How to grow tobacco for smoking in the garden

How to grow tobacco for smoking in the garden? No, it's not the dashing 90s that came back when there was a catastrophic deficit. Yes, and then mostly shag was grown. Let's talk about how to get exactly tobacco - high-quality, fragrant and inexpensive.

If you are already going to pickle, then you need to do this with taste. And do not pay crazy money to producers for a pack of incomprehensible straw soaked in synthetics.

In general, growing tobacco in the garden is a snap. More dancing is done with seeds and the subsequent processing of raw materials. Following the guidelines will help make this easier and effortless.

Seeding for seedlings

Yes, you have to deal with seedlings. Because tobacco has a long vegetative period. And he just does not have time to collect a sufficient amount of aroma if it is sown immediately into the ground. Yes, and it is impossible. If only because many, seeing the seeds of tobacco for the first time, exclaim: "Some kind of dust!".

Indeed, they are so small that if they are sown in the usual way, then you will never see a crop.

Proper planting of tobacco seeds. You will need a wide container, with a height of not more than 10 cm. And preferably separate cassettes for each seed. The soil should consist of fertile land with clean sand, 1 to 1. It is poured with an even layer, then it is well leveled and moistened. Some sources recommend watering the mixture after sowing. We do not recommend it, because there is a risk of washing off microscopic seeds.

Wet toothpick spread the seeds on prepared soil. You can just sprinkle them on the surface, but only very rarely. Otherwise, the seedlings will interfere with each other, despite the tiny size. Gently sprinkle on top of the ground, a layer of not more than 0.5 cm.

Next, the container is covered with glass or a piece of transparent plastic. After they put in a warm bright place, with a temperature of 25-27 ° C. Once a day, condensate is removed from the inside of the glass, turning it to the other side. When the soil dries, gently spray it from the spray bottle.

Shoots usually appear after about 7-9 days. When the first sprouts appear, the temperature is reduced to 20 ° C. Otherwise, they will stop growing. Shelter is also being removed.

When 3 real leaves appear, seedlings need to be peaked. If it was planted in separate cups, then this item can be skipped.

The first two weeks it will seem that the seedlings sit still and do not develop. This is actually not the case. Just during this period, the root system is growing. And only then the aboveground part of tobacco will show all its power.

To prevent young bushes from falling over on their side under the weight of their own leaves, carefully spud them or add soil to the roots.

It is very important at this time to monitor soil moisture. Waterlogging threatens the appearance of a black leg and a complete lodging of seedlings. Be sure to have good lighting from 7 am to 9 pm. You can use additional backlight lamps. In this case, it is strictly forbidden to substitute seedlings under direct sunlight. Young leaves instantly burn.

Tip. Two weeks before transplanting seedlings into the ground, tobacco is fed with any phosphorus-potassium fertilizer.

Landing seedlings

Tobacco is very thermophilic, can die even at temperatures below + 3 ° C. Therefore, they plant it in the ground in the third decade of May, when all return frosts finally pass. The planting scheme is very simple - 30 to 50 cm. The principle is like seedlings of tomatoes or peppers. That is, from 0.5 to 1 liter of pure water is poured into the hole for the plant, an earthenware is made and a young bush of tobacco is planted.It is advisable to deepen it a little, by 3-4 cm. Thus, additional roots are formed.

How to determine if a plant is ready for transplanting? It should have 4-6 true leaves, well developed. Try not to touch the sapling for the foliage in general, it is very fragile and delicate. And through an ordinary scratch on the surface penetrate fungal spores and pathogenic bacteria. It is best to use the transshipment method along with a lump of land.

On the third day after transplanting into the ground, tobacco is fed a large amount of organic fertilizer. And no longer give any nutrition during growth. Mineral remains in the leaves and enters the lungs with smoke. An organics rich in nitrogen makes the tobacco stinky, with an unpleasant aftertaste. In addition, the root of tobacco is so long and powerful that it will find enough food for itself at any depth.

Tip. If, after planting, the sun begins to bake, then necessarily in the first week young sprouts shade. It can be a canopy of gauze, non-woven material. You can put arcs and throw shelter on them. The main thing is to leave the light, but not to allow sunburn.

Tobacco Care in the Garden

Despite the fact that the infusion of dry tobacco leaves scares away many pests, they love to enjoy its fresh leaves. Even Colorado beetles sometimes try to feast on them. Some sources advise spraying plantings with a formalin solution. But this option is suitable only on industrial plantations. And what to do in your own garden, where next year the same land will be needed for other plantings?

There are two options:

1. Collect pests manually. The method is suitable if there are only a few bushes.
2. Use approved insecticides. The method is suitable for large plantations of domestic cultivation.

