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Cassidy

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Growing some tobacco sounds like fun. A couple quick questions please.

Anybody here growing on the cap rock? N.W. Texas, elevation here 4000 ft.

Are folks that plant marketable quantities using roundup ready seed like http://www.londontobacco.com/steyer-seeds.html ?

Just out of curiosity does anyone know if air curing in a barn with other stuff in it affects the tobacco? We put up a couple hundred tons of hay every year and always have several thousand ft. of storage left over. I got to thinking after reading the FAQ that this might just be good for curing tobacco, often outdoors here there is little humidity but in the hay barns there is some but not too much, We can adjust the vents but really never do as our hay never sweats here.
 

deluxestogie

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Elevation itself is not a problem. Tobacco is grown on Machu Picchu, in Peru, as well as in Nepal.

So far as I know (BigBonner would know better) there is no Roundup Ready tobacco seed. London Tobacco Market (in London, KY) is offering corn, soybeans, wheat and alfalfa.

Your barn sounds like a good idea for hanging tobacco. With low ambient humidity, stalk-harvesting may provide you with the best chance of a good cure. The hanging tobacco can take on odors, but I don't think that hay would be a problem.

You might also consider sending a PM to BigBonner about purchasing tobacco transplants next spring. He usually has a good selection of varieties, though these change a bit from year to year.

Bob
 
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Cassidy

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Ty for reply Bob
Its a super pleasant smell in the barns, don't know if you ever walked into a building with alfalfa but its sweet and nice like flowers. I will have to look into this more as we do drive into these barns to fetch hay with tractors.
 

Cassidy

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Ty for reply Alpine.

In all likelihood I would only grow a small patch as an experiment to start. All around us for some distance is cultivation, mostly cotton and milo with some hay farms and pasture like ours sprinkled in. How much do you grow? and if a lot what type of weed management do you employ?
Here there is a nemesis for growing anything and its Amaranthus palmeri, the folks here call it pigweed. Weed control is a huge factor to consider when attempting to grow even the simplest little plot of anything. I figure I should ask here on this forum a bit, If I talked about anything other then cotton, grain or hay with the local extension folks they will conclude i have lost my wits.
 

deluxestogie

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Keep in mind that Nicotiana tabacum is a broadleaf weed. Even the slightest herbicide drift can ruin a crop.

Everybody has weeds. Some members use a black plastic mulch, others just til the weeds. I grow between 150 and 250 plants each year (a modest grow), and weed it all by hand--that is, I pull them up with my hands, so they don't grow back.

Bob
 

Alpine

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Black plastic mulch for me, I have no time enough to tend my tobacco weeding by hand. And having the soil a bit warmer is good for my plants in my environment. I grow five rows, 16 plants each row. Two feets between plants, three ft between rows.

pier
 

OldDinosaurWesH

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Interesting Cassidy. I talked tobacco with my local extension person and received a bunch of grief. A bunch of nonsense about morally opposed to tobacco etc. etc. I thought we paid taxes to support these people!

Good luck with the tobacco growing. There are lots of good people associated with FTT who can give you good advice.

Wes H.
 

deluxestogie

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I talked tobacco with my local extension person and received a bunch of grief. A bunch of nonsense about morally opposed to tobacco etc. etc.
That depends on the state. Nearly every traditional tobacco-growing state provides excellent support from their extension services with regard to tobacco.

Bob
 

OldDinosaurWesH

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Well, this is the same person who struggles when I bring in a new weed to identify. She's young, inexperienced, and hasn't had life kick her in the teeth enough times. One of those morally superior Millennials you know.

Wes H.
 

Cassidy

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I know that person Wes.. she is everywhere now. They all share the same easily identifiable traits, myopic tunnel vision being the most notable. another being the ability to transform any information that contradicts the conclusion they seek into white noise.
 

Cassidy

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So my next question is about wind, all growing season the forecast is 10-20 S. S.W. pretty typical to have periods of 15-30 with gusts to 45, Here the planting season is late and short, mostly a 3 week window, the last two of may and first of june as the ground temps are just too cool earlier. this almost always is followed by a hot blow that can produce some sand burn on crops like cotton. I am going to Imagine I could start transplants a little earlier and I have a spot In mind that is well away from cultivation surrounded by pasture so the tender starters wouldn't get sandblasted. but there is wind. I noted in a post I read here someone mentioned some wind damage so just how delicate is tobacco where wind is a concern?
 

