When to plant tobacco seedlings in Siberia. How to grow tobacco using seedlings. What you need to know about seeding material

Common tobacco (lat. Nicotiana tabacum), or real tobacco, or virgin tobacco is a species of herbaceous plants of the Tobacco genus of the Solanaceae family. On an industrial scale, this type of tobacco is cultivated for its leaves, from which tobacco products for smoking are produced.

Tobacco is native to Peru and Brazil. The first description of tobacco and its uses was given by Bernardine de Sahagún in the 16th century in " General history affairs New Spain" The scientist relied on information received from the Aztecs, who called tobacco herb pisitel and used it to treat headaches, festering wounds, colds, runny nose, tumors, bloating and other ailments. Tobacco got its due scientific name in honor of the French ambassador to Portugal, Jean Nicot, who sent the seeds of this plant to Paris in 1560.

Today, tobacco is grown to make cigars, cigarettes, cigarettes and other smoking products, and a nicotinic acid widely used to treat diseases such as diarrhea, dermatitis, glossitis, stomatitis and other diseases. However, it should be remembered that nicotine is very toxic, and some substances contained in tobacco are carcinogenic.

Planting and caring for smoking tobacco (in brief)

• Bloom: within 25-40 days from mid-summer.
• Landing: sowing tobacco seedlings - at the end of February or early March, planting seedlings in the ground - from the end of April to the end of May.
• Lighting: bright sunlight.
• The soil: lightweight, breathable and well-drained.
• Watering: regular as the top layer of soil dries.
• Feeding: a few days after planting the seedlings, then two more times with an interval of 2-3 weeks. A solution of complex mineral fertilizer or chicken manure (1:10) is used as fertilizer.
• Topping and pinching: half of the flower stalks should be broken off: this measure improves the quality of tobacco. Stepchildren that intensively form after topping (breaking out peduncles) should also be removed.
• Reproduction: seed.
• Pests: peach aphids, tobacco thrips and wireworms.
• Diseases: black root rot, dry root rot, blackleg (seedling rot), powdery mildew, downy mildew (downy mildew), white dry spot (alternaria blight), grouse and viral diseases– tobacco, or ordinary mosaic, cucumber mosaic, bronze (apical chlorosis) and white mosaic.

Details about cultivation smoking tobacco read below

Smoking tobacco - description

Tobacco is an annual herbaceous plant that reaches a height of 3 m. The stem of tobacco has almost no branches. Regular whole leaves different varieties Virginia tobacco can be either narrowly lanceolate or broadly ovate in shape, and their number on one plant can range from 16 to 60. The lower leaves are decurrent, the base of the leaf is semi-petiolate, the surface is resinous and fleecy. Reddish or pink funnel-shaped tobacco flowers are collected in narrow apical paniculate inflorescences. The main economically valuable characteristics of tobacco are the surface size and thickness of the leaf plate. Tobacco is grown in 84 countries around the world.

Growing smoking tobacco

Sowing smoking tobacco seeds for seedlings

Seeds of smoking tobacco have good germination, which lasts for years. You should know that shag (country tobacco) can grow in the middle zone and even in areas with a cooler climate, but tobacco is a heat-loving plant. How to grow smoking tobacco from seeds? For this, both seedling and non-seedling methods are used. The seedling method is used for growing tobacco in cool regions, and in areas with a warm climate, seeds are sown directly into the ground.

In the photo: Flowering of smoking tobacco

Tobacco seedlings are sown at the end of February or beginning of March. The seed must first be kept for 24 hours. wet wipe until swelling, adding a few drops of tartaric acid or crystals of potassium nitrate to the water for soaking the fabric. This measure will speed up the emergence of seedlings by a week. After swelling, the seeds are washed, dried, placed on a damp cloth in an enamel or ceramic container and placed in a warm place for germination, keeping the cloth moist all the time. On the third or fourth day, small seedlings appear on the seeds.

Don't wait until the sprouts on the seeds become too long, because they break off easily.

When 2/3 of the seeds germinate, they are dried, carefully mixed with disinfected dry sand and sown on the surface of well-moistened soil made of humus (three parts) and sand (one part), and sprinkled with a layer of the same substrate on top. The thickness of the covering layer for shag should be 3-5, and for tobacco – 7-8 mm. It is advisable to sow seeds in separate containers. - cups, peat pots or cassettes, since tobacco, like other nightshade crops, does not like transplanting, and therefore picking. After sowing, the surface is watered through a thick strainer so as not to wash away the covering layer of the substrate. Then the crops are covered with film and placed in a bright place where direct Sun rays.

