller.org

Ah, memories.. kicking back with a homemade glass in one hand, and a homegrown smoke in the other... I can hear the banjos now

keep squealin

VM

[planthelper]

thx for that visualtion auxin...

attention, expicit material ahead...

once the thought of discipling this plant overcame me, i was overtaken by anxiety, very well maybe the same heart pumping feeling, the predator is overcome with, whilst chasing his prey.

the urge became bigger and bigger, i ran into the garden, and commanded the tabacco to neel down, and to look into my eyes with an obidient glance. my hands started shaking whilst i did put the collar with the leash on, i did pull the leash a bit upwards to force my lover, my codependant friend tabacco, into a more submissve posture.

open your calyx, i exclaimed, whilst i unzipped my fly. out came the semi errect, fertilizer applicator, squirting for a while, and than stopping, just to start aiming for all thos calyxes again, and again, overcome with a frenzy of unleashed passion.

after this pc muscles workout, i moved over to my other lover, a member of the cucurbitaceae family, ah life is good....

Edited February 13, 2008 by planthelper

[incognito]

thx for that visualtion auxin...

attention, expicit material ahead...

once the thought of discipling this plant overcame me, i was overtaken by anxiety, very well maybe the same heart pumping feeling, the predator is overcome with, whilst chasing his prey.

the urge became bigger and bigger, i ran into the garden, and commanded the tabacco to neel down, and to look into my eyes with an obidient glance. my hands started shaking whilst i did put the collar with the leash on, i did pull the leash a bit upwards to force my lover, my codependant friend tabacco, into a more submissve posture.

open your calyx, i exclaimed, whilst i unzipped my fly. out came the semi errect, fertilizer applicator, squirting for a while, and than stopping, just to start aiming for all thos calyxes again, and again, overcome with a frenzy of unleashed passion.

after this pc muscles workout, i moved over to my other lover, a member of the cucurbitaceae family, ah life is good....

now THATS a visual image when ur stoned!

u should write erotic entheogen porn ph!

raunchy!

[planthelper]

ahh, thx jono for reminding me, how everything feels more special, just because one is stoned.

ok, about the topic, i prefere tabacco which has been cured for a least 1 year, basicly the longer you store it the better. but you have to make sure the product doesn't detoriate whilst beeing stored. this sounds easy but is actually quite hard, so after a few months i store the stuff in the ice compartment. i believe that the slower the leaves dry, the better. than followed by periodes of dry and moist air, plus temperature fluctuations.

when harveresting the baccy, go ahead and "feel" those leaves, only take the ones which feel thick, very velvety, very sticky and so on. any leaves which have turned yellow already on the plant get rejected, same as the leaves closest to those yellow ones. once you let them dry out you will see what i mean, as crappy leaves dry much faster and are a bit brittle to the touch, whilst top notch leaves, feel like leather and will not tear or break even if put under a lot of strain.

for slicing the tabacco into those thin strips, one can use those tools which slice you the sausage or ham at your deli, but if you smoke just a bit and once in a while, which i hope you do, scissors will sufice.

it's very rewarding to grow your own tabacco, (if legal to do so in your part of the world) specialy if you mix it with your own home grown cannabis, as nothing is worse than to mix your lovingly homegrown pot, with commercial, walking over dead bodies type tabacco.

[Monk]

Thats a little funny consdering were talking about tabacco.

Yeah, that is pretty damn funny I didn't even think about it 'cuz I was so intent on setting the record straight with the organic/synthetic thing

Pottasium nitrate is naturally occuring fertliser made by pissing on your shit (honestly). I see nothing wrong with it

For me, the issue isn't really whether a fertilizer is of 'natural' origin or not, per se. It's really about whether it feeds the soil while it feeds the plant or if it damages the soil while feeding the plant. So pure potassium nitrate, while being of natural origin, is unacceptable to my organic gardening standards as it damages the soil food web significantly. Likewise, even urine (if overapplied) could damage things like mycorrhizae due the high salt levels present. When I have grown tobacco in the past, I always prefered to make a mix of various N rich organic meals like cottonseed, alfalfa fish, feather, etc. with other organic meals like shrimp meal. Then, I'd mix those into a 50/50 blend of composted manure and worm compost (or other compost.) I then used this mix as a topdressing/mulch around the plants. This works wonders for veggies as well and provides some readily available nutes from the composted manure in addition to slower release stuff from the organic meals. It also feeds the soil food web beautifully.

what i find funny is alot of those ppl who say i love organically grown stuff take a multi vitmain which is just sy nthetic fertliser for humans

Actually, not at all. Vitamins are not merely sources of N, P, K etc. like synth fertilizers are. People taking vitamins is like...well, plants being supplemented with vitamins. Only, it's not usually necessary 'cuz they produce their own, unlike humans.

The other major difference which is pertinent here is that when people take vitamins in proper doses, it *doesn't mess up the microorganisms in their stomachs.* Just like the organisms in the soil, the microflora of the digestive system boosts health, prevents disease etc.

Feeding the soil with organic foods (compost, organic meal ferts), then, is a lot like a human on a probiotic diet. It restores the proper balance of organisms to not only aid in nutrient uptake, but stimulate/protect the health of the organism.

