When to plant tobacco. Problematic cultivation of smoking tobacco

“Shag is a faithful friend, calms the nerves,” this is what soldiers once said about smoking tobacco, which was made from the plant of the same name in the Solanaceae family, which contains nicotine. And if previously shag was an almost unchanged attribute of the majority of the male population of the Slavs, today this plant is considered almost exotic. What shag is, how it can be used in everyday life and how to properly grow it at home - we will tell you in more detail below.

What is shag

Shag is the name given to both a herbaceous plant of the Tobacco genus (containing nicotine substances) and low-grade smoking tobacco made from the mentioned plant. Unlike other plants belonging to the Tobacco genus, shag is much less demanding in terms of growing conditions and is more resistant to climate change. The distribution area of shag is quite extensive: it can be found on almost all continents, but most of all it prefers northern regions with a temperate climate.
The external characteristics of the plant are not exceptional: it is a rather unsightly annual plant with small yellow flowers and large, rough leaves with a resinous coating. Absolutely all parts of the plant contain nicotine, but this does not prevent this crop from being used for other economic and industrial purposes - for example, in the production of citric acid or poisons to control plant pests.

Did you know? The word "shag" comes from the name of the city of Amersfoort inthe Netherlands, which in the 18th century became famous for the flourishing of the tobacco industry - it was there that the first farms appeared where shag was grown.

Tobacco produced from shag was considered less harmful than, for example, virgin tobacco, and was produced in 2 types: snuff and smoking. If earlier, in the territory of the former USSR, the cultivation and production of this crop was established on an industrial scale, today only a few enterprises grow this plant.

Where and how to grow shag

The majority of private agricultural enterprises involved in the cultivation of this crop are today located in Tatarstan and Western Siberia, where the total area under crops of this plant is about 10,000 hectares. The most acclimatized varieties of shag that can be grown in open ground are the varieties “Pehlets local” and “Datura 4”. The best soil for such a plant remains loamy soil (in particular, loamy chernozem), and the temperature is moderate, up to 22 ° C.
To ensure abundant seedlings, the field is first sown with corn or winter grains - after these plants the soil becomes more suitable for growing shag. But potatoes and sunflowers are bad predecessors, since they have not only common pests with the mentioned crop, but also similar diseases. When growing shag, the quality of the soil is monitored very carefully: it is periodically fertilized with a strictly adjusted amount of phosphorus and potassium, and also ensures sufficient aeration and moisture.

Useful properties of shag

The greatest benefit of shag, as well as the harm, lies in the content of nicotine in this plant - a substance used not only in tobacco production, but also in medicine. Nicotinic acid is isolated from the leaves, which successfully cures some skin diseases and cardiovascular ailments - for example, an extract from the leaves of this culture is included in some drugs in the official medicine of Latin America.

Another certain dose of nicotine stimulates intellectual activity and prevents diseases such as schizophrenia and Parkinson’s disease, which is considered a positive property of this culture. This plant also helps with nasal congestion and ARVI symptoms: it is enough to inhale the smell of crushed dry leaves 5-6 times a day, and the aromatic enzymes in its composition will normalize the condition of the mucous membrane and relieve inflammation.

Important! To speed up recovery, inhale dry shag leaves in such a way that particles of the plant do not fall on the nasal mucosa. Remember: this treatment method is not suitable for children.

Also, shag tincture can cure such an unpleasant skin disease as scabies.

For this you will need:

water - 5 l;
salt - 1 tbsp. spoon;
dried tobacco leaves - 800 g.

Preparation:

All the negative effects of shag on the body are again associated with nicotine: a small dose of this substance is a medicine, and a large dose is poison. Nicotine in large quantities is destructive and significantly worsens, or even completely stops, the functioning of vital organs. Smoking shag or other tobacco, first of all, negatively affects the respiratory tract and lungs - tobacco smoke literally “burns through” the delicate tissue of these organs.

In addition, shag is addictive, can reduce sexual potency, affects hair and skin color, and also significantly overloads the liver. However, the harmful effects of this plant are mainly associated with its excessive consumption, so in order to get the benefits of shag, you need to know how, why and in what quantity to use it.

Did you know? Makhorka is mistakenly considered an original Russian smoking mixture. In fact, all tobacco crops, as well as shag, penetrated into Europe during the Age of Discovery, when Columbus's sailorsbrought to continental Europe not only an unprecedented plant, but also the habit of inhaling tobacco smoke.