Alpine

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Once established, tobacco plants are very strong, depending on specific strain some are very drought tolerant, some can withstand little early or late season frosts, and so on. If you live in windy areas, choose strains that don't grow too tall, or plan to stake the taller ones. As for the short season, we have our last frost around mid may, first freeze around mid sept and I can harvest and cure with (almost) no problems.

pier
 

OldDinosaurWesH

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Study up on your varieties. Shorter varieties obviously do better in windy conditions. I have been growing some very tall varieties, 7, 8, an 9 footers. I have to use heavy wooden stakes on a lot of them to keep them upright. Not a good choice if you don't have a lot of time to tend to them. My 5 to 6 footers are a lot easier to deal with. Fortunately, you have some time to think about it.

Wes H.

What kind of tobacco are you interested in? There are a lot of people on FTT that can help advise you.
 
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Cassidy

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Thanx Pier ..all something to consider over the winter.
Pretty much I am kicking myself for not having been curious long ago but we all start somewhere I imagine.
 

Cassidy

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Hi Wes

Yup school is in session. So the truth is I have no Idea at all what I am interested in yet. I only recently became curious while choking on a hand rolled bugler and got to lookin about for some alternative. Right away just lookin made me mad because I started to imagine that some federal reason had made it so browser inquiries about foreign sources or even domestic for that matter concerning raw or unprocessed tobacco returned very little. I kinda wondered how can this be possible? surly there must be dozens of folks all over the world that have some tobacco they would sell but surprisingly there does not seem to be a way to access those folks that most surly exist. So after lookin a bit I found out about whole leaf and the couple sources we can order from.

So right now I am like a kid at christmas waitin on my very first shipment to arrive. I have a variety pack comin so I can experiment some. Then I began lookin for info on what to do with it when I get it. A couple dozen youtubes and some readin here has me thinkin that there is as many ways to treat your leaves as there are folks that get em.

Pretty much here is my plan, I intend to shred up all six kinds of leaf and case them cept for the turkish then I am considering perhaps toastin the dark air and perhaps the maryland too and keep em all separate and just do a lil eyeball blending after they all took some.
I am not too worried because i am hardly any type of connoisseur, I smoke for effect up till now, I live a good clip from anywhere and have been gettin canned tobacco for some time, more because it easy to keep on hand and stock up on then any other reason. I just roll a smoke with the enclosed papers and a can lasts me around a month. I get two smokes actually from a single smoke, or I puff a lil and the wind usually puts it out and then i finish it later when I have the need. You will laugh but I make these rolled paper tubes that I use to smoke the 1/2's. so I am hardly a gourmet where tobacco is concerned.

All that to say while looking about to figure out what to do with my leaf when I get it I noted a lot of folks here grow tobacco. I was out tendin to chores and started to think hey! I may have a good set up here for doin the same. Besides big hay barns we also have a small steel building, perhaps 20' around that we call the red room, Its really a huge dated oil tank that was cut and set up on end in concrete like a silo round 12' tall with a door on hinges cut out. I store pallets of sack grain for the horses in it now but I could put that other places. This little shed could be made to be a smoker or flue easy.

So I have all winter to get an education and make a plan. Mostly I am leanin towards growin a small plot of somethin I will consume myself to see what nightmares I encounter, no doubt the nematodes, crawlin and flyin critters and all the blights will visit my attempt. If I find I have some talent I could perhaps grow a bit more.
I Imagine I would get a kick out of tryin to grow somethin along the lines of heirloom or heritage stuff that is rare and there is a demand for provided that it is ok to market such a commodity.
 

BarG

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Those extension agents most likely train for crops on large scale for their region., not like traditional tobacco states where it is still a crop economicly.
 

OldDinosaurWesH

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Yes and this obnoxious one is the local extension weed specialist. I have forgotten more than that twit ever knew! Ironically we went to the same University, and took a lot of the same classes. Just 25 years apart.

Wes H.
 

BarG

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25 years, Is he your sr. or jr. apart. heh heh. Probably trying to impress with his lack of knowledge or wisdom thereof.
 
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