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JLP's 1st Tobacco Grow - 5 Types - UK

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JLP

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Hi there,
As you'll have seen if you read the title, this is my first time growing tobacco. I don't know why I haven't had it in my garden before to be honest?.

I have experience with growing stuff indoors, outdoors and in a variety of substrates....one method I've had quite a lot of fun with has been indoor hydroponics under lights. It suits a lot of plant types well causing them to grow really well & yield heavy...
When I began thinking about growing tobacco I thought about doing them in hydro but found out from many sources that there was a strong possibility of the end product having either next to no taste or maybe a very bad taste....nutrients can be "flushed" out but taste is one of the main reasons I enjoy smoking tobacco!

Anyway, that's another completely different subject so let me get back on track here :p

I have 5 strains of tobacco just starting, I shall add more pics as they become bigger as at present they're not much to look at as you can see below

Burley Original TS/40, Tennessee Burley TN/90 (I would love to try Kentucky Burley too), Maryland 609, Latakia (possibly Lattaquie?), Virginia Gold (Bright leaf variety) & another Virgina I'm not sure about

I'm pretty sure the Tennessee Burley & possibly the Original Burley are exclusively used for cigarettes whereas I'm a pipe smoker, obviously they'll still be smokable but I understand some varieties are better for pipe tobacco, is this something anyone can enlighten me on please?

Here are my babies so far:

Burley Original:
Burley Original TS40.jpg

Maryland
Maryland.jpg

Virginia Gold
Virginia Gold - 1wk old.jpg

I'm not sure if it's maybe a wee bit too late to start another variety or not?, there are a couple I'd love to do...Yellow Twist Bud, Bursa and somekind of oriental maybe?....there's always next year for outside though ;-)

Anyhoo, I shall try and post pics as regular as possible and visually document them at least

Any advice or tips shall be received readily!, like I say I've not grown "baccy" before so I'm at the bottom of the learning curve I'm afraid :D

Thanks again, JLP
 

deluxestogie

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I'm pretty sure the Tennessee Burley & possibly the Original Burley are exclusively used for cigarettes whereas I'm a pipe smoker, obviously they'll still be smokable but I understand some varieties are better for pipe tobacco, is this something anyone can enlighten me on please?
Burley is often used at 10-40% in blending cigarette tobacco. Some pipe tobacco blends use burley for an American-style mixture (e.g. Half and Half), that is heavily cased. Cornell & Diehl sells a number of burley pipe blends that follow an English-style, with Virginia, Oriental and Latakia.

Although I enjoy burley in a cigar (sometimes all burley, using red tips), in my pipe blending trials, I was not happy with burley at greater than about 1/16 of the mixture, regardless of the other constituents. I do find straight burley enjoyable occasionally, in a small corncob pipe. But my everyday pipe blends are traditional English-style blends, using Virginia, Oriental, Latakia, dark-air-cured and sometimes Perique.

You may find this thread on pipe blending helpful: http://fairtradetobacco.com/threads/3926-Pure-Tobacco-Pipe-Blends-You-Can-Make

About Latakia, pipe smokers envision a black, smokey floral, crumbly tobacco. Regardless of the Oriental variety you grow, it won't become that kind of Latakia until it has been fire-cured for many weeks. Even then, the floral characteristics depend on the specific woods used to produce the smoke of the fire-cure.

My attempt is documented here: http://fairtradetobacco.com/threads/5016-Making-Latakia-at-Home

My result of making Latakia produced a black, deeply smoky, crumbly tobacco, but it required about a year of further aging to take off the "pine" edge. The floral notes, however, are completely different from those of Don's WLT whole leaf Cyprus Latakia (which I would encourage you to purchase). The missing wood seems to be the mastic. Making it is a ton of work.

Bob
 

JLP

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Hi Bob,
Thanks for the info, appreciated... :cool:, I've read quite a few of your threads & found a lot of useful & interesting information on stuff.