Industrial Applications

The main purpose of shag in industrial conditions is cultivation for technical needs. Thus, a very strong alkaloid (nicotine) is produced from the leaves and stems of this plant, which is used to prepare both medicines and poisons. Malic and citric acids are isolated from phytomass - they are used in the textile (as a bleaching element of polyester fabric) and food industry (sweetener for soft drinks, ice cream and complex processed products such as mayonnaise or wine).

The seeds of this culture are a source of very fatty oil, which is used for soap making and is also added to some paints. Shag is used less frequently in the tobacco industry - only about 5% of all tobacco products today consist of shag.

Household use

When fighting insects

shag - 200 g;
water - 10 l;
liquid soap.

Preparation:

Peel and chop the heads of garlic.
Combine shag, chopped garlic and onion peels, pour in 10 liters of water. Boil.
Cook the product for 2 hours over low heat, cool and strain.
Add 80 g of liquid soap and add clean water to 10 liters (water evaporates during the cooking process).

Unlike chemical insecticides, shag decoction or dust is a natural remedy that is suitable for treating both mature plants and the youngest shoots.

Growing shag at home

Growing this plant at home is not difficult or financially expensive - even a novice agronomist can handle it.

Seed preparation

This stage is very important, because the yield of future seedlings will depend on how well the seeds were selected and prepared. Before planting, the seeds need to be pre-soaked. To do this, you will need a container with a wide bottom into which the seeds are poured. Next, the seeds are spread evenly over the entire area of the vessel (the layer should not be higher than 3 cm) and filled with warm water. If any seeds float to the surface, they need to be selected and thrown away - they are unsuitable for sowing.
After this, the seeds are kept in water for up to 6–8 hours. Next, the water must be drained, and the seeds themselves must be spread on a special cloth for germination. After 3 days you can check the seeds: by this time they will already begin to germinate. After sprouts begin to sprout from the seeds, the seeds need to be separated from each other and poured onto a clean cloth for ventilation and drying. The ventilation time (up to 24 hours) can be used to prepare the soil.

Features of planting in the ground

When sowing shag, 2 methods are used: planting with seedlings and planting directly with seeds. Each of these methods has its own advantages and disadvantages.

Semyan

The most commonly used method: it is more convenient and, as a rule, gives a higher yield. However, if sowed incorrectly (if the seeds are planted more than 3 cm into the soil), the sprouts will not be able to break through the soil and will die. Proper planting of seeds occurs as follows: the prepared area is divided into small grooves with an interval of at least 70 cm from each other. Next, the dried seeds are mixed with a small amount of coarse sand and sown in the furrows.
Sifted humus is added on top (no more than 1–2 cm thick), and then the soil is thoroughly moistened with water. After this, the seeds are covered with a film (it is important to ensure that the soil under the film does not dry out and to periodically water the crops). After the seedlings have grown to 5 cm, the film can be removed - now the plant is strong enough to grow in open ground.

Saplings

The disadvantage of this method is that the plant does not initially grow in its native soil, and when transplanted into the final soil, it does not develop immunity. As a result, the plant is more often susceptible to diseases. Planting shag seedlings occurs as follows: first, prepare holes - their depth should not exceed 10 cm. A small depression is made inside the hole, which is generously moistened with water.

Important! Shag seedlings do not require frequent watering - it is enough to water them once a week, but watering should be plentiful.

The hole is sprinkled with damp soil on top, into which the seedling is placed - its root system must be carefully covered with dry soil. Thanks to this technology, the root system of seedlings takes root better, and the roots themselves do not lose excess moisture. When the plant reaches a height of 10 cm, you can finally formulate the sowing density and thin out the rows if necessary.

What soil to plant in and how to fertilize

The main enemy of shag is “heavy” or “clogged” soil. The plant will grow well only in mixed soil, so add a small amount of sand to the soil before planting, and then dig up the soil to mix textures evenly. Preparing the site for sowing shag begins not in the spring, but in the fall: before the autumn frosts, ash and manure are added to the soil, and in the spring - special phosphorus fertilizers, at the rate of approximately 20 g of fertilizer per 1 square meter. m of soil.

After enriching the soil with phosphorus, the soil should be loosened with a rake - now it is ready for planting seeds or seedlings. It is noteworthy that fertilizers can be applied not only before planting, but also during the growth and maturation of the plant (if, for example, there was heavy rain and part of the soil was washed out from under the plant). It should be remembered that the degree of soil fertility is decisive for the yield of shag, so you should not neglect fertilizers: for example, to produce 1 ton of dry plant leaves, about 10 kg of phosphorus and 30 kg of potassium are required.

