Greetings from N. Georgia: @green_bean

[green_bean]

Have been growing veg, herb, and flowers most of my life and decided to add tobacco in the garden this year. Was ordering some other seeds from Restoration Seeds and noticed they had seeds called Smoking Tobacco for sale. You all know it’s kind of overwhelming when you look at the abundance of different types and kinds of tobacco one can choose from to grow. So when I saw seeds simply labeled Smoking Tobacco, well that was just so easy of a choice. I had read that tobacco is a good companion plant with basil and so am starting out by growing mine with my basil this year. During my quest for information on growing, harvesting, drying, curing, rolling cigars, etc., I found this site. Wow! What a wealth of information! Thanks so much for the opportunity to learn here. I really enjoy looking at everyone’s pictures and so here are a couple pictures of my 6 plants and one of a baby horn worm I smashed today. I found and smashed about 12 of these little devils scattered on the undersides of leaves during this morning’s inspection.

All the best, green_bean

 

[Alpine]

Welcome to FTT.

pier

 

[plantdude]

Here's to hornworms, my first of the season today. Let the fun begin. A small snack for the chickens.
Your plants are looking great, especially for your first grow.

 

[jclif43]

Welcome!

 

[deluxestogie]

Welcome to the forum. Have a look at 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.

What particular use will you make of your tobacco?

Bob

 

[Knucklehead]

Welcome. Thank you for joining us.

 

[green_bean]

Thanks! Want to make cigars with it.

 

[deluxestogie]

This will be a good summer to learn some of the quirks of tobacco growing. Look through the available cigar varieties at Northwood Seeds, for next season. It's anybody's guess which one of the many thousands of Nicotiana tabacum (i.e. "smoking tobacco") varieties that you are currently growing. You can make quite smokable cigars from any of them, but they may or may not taste like what you would expect from a cigar.

Bob

 

[green_bean]

Thanks Bob. The thing that I'm wondering most about right now is the drying. Could go for under the front porch or else in a corner of the garage. Or else in my shed that has double doors but no windows. And then we have a screened back porch. Decisions, decisions. Had thought about putting some leaves in all the places to see what might work best, but I may be just over thinking it?

 

[deluxestogie]

Stalk-cutting and stalk-curing is least dependent on your ambient humidity.

Bob

 

[green_bean]

Have been priming lower leaves and have stalk harvested one of my plants. Here's some pictures of some of it. Also want to say that I am really enjoying reading and learning a lot from your Grow Cigars book, Bob.

And then I thought I'd mention how my love affair with cigars began. Very simple, really. When I was a kid, a couple of my uncles were always puffing on a cigar. When they'd come to our house and finish a stick and then toss the butt into the yard, I'd find it and study it and inhale the smoke from it until it went out. Didn't put it in my mouth, just let it lay in the grass or move it around with a little stick off a bush and smell that aroma. Sometimes I'd take a leaf and burn it from the butt. Crazy kid, I was. Ha!

 

[deluxestogie]

my uncles were always puffing on a cigar.

When I was growing up (in Atlanta), one of my uncles was always smoking cigars—at home, at work, at picnics and family gatherings. My mother thought they smelled awful. I had no opinion, since for a kid, the world is the way it is. But as an adult, I always found the aroma of a cigar to be a warm, nostalgic thing. Decades later, I learned that my uncle had smoked mostly Havana cigars, up until the embargo.

Bob

EDIT: Of course, in 1959, a Havana cigar in the US cost about 30 cents.