Caribbean-style cigar seed

[Petzi]

Hello everyone,

My Ohio Dutch tobacco soon spent four weeks in my kiln-chamber. I could not resist this weekend to take a small amount to roll a cigarillos. What a beautiful discovery. The aroma is as described by some members in the forum.
While smoking, I think about next season and tell me that I will taste a Cuban style cigar tobacco.

I look at the varieties available. I'm getting a little lost and will need your advice.
My specifications for a cigar tobacco plant will be the following:
- Caribbean style cigar
- Filler + Blinder
- Mild taste
- Resistance to PVY (since I live in the center of Europe like Charly, Ciennepi, Alpine,... I'm scared that my soil is infected with the virus)

Even better if
- Speed of maturity (to take advantage of the heat of autumn for air-curing)
- Small size (in the mountains there are periods when the wind blows very strong).

I do not know if this pante exists, but with your advice I will get closer to it. Thank you for your feedback!

Petzi

 

[Hasse SWE]

Hi Petzi I think that it's hard to find a Cubano variant with good PVY resistance but I shall see if I have any file on my computer about it.
I remember that growers in Zimbabwe had hard problem with PVY a few years ago. Don't know if they found any better variant to grow.
But that question is really interesting. So I think I shall trye to see if I have a email address saved.

 

[Hasse SWE]

Ha ha lol = ( y ) and not the symbol some times I hate that symbol's..

 

[Alpine]

Maybe @ciennepi is willing to send you some of his Nostrano Cubano seeds. If you want to try some Nostrano del Brenta, let me know and I’ll dig in my seed bank.

pier

Edit: you can try to contact @skychaser, he is very knowledgeable about growing different strains of tobacco (he has literally hundreds of different strains) and his advice would be of great help

 

[Alpine]

I forgot to mention, Skychaser DOES sell a Caribbean cigar kit

tobacco seed multi-packs

pier

 

[Petzi]

Thank you guys for your answers!

@Hasse SWE I am interested in your information about farmers in Zimbabwe. Keep me informed.

@Alpine Thank you for your info on the seeds. I followed the log of Ciennepi. I am delighted to see what Nostrano Cubano will become! I do not know the plant Nostrano del Brenta. What is the taste of the tobacco leaf?

I see that @Plöjarn's log is the same idea I have, but with a more precise plant.

I unfortunately (or fortunately for my wife) have not enough garden to plant several kinds of tobacco. That's why I'd like to focus on one seed. The Caribbean cigar kit, I like a lot, more than choose the right variety.

Petzi

 

[Hasse SWE]

Thank you guys for your answers!

@Hasse SWE I am interested in your information about farmers in Zimbabwe. Keep me informed.



I unfortunately (or fortunately for my wife) have not enough garden to plant several kinds of tobacco. That's why I'd like to focus on one seed. The Caribbean cigar kit, I like a lot, more than choose the right variety.

Petzi

I will keep you updated, I have a strong feeling that they used Hydrid's because they just wanted to find the best variant for them.
And you need to know that they still to day haven't found any variant that make the growers 100% shore that the grow will be free from PVY.
I found a Facebook group named "
Zimbabwe Tobacco Seed
Association" (from 2017). So I took contact with them but they didn't think they found any good dark tobacco but some greather F-C variant's.
They asked me to contact: University of Kentucky so I did but I think they will speak good about just Hybrid's. And new seed each seasons.

 

[Petzi]

@Hasse SWE I wonder how you find all this information?

In Switzerland today, only Virginia (introduced in 1992) and Burley (hybrid variety Mont-Calme Brun and Mont-Calme Jaune) are grown. I don't imagine that Switzerland has cultivated cigar tobacco in the past.

I hesitate, but I will try the variety of tobacco Nostrano del brenta. It is the endemic variety closest to home. And the variety Piloto Cubano which has grown well at Ciennepi.

@ciennepi can you describe me the taste of tobacco Brenta? Is it really different from a Carabean tobacco?

 

[Hasse SWE]

@Hasse SWE I wonder how you find all this information?

In Switzerland today, only Virginia (introduced in 1992) and Burley (hybrid variety Mont-Calme Brun and Mont-Calme Jaune) are grown. I don't imagine that Switzerland has cultivated cigar tobacco in the past.

I hesitate, but I will try the variety of tobacco Nostrano del brenta. It is the endemic variety closest to home. And the variety Piloto Cubano which has grown well at Ciennepi.

That question can be both hard and easy to answer.
You shall know that I always asking at least one question to much when I have the chance to ask something.
And also when my kids was small I had the chance to sitt down and read what ever I could find about about tobacco. Stuff like different issues have also been some thing that have been spoken about.

