Also a newbie and I have gotten so much information from this site to do with tobacco and rolling cigars and so forth.
I only have burley light tobaccos growing at the moment my first attempt at growing I have the Cowboy Light and the Golden Light varieties
I have some seeds coming from one of the people on site for Florida Sumatra so I can have wrappers for next season.
Learning from all my mistakes which is good value of course. Failed to take off the little side shoots and not removing flower heads have affected my leaf sizes.
I am going to save seeds from the biggest and strongest looking plants as being the ones that acclimatised best to my environment.
I am a bit of a girl I suppose (for a bloke) as I like the milder cigars I turn green if I try a punch de punch and others of that style.
During this year I hope to be a bit more learned in what I might like as filler for my cigars.
And then start the begging emails for seeds
It is a strict no no in my country (Aust) to grow your own tobacco it is a federal offence (Govt. loosing the tax) and a bigger penalty than growing weed which is a state offence.
My favourite style of cigar is what I believe is a very old fashioned shape the perfecto and am tracking down a press/mould as I speak.
Next is the panatella never seen a mould for them on eBay so far so could be a winter project trying to make a mould myself.
My wife smokes cigarettes and heaps of them and I have used the side shoots with leaves that I removed from the plants and air dried them then into a very rudimentary kiln made from a foam box with a light in it as the heat source and at present spaying some water in when needed and a jar of water under the light. I also have a 12 volt fan from an old computer creating air flow. It with a little experimenting for the right sized light bulb is running at 48.8C constant and at 75% to 83% humidity.
What can I say but it has worked fantastic. I have cured sufficient tobacco for her to make her first 100 cigarettes. Using a Powermatic Mini and some tubes.
She loves them loves the tobacco, loves the smoke and enjoys shredding and filling her cigarette tubes. A 100 cigarettes would cost $100 of the ones she buys and it has cost $3.48 in tubes. The whole set up has only cost me $200 so another hundred and twenty five there about will see us at break even point.
On cigars I have been importing mine from America for the last few years. If I get away with customs duties is fantastic if I don't I am still around half to two thirds the price to buy the same ones here in Australia. So far I am batting 50/50 on getting away with the customs duties.
Half way through building a kiln to replace the temperary one. Using nearly all recycled items.
I have bought a temperature controller and a humidity controller via China for $24 and $10 respectively other than that its an old freezer with a stainless steel liner a heat lamp and a fan to provide some air circulation.
I have build a rack to put into it that I have used old fridge racks that I can put my leaves on to cure after air drying.
This is still a work in progress but fingers crossed will work better and hold way more than the temporary one.
Well just my small deposit of information and please more than happy to be told "you shouldn't do it that way". Only way to learn.
Thanks for a great site guys and all the great information on it.
Alistair