It is best to use natural organic fertilizers such as horse manure, peat, bird droppings and wood ashes. This will ensure a good harvest of the plant, which, by the way, is on average 3–4 tons of grown product per 1 hectare of area.

Temperature conditions

While observing the temperature regime, you also need to adhere to the correct balance: for example, if the temperature is too high (over 25 ° C), although shag will develop faster, its productivity and yield will decrease significantly. And too low a temperature (below 3 ° C) provokes the plant to slow down all processes, which even threatens its death. Optimal temperature conditions are an amplitude of 17–22 °C - the delay in development at these indicators will be minimal, and the size of the leaves and the chemical composition of the plant itself will be formed in the correct way.

In order to provide the seedlings with the correct temperature conditions, make sure that the sprouts are not exposed to the scorching rays of the sun - if necessary, use a special mobile canopy for seedlings. In the same way, protect the sprouts from possible cold weather: if there is a threat of frost, cover the seedlings with a warm blanket, and also apply an additional layer of organic fertilizer.

Harvest and storage

This crop ripens when yellowish spots appear on its leaves (especially the lower leaves) and the characteristic nicotine odor of the plant. The harvest is harvested by chopping with a sharp ax: each stem is carefully cut down, trying not to damage the leaves. The cut down plant is laid out in piles and transferred to a dry place under a canopy (an attic space is well suited for this). It is laid out on a wooden floor and left to dry for 24 hours. After this time, partial fermentation (“staining”) will occur in the collected workpiece.

Now the plant is ready for further drying. Each shag stem must be cut lengthwise with a sharp knife (the top and root part of the stem must remain uncut). This process (layering) can significantly reduce drying time. Next, the blanks are strung on thin poles or rods. The poles are hung to dry in the shade, but in a place where there is a draft (for example, an attic or shed). Now the drying process itself begins - it can last from 10 to 24 days, depending on the type of product, weather conditions, air humidity, etc.
After the plant has completely dried, the leaves must be carefully separated from the stems and placed in a clean, dry bag or glass jar. It is important to choose a storage location that does not get wet (for example, a kitchen cabinet). Dried shag, which is stored in a jar, must be ventilated, otherwise the drying will simply lock up and deteriorate. The dried stems of the plant are tied into bunches and stored suspended in a dry, well-ventilated area (an attic or balcony is perfect for this).

In our country, up to 75% of the male half of the population and about 21% of women smoke. Depressing statistics, to say the least... And this is against the backdrop of active promotion of a healthy lifestyle and the gradual rise in price of cigarettes. It is the latter fact that pushes many smokers to learn to grow their own smoking tobacco. But does this make practical sense? It all depends on how much garden space and effort you are willing to spend on this activity, as well as on your desire to understand all the nuances of tobacco agricultural technology.

Pros and cons of growing tobacco in the garden for smoking

The harm of smoking is undeniable, and addiction to this potion occurs very quickly. Scientists have found that smoking is second only to addiction to such a hard drug as heroin! But you can and should give up cigarettes: this way you will increase your life expectancy by 15–20 years. I’ll tell you a little secret - I also suffered from this addiction until I was 18 years old. Among our friends, everyone indulged in cigarettes, but there were times when there weren’t much other entertainments (and if there were, we couldn’t afford them).

I quit easily, overnight, due to the fact that the addiction was more psychological than physiological.

Well, we've gone a little off topic. If you are still a heavy smoker and you “use” at least a pack of cigarettes a day, then you should certainly consider from all sides the possibility of cultivating tobacco on your property.

So to benefits the presence of a tobacco bed on the site can be attributed to:

Firstly If you follow all the subtleties of the technology for growing and harvesting tobacco leaves, you will get excellent homemade tobacco. They can be used to stuff smoking pipes, as well as wrap them in cigarettes (cigarette paper can now be purchased in many online stores);

Secondly, shag is successfully used in the fight against countless army of garden pests. You can read how to use tobacco dust and tobacco to repel harmful insects.

Third, the presence of nicotine in tobacco makes it a medicinal plant. Let me remind you that it is not the tobacco leaves themselves that cause harm, but the smoke generated from their combustion. Exact dosage and proper use - and, lo and behold, nicotine turns from a poison into a remedy against headaches, burns, constipation, gynecological problems, asthma and a number of skin diseases.