But when it comes to PVY I also mostsay that it is one of the problem I absolutely not will have in my backyard. So I have talked to alot of people that works with tobacco. I think that Norbert Billenkamp from Nicota have given me this link on just Cubano tobacco variant: http://www.cuba-junky.com/cuba/cigar-varieties.htm

He have also told me how they work with issues in Germany and other European countries (mostly Italy and France if I remember right).

 

[Ben Brand]

I don`t know if Zimbabwe got any cigar tobacco producers. I used to get a lot of commercial flu cured tobacco seed from Zim. RK1 and RK3. Very hard to come by, used to smuggle it in from a farmer friend of mine, he farms in Zambia now. I know he does Burley tobacco now.
The guy I used to produce tobacco for had a plane, we used to fly down just to get some seeds, smuggle it through in the plane.
Good old days.

 

[Hasse SWE]

Nice to see you Ben Brand. I don't believe that they have any cigar tobacco production either it is a big difference between resertsh grow and a real production.

If they have done a resertsh grow I think University of Kentucky will tell me pretty short about it. Perhaps telling variates name and if someone of them working better than the other and a growing year but not much more than that.

 

[Petzi]

The tobacco world is super interesting. Difficult to find good information without going through this forum.

@Hasse SWE I am glad to know what the University of Kentucky will give you for information. Are these big institutions easily affordable? I have not made contact with the Swiss research center on tobacco, I will have to start ... I am sure that I will find interesting information.

I see that you live well north of me. Do you grow cigar tobacco?

 

[Petzi]

Thanks for the link http://www.cuba-junky.com/cuba/cigar-varieties.htm on cigar tobacco varieties.

Would be great to have, one day, a library with the varieties of tobacco and their description ...

 

[Charly]

I take this conversation a bit late (I am really busy this week...)

From the "caribbean-style" seeds I grew :
- Piloto Cubano PR was very resistant against PVY (at least the PVY strains I have in my garden).
- Corojo 99 was affected, but some plants grew correctly
- Criollo 98 / Vuelta Abajo / Dominican Olor / Coroja Cuba Pi 405643 / Criollo Colorado / Criollo Cuba Ti 1376 / Machu Picchu havana : grew not very well...

If you are searching for other strains with good (or medium good) resistance against PVY :
- Nostrano del Brenta
- Bahia
- Bolivian Criollo Black
- Semois
- burley TN90

 

[Petzi]

@Charly Thank you for your answer which comforts me in choosing the variety Piloto Cubano for next grow session.

 

[ArizonaDave]

Hello everyone,

My Ohio Dutch tobacco soon spent four weeks in my kiln-chamber. I could not resist this weekend to take a small amount to roll a cigarillos. What a beautiful discovery. The aroma is as described by some members in the forum.
While smoking, I think about next season and tell me that I will taste a Cuban style cigar tobacco.

Petzi

Havana 142 is a good all around tobacco, that can be used however you want it to; wrapper, binder, filler. It is an old cuban strain. I recommend it be used lightly. Too much can be too strong.

 

[deluxestogie]

Havana 142 is a US-developed binder strain that features resistance to black root rot.
"Developed by Dr. James Johnson from a cross made in 1916 of Havana 38 with a selection of a farmer's strain (Page's Comstock) and was released for commercial use in 1923. Resistant to black root rot." (Keller. 1958. Agronomy Journal 50:712-713)

Of this series of developed strains, Havana 322 is among the latest of that series of developed "Havana" types, being a cross between H142 and H38. Having a choice, I prefer H322 to those others (which I've also grown.)

Bob

 

[Hasse SWE]

I take a screenshot at both the question and the answer:

 

[deluxestogie]

To be clear, NONE of the numbered "Havana" varieties are known to be resistant to PVY.

Bob

 

[Hasse SWE]

Havana 142 is a US-developed binder strain that features resistance to black root rot.
"Developed by Dr. James Johnson from a cross made in 1916 of Havana 38 with a selection of a farmer's strain (Page's Comstock) and was released for commercial use in 1923. Resistant to black root rot." (Keller. 1958. Agronomy Journal 50:712-713)

Of this series of developed strains, Havana 322 is among the latest of that series of developed "Havana" types, being a cross between H142 and H38. Having a choice, I prefer H322 to those others (which I've also grown.)

Bob

I can also tell you that most of the Havana types we grow comes from Havana 38. Havana 38 have also been growing with the name Wisconsin 38 and Connecticut 38. But from the name Wisconsin 38 shall be the Original name.