How many of you have actually made decent homegrown?

[ChinaVoodoo]

Is the vid one of the people on here ? I watched it 3-4 months ago and made a plug tried it. Needs improvement!! Maybe age so we will see !

I don't recognize this person. It's always a surprise when you see someone doing things like this and you don't know them, but really, we are a small fraction of the homegrower community.

About four years ago, I grew about 24 burley plants my first year. I hung the plants in a shed to air cure. I then kilned it a few weeks. It turned out very good and I still have a pound or so left of it. Since then I've grown several varieties of flue-cured, several types of burley, One Sucker, dark air, and Samsun.
I don't process my smoking tobacco other than curing, kilning, aging, and shredding it. I don't add any toppings or casings. I primarily smoke it in a pipe but sometimes I chew it.
I have to say that all of my tobacco is at least as good as any I've bought from whole leaf sources, except for the Samsun. I purposely attempted to underfeed the Samsun when it was growing but the plants evidently got hold of residual nitrogen in the subsoil and took off. The stalks and leaves were huge compared to the photos of Samsun growing in the Black Sea region. I strung the leaves and sun cured them. The tobacco isn't bad quality. It has good aromatics but only the top leaves are comparable to Samsun as it's grown around the Black Sea.

I still haven't gotten used to the title of this thread, lol.

I just wanted to say that my Samsun is six years old now and immensely improved as a pipe blend component but then I realized I was thinking of my Bursa.

 

[Damanadaplaya]

I have grown MD 609 a couple of times, air cured, and kiln fermented with success (50 plants in 2019). I have made some pretty good cigars and tried to make cavendish- I used mason jars... It was a smooth smoke but I felt it was not quite there; it changed color but it did not change a lot of flavor. I tried topping it with Watkins vanilla (w/ glycerin, not PG), and let it dry, or so I thought. The entire batch molded, I was very sad.
I think what I’ll do this time ( I just germinated my seeds last night) is after cavendish, trying my hand at perique, and maybe flu cured, cut the cake, sterilize in mason jars, and store it until ready to use. Then just let a jar at a time dry before smoking. The tins I buy sure are different burn. My home made finished tobacco smokes smooth, but fast, and burns to an “absolute powder”. Which makes me wonder if the clumpy ash I get from the tins I buy, is the PG.

 

[deluxestogie]

Maryland tobaccos are know for their ability to absorb casings and flavors. They are stubborn to dry out, once in high case. I love them for all sorts of things, but I've found that their Cavendish is not particularly interesting alone. But the MD Cavendish does make an excellent blender.

All the fancy plumbing and catchment wells found in a number of tobacco pipes are not there because of real tobacco. Condensers and drip chambers are there to catch the goo created by PG and Glycerin, which is ubiquitous in all flavored pipe blends.

Bob

 

[Damanadaplaya]

Bob- I really appreciate your knowledge, thank you for all of your posts, and the downloadable book I read last night. My home grown is from my seeds, that I air cured and kiln fermented for cigars. I’m thinking of concentrating on pipe tobacco since I enjoy it more than cigars. My ligero is pretty.... bold, the seco is excellent and volado is weak, but plentiful. Cigars are easy in terms of blend, but what processing (perique, cavendish, fire cure, etc.) is best for top, middle and bottom leaf, or do it with a blend, AND, is pre fermented necessary for some of the processes?

 

[deluxestogie]

MD top leaf Cavendish will have more character than MD bottom leaf. Cavendish processing probably does not need to be kilned first...my current thinking. Any MD priming level will make interesting Perique. For pipe, you will be happy adding a Virginia variety to your grow, and flue-curing it. The VAs, after flue-curing, also make a variety of Cavendish, depending on the priming level. A mild burley, like Harrow Velvet, is also great to play with for various processing methods and for pipe blending. And don't forget to add a densely planted Oriental to your grow--also for multiple processing methods, though always sun-cured first.

Bob

 

[dvrmte]

I don't recognize this person. It's always a surprise when you see someone doing things like this and you don't know them, but really, we are a small fraction of the homegrower community.


I still haven't gotten used to the title of this thread, lol.

I just wanted to say that my Samsun is six years old now and immensely improved as a pipe blend component but then I realized I was thinking of my Bursa.

The title grabbed my attention. Yes, and it was killer. LOL Regarding the Samsun, it's aged two years and isn't bad at all, just not the quality as grown in the Black Sea region. It works for me though.