But in general, growing smoking tobacco on your property is not a good idea. and that's why:

If you are not a tobacco specialist, then it will be extremely difficult to standardize the nicotine content in rolled-up cigarettes. If this substance is not enough, then you will not get any buzz from smoking. If, on the contrary, the tobacco turns out to be too strong, then sooner or later you will simply lose the rest of your health (do you need it?).
Excessive use of tobacco dust in the war against garden pests may also be by no means harmless to humans and plants.
If you smoke a pack of cigarettes a day, then to fully provide yourself with smoke for the whole year, the area of your tobacco plantation should be about 40 square meters, which corresponds to about 300 (!) plants of this crop. I think you will agree that for the owner of a plot of six acres, this is too unreasonable and wasteful.

Types of tobacco

Tobacco belongs to the nightshade family and comes in two types - ordinary tobacco and ordinary shag (country tobacco). Their main difference is that ordinary tobacco is more heat-loving and whimsical, but at the same time it is more productive and produces higher quality raw materials (plants of this species can reach up to three meters in height, but shag usually does not reach 1.2 meters) .

How to grow tobacco correctly, step-by-step instructions

Next, I will tell you the main points of agricultural technology for ordinary or real tobacco. It is much easier to grow shag - it is enough to sow the seeds in open ground in the second half of May and in a few months you will be able to harvest the fragrant leaves.

Sowing seeds for seedlings is best done in February. Tobacco seeds are simply super small - one gram contains about 12 thousand pieces. They are sown in bowls in a loose and moist substrate (compost, garden soil, sand 2:1:1) to a depth of no more than 7 mm.
Tobacco seeds are very tiny
Until germination, the containers are kept in bags at a temperature of +27...28 degrees. Next, the tobacco seedlings are grown on a light windowsill (lighting is simply necessary in March!) at a temperature of +18...20 degrees.
If the tobacco seedlings stretch out, then you need to carefully add soil to their stems. Otherwise they may die.
Watering is needed regularly, but moderately, using a syringe or spray bottle. When the plants throw out the first pair of true leaves, they need to either be torn out or planted in separate cups with depth down to the cotyledons (if the seedlings have stretched out). At first, I recommend leaving only 5-6 bushes to understand how profitable and interesting it is for you to keep this crop on your plot. As a result, 2-3 of the strongest plants will move to a permanent place (the rest can be distributed).
Small, but remote!
Caring for tobacco in the “nursery” period is elementary: light, warmth and water in abundance, but not in excess. Don’t forget about periodically loosening the soil in pots.
Tobacco seedlings are transferred to a permanent place at the age of 40 to 45 days in the second half - end of May. By this time, the plants have time to acquire 5-6 true leaves and reach a height of about 15 centimeters. To make plants less sick from transplanting, they are hardened off for 5-7 days and not watered for two to three days before this stressful procedure.
In the garden, tobacco plants develop very quickly and increase their vegetative mass.
Tobacco shows maximum yield on sandy loam, manured soil, and it is preferable to grow it after winter crops or after fallow. But beets, potatoes and all nightshade plants are bad precursors for tobacco.
The optimal distance between bushes when planting is 40-50 centimeters. One liter of water should be poured into the planting holes with the addition of one teaspoon of complex fertilizer.
Flowering tobacco is very decorative
This crop cannot tolerate even short-term drought, so at first it needs weekly watering (usually only two or three times per season is enough). However, in adult plants, the root system penetrates the soil to a depth of two meters and successfully supplies them with moisture even during dry periods. In this regard, some tobacco growers even believe that too frequent watering reduces tobacco yields.
Fertilizing is combined with irrigation, adding one or two complete mineral fertilizers per 8-10 liters to the irrigation water. If you are not a fan of “mineral water,” then you can feed the bushes with nettle infusion and add ash between the rows 2-3 times during the summer.
To improve the quality and quantity of leaves, topping is used on tobacco plants, that is, flowers and shoots formed in the axils are regularly removed from the bushes.
The first wave of tobacco harvest is harvested within a month and a half after the seedlings are planted in open ground. The readiness of the leaves is indicated by a slight yellowing of the leaves, their slightly glossy appearance and smoothing of the tubercles.

At this point, the path to obtaining homemade tobacco is far from over, because the most interesting thing lies ahead - drying and fermentation of the collected raw materials. All the nuances of these two procedures are well described in two videos.

