growing tobacco experience??

[applestar]

BTW, I have Arctostaphylos uva-ursi growing in my front yard.

[Ozark Lady]

There is tobacco sold that is alleged to be organic and additive free.

I have never seen it, but I have seen many discussions of it.

Like most organic items it is high dollar.

The additives in tobacco, are a fatal cocktail, all by themselves, they don't need the tobacco added to make them deadly.

And interestingly, homegrown does not have them, and it always seems to be missing something. That makes one wonder, how many are actually addicted to the other poisons in commercial tobacco and not really to the nicotine alone.

Growing your own is a test... are you addicted to tobacco or the anti-freeze and other deadly ingredients? There are over 500 additives!

They actually liquify the tobacco, mix in additives, then spray it onto paper (?) which is sliced up to make it look like tobacco.

Dioxin is still an issue unless you go to pipe or cigar.

[tedln]

I guess I am with Ozark Lady on the smoking. I don't have many "bad" habits, but smoking is simply something I enjoy. I've smoked every thing from pipes to cigars to cigarettes. I've never smoked marijuana. Don't think I have ever even smelled it.

I have a yearly physical just for the fun of it. I even went to a cardiologist this year because I had experienced some chest pains I never felt before. I wasn't sure if it was a strained muscle or a heart problem. The cardiologist performed every test he could imagine including cat scans and stress tests. I told the guy running the stress test to kick the tread mill up a couple of notches when he thought he was finished. I just wanted to see how far and how fast I could go before I couldn't go any more.

The cardiologist looked everything over and said " sir you are approaching seventy years of age and I know people thirty years old who would like to have your heart and lungs." He then asked how long I have smoked. I told him I have smoked for fifty two years. He didn't even bother to tell me it isn't good for me.

Ted

[rainbowgardener]

Just think what you could have done if you didn't smoke! You might be an Olympic athlete...

[gumbo2176]

[quote="tedln"]I guess I am with Ozark Lady on the smoking. I don't have many "bad" habits, but smoking is simply something I enjoy. I've smoked every thing from pipes to cigars to cigarettes.



Over my many years of smoking, prior to finally quitting, I too enjoyed cigarettes, the occasional cigar and as I got a bit older, I took to smoking a pipe from time to time. To this day I miss the pipe most. The aroma of the tobacco as it burned was the most pleasing part. I know, aromatics and additives.

I still have 3 pipes in a drawer of my desk along with about 2 oz. of a pipe blend from a tobacco shop called The Tinderbox. Don't ask me why I still have the tobacco, I don't know, since it is surely no good any more. But every once in a while I'll open the bag just to get a whiff of the tobacco's sweet aroma.

After 8 years of being a non-smoker I can truly say I do not miss the act of smoking. I am in daily contact with folks that do smoke, starting with my wife and that first cup of coffee in the morning. Do I wish she'd quit? Yes. Will I still love her if she doesn't? Yes. My wife, her 25 yr. old son and her 20 yr. old daughter all smoke. They do so outside on the porch and never in the house but they carry that smell inside as soon as they walk in the back door. Funny thing is, the kids hated to see their mom smoke when they were younger and were always bugging her to quit. The son is moving out in about 2 weeks and the daughter is telling me she wants to quit before years pass and it becomes harder to do so. We'll see, on both counts.

At least twice a week I'm in a pub since I enjoy playing in the local Dart League. So far, the state legislature hasn't banned smoking in bars even though they try to pass legislation every year to that effect. I don't particularly like the way my clothes smell when I finally leave the place but it comes with the territory and I accept that.

Bottom line is, it's your life, if you find pleasure in tobacco, go for it.

[tedln]

RBG, I guess I could quit and try out for the senior Olympics. I could possibly get a job with Chrysler and just smoke a joint and drink a beer in the parking lot with the dudes on my break time. If you don't watch the news, you won't know what I am talking about.

[Runningtrails]

We grow tobacco too. Did you know that commercial cigarettes contain 599 additives, some poisonous carcinogens? See the list here: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_ad ... cigarettes

One of them is caffeine.