I have tried a few C&D tobaccos and liked a lot of them, they use quality leaf I think....there's a pound of mixed tobaccos en-route to me at the moment as it goes so I'm looking forward to that arriving any day now. Mostly C&D, McClelland, Sutliff...I smoke a lot of Gawith & Hoggarth/Samuel Gawith blends,

Like yourself, I enjoy English/Balkan blends, although I enjoy most things with a lot of Latakia, Squadron Leader, Frog Morton etc. That said, my palate seems to be favouring a pipe with a strong Perique presence.....also still having fun exploring what I like & don't like as I've not been smoking a pipe for too long.
As I type this I'm enjoying a MM Corn Cob "Legend" with Cornell & Diehl Haunted Bookshop with 2oz of Big n Burley there for after my evening meal.


Yes the Latakia is a process as opposed to a variety of plant, I have seen seeds marked as "Perique" too which isn't strictly correct either right?

Your Latakia thread is one I'd read before Bob but just read it again, I like the smoker you constructed, ideal!....something I really fancy trying once I have some leaf available. On the WLT Cyprus Latakia, it's certainly a good price and looks good enough to eat, if I could find out about Import Duty here in the UK, or rather the absence of said Import Duty, I would just bash on & order it.

The Customs & Excise website told me nothing so I don't know?, it's unprocessed leaf, it's for personal use etc so I would hope there would be no duty
The leaf sampler too is something I would order, looks like an excellent package
 

Chicken

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Looks like your seeds are stretching..may want to lower your lights.
 

deluxestogie

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On the WLT Cyprus Latakia, it's certainly a good price and looks good enough to eat, if I could find out about Import Duty here in the UK, or rather the absence of said Import Duty, I would just bash on & order it.
On the WLT site, Don lists two vendors in Europe. He may be able to arrange shipping some of the Latakia through them (with their wholesale orders) for your purchase. PM FmGrowit, or use the contact form on WLT if you decide to discuss the possibility.

Bob
 

Chicken

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I have one pair of those yo-yo hangers they are nice but I don't use them..

It actually.came with a 400 h.I'd. I ordered..
You grow veggies or the weed with your hydro set--up?

I've never got into the hydro scene..way too complicated for me..but I'm a member of grasscity.com. I've seen some wicked hydro grows.

But they weren't growing tomatoes
 

JLP

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What lamp do you use JLP?
And what color temperature? 4000 K °?
Hi Gavroche, hope you are well :) ..... When they go under a light (hopefully today?) it will be a 200w CFL bulb, I mistakenly said 250w in my last post sorry...I have both 'veg' & 'bloom' versions
The veg (blue end of the spectrum) is 6400 kelvin while the bloom (red spectrum) is 2700 kelvin. Separate 'Dutch Barn'/'EuroWing' type reflectors on Yo-Yos.

On the WLT site, Don lists two vendors in Europe. He may be able to arrange shipping some of the Latakia through them (with their wholesale orders) for your purchase. PM FmGrowit, or use the contact form on WLT if you decide to discuss the possibility.

Bob
Thanks Bob, I never noticed the European vendors so I shall look again!....it would be really good to have some decent Latakia for blending experiments or even, dare I say, the odd bowl!...will let you know how I get on.

I have one pair of those yo-yo hangers they are nice but I don't use them..

It actually.came with a 400 h.I'd. I ordered..
You grow veggies or the weed with your hydro set--up?

I've never got into the hydro scene..way too complicated for me..but I'm a member of grasscity.com. I've seen some wicked hydro grows.

But they weren't growing tomatoes
lmao! ..... I used to be a regular on I.C. and OG. many, many moons ago! ;)
At one time I had a 24 pod modular ebb & flow set up under 3 x 600w HPS bulbs...which was 24 x 25-litre buckets...if I remember correctly the rez was somewhere in the region of 160-180 litres?....I shall try and dig out some pics of it for you to see. Unfortunately, I don't live in the same house as that was setup in anymore & don't really have the space available for something that large now :( ... Don't have anything quite as big now but for growing chillies, peppers, tomatoes (lol) I have a couple of Wilma systems which I use ebb & flow with when used as opposed to drippers which is also possible with them.
They aren't setup at the moment but I dare say I could have em up & running in a couple of days allowing for 24hrs to settle etc,

Best of luck with your season JLP.
Thank you Knucklehead, I may need it! :cool:
 
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