Raise tobacco in your garden?

Libertine · Dec 12, 2004

If the percentage of smokers on TBN is M/L same as the population as a whole, this might be of interest to at least 3,000/4,000 TBNers. Do any of you put in a few tobacco plants yourself for your own use? There are permits/quotas required to raise it for resale. I'm not talking about that, just raising a few plants for your own use. I have been told by a low level gov employee that it's "illegal" but don't really know. If true, the next thing is the tomato growers association will try to make it illegal to raise your own tomatos (so you will have to buy them through the tomato producers).

Anyway, just wondering if any of you do?

JEH

GRUMPA · Dec 12, 2004

Well we tried it once and had great success with them. There's more variaties of plant than you can shake a stick at. In our hot climate they grew like weeds. Cut them at the base and they kept growing. When it came time to dry them out though, with our hot and somewhat dry climate they really didnt do to well. In other words they dried into something that was like a potato chip. They never did change color they stayed green, not brown (maybe it was they variety we chose). We used a pasta machine to cut the leaves (with the soft leaves) that was the easy part but the product wasent very good at the end. 6 plants gave us enough for a year (2-5gal buckets) but when we tried to smoke it, it was like smoking someones lawn clippings. Maybe we didnt do something right somewhere we dont know. But we didnt do it agian and info on the net is hard to find.

Bob_Skurka · Dec 12, 2004

In one of my lives, I actually am a lobbiest against excise taxes, and the testimoy I give most often to state legislatures & local governments is to oppose the excessive cigarette and cigar tax increases that have become so popular lately. This spring I am scheduled to testify in federal court in Tennessee. (I am NOT one of those folks who thinks it is good to smoke (although I am NOT opposed to smoking either), my testimony is related to how excise taxes -of any kind- hurts small retailers) Anyway, despite being a life long non-smoker, I've had the pleasure of touring tobacco facilities in Kentucky and have regular contact with these folks, seen production, auctions, etc. I've also toured cigar facilities in various parts of the world.

The growing part is the easy part!

Tobacco is not simply dried after it is cured. There are special "curing" barns, the best of which use microwave technology to cure the leaves. I don't understand the process, but leaves turn brown yet stay reasonably flexible.

By the way, tobacco can be a very effective pest control, especially if you are an organic gardener. Take some tobacco leaves and make a tea of of the tobacoo (if you don't grow your own, buy a pouch of MAIL POUCH or BEECHNUT chewing tobacco) Let the tobacco steep in the water in the sunshine in a jug for a day or two, then use the liquid (strain out the tobacco) in your sprayer to eliminate bugs. You can add garlic to act as a repellent. You can add a few drops of dish soap help the solution stick to plant leaves so it all doesn't just run off.

slydog · Dec 12, 2004

( By the way, tobacco can be a very effective pest control, especially if you are an organic gardener. )

If you spray your tomato's, squash, cuc's, though you might get an infestation of the Tobacco Mosaic Virus. Id check to make sure that what I sprayed wasn't succesptible to the virus.

Ken

rosey · Dec 12, 2004

You're not worried that one of your local "thugs" will come out to get ya are you??

MossRoad · Dec 12, 2004

My grandmother used to grow it and make the tea that Bob spoke of and used it as insect repellant.

Here's a link.
http://www.victoryseeds.com/tobacco/

Libertine · Dec 13, 2004

GRUMPA:

Cut them at the base and they kept growing . . . They never did change color they stayed green 

Don't know anything personally about raising it, but, everything I every saw in Kentucky (visited grandparents as a kid, they had a farm up until mid 1940s) it was always harvested after it turned yellowish - but that might have just been the variety grown there. As Bob_Surka posted they have special curing barns where it is hung for awhile. In my youth, they didn't have any special environment to cure it (although it might have been treated or something - don't know) and it was raised years ago without any special facilities/treatments (from colonial times) so suspect should be able to cure it ok IF you know what you're doing (I don't).

