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Good Blog read on Turkish tobaccos.

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deluxestogie

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The blog articles (parts I and II) are a fun read, and I recommend them as a casual, layman's survey.

The author leans heavily on the popular book by Sherman from 1970, a book loaded with inaccuracies and outright misconceptions. I doubt that Sherman ever saw a tobacco plant actually growing. He blithely states that (fill in the blank) variety of tobacco can be grown nowhere else in the world. [Members of this forum know better.] There is also the old saw that the same varietal seed produces different varieties of tobacco, based on the soil and weather condition of where it is grown.

[Milton M. Sherman: All About Tobacco, Sherman National Corp, New York (1970). http://tobaccodocuments.org/nysa_ti_s1/TI56720085.html#images
is the primary source of this myth.]

As to origins of Oriental tobaccos, I would guess that a small number of genetic varieties of seed (likely less than a half-dozen varieties) were originally carried to the Ottoman Empire 500 years ago, and that the wide differentiation we now see resulted from grower selections and accidental crossing. Instanbulin's various threads on Oriental tobacco varieties, while less prosaic, are the real deal.

The blog articles' comment on the economics of small-batch varietals highlights the advantage each of us has as home growers, in our being able to test and select specific varietals for their preferred nuances. We are lucky folks.

Bob
 

Dean

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I would think after even a couple of generations in non native soil the flavour and growing characteristics would be held to some degree and stabilised within the decade. The small variations I see in my for example silk leaf are null and void after 7 generations in australia. There is also a commercial seed supplier who has grown aussie silk leaf to find it is identicle to American silk leaf in your solis and situation. As a breeder of orchids with a clear understanding of plant genetics I fail to see a marked movement from original plant to a new strain over several generations of selfings, outcrossing yes you will se variation but we all know that. A selfing will breed true for many generations before diverging to another strain.

i really hope that in a decade or two we don't see things like N. Tobaccum var. silk leaf 'aussie' to me in my life time and I assume in others an heirloom plant will stay as it is written N. Tobaccum 'silk leaf'

part of this must be in italics and the fact this forum doesn't a knowelage it is part of the reason I like it. Coming from the orchid world where every variety must be written in a perfect way I like the no holes barred lumbers aproach.
 

deluxestogie

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You can induce some epigenetic changes that are determined by growing conditions (e.g. drought stress or herbivore pressure), and that persist in the offspring of selfed tobacco. But since the genetics are not altered, the type breeds true as soon as a generation grows without the stress.

Bob
 

Jitterbugdude

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I like where he says.... "Real Samsun, which cannot be successfully grown in any other part of the world, is considered by the Turks to be among the world’s finest tobaccos"
I wish I had known that 5 years ago before I started growing it.. :rolleyes:

Overall though it is a nice article giving the reader a general idea of the various Turkish tobaccos.
 

istanbulin

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If you know that, you'd directly get some Samsun seeds to grow without giving a try to others. :)
 
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