Edited February 13, 2008 by FM.

[Teotzlcoatl]

And ffs remember to handle tobacco seedlings by the leaves, never the stems.

Hmm....really?

The tomato and pepper people (tobacco basically likes the same stuff as tomatoes) usually pee in a 5 gallon watering can and then fill that with water. For an added boost some folk add to that a bit of 'compost tea' from a bucket of rich compost and water.

Sounds like a plan.

And approach with caution anything about sugar honey or molasses... it can work wonders but can leave u a smouldering spitting stalling mess of charcoal and sizzling too.

Are you talking about putting it in the soil, or on the cured leaf?

Should I add some kind of sugar to the soil?

[Ace]

remember to handle tobacco seedlings by the leaves, never the stems.

This point can be applied to almost all plants - grabbing things by the stem (perticularly on plants with a softer stem) will usually crush the delicate cell walls and can easily kill the plant. The same can happen with grabbing by the leaves, but at least the plant will only lose a leaf or two at most, instead of killing the whole thing (sort of like the equivalent of ring-barking a tree in a vegetable/seedling).

Are you talking about putting it in the soil, or on the cured leaf? Should I add some kind of sugar to the soil?

I'd think he meant when drying/curing leaves. I dont think adding sugar to the soil would achieve anything either - AFAIK, the plants create their own sugars (carbohydrates) from a healthy soil and environment. A nice little nutrient tea or fert would be plenty I think. Unless you meant add sugar to the soil to make the leaves taste different? Um, no, I dont think that'd work (plants dont become sweet by adding sugar/other things that we find taste 'sweet' this way at all)

[Vertmorpheus]

I meant people that think of say spraying their chopchop with dilute honey or molasses trying to even out the burn and make it taste like something... not feeding the plant sugars. Though some people swear by molasses teas etc to up soil carbs etc, esp when moving seedlings around, etc.

Also, dilute molasses sprayed all over your plant will keep a lot of chewers n biters off, but not a real great idea for anything in direct baking sunlight all day.

VM

[Teotzlcoatl]

Could somebody explain "Topping" and "Suckering"?

[gerbil]

teotz' do you ever do any searching yourself? I mean you could find out comprehensive information on both topics in the time it took you to write the post.

Topping is disrupting the main growth tips resulting primarily in axillary growth and suckering, generally associated with removal of apical meristem to bush out a plant and or removal of flowers.

Suckering is the growth of shoots from a root system and or storage organ.

Edited February 17, 2008 by gerbil

[Teotzlcoatl]

Here's the Jumble-fuck of information I have on the subject....

I will soon update and edit all this....-

Growing Tobacco- Allow half the plants to flower. Cut off the other

half of the plants buds as they appear for bigger leafs.

Curing Tobacco-

As the leafs turn yellow pick them off, staring at the bottom and

working your way up, until all the leafs are picked.

After picking each leaf, place it into a well ventilated outdoor

hardwood chest, full of freshly cut cedar sticks. After the last leafs

are harvested remove the leafs from the chest and lay them in a large

pile with the freshly harvested leafs, allow them to sit for seven days.

After seven days sitting in the pile, place all the leafs into the

wooden chest and wait seven weeks.

Once Seven weeks have passed, remove the leafs from the box and

“Hand-tie” them, with natural rope. Spray the “Hand-tied” leafs with

water and gently shake them out. Steam them over boiling water and then

rinse them again.

After the leafs are washed, hang the “Hand-tied” leafs next to small,

smoky hardwood fire, to smoke for Seven hours.

Hang the leafs outdoors in an Area sheltered from the rain, for Seven

days.

Cut the large central vein out of each leaf. Roll every Seven leaf

halves into a bundle. Place the bundle into a wooden box with freshly

chopped Vanilla pods.

Place the box into a bag, seal the bag and bury it for Seven weeks.

After Seven weeks dig the bags and box back up. Remove and discard the

chopped Vanilla pods. The tobacco is now ready to smoke. Store in an

air-tight glass jar.

Steam the leafs at some point.

Place the leafs in pile to ferment.

Add honey, maple syrup, vanilla extract and whiskey.

[-YT-]

theres a lot easier way to cure tobacco i believe t st tantra n hebrew have posted about. but pritty much wait till the leaf turns yellow on the plant then put in a freezer bag and tie it.. make sure it has decent amount of air in it and place into another freezer bag and tie... place in a sunny position for 2-5days and the leaf will turn brown all those sugars n jazz funking up after its all brown dry as per usual and cha ching we have a winner...

