workhorse_01
Well-Known Member
Welcome, Come on in the water's fine.
You'll probably like a blend using Maryland rather than Burley. Try this: 60% VA flue cure, 30% Maryland, 10% Turkish Izmir. You can purchase menthol tubes to make menthol cigarettes. To try a few blends, get the cigarettes sampler from www.wholeleaftobacco.com. During the off season, you will also need to purchase a devise to shed your leaf. I use the Powermatic electric. It is also available from www.wholeleaftobacco.com, as is a cigarette injector. I prefer the powermatic manual, while many folks here like the powermatic electric. By trying different whole leaf tobacco varieties, you can go ahead and get used to handling and processing whole leaf, you can find a blend you like now, and you can get an idea of what you want to grow for next year. And last but not least, you can start saving a ton of money right now.
do you plan on putting the room-mates to wrk helping you tend to your bacca ,,?
Welcome, Come on in the water's fine.
I read somewhere that due to the hands on time involved, an acre is all a single full time farmer can grow by him/herself.
Plant yield varies greatly but for cigs some easy math:
1 lb is roughly 2 cartons/20 packs.
Per plant yield about 4oz average. A Turkish may be 2 ounces and a big Burley 10 ounces. So 4 plants per pound or 2 plants per carton or 5 packs per plant..
Figure how many packs/cartons/year you need and use this to figure aabout how many plants to grow.
I would add 20% or so to give margin for error/losses.
If you are really ambitious you can double up the first year so that by the end of year 2 you will only be smoking leaf witha minimum of one year aging. Read that again...."REALLY AMBITIOUS".I
I'm not very ambitious-I'm not entirely sure I can grow it and it will be a long time until I can age it and learn it.
What did you smoke until you got growing down? Any brand in particular? Southern Steel, Criss Cross, and Gambler all make me hack and cough.
I'm a pack a day smoker, usually less than that-
OK, I have a few more questions then:
1. do you grow your own to sell, or just for yourself? It seems like a large investment and money and work-you must enjoy it!
2. Do you grow your own primarily to save money or to have organic leaf without the chemicals? That leads into my next question
3. What papers do you use? Are there chemically free papers?
4. Maybe I should try to quit smoking again LOL
I must be having a lazy moment.
One is a smoker, the other (is my husband) he's not a smoker, never has. But...he loves to garden so yes, he'd tend. He rolls my smoke now-he actually enjoys it, just doesn't care to smoke.
Oh, A Mrssissippian, Heh heh. My wife will roll me one once in a blue moon, If I've been real nice. I hope he helps with your grow next year also if he likes growing things.
I grow for myself, not to sell. I also grow for the enjoyment and as a hobby. From a strictly financial point of view I think it is cheaper and definately easier to buy whole leaf tobacco from Don at www.wholeleaftobacco.com.
I grow mainly to enjoy different varieties that nobody offers for sale. Once I tire of tasting and sampling, I may just switch back to buying whole leaf. Growing can be a major PITA, especially when the weather won't cooperate.
If you have a tube injector, you can buy tubes like the Vera Cruz Nocturne that are the natural paper color (brown like a grocery sack). White papers have been bleached white. I don't know about regular rolling papers, I always buy the filtered tubes.
If you buy whole leaf tobacco and tubes, you will end up paying about $1.00 per pack or $10.00 per carton. At those savings, it doesn't take long to save enough money to purchase the shredder. You will need a shredder regardless of whether you grow your own or buy whole leaf. This is my first year growing so i am still smoking wholeleaf. Sometimes I think I'm crazy for growing at all when I can let someone else take the risks, make the investment, fight the weather, pay the overhead, suffer the losses from a bad weather year, pay the shipping, etc. Then sell me tobacco that I can turn into cigarettes for $1.00 per pack. You have to love to grow, period.
I certainly don't have any way to grow this year-I'll have to look into a shredder and see how much that is.
I would definitely get your mother-in-law involved in the grow next spring. She does have a green thumb on anything that's growable.One is a smoker, the other (is my husband) he's not a smoker, never has. But...he loves to garden so yes, he'd tend. He rolls my smoke now-he actually enjoys it, just doesn't care to smoke.
I would definitely get your mother-in-law involved in the grow next spring. She does have a green thumb on anything that's growable.
Hope I don't loose interest in a couple years as I teens to do with hobbies. This first year has been a wild ride. Watching a seed the size of a coffee ground turn into a 7' tall monster in a few months is simply amazing to me.
That's how I felt about my sunflowers, they are now 10+ tall. One storm and they all blew down flat. Now my pumpkins won't fruit.