Adding a throat hit to burley

[Old Gasman]

I have indeed tried it, not as a cigarette but in a pipe and I've enjoyed it very much.

 

[Bex]

I have a very small glasshouse (made from the old windows of my house). Normally I grow my vegetables in there, but had been thinking about using it for tobacco. After all, who needs vegetables when you’re looking for a good smoke??? LOL! I’ll see if I can find Little Yellow for next season….maybe just 4 or 5 plants, and shove those stupid tomatoes out of the way. Thanks for the info!

 

[deluxestogie]

Northwood Seeds Providing organically grown seed for home gardeners

 

[Bex]

Thanks for the link. I’ve been searching the web for it, and see that basically the seed will come from the US. Nothing in the EU. I’ll order some, and give it a shot. I’m glad that it’s air cured….I pretty much disassembled my beloved virginia curing chamber, so air curing would be the way to go. As always, thanks Bob.

 

[Bex]

I ordered from Northwood. The shipment is about 500 seeds! While I can find info on the growing season (short, only 55 days??), height (short, 4 to 5 feet??) I can’t find anywhere that indicates the hardiness of them or the temps that they like. Any idea?? While my ‘tunnel’ has now reverted back to vines and overgrowth, I wonder if this would be feasible for some kind of cold frame next to the house and in sun for most of the day (on those rare sunny days in Ireland….)

 

[Bex]

Found it. Zone 4. So pretty hardy.

 

[deluxestogie]

Since tobacco grows in Scandinavia, Nepal, Alaska and the high slopes of the Andes, I doubt that any area with a sufficiently long growing season to mature the leaf would not be able to grow any tobacco variety. The flavor, strength and aroma vary, of course by conditions during the growing season. It's a perennial that will die in freezing winters, but we always grow it as an annual, replanting it every year. I think Little Yellow will be quite happy in Donegal.

Bob

 

[Bex]

Well, I just looked up the temps in Nepal…80F in summer. I wish! This year we had 2 weeks of temps in the low 70’s (everyone complaining that it was ‘too hot’). Our summer temps, at least for this year, have been in the low 60’s during the day and low 50’s at night. Very interesting that Little Yellow is a perennial…..I very rarely get frost, so maybe this will be better than perfect!

 

[deluxestogie]

Little Yellow is a perennial

All Nicotiana tabacum is perennial.

 

[Bex]

I didn’t realize that. I wonder how you’d grow it as a perennial, or if doing so would change the nicotine content, taste, etc. Imagine having, say, 10 tobacco plants that would forever take care of your tobacco needs….

 

[deluxestogie]

Well, in the half-millennium, worldwide history of penny-pinching, overworked, tobacco growers, the consensus has been that you get better tobacco (quality and yield) by replanting it each year, despite the additional labor. A number of tobacco pests love when the tobacco root system stays alive in the ground through the winter.

Bob

 

[Alpine]

I can’t believe that Donegal summers are colder (or “worst”) than summers in northern Scandinavia… take a look @Frelono grow blog and see what he can do in his environment. Anyway, have you ever considered growing N. rustica instead of N. tabacum? Rusticas withstand harsh climate way better than tabacum (no wonder they are widely cultivated in the ex USSR countries), have relatively shorter growing seasons, and a robust nicotine content even when grown in cold and cloudy conditions. “Throat hit” is barely noticeable though, so they may not be your cup of tea.

pier

 

[Bex]

Well, in the half-millennium, worldwide history of penny-pinching, overworked, tobacco growers, the consensus has been that you get better tobacco (quality and yield) by replanting it each year, despite the additional labor. A number of tobacco pests love when the tobacco root system stays alive in the ground through the winter.

Bob

I wonder if I would be considered a tobacco pest as I would love it if the root system stayed alive during the winter.

 

[Bex]

I can’t believe that Donegal summers are colder (or “worst”) than summers in northern Scandinavia… take a look @Frelono grow blog and see what he can do in his environment. Anyway, have you ever considered growing N. rustica instead of N. tabacum? Rusticas withstand harsh climate way better than tabacum (no wonder they are widely cultivated in the ex USSR countries), have relatively shorter growing seasons, and a robust nicotine content even when grown in cold and cloudy conditions. “Throat hit” is barely noticeable though, so they may not be your cup of tea.

pier

Throat hit, or at least something further back than the tip of my tongue, is the only thing that really gives me a satisfying smoke. Strangely, I find that when I don’t get that hit, it induces me to cough. Not sure about the reason for that. I’ll take a look at Frelono’s blog. I live right by the sea, so the wind, salt air and cool temps make outdoor growing (of anything really, other than root crops.) an adventure. It also didn’t take long for the wind and storms to trash my tunnel….

