Getting tobacco on your site is easy.
The method of growing tobacco for smoking or processing vegetables is almost no different from the technology of cultivation of other nightshade crops.
There are two varieties of this culture:
1. Common tobacco - a plant up to 3 m tall with pink inflorescences. Real tobacco is very fond of heat, for this reason it develops well in hot regions;
2. Common shag - a plant no more than 120 cm tall, with yellowish inflorescences. In it, the nicotine content is half as much as half as much as conventional tobacco.
Photos - shag
Approximately 30 g of dry tobacco can be collected from one bush under suitable conditions; 6-7 bushes are grown per m2. Varieties with large leaves are planted according to the scheme 70x30 cm, and shag and varieties with medium leaves are planted according to the scheme 70 × 20 cm. If you have grown too strong tobacco, it can be made weaker by mixing ground stems.
Varieties of Tobacco for Smoking
There are many varieties of this plant. As with growing vegetables, it is better to sow varieties of local selection.
In the former USSR were popular:
• Trapezond Kubanets. This variety has a growing season from sowing seeds to the last leaf breaking time 103-134 days;
• Trapezond 92. Resistant to viral diseases and various plant damaging factors. The variety has a short growing season; leaf breaking is done after 95-100 days;
• Samsun 85. Refers to mid-season, rapidly developing varieties of leaf breaking at the age of 105 - 110 days;
• Anniversary new 142. Early ripening grade, 78-82 days pass before leaf breaking. The variety has complex resistance to various diseases;
• Holly 316. A variety of late ripening, leaves develop intensively. The plant contains little nicotine, the period until the end of breaking 120 days.
Sowing tobacco
Tobacco seeds are very small, for this reason they will need very few. A gram of shag contains about 4,000 seeds, and tobacco about 12,000.
In addition, you don’t need to buy them further, 2-3 plants will provide so many seeds that are enough per hectare. The seeds of this culture retain their germination for a long time, you can get seedlings from the old seed, of course, you need to take into account that their germination will decrease.
Growing tobacco for smoking is carried out using seedlings, it can be obtained even on the southern windowsill.
The necessary age for planting seedlings in the ground is 40-45 days.
If you need a lot of tobacco, then in the southern regions, sowing is carried out directly into the soil or seedlings are grown in greenhouses and greenhouses. Sow seeds superficially, just sprinkle them on previously moistened soil.
Attention! The depth of sowing seeds of this culture should not exceed 7 mm (for shag 3 mm). Having scattered the seed material over the surface, it is pressed a little into the soil and gently moistened, so that the seeds do not sink into the soil.
It is possible to sow seeds that have already begun to hatch, for this they are soaked for 4 days and laid out on a damp cloth, this method will reduce the seedling emergence time by 7 days. For germination, the optimum temperature ranges from 25-28 degrees. Watering the seedlings of tobacco is not worth it, it is advisable to moisten them every day a little.
Planting seedlings
Seedlings are planted on the bed after they rise by 15 cm (5-6 leaves will form).
Tobacco seedlings die from spring frosts, the soil must warm up to a depth of 10 cm. 7 days before planting seedlings, plants need to be tempered, accustoming it to the open air.
For 2-3 days, watering is stopped, well moistening the soil only 2-3 hours before planting in the ground.
Seedlings are placed one in each hole, pre-pouring into them 1 liter of water. Transplantation is a shock for a young plant. For this reason, it is necessary to preserve, not destroy the earthen lump on the roots.
Tobacco care
During the development of plants, it is necessary to systematically loosen the soil, water, feed the plants and remove weeds.
they are fed with the same frequency and in the same quantity as tomatoes. It is watered infrequently, 6-8 liters per bush are enough, conducting 2-3 waterings over the summer.
A well-developed tobacco bush has a root system that has grown several meters; experienced tobacco growers claim that watering adult plants in this crop is harmful.
In bushes with formed inflorescences, they are cut off and it is imperative to plant plants.
Soil for plants
Tobacco is best grown on fresh land, it is planted after winter crops or steam. Tobacco should not be planted after potatoes and beets.
Sandy soil in which there is a lot of nitrogen and potassium is best suited for this crop.
It is best to fertilize tobacco with cow dung, a good feeding for it bird droppings.
In areas with high acidity, the soil is lime, it positively affects the growth of plants, and the completeness of combustion of the final product.
Harvesting begins when the color of the leaves changes.
Since leaves of different colors can be found on one bush, their cleaning lasts several weeks.
Major diseases
Blackleg. Seedlings begin to lie on the ground, after which they die, the stem above the soil blackens and becomes thin.
Broomrape. The parasite develops on the root system, eats at the expense of the host, forming a branched purple stem. As a result of infection of plants with broomrape, the quality of raw materials deteriorates and the yield decreases.
Mosaic. In diseased bushes, leaves with alternating bright and green patches. After a while, the light spots die off, the infection comes from the remnants of the diseased plants.
Bacterial hazel. Formed on the edges of leaflets seedlings, wet or oil stains. With high humidity, they begin to rot and spread throughout the bush. The causative agent of the disease is on tools, tobacco dust or on leaves.
Drying and fermentation
Responsible work in the preparation of tobacco - drying of raw materials and subsequent fermentation. After harvesting, the leaves are suspended in a ventilated room, it is necessary to install a container of water nearby to increase humidity. Leaves will dry for about a month.
After that, the dried tobacco leaves are moistened from the atomizer and stacked, placed in a plastic bag and incubated for 24 hours for complete hydration. As a result, they should not be moist, but only wet. Then they are placed in glass jars, in which fermentation will take place.
Fermentation is a process that takes several weeks at a temperature of 50 degrees. This raw material operation is performed to reduce tar and nicotine, improve taste and reduce tobacco strength. This process can be carried out in an electric oven at a temperature of 50-60 degrees. It is often more convenient and easier to dry not whole leaves, but pre-ground raw materials.
Ready-made tobacco is used for processing plants in smoking pipes, cigarettes are rolled out of it (tissue paper and special machines can be purchased at special stores). You can even make a cigar from it - this is an interesting and fairly simple job.