Just do not right now about the accumulation of poisons in tobacco leaves from chemicals. You might think that when smoking the body does not poison, but becomes healthier.

And in order not to add industrial poison to nicotine poison, you will have to keep the tobacco area in perfect purity from weeds. After all, it is on them that most of the pests live. Weed will have to not only during the cultivation of tobacco, but also in advance. Then prevention will be effective.

The disease. Yes, oddly enough, even vigorous tobacco is affected by diseases and fungi. You can dance with a tambourine around the landings, blow off dust particles from them, but one single cooling below + 15 ° C will reduce all your work to nothing. Disease prevention is the health and strength of the plant. If it is weak and weak, it is unlikely to survive even to technical maturity.

It happens that sometimes even a full-bodied plant becomes ill. Then there are a couple of options for getting rid of adversity:

1. Tear out a sick bush of tobacco with a root, take it away from the garden and burn it. In this case, there will be no guarantee that the infection will not go further.
2. Sprinkle the planting solution with copper sulfate. It stops the development of many diseases.

Here again indignation may follow - but how then to smoke tobacco? Yes, very simple. Because copper sulfate is not absorbed by the plant and is washed off by the first rain or good watering. Such processing does not affect the taste of raw materials.

Watering. Tobacco loves to drink, because its wide leaves evaporate a lot of moisture. Just do not flood the plants daily. They usually focus on appearance: do the tips of the leaves fall down and look lethargic? So it's time to shed the soil well. Under one plant, 5-7 liters of pure water will be enough.

If the outdoor temperature rises above + 35 ° C, it is advisable to moisten the air and soil, regardless of the time of the last watering. Otherwise, the plants slow down in growth or die.

Flowers and stepsons. In order for the tobacco in the garden to gain sufficient strength and a good amount of aromatic substances, absolutely all flowers and additional stepsons are cut off from it.In general, it is considered normal to leave no more than 10 leaves on a plant. The rest must be deleted. But, if not a bed is planted, but at least a hundred of tobacco, then you have to crawl through the thickets for a whole season and count the leaves.

To facilitate the task, it is enough to remove the stepsons and all peduncles 4 times during the summer.

Useful subtleties

1. Real tobacco is very poor in soil. Therefore, a year before planting on the beds make a large amount of fertilizer. Do the same after harvesting the plant.
2. There are recommendations to pre-soak tobacco seeds for faster germination. And then they advise sowing seeds that have begun to hatch, trying not to damage the sprouts. But be sure to mix them with sand. Where is the logic? If you follow these tips, then all manipulations should be done with a microscope. Indeed, the sharp edges of grains of sand can scratch tiny shoots. And how to separate the soaked seeds? If only with a needle.
3. You can’t grow tobacco in the garden on those beds where other nightshade crops grew. Otherwise, there is a high risk that he will pick up viral diseases from his predecessors.
4. On poor and scarce soils, tobacco will have to be fed with phosphorus-potassium fertilizers 2 times per season. Only strictly observe the formulation and dosage. An excess of mineral water makes the raw material coarse, smelling bad.
5. If the tobacco leaf withered on the plant during the growing season, then it is not suitable for smoking. Break off only green leaves. A characteristic signal for cleaning is the appearance of a specific aroma, stickiness on the surface of the sheet and a lighter shade of green than the whole bush.
6. Do not break off all the leaves at once. They are removed only as they ripen. Usually this is a three-time procedure. First they cut off 4 sheets, then the next 3, and finally break through the last 3. This is ideal if only 10 pieces are left, as recommended by industrial agronomists. Harvesting starts from the bottom of the plant.
7. But, sometimes with good care, real tobacco grows up to 2 meters tall. Here already more than 10 pieces of mugs will turn out. In fact, do not break off half of the plant, if the soil and care allow you to grow such a hero.
8. The collected leaves are left to dry in a room with high humidity. If it is a barn or an attic, then they must put additional containers with water. Raw materials should seem to fade, and not dry to a crunch.
9. After drying, it is still not quite smoking tobacco. In order for it to become a high-quality smoke with a good aroma and proper strength, it must be fermented. How to do it right, you can look at specialized forums. There are a lot of recipes, there is a special technology and various additives. The most common are cognac and honey. Only after such processing can you enjoy the quality taste of homemade tobacco. Before the fermentation process, these are simply dried leaves.
10. If after all the manipulations the tobacco turned out to be too strong and saturated, it is recommended to dilute it with cut stems. They have less nicotine, and the aroma differs little from the smell of leaves.

How to grow tobacco for smoking in the garden? It turns out very simple. And it is not necessary to smoke it later. You can use tobacco to repel pests in the garden. And properly dried and fermented will be an excellent gift for lovers of a good, high-quality smoke. And let the Ministry of Health warn ...

Video: growing tobacco at home