Did you have any legal issue about growing it? Or, just did it and nobody bothered you? Also, how many plants did you grow to get your (2) 5 gal buckets full? (ie. yield per plant).

JEH

PS smoking "lawn clippings", ugh!

Libertine · Dec 13, 2004

Bob_Skurka:

Tobacco is not simply dried after it is cured. There are special "curing" barns, the best of which use microwave technology to cure the leaves. I don't understand the process, but leaves turn brown yet stay reasonably flexible. 

Wonder how it was done before microwave technology? Certainly no special facilities were to be had 200-300 years ago when it was raised in colonial times & exported to Europe, used partly as a medium of exchange (money), etc. I don't know how it's done either, but I don't think it's brain surgery. Have to find someone who knows and pick their brain.

buy a pouch of MAIL POUCH or BEECHNUT chewing tobacco) Let the tobacco steep in the water in the sunshine in a jug for a day or two, then use the liquid (strain out the tobacco) in your sprayer to eliminate bugs. 

Yes. What you are doing is extracting the nicotine which is a deadly poison and can easily kill (in concentrated form - like a lot of things useful in moderation, deadly at higher concentrations). Readers should be careful not to concentrate the nicotine (ie. cook off the liquid) as it would then be as risky to handle as other concentrated pesiticides.

my testimony is related to how excise taxes -of any kind- hurts small retailers) 

Do you know if they have made it illegal for someone to raise a few plants for their own use? Given the high taxes, could be the government wants to discourage anyone from "escaping" their clutches.

(I am NOT one of those folks who thinks it is good to smoke (although I am NOT opposed to smoking either)

I don't suggest anyone should smoke either. But, like a lot of things in life, there are plusses and minusses to almost everything, especially in moderation. A person who smokes and can't think of five benefits to NOT smoking is as constipated mentally as a non smoker who can't think of five benefits TO smoking - what each person ends up doing is up to them, but whichever side of an issue you are on it is simple mental excersize to look at both sides, even when you don't end up changing. But the anti-smoking "nazis" are bent on denying others their pleasures because they don't approve of them. Like so many things in life today such issues as personal habits have been usurped by the courts (and crusaders of all stripes). It's not (or shouldn't be) a legal matter. If you smoke, you don't blow smoke in a non smokers face. That's simply a matter of personal courtesy. If you don't want someone to smoke in your property that is your right. And vice-versa. As you probably know, there are towns trying to outlaw smoking in restaurants, etc. It is the owner of the restaurant that has the right to decide those issues. If they want to descriminate against smokers that is their right too, it's their property. But I digress. I was simply trying to find out if any TBNers have raised some tobaco for their own use, any suggestions on how they did it, and, whether there were any legal issues they ran into.

JEH

Bob_Skurka · Dec 13, 2004

Wonder how it was done before microwave technology? Certainly no special facilities were to be had 200-300 years ago when it was raised in colonial times & exported to Europe, used partly as a medium of exchange (money), etc. I don't know how it's done either, but I don't think it's brain surgery. Have to find someone who knows and pick their brain.


I don't know how they used to cure tobacco, but I know there were different methods of doing it. Flue curing comes to mind.

As for the tobacco tea, yup it is the nicotine that is an effective pesticide.

As for the issue of being legal or illegal to grow, there I can't really help you but I am familiar with tobacco laws as they relate to movement of product from state to state, largely because of the taxation issues related to the movement. Most every state I know of has personal use amounts that can be transported by individuals. Most every state I know prevents unlicensed distribution for resale. I know of none that would prevent an individual from growing it, it is legal to own. The tobacco quotas are a form of price support and they are being eliminated right now (just passed congress this year), but they did not forbid anyone outside of the system from growing their own tobacco.

Libertine · Dec 13, 2004

Mossroad:

Many, many thanks for your link. That answers lots of questions about the process itself. Looked through some of it and will go back for further study.

Again, thanks for taking the time to post it.

JEH