Caring for tobacco during the seedling period

Keep the container with the crops at a temperature of 23-28 ºC. Care consists of almost daily meager watering and mandatory airing twice a day. When the hatched seedlings develop the first pair of true leaves, the temperature is lowered to 20 ºC, and the water consumption when watering is increased. At the stage of development there are 3-4 leaves, if you planted in a box or container, the seedlings are dived into large capacity. Subsequently, fertile soil is added 2-3 times under the seedlings.

Feeding tobacco seedlings a solution of 30 g of ammonium nitrate and 20 g of potassium sulfate or potassium chloride in 10 liters of water. From organic fertilizers It is better to use a solution of chicken manure: 1 kg of fertilizer is poured into a bucket of water, allowed to ferment for 10-12 days, stirring from time to time, after which the infusion is filtered and 4-5 volumes of water are added to it.

In the photo: How tobacco blooms

Seedlings will be ready for planting in open ground at the age of 40-45 days, when the seedlings reach a height of 14-16 cm, acquire 5-6 true leaves, their stem becomes 3-5 mm thick, and the root system is sufficiently developed. However, 7-10 days before planting, the seedlings must be hardened, for which they must be taken out into the open air for some time every day, gradually increasing the duration of the sessions. 2-3 days before planting, watering the seedlings is stopped, and 2-3 hours before planting, the seedlings are moistened abundantly.

Planting tobacco seedlings in open ground

When the return frosts have passed and the soil at a depth of 10 cm has warmed up to 10 ºC, the seedlings can be planted in the garden bed. Typically, the necessary conditions develop between April 20 and May 25. The area for tobacco should be sunny, and the soil on it should be light and breathable. First you need to add ash or mullein to the soil for digging.

Before planting, you need to pour half a liter of water into the holes located at a distance of 50 cm from one another. When the water is absorbed, make a hole in the hole with a peg, place the seedling in it and sprinkle its roots first with wet soil and on top with dry soil so that the moisture from the soil does not evaporate so quickly.

Caring for tobacco in the garden beds

How to grow smoking tobacco

Growing smoking tobacco is a simple process, but there are certain subtleties in it. Tobacco care consists of regular watering, loosening the soil around the bushes, removing weeds and timely feeding, of which ideally there should be at least three.

The first time tobacco is fed a few days after planting the seedlings in the ground, then after 2-3 weeks the second feeding should follow, and 2-3 weeks after the second - the third. As fertilizers, use a solution of chicken manure (1:10) or a solution of complex mineral fertilizer prepared according to the instructions.

In the photo: Blooming tobacco

To obtain higher quality smoking tobacco, the bushes should be topped, that is, approximately half of the flower shoots should be broken off. After this procedure, tobacco will begin to actively form stepsons, which also need to be removed.

Pests and diseases of smoking tobacco

Diseases of smoking tobacco

Tobacco can develop fungal diseases such as black root rot, dry root rot, blackleg (seedling rot), powdery mildew, downy mildew (downy mildew), and dry white spot (alternaria). Tobacco is also affected by bacterial grouse and viral diseases - tobacco, or ordinary mosaic, cucumber mosaic, bronzing (apical chlorosis) and white mosaic.

Disease control measures. Concerning viral infections, then it is useless to fight them: you just need to remove and burn the diseased plants. Fifty percent wettable Benlat powder is used against root rot. And against bacterial grouse, peronosporosis, powdery mildew and other fungal diseases, preventive spraying of seedlings with a suspension of Zineb or Polycarbacin is effective. In general, the most reliable protection is preventative treatment soil and seeds before sowing. For fungal and bacterial diseases, tobacco seeds are treated for 15 minutes with a solution of Formalin: 20 cm³ of forty percent Formalin is dissolved in 1 liter of water. Two liters of this solution are consumed per 1 kg of seeds. The soil is also shed with Formalin solution.

In the photo: Growing smoking tobacco on the site

Pests of smoking tobacco

Among the pests that pose a threat to tobacco are peach aphids, tobacco thrips and wireworms.