Any garden crop requires an individual approach to obtain a good harvest. Even people familiar with how to grow tobacco can make mistakes when choosing a location on a plot or frequency of watering, which will later affect the quality of the raw material.

What kind of tobacco to grow?

This plant can be either a perennial or an annual. It belongs to the nightshade family and is cultivated for its smoking raw material - leaves that are dried and crushed to be used to fill cigarettes and pipes. Before planting, you have to make a choice which type of tobacco is best to grow, based on its characteristics:

Country tobacco. Common shag, as it is also called, grows up to 120 cm and contains half as much nicotine as Virginia varieties. The yellowish flowers have a corolla with a short tube and rounded lobes. In the middle zone and in the south, shag has been grown since the 19th century, starting from the first warm days until late autumn. Varieties of this type are “Holly 316”, “Samsun 85”, “Turkish”, “Datura”.
Virginia tobacco. It is also called “real tobacco” (Nicotiana tabacum) because its taste is considered classically strong. The most important feature characterizing how to grow tobacco varieties in this category is its high heat tolerance. It will sprout only in regions with high humidity or hot summers. This type includes “Anniversary new 142”, “Trapezond 92”, “Trapezond Kubanets” and “Pehlets”.

Planting tobacco

On one hundredth of a hectare of land, you can collect up to 40 kg of raw tobacco, considering that the average smoker consumes only 8 kg per year. Planting and caring for tobacco is carried out based on the type of planting. It has been experimentally found that when planted directly in the ground, this plant is severely limited in growth and produces an insignificant harvest. Therefore, tobacco is planted through seedlings as follows:

Tobacco seedlings are sown in early to mid-February at home. Before this, the seeds are soaked in water for a day, to which you can add a little potassium permanganate to disinfect the seed.
The seeds are washed 2-3 times and dried.
The soil is intensively loosened, since tobacco can only be grown in soil saturated with oxygen.
4-5 cm of soil is poured into a box or peat pots, but the depth of immersion of the seeds should not exceed 0.5 cm.
After planting the seeds, they are covered with soil and watered abundantly. The box is covered with film: the shoots under it will be noticeable in 6-10 days, depending on the air temperature in the room.
As necessary, add more soil so that it reaches the cotyledon leaves, otherwise the sprouts will die.

Tobacco planting scheme

It is in the interests of any gardener to conveniently place rows for easy watering, loosening or replanting if necessary. Planting tobacco in open ground on a site should be optimized for all of the above factors. There are two ways to arrange beds:

Suspension. Restricted growth varieties can be planted in greenhouses in hanging boxes with drainage holes in the bottom. This option is suitable for growing in the cold season if you plan to harvest twice a year.
Horizontal. The usual placement in open ground should not have a circular shape, because planting tobacco in flower beds is an inefficient use of land area. Even rows can be separated by furrows to facilitate watering.

Tobacco planting distance

The pattern of distribution of sprouts after growth is selected depending on which variety it belongs to. Before growing tobacco seedlings, you need to choose the distance between the ridges, since they are prepared in advance. In the fall, they are scrupulously cleared of weeds and fertilized with organic additives with potassium and magnesium. And in the spring, seedlings are placed in soil according to one of two types:

70x100 cm. This distance between crops is considered optimal for Virginia varieties characterized by vigorous growth. They have a powerful root system that is prone to overgrowth, which can be prevented by expanding the distance between rows.
50x30 cm. Shag varieties are determinate, so their compact root system requires 50 cm between rows and 30 cm between plants.

Planting time for fragrant tobacco

It’s time to transfer the seedlings to open ground if 3-4 true leaves have already appeared on the stem. As a rule, the age of the plant at this moment is 40-45 days. Thin tobacco leaves can be obtained by transferring the sprouts to soil at the age of 30 days, as is done in some regions of America. The exact time of planting tobacco is calculated taking into account the growing region:

In the south, early spring allows you to transplant as early as 2-3 weeks of March. There is no need to harden off the plant first.
In the middle zone, tobacco seedlings are planted later and transferred to open ground in late May - early April.
In cold regions, tobacco can be grown in heated greenhouses, which eliminate the need for transplanting to a specific date due to balanced conditions.