 

[Bex]

@Frelono Just read your grow blog, and much of your weather sounds fairly similar to mine (except for the snow). I’m on the west coast of Ireland, in the north of the country. It was impossible for me to grow tobacco outside that was unprotected, either in my tunnel (which was eventually trashed by the wind) or trying with a cold frame. Every once in a while we get a good summer, but it’s not often. This year we had 2 warm, sunny weeks in June. And that’s it, so far.
Anyway, you’ll like this….I read on your blog:
“I have lost a building before. And the neighbors lost their barn roof some years back”
My first year of growing burley, I was air curing my plants in the shed. And the roof blew off during a storm in March. I have no idea where the plants ended up, but I never found any. It was pretty depressing. Growing Virginia was actually better for me because I could cure it in my kiln. But it wasn’t a stand alone tobacco for me, way too mild…..

 

[Frelono]

@Frelono Just read your grow blog, and much of your weather sounds fairly similar to mine (except for the snow). I’m on the west coast of Ireland, in the north of the country. It was impossible for me to grow tobacco outside that was unprotected, either in my tunnel (which was eventually trashed by the wind) or trying with a cold frame. Every once in a while we get a good summer, but it’s not often. This year we had 2 warm, sunny weeks in June. And that’s it, so far.
Anyway, you’ll like this….I read on your blog:
“I have lost a building before. And the neighbors lost their barn roof some years back”
My first year of growing burley, I was air curing my plants in the shed. And the roof blew off during a storm in March. I have no idea where the plants ended up, but I never found any. It was pretty depressing. Growing Virginia was actually better for me because I could cure it in my kiln. But it wasn’t a stand alone tobacco for me, way too mild…..

Thats the coast life XD. I found out that a large greenhouse properly concrete to the ground was my only shot at making this work. Build with really sturdy plastic pipes from old fish farms. I have yet to secure it from the winter storms. But I will figure something out.

 

[johnny108]

I can’t believe that Donegal summers are colder (or “worst”) than summers in northern Scandinavia… take a look @Frelono grow blog and see what he can do in his environment. Anyway, have you ever considered growing N. rustica instead of N. tabacum? Rusticas withstand harsh climate way better than tabacum (no wonder they are widely cultivated in the ex USSR countries), have relatively shorter growing seasons, and a robust nicotine content even when grown in cold and cloudy conditions. “Throat hit” is barely noticeable though, so they may not be your cup of tea.

pier

It’s very possible that it wasn’t just climate that made Rustica popular in the USSR. It could also have been (wait for it) the ease of curing!
Think about it- was a Soviet tobacco farmer a motivated person? You were lucky if they were sober, so, a plant that is simply left in the ground until it’s yellow requires less work than priming, which if done wrong, could damage quality or yield- gulag offenses.priming also requires more work, something to be avoided in the worker’s paradise…..

 

[Old Gasman]

Sellers of highest quality tobacco seeds - Tobacco Seed Company

60 varieties of the finest tobacco seed for you to grow your own tobacco at home.

www.tobaccoseed.co.uk

 

[Bex]

Looks like Yellow Pryor is the same as Little Yellow, in Old Gasman’s link?? https://www.tobaccoseed.co.uk/seeds/Yellow Pryor.html
I’ve ordered from Bob’s link to Northwood….and almost immediately got an email back looking for the shipping address etc. They only charge $4.00 for international shipping. Of course, this is the wrong time of the year to get excited by the prospect of trying this leaf…..
By the way, ITC has sent me a tracking number….my small burley shipment is being sent today from Germany. Fingers crossed!!

 

[deluxestogie]

Yellow Pryor is a flue-cure variety. Little Yellow is a dark air-cure variety.
Yellow Pryor:

PI 552339 GRIN-Global

npgsweb.ars-grin.gov

Little Yellow:

PI 551289 GRIN-Global

npgsweb.ars-grin.gov

Bob