Peach aphid, giving up to 18 generations per season, sucks the juice from tobacco leaves and leaves in them its excrement, skins after molting and corpses. In addition, it is a carrier of such dangerous incurable diseases as white moth and cucumber mosaic. Aphids deplete the plant, slow down its development, reduce productivity and worsen taste qualities tobacco The fight against aphids is carried out with the drugs Rogor and Metathion, and for preventive purposes, regular and thorough weeding of the beds and daily inspection of tobacco leaves are very important.

Tobacco thrips- a pest as small as aphids, producing up to 7 generations over the summer. Thrips bites through tobacco leaves and sucks out the juice from them, as a result of which the quality of raw materials and the yield of tobacco sharply decrease: the affected leaves ferment poorly, dry unevenly and become brittle after drying. In addition, thrips, like aphids, carry viral diseases. Tobacco infected with thrips should be treated with insecticides.

Wireworms, or drupes- These are yellow-brown larvae of click beetles that are hard to the touch. They live in the ground, damage roots, make passages in the stems of young plants and eat away the core. They are very difficult to fight, so you need to try to prevent them from appearing in the soil. If you find wireworms in the area, then two weeks before planting tobacco, treat the soil for digging with twelve percent Hexachloran dust, and the next day in the evening, pollinate the soil with Metaphos dust and fence the area to a depth of 3-4 cm.

Smoking tobacco collection and storage

Smoking tobacco in the countryside is grown on average from 15 to 17 weeks. When the tobacco leaves stop growing, they begin to be harvested. At this time the leaves reach highest density. Ripe tobacco leaves are lighter in color. Cleaning is done in the evenings, starting with the lower and largest leaves. Then, when the middle leaves ripen, they are removed.

The collected leaves are dried, kept in a dark, well-ventilated room at a temperature of 25-30 ºC. During the drying process, tobacco fermentation occurs. Many people ferment already dried tobacco into electric oven at a temperature of 50 ºC. Don't be afraid of electricity consumption: it is minimal.

In the photo: How tobacco blooms

What is tobacco fermentation and why is it needed? Fermentation is a process of change physical properties due to biological or chemical influences. Natural fermentation of tobacco leaves is achieved by long-term storage. Dominican tobacco, for example, is fermented for 5 years when stored in bales or oak barrels. At artificially fermentation is significantly accelerated. In order to ferment home-grown tobacco, you must proceed in the following order:

• dry tobacco leaves without traces of greenery (if there are green spots on the leaves, they need to be cut out, because areas with chlorophyll do not ferment) are moistened on both sides with a spray bottle, stacked one on top of the other and covered with polyethylene;
• After a day, the midrib is removed from each leaf, checking the degree of moisture of the leaves, on which the quality of fermentation depends: the leaf ready for further processing should not be raw and at the same time should not break at the bend. It should be dry and elastic, like a thin rag. Leaves that are too wet will have to be dried, and dry ones will have to be moistened and kept in piles under plastic for some time;
• Leaves ready for fermentation are cut into strips. A noodle cutter handles this well and quickly. The crushed tobacco is placed in glass jars, filling them no more than 2/3, so that the tobacco can then be mixed by shaking. The jars are closed with twist lids, placed in the oven and the temperature is set to 50 ºC. The fermentation process lasts from 5 to 7 days. Remember to shake the tobacco in the jars from time to time so that it cures evenly. There should be no condensation on the walls of the jars, and if it does appear, the tobacco must be poured out and dried, after which the fermentation process is resumed. On the second or third day of the process, the tobacco begins to emit an aroma of honey or fruit, and this is a sure sign that the fermentation is successful;
• The finished tobacco is poured onto a flat surface, slightly dried, and then placed for storage in any hermetically sealed container.