Conditions for growing tobacco

Knowledge about the scheme of planting and caring for seedlings is not enough to get a full harvest. Regulating growth by removing diseased and dead leaves and timely removal of flowers has a much greater impact on the taste of the leaf. No matter how much you would like to grow smoking tobacco in your summer cottage with minimal hassle, there are conditions that cannot be refused:

Humidity. If there is not enough watering due to a dry summer, humidifiers or sprayers are installed in the garden. Plantation owners who are confident in how to grow tobacco spend a lot of money on installing such devices, while inexperienced gardeners cannot even imagine how important hydration is for the juiciness and aroma of the leaves.
Growth correction. It is better to remove the stepsons and buds so that all the juices go to leaf growth. Tobacco begins to ripen from the bottom of the plant, so it can easily survive up to five leaf cuts. If some of them are damaged, they are removed during harvesting.

Tobacco growing temperature

At each stage of plant maturation, it needs a certain temperature regime. In open ground it is difficult to regulate from the outside - for example, during the cultivation of village tobacco (shag) in the middle zone. Therefore, gardeners try to adapt to natural temperature changes, taking into account the fact that:

seedlings should take root after transplantation at 20-22°C;
the development of large leaves begins at 25-28°C;
Harvesting ends when the temperature drops to 15-18°C.

Growing tobacco in the country - soil

In Cuba and America, the soil for planting seedlings is never cultivated with tractors because they compact the soil too much. Where tobacco is grown, fertilization, watering and harvesting are done only by hand for the same reason. At the dacha, you can repeat the same conditions by creating wide rows so as not to trample the soil near the plants while moving around the garden. Soil care requires compliance with the following rules:

Using last year's tobacco bushes and roots left after harvest as humus.
Controlling chlorine levels in the soil. Its excess becomes noticeable by the lethargy of the leaves on the shoots, even when they are in the shade. You can get rid of it by adding sand to the top layer of soil and then loosening it.
Maintain plowing depth. The layer of soil for planting should occupy a maximum of 20-25 cm.

Tobacco care

When the seedlings reach a height of 25 cm, they begin to need shade to give the leaves a strong taste and subtle aroma. After planting in the ground, the care of fragrant tobacco changes: it needs to build an awning or shelter over the beds to create shade on the hottest days. To make it reliable, certain conditions must be met:

Along the edges of the bed, dig 4 pegs of sufficient thickness to support the weight of an awning made of thin fabric or film.
The pegs need to be immersed to a depth of at least 5-7 cm, so that you don’t have to think about how to grow tobacco under a regularly collapsing awning.
You can additionally strengthen the “legs” with the help of stones or gravel poured into the installation hole.
After completing these manipulations, a piece of fabric or transparent film to the size of the ridge is stretched onto the pegs.

Growing tobacco in the garden - watering

In contrast to the fact that this crop loves abundant watering at the germination stage, it likes to grow in moist, but not swampy soils. The method of watering is of great importance. A stream of water directed under the roots erodes them and leads to fungal disease. All books that mention how to grow tobacco for smoking in the garden indicate that it needs to be irrigated with water. Spraying like a fine drip shower from a spray bottle is carried out so that water gets on the trunk and leaves.

Caring for tobacco seedlings - feeding

The roots of the plant are so strong that they require complex feeding, so all efforts should be aimed at accelerating the development of leaves and increasing their area. Growing and planting tobacco is accompanied by watering with the addition of the following fertilizers:

phosphorus;
bird droppings;
potassium sulfate or potassium chloride.

Growing tobacco in the country - diseases and pests

Black root rot. It affects young plants, causing the shoots to dry out and wither, and black-brown spots appear on the root part.
Bronzing of tomatoes. The disease of tomato seedlings also affects tobacco: rings and arcs appear on the stem - traces of the slow death of tissue.
Dry root rot. Every gardener understands how difficult it is to grow tobacco if its roots gradually dry out. Dry rot shrinks them, disrupting the transport of moisture and nutrients.
The disease thins the stem, making it brittle and brittle. The base of the plant turns black as infection by a microorganism called Rhizoctonia solani Kuehn develops.

At home, the matter is not at all difficult, as you might think at first glance. The main thing is the desire to work and have 1.5-2 acres of land available. This area is enough for you to provide yourself with tobacco for a year. But over time, your appetites may grow and then you will look at your capabilities.

I myself started growing tobacco spontaneously. A friend asked me to order tobacco seeds for him on the Internet, since he was on good terms with the Internet. I thought about it and decided to order one for myself to try. Here you can read about. And now it’s been the sixth year since I will grow tobacco in the garden for smoking and believe me, I have never regretted it.