Also depending on your location, season and stage of growth sometimes one can just leave the whole plant and it will cure and dry itself altho this is a slower process few leaves at a time get a excellant flavour...

just play around with whatever works i guess

[mark80]

Yeah, that is pretty damn funny I didn't even think about it 'cuz I was so intent on setting the record straight with the organic/synthetic thing

For me, the issue isn't really whether a fertilizer is of 'natural' origin or not, per se. It's really about whether it feeds the soil while it feeds the plant or if it damages the soil while feeding the plant. So pure potassium nitrate, while being of natural origin, is unacceptable to my organic gardening standards as it damages the soil food web significantly. Likewise, even urine (if overapplied) could damage things like mycorrhizae due the high salt levels present. When I have grown tobacco in the past, I always prefered to make a mix of various N rich organic meals like cottonseed, alfalfa fish, feather, etc. with other organic meals like shrimp meal. Then, I'd mix those into a 50/50 blend of composted manure and worm compost (or other compost.) I then used this mix as a topdressing/mulch around the plants. This works wonders for veggies as well and provides some readily available nutes from the composted manure in addition to slower release stuff from the organic meals. It also feeds the soil food web beautifully.

Actually, not at all. Vitamins are not merely sources of N, P, K etc. like synth fertilizers are. People taking vitamins is like...well, plants being supplemented with vitamins. Only, it's not usually necessary 'cuz they produce their own, unlike humans.

The other major difference which is pertinent here is that when people take vitamins in proper doses, it *doesn't mess up the microorganisms in their stomachs.* Just like the organisms in the soil, the microflora of the digestive system boosts health, prevents disease etc.

Feeding the soil with organic foods (compost, organic meal ferts), then, is a lot like a human on a probiotic diet. It restores the proper balance of organisms to not only aid in nutrient uptake, but stimulate/protect the health of the organism.

I see where your coming from. When Kno3 and most other synthetic fertlisers are applied with restrciton i feel they do no harm to the soil. Are you sure a correct dose damages the food web? I am sure over apllying would.

re vitamins.

There as i recall has been no evidence to support taking a multivitmain actually helps. They are just sources of essential micronutrients just like a synthetic micronutrient fertliser. IF you apply the micrnutrient ferltiser properly (often below recommened strnegth, your not doing more damage than if you applied a rich fish meal to the plant, as they are both chemically similar.

I do see your point, I like organic gardening. I just think if your plant (and microrgansima and such get there N from a diluted piss or a dilute urea solution it makes no diff. My point of view and you may disagree, but i'd like to hear your opinions.

Whne burning I don't think the minute amount of kno3 left after burning (it works because it oxidisis the matter and thus breaks down) is enough to worry about after all your smoking. But if you are worried about it than don't put it in but you won't get the great steady burn that those fine cigars have.

[Teotzlcoatl]

Thanks for the post everybody...

I will post an updated "Tobacco Curing" method later this week....I'll try to incorparate freezing into it as well.

Thanks, again!

~Teotz'~

[Teotzlcoatl]

I've begun tilling the soil and adding fertz.

I can't wait for Spring!!!

[Francois le Danque]

theres a lot easier way to cure tobacco i believe t st tantra n hebrew have posted about. but pritty much wait till the leaf turns yellow on the plant then put in a freezer bag and tie it.. make sure it has decent amount of air in it and place into another freezer bag and tie... place in a sunny position for 2-5days and the leaf will turn brown all those sugars n jazz funking up after its all brown dry as per usual and cha ching we have a winner...

can anyone link to this? i tried UTFSEing but no success. thanks.

[Teotzlcoatl]

I'm interested in this too.

[hebrew]

well its basically as YT says there

its like a rapid cure the heat in the bag ferments the leaf after it has fermented and the leaf is yellow and smells fermented its time to dry it out some then you need to think how you are going to store your leaf, for smoking i suggest you remove the central stem and lay the leafs out to make a sheet of tobacco leaf they are sticky so they stick together well, compact them down so they all become one, then tightly roll it like a cigar depending on the size of your tobacco paper for want of a better word. you can fold the edges in to it is neat then roll, roll tight then when its roll let it sit for a few hours then you can cut it very finely with a sharp knife, then it will unravel give it a light toast and you got some nice pipe tobacco.

you can also air cure your tobacco which is string up your tobacco leaf and let it hang in a well aired place take alot longer, makes a good chewing tobacco when done this way

but sadly we can not practice this here which make me sad i wish i could grow tobacco especially some of those funky rustica strains

let us know how you go with yoru curing when it comes to tobacco patience is a virtue

[Teotzlcoatl]

I figure it will take me a couple of seasons to get it right...

[KlUe]

Unless you meant add sugar to the soil to make the leaves taste different? Um, no, I dont think that'd work (plants dont become sweet by adding sugar/other things that we find taste 'sweet' this way at all)

I've heard people adding things like vanilla essence to cannabis and actually reporting a vanilla type taste in the buds.

[mark80]

Are you talking about putting it in the soil, or on the cured leaf? Should I add some kind of sugar to the soil?

I'd think he meant when drying/curing leaves. I dont think adding sugar to the soil would achieve anything either - AFAIK, the plants create their own sugars (carbohydrates) from a healthy soil and environment. A nice little nutrient tea or fert would be plenty I think. Unless you meant add sugar to the soil to make the leaves taste different? Um, no, I dont think that'd work (plants dont become sweet by adding sugar/other things that we find taste 'sweet' this way at all)

plants predomnialty make carbs by photosynthies.

Maybe cutting the top off the plant and sitting them in a sugar vanialia etc solution mya give them the taste you quire. Like blue food colouring in celery. the plant may just take it up by cappilary action.