 

[stuart1]

I didn’t feel completely comfortable with my choices, decisions, processes, supplies, and methods until my third year. As long as there is an option to grow or buy whole leaf, I will not go back to commercial chemical cigarettes. Stick with it. I see growing my own as a journey and not a destination. The whole process becomes fun.

Good point re the journey not a destination, failure or learning is part of success - I just need to remind myself of this if things don't work out

 

[wruk53]

Last fall and winter I grew some Ahus and Rustica for my first ever grow attempts. I had no problems growing it, but I failed miserably in my harvesting and curing techniques. I harvested before the leaf was mature, did not color cure it and then dried it too quickly. It mostly flash dried green and turned out to be pure garbage. I did not have one shred of decent tobacco out of the lot.

This spring I grew some prilep and it turned out much better. I waited until the leaf was ripe before priming, then color cured in a box before sun curing.

My goal for the coming season is to grow a few full sized varieties and try to master curing larger, thicker leaves.

There is definitely a steep learning curve to producing good tobacco. There are just so many variables to take into account, what works for me may not be practical at all for other areas of the world or the rest of the country. You have to keep plugging away until you find what works for you and your circumstances.

 

[GIL]

Last year I cultivated for the first time, I don't know if it was "beginner's luck", or the fact that I read this forum for a year, but I produced pretty good tobacco in the "cigarettes" category and pretty mediocre tobacco in the "cigars" category. "Overall, I'm happy with the results. I know where I went wrong, and I'll correct myself. Some people like my cigars, (probably because they're free)

 

[new boy]

I didn’t feel completely comfortable with my choices, decisions, processes, supplies, and methods until my third year. As long as there is an option to grow or buy whole leaf, I will not go back to commercial chemical cigarettes. Stick with it. I see growing my own as a journey and not a destination. The whole process becomes fun.

I’m in my second year. Just getting leaf out of fermenter and it’s nice got to get my head around blending ! I’m trying to make rolling tobacco any advise welcome !!!

 

[e.g.inglis]

The big companies have to sell a reproducible product at a competitive price, and sell it to customers who expect their tobacco to remain "fresh" feeling. Home-grown tobacco can be quite ordinary, or it can be truly artisanal. We don't wonder why a meal at a fine restaurant always tastes better than similar food at a chain restaurant. The former is artisanal cooking, while the latter is reproducible product that must be prepared within an unrealistically short amount of time, and be sold at a price competitive with similar chain restaurants. One might say the same about home-grilled hamburgers vs. McDonald's.

The tobacco big boys do have some dandy equipment (rollers, steamers, presses, ovens, etc.), but that simply makes their product easily reproducible.

So, your burgers are better, and your tobacco can be better as well.

Bob

Right on you got me I,m a papered cook my home is every bit as good as anywhere
My 1st
Lafes are over 1 foot long

 

[Havok]

It’s not about how long your Lafes is. What matters is how you use it.

 

[HillDweller]

The one exception is that my own Latakia isn't quite there yet.

Are you still working on that? Not something I'l probably ever try since I rarely smoke Latakia blends, but still it's quite interesting.

 

[HillDweller]

Hi All,

Cheeky question, how many of you have actually grown, cured, and finished tobacco from seed to bowl successfully, and its comparable in quality / to commercial blends?

Reason I'm asking is my first proper batch turned out a bit rubbish and even after a years age, the leaf hasn't significantly improved, feeling a bit stink hahah.

Last year was my first go at flue-curing. Did several batches. First batch produced some very decent bright leaf. Second batch I think I crammed in too much and it didn't turn out as well. Other batches produced orange and red. As for blends some have been winners some losers but I think that is to be expected.

 

[deluxestogie]

Belated welcome to the forum, @e.g.inglis. Feel free to introduce yourself in the Introduce Yourself forum. Be sure to read the New Growers' FAQ, and scan through the topics in our Index of Key Forum Threads. Both are linked in the menu bar. The first year of growing tobacco is always a learning experience.

About the Latakia: I concluded that the specific materials (e.g. wood species, brush cuttings, etc.) used to produce the smoke in the firing chamber ultimately determine the flavors and aromas of traditional Latakia. Those materials are, for the most part, the natural flora of the Mediterranean basin (not southwest Virginia). The firing process is tedious and dirty and stinky, and continues for weeks to months. My clothes and my house smelled like a campfire for the entire time. So...I have some unique, fire-cured Oriental leaf that vaguely suggests Latakia. I learned what I had hoped to learn about the process. I won't be doing that again.

Bob