Pros of growing homemade tobacco

Smoking your own tobacco is much more pleasant than these store-bought sticks with unknown filling. Plus, in addition to all this, you get a vast field for experiments with different varieties of tobacco, various mixtures of tobacco varieties, various sauces with which you can ferment tobacco, i.e. here your imagination is not limited.
And now, smoking your tobacco and taking a sip of your homemade wine, you experience bliss and a sense of satisfaction.
I hope I have convinced you to engage in this noble cause. You yourself won’t regret it later. You will also get savings on your budget; at today's prices for cigarettes, it will be significant.
If you have decided to grow your own tobacco, I suggest you read the description of my experience on the pages of this site, and we will start with.

Growing tobacco in an apartment

Is it possible or not? People ask this question. To be honest, you won’t get anything good from this idea other than initial experience. There are no smoking qualities, but the bush itself looks cool in a pot and perfectly complements the interior.

Do you think growing tobacco at home is difficult? Not at all, just read the articles on this site and most of your questions will disappear. The main thing here is not to repeat the mistakes of others, although after reading these articles, there will still be mistakes, but not so global.

Growing tobacco at home or in the country is not at all difficult; this crop has no more special features than ordinary vegetables from the garden. But the only thing you will have to struggle with is the post-harvest processing of tobacco - fermentation so that it acquires a more pronounced aroma. This process is not difficult, but it can take a lot of time.

The tobacco plant (Nicotiana) is a genus of annual or perennial plants that belong to the nightshade family. Nowadays, tobacco is grown to obtain raw materials for the production of tobacco products. By itself, tobacco is very heat-loving; its comfortable temperature is about 30 degrees Celsius. To successfully grow tobacco on a personal plot, in a garden or in a country house, you need to take care of the composition of the soil, since tobacco prefers moist, light, sandy soil. More details on how to grow tobacco will be written below.

Facts about tobacco: tobacco is valuable because it contains nicotine. This substance is concentrated in all parts of this plant (the largest amount is in the leaves - from 0.7 to 3%). Nicotine is a potent neurotoxin and cardiotoxin that, when exposed to the human body, causes short-term euphoria. Systematic use of tobacco can cause addiction.

As the Ministry of Health warns, nicotine is very toxic and contains many carcinogenic substances. It is not without reason that smoking tobacco is one of the main causes of lung cancer, so smoking is dangerous to health.

Varieties

Today, ordinary tobacco has a huge number of different varieties. Over the past 25 years, specialists in this field have been able to develop more than 20 new varieties that are distinguished by productivity and increased resistance to various diseases. As in the case of growing vegetables, growing smoking tobacco in your garden or dacha, or in an equipped greenhouse, requires choosing a suitable variety that can take root in the existing conditions.

Planting seeds

The technology for growing tobacco is not complicated, and any person who is far from smoking will be able to independently grow tobacco in their garden or garden, and not necessarily to obtain smoking raw materials, but simply as an ornamental plant. To begin with, they advise you to try growing several bushes of this plant to evaluate your capabilities and become familiar with all the nuances of growing tobacco on your site. To do this, you will only need a small amount of seeds, which can be bought online or in a specialty store. Tobacco seeds are as small as dust; there are about 12 thousand of them in one gram.

In order to grow tobacco and get a high-quality harvest that can provide the annual requirement of one smoking person, it is enough to plant only 0.25 grams of tobacco seeds. After this, there will be no need to buy seeds, because they can be obtained from the harvested crop.

From 2-3 bushes of grown tobacco, you can get enough seeds to sow an entire hectare of land. The positive properties of tobacco seeds include their long-term germination.

In addition to direct sowing of the soil, tobacco seeds can be planted in small pots to produce seedlings. The ideal age of seedlings is 40-45 days.

To grow large volumes of tobacco, it is sown directly into the ground in warm climates. Or they are grown in special greenhouses and nurseries. Seeds must be sown superficially, scattered on moist soil.

Experts advise sowing seeds to a depth of 0.7-0.8 centimeters. After sowing, you can water lightly, but so that the seeds are not washed away and do not go deep into the ground.

Planting seedlings

The ideal seedling is considered to be one that has reached 15 centimeters in height and has 5-6 fully developed leaves. In addition, you should pay attention to the condition of the root system. Before transferring seedlings from the windowsill to open ground, you should make sure that there will be no more spring frosts outside and that the soil has warmed up to 10 degrees or higher.