Anyone can grow tobacco, anywhere. If you have a short growing season, you will need to start it early indoors. I am sure most northerners are used to starting seeds early indoors to grow tomatoes, peppers and many other common short season vegetables. Tobacco is no different and is no trickier or more demanding than your vegetables to start from seed.

I planted it for hubby, who smokes cigaretes. I figure if he's going to smoke, it has to be organic, without pesticide residue and all those chemicals! It's also cheap. He has a little plastic, manual cigarette maker and a box of rolled papers with filters attached. I think he should drop the filters to be safer, but he's not there yet. Back when tobacco first came on the market, one of the largest filter manufacturers used asbastos in their filters! No wonder tobacco has such a bad rep for causing lung cancer!

I have talked to a lot of people who grow their own and they all say that the "smokers cough" dissappeared when they started smoking their own organic tobacco and the organic stuff is not nearly as addictive.

I think commercial cigarettes are just as dangerous today. It would be nice if organic tobacco and cigarettes were available to the public but I don't think they will be going there.

We are trying several different drying methods ourselves this year. Trying to perfect the best way. Right now all our harvested leaves are hanging to dry in the insulated shed with buckets of water and a fan. I'd love to hear what others are doing and what has worked for you! Please post your drying and curing methods.

I have read that they can just hang to dry for many months and cure that way. We might build a kiln to dry them quicker, but have read that the water leaching works well too. I have read about boiling the leaves also but that would require a lot of energy and room for the amount that we have. We are probably going with the water leaching this year.

I love nicotania, ornamental tobacco flowers and grew them for years but not since we started growing our own nicotania tobacum for smoking. I don't want them to cross with the tobacum seed, since we sell it in our farm store. I miss them in the garden as they were one of my favourites! One tobacco plant sure produces a lot of seed!

[Ozark Lady]

Last year, was my first year growing tobacco. I grew some beautiful plants! But, just dare touch one... the nicotine was over the moon!

However, I started late, and ended up doing most of my harvest, the day after Thanksgiving. Yep, while the healthy folks were fighting the crowds for "black Friday" I was peacefully in my garden, wearing plastic gloves and cutting down tobacco, washing and stalk hanging it to cure prior to drying. It sure was a pretty day, and no crowds to fight! Fresh air, sunshine...Awww!

Tobacco is different from other plants. If I pick parsley and want to preserve it, I want it to dry fast and green. With tobacco, I want to slow the process so that it goes through yellow and then to brown.
To do this requires: heat, humidity and enough airflow to prevent molds and mildew.

Caution: molds and mildew can be deadly!

I had alot of difficulty with curing the tobacco due to not being able to keep the temps and humidity high enough. It dried green, so it is now pesticide!

This year, I have been "priming" my tobacco. Which is simply stated: picking it leaf by leaf. Some leaves I hang up inside with vaporizers and fans going to assist. And some leaves I just hang on wires, right at the edge of the garden where it is growing, deep in the woods.

I find the woods is actually doing a better job, and rain or sun is only helping me to get it cured!

Once it is brown, then I move it to the inside room and hit it with the fans to make sure it is dry, especially the stems, then I simply box it up to age it.

Tobacco improves with age like a fine wine. What you assume is bad tobacco isn't, it is dry tobacco. Add a slice of apple to your "old" tobacco and then check it again the next day.

Now, some of the commercial additives might go rancid, but I know of folks who go buy tobacco just to box it up and store it and let it age into a whole new level of tobacco.

Any tobacco that is not harvested, and color cured before cold weather arrives, will simply not be harvested by me. Why bother to make more pesticide?

You can build an elaborate kiln and maintain a decent temp and humidity and get it to cure, but for me it is not worth messing with to that extent. I have not switched to homegrown as of yet. I do add a bit of it to the commercial, I have switched to roll your own and use the little roller that was mentioned earlier. So, I grow and box it.

We are gearing up and have marked 2011 as the year of no more buying tobacco at all! So I really need to get better at this!

I have also been informed by my doctor that she could sit and listen to my heart all day long! I do eat right, exercise and am very active.
I do not have weight issues at all, which is a big plus to my activity level. I feel that I do really great at caring for my health. And my doctor and my chiropractor both agree: I am in great shape for any age, not just for pushing 60!

[OpenSource]

On the other hand, I posted in another thread that they also attract sphinx moths and hawk moths whose babies are hornworms and cutworms

So do tomatoes.

I'm curious, do they sell organically grown, dye free, chemical free, dioxin free, "healthy" tobacco products? or is that too much of a contradiction to even contemplate

Your asking if there is a commercial tobacco product that sell what you are asking about. Highly unlikely in my opine. Yes there may be organic tobacco,But the processing of the final product may not be organic.
I suspect the dioxin to be a child of the processed and bleached papers when burnt. The papers themselves smell indescribably horrible when lighted a fire. I found this out when I rolled my home grown in a commercial paper. I later lighted a paper up to see if that was the smell. Sure enough it was!

They say Nicotine is addictive and has been listed by the FDA as a addictive substance. If that is the case then why am I craving a commercial Cig. after I smoke home grown,that has 3 times the amount of Nicotine?


There is additives and "flavor enhancers" in the commercial products that are by themselves alone very toxic! At the same time if you are a non-smoker and eat at a fast food chain, you have consumed as much toxins in the meal as you would consume the toxins in a commercial brand pack of Cigarettes. {Remember the FDA allows these things to be added and label them as "safe" or "approved" Just like like your fillings in your teeth is highly toxin, but are told is "safe")

I have never tasted chew or dip, but I sure don't like getting tobacco in my mouth, so I doubt that I would like that.

Chewing tobacco is different taste wise from smoking tobacco types. You add flavors, like molasses, honey or maple syrup or what ever your heart
desires. Basically the taste is what ever flavor you added. The dark strains I grow warm your mouth up like a medium hot pepper. If you ever got
pepper juice on your lips that made them tingle then that is the effect similar of Nic. in the chewing tobacco.
The leaf it self from my experiment tasted like a bland piece of lettuce hence, no real strong over powering tobacco
taste as you would get from cig tabacca. If you had ever put a flavored cigar in your mouth, the sweet musky taste,
that is similar to another strain of chewing tabacca I grow.

[wordwiz]

I grew up in Ripley, OH, a small town of about 2,200 people. It has the distinction of being the only Burley tobacco market in the state. Back in the '70s, they sold ~$14 million a year.

Almost every male in the area helped raise tobacco, whether for their families or neighbors. The most we ever raised was 17 acres, but then we helped others too. Each year, a couple of guys would "quit school" before their senior year started, then after harvest season was pretty much over - the third week of September - they would re-enroll and thus were not counted absent. I never did that, but I did miss 26 days the first quarter of my last year.

Back then, growers were guaranteed X dollars per pound based on its grade or quality. In exchange, they agreed to market only a prescribed number of pounds. This has ended and instead tobacco growers contract with companies. Unfortunately, the companies have all the power. One family took their harvest to sell and the entire crop was rejected because of the color/quality of the leaves (it was due to the extremely dry mid-August to October weather - tobacco needs some moisture to cure correctly). That was probably about $50,000 or more in income. In the past, it would have received a lower grade (K) and instead of selling for $2.09/lb. would have fetched $1.50.

Raising tobacco helped put me through college, buy a new car my senior year, have money for clothes, shoes, etc. I still grow a few plants if I can get back to Ripley during May.

Mike

[tedln]

Opensource, They took the mercury out of the amalgam for tooth fillings. I don't think it is toxic any longer.

When I was a kid, you could buy Pig twist or Hog twist chewing tobacco. The farmers would cure the tobacco and just before it was dry, they would twist a leaf into a shape like a pretzel or a horse shoe or a curly pigs tail. Farmers carried a twist in their shirt pocket or hip pocket. When a farmer or cowboy met a new acquaintance, or an old friend, you shooks hands, offered them a bite of chew from your pocket and inquired about their health. It was called "being neighborly". You could just bite off a chew or cut it very fine for smoking in a pipe of rolling into cigarettes. There was nothing mild about that stuff. It would leave your lips numb and the farmers I knew didn't add anything to the regular twist. You could buy honey twist or molasses twist and even bourbon twist, but it cost more.

Ted

[wordwiz]

How times change!



Mike