New to this: @festerc

[festerc]

Hello there. Just started down the road of attempting to grow my own tobacco for a variety of reasons. It's been a bit chaotic and haphazard which I understand is not the way to be successful. Unfortunately, that's the predicament I find myself in. I ordered some seed from Victory Seeds. I got Mohawk, Little Dutch, Bahia, and TC 90 LC. Because of the aformentioned chaos, I bypassed starting seeds in trays and spread seed directly on surface of soil in one of my garden plots sometime the week after Easter as there is little to no threat of frost at that point. Here in zone 8b, things warm up pretty quick and we had average highs in the 80s-90s from the time I spread the seed. We did have a couple cooler days, but nothing remotely close to freezing. I think I day or so of a low temp in the upper 40s. I did not prepare well for this. I'm hoping I haven't lost all my seed. Even though I did not spend a lot of money on it, I hate to lose any kind of investment. I'm no stranger to gardening, and have successfully grown many other vegetables and fruits. I should have been more diligent and disciplined when it came to starting these tobacco seeds, but here I am.
Has anyone successfully sown tobacco outdoors? Have I blown it with this mistake?
Since I did not prepare the garden plot well where I placed the seeds, it has been extremely hard to tell whether anything has sprouted or not. I have a lot of amaranth that tends to come up all over the place as well as some occasional henbit, spurge, etc. I don't apply chemicals to my gardens and try to only fertilize with compost or manure. I hand pick weeds, but they seem to be getting the best of me. I have tried to look at photos of what to expect seedlings and early plants to look like and I will have to take a closer look at my garden when I get home this evening to determine if anything resembling these photos is growing.
I have since read through the beginning growers page and will be much better prepared next time I attempt this. Thanks for any other helpful info that can be provided. And if anyone has some spare seeds they could send my way, I won't be as frivolous with them as I have with the ones I just used.

 

[deluxestogie]

Welcome to the forum. You'll find the growing basics in the New Growers' FAQ, linked in the menu bar. You may wish to scan through the topics in our Index of Key Forum Threads, also linked in the menu bar.

Has anyone successfully sown tobacco outdoors?

Within the "traditional" tobacco growing regions of the US, all tobacco seed used to be sown outdoors, though into prepared beds. Yank all the recognizable weeds, then watch for the tiny tobacco seedlings. Once they are at least a few inches tall, then thin them to about 18-24 inches apart.

Good luck with your first grow. Each of us learns from each year of growing.

Bob

 

[festerc]

Welcome to the forum. You'll find the growing basics in the New Growers' FAQ, linked in the menu bar. You may wish to scan through the topics in our Index of Key Forum Threads, also linked in the menu bar.


Within the "traditional" tobacco growing regions of the US, all tobacco seed used to be sown outdoors, though into prepared beds. Yank all the recognizable weeds, then watch for the tiny tobacco seedlings. Once they are at least a few inches tall, then thin them to about 18-24 inches apart.

Good luck with your first grow. Each of us learns from each year of growing.

Bob

Thanks for the reply. I thought it would be at least reasonably likely that south of the Appalachians the seeds would have been sown outdoors. I may try to clean up an unplanted area of the garden plot and try a more methodical late sowing. Every failure has a lesson to be learned.

 

[Knucklehead]

Welcome. Thank you for joining us.

 

[jclif43]

Welcome!

 

[Alpine]

Welcome to FTT

pier

 

[festerc]

So it appears that all is not lost with my new venture into tobacco growing. I have identified at least 6 TN90 LC burley plants that are growing and at least one of what I think is either the Bahia or Mohawk. These are growing from some additional seeds I had planted in a raised bed that had better prepared soil. Now that I have identified some plants I will look through the big garden bed to see if any other plants made it. There is a lot of amaranth that springs up that gets hard to fight back and I haven’t pulled a lot out due to fear of ripping out any potential tobacco as there have been random other plants sprouting.