Depending on the region, planting dates may differ, but the optimal time is considered to be the end of April - the end of May. About a week before transplanting the seedlings into the ground, they are hardened off, reducing watering and acclimating them to the open air outside. Watering is stopped completely 3-4 days before planting, but before planting (2-3 hours) abundant watering is carried out while still in the pots.

The seedlings are planted in separate holes, into which 1 liter of water is poured in advance. Any transplant is stressful for the plant, and to avoid serious complications, it is best to keep the earth ball on the root system.

Care methods

Caring for tobacco bushes that grow in a country house or garden is much easier than caring for tobacco in the field. During the period of active growth, tobacco requires regular loosening of the soil, weeding, watering and fertilizing. You can apply fertilizers based on the norms for fertilizing ordinary tomatoes.

The watering regime is limited to 2-3 waterings throughout the summer, with a consumption of 7-8 liters of water per plant, but exactly how much moisture is required will depend on the weather conditions of the region in which the plant grows.

Soil requirements

Tobacco is best planted in fresh soil; if there is none, it can be planted after fallow, or after winter crops that have different requirements for soil nutrients. Considering such factors, it is not advisable to plant tobacco after beets or potatoes. The best type of soil is sandy loam, which is enriched with potassium and nitrogen - substances that are necessary for tobacco. The negative side of growing smoking or ornamental tobacco is the fact that it depletes the soil, but adding fertilizer can correct this situation. The best fertilizer for tobacco is considered to be cow manure or bird droppings.

Cleaning begins at the time when the color of the leaves begins to change from green to yellow-green. Since one bush may have leaves of different colors, harvesting is often delayed for quite a long time.

Possible pests and diseases

Smoking tobacco very often becomes a victim of the influence of certain types of pests and diseases. The main ones include gnawing cutworms, wireworms, beetles, aphids, etc.

Peach aphid, for example, is capable of colonizing in all parts of the plant. It gradually absorbs all the juices from the plant, which will ultimately lead to a decrease in the yield and quality of the resulting raw materials after harvesting.

Blackleg– very often leads to mass death of seedlings. The base of the stem begins to become thinner and rots. A brown or white coating may be noticeable on the affected areas.

Powdery mildew– a fungal disease that develops after planting tobacco in open soil. On the leaves that sprout on the bottom row, individual specific spots (powdery coating) become visible. Over time, this plaque becomes more dense and eventually spreads to the entire foliage. The fungus is able to survive winter frosts on plant debris.

Black root rot- a disease that is more typical for seedlings, but adult specimens often suffer. Seedlings that have become infected with black rot have limp leaves that turn yellow and dry out over time. When examining the roots, you can notice their blackening and death. In adult tobacco that grows in open ground, the leaves also wither, and black and white spots appear on the root system.

Bacterial grouse– oily or weeping spots begin to appear at the tips of the foliage of young seedlings, or along the edges of the leaves of an adult plant. If the weather is damp outside, they begin to rot and can infect neighboring plants. The pathogen can survive in leaves, tobacco dust and on garden tools that were used in the care process.

Tobacco Processes

In addition to proper cultivation, the quality of the preparation of smoking tobacco also plays a significant role, namely its drying and fermentation after harvesting. If a person has never smoked, it will be a little difficult for him to navigate the degree of readiness of the dried leaves. It can either not be dried completely or rot.

Drying: Immediately after the tobacco harvest is completed, the leaves must be hung to dry in a well-ventilated room. Experts advise installing a small container of water in the same room to make the air more humid. The leaves should dry for about 1 month. After this period of time has ended, the leaves need to be moistened with a spray bottle and placed in piles, covered with polyethylene, kept in this state for about 24 hours to ensure uniform moistening.

In the end, the leaves should be soft, but not wet. The next stage of processing is cutting into small pieces, placing them in an airtight glass container (for example, a jar) for fermentation.

Fermentation: This is a process that is carried out by maintaining a constant temperature around 50 degrees Celsius for several weeks. Smoking tobacco is fermented to reduce its strength, change the taste for the better, and reduce the concentration of nicotine and tar.

This procedure can be carried out using an electric oven, which allows you to maintain a temperature of +50-60 degrees. It is more convenient to dry the cut leaves.

Ultimately, growing tobacco can bring a lot of fruit, and will also significantly reduce the costs of a smoker. Tobacco can be smoked using a regular smoking pipe or wrapped in ordinary cigarettes (today, special cigarette wrapping machines and tissue paper are sold in the public domain). And the most interesting thing that can be done with tobacco leaves is a cigar - the process is simple and very interesting.