Varieties of smoking tobacco

There are a great many varieties of tobacco, and the work of breeders to develop new varieties continues. Most in demand in household The following varieties are:

• Gold Virginia– tobacco with a fruity aroma and a delicate sweetish taste. This variety is the basis for many smoking mixtures;
• Kentucky Barley– a variety with a pleasant nutty aroma, does not contain sugar, and therefore does not require fermentation. That is, its dried leaves are steamed and immediately cut for smoking;
• Maryland– light, light air-cured tobacco with a wonderful aroma and taste, known since 1828. This is a high-yielding variety early date maturation;
• Walker's Broadleaf- one of the earliest varieties that can be grown even in the northern regions;
• American– early maturing, semi-aromatic, disease-resistant tobacco, used both for cigarettes and cigars, and as pipe tobacco;
• Dukat Crimean– easily fermented aromatic tobacco with leaves up to half a meter long;
• Turkish Trebizond– aromatic variety for cigarettes and pipes, easily fermented and resistant to unfavorable conditions. The variety was named after the city of Trabzon;
• Herzegovina Flor– tobacco with a unique taste and aroma comes from former Yugoslavia. This variety is popularly called Stalin's tobacco;
• Virginia 202– early-ripening, strong and aromatic tobacco, resistant to many diseases and requiring virtually no watering when growing. The variety is reliable and unpretentious;
• Barley Original– strong tobacco, which is the basis for most smoking mixtures;
• Oriental Samsun– aromatic tobacco with low nicotine content. It is most fragrant when grown on dry soils. With watering, it loses its taste and aroma, but its yield increases;
• Soviet large-leaved– this disease-resistant variety is distinguished by the productivity and high smoking qualities of oriental tobaccos;
• Silk Leaf– a universal large-leaf aromatic variety used both for cigarette and pipe mixtures, and for the production of cigars;
• Dubek- Turkish variety, which is considered the best aromatic tobacco in the world. This is a tobacco for true connoisseurs;
• Perique is an aromatic oriental tobacco known to smokers all over the world. After drying, the leaves of this variety are fermented in barrels, like cabbage, so that they acquire their unforgettable pungency and aroma.

In the photo: Smoking tobacco

Village tobacco, or shag, deserves a separate story. This tobacco was imported from North America came to Europe simultaneously with smoking tobacco and differs from it in its short stature (100-120 cm), branched stem with a ribbed surface, greenish-yellow flowers and even smaller seeds. But the main difference between smoking tobacco and shag the fact that it contains twice as much nicotine, and the smell of shag is stronger and more pungent. But shag is much less whimsical and not as heat-loving as smoking tobacco. Shag varieties are divided into two groups according to color - green and yellow. Yellow shags have higher smoking qualities, which is why they are valued higher. Shag can be grown not only in middle lane, but also in the Urals, and even in Siberia, and they sow it directly into the ground. Shag can also be grown at home.

You have decided to plant tobacco. No, this is not the dashing nineties, during which there was a catastrophic shortage of all goods. And more often, shag was grown back then. Today, growing tobacco at home is becoming fashionable, and we have the opportunity to get high-quality, fragrant and inexpensive tobacco grown on our own plot. If you have acquired such harmful and bad habit Like smoking, you should not allow strangers to profit from you. Why pay huge amounts of money to manufacturers for packaging cigarettes that, instead of tobacco, will contain an unknown substance impregnated with various synthetic compounds? Just need to know how to grow tobacco for smoking in the area.

Growing tobacco at home

Sowing seedlings

Growing tobacco in your garden is quite simple. First of all, you should take care of the seedlings. After all, tobacco has a rather long growing season and may not have time to acquire the required amount of taste and aroma, especially if it is sown directly into the soil. Gardeners who see tobacco seeds for the first time most often say that they are some kind of dust, because they are very tiny. And if you just sow them in the ground, you may not get a harvest at all. To properly sow tobacco seeds, you need to purchase a wide container, the height of which will not be more than 7 cm. It will be better if you have a separate cassette for each seed.

The soil must be made of fertile soil, which contains clean sand; it must be poured in one layer and at the same time well moistened and leveled. Some gardeners advise watering the soil with settled water before planting the seeds. This should be done very carefully, because there is a possibility of washing out the tiny seeds.

Carefully spread the seeds, pre-soaked in water, over the prepared soil or pour them onto the surface and level them, while maintaining a distance. If this is not done, the seedlings will shade each other. Despite small size , the seeds should be covered with soil on top. The layer should be no more than 0.6-0.7 cm. Cover the container with glass or transparent plastic and put it in a bright place with high temperature 26-28 degrees.

Once a day you need to remove the condensate that will collect on inside glass or turn the glass over to the other side. If you notice that the soil has begun to dry out somewhat, you can spray it with a spray bottle. Shoots appear in 8-10 days.

After the sprouts have hatched, the temperature should be lowered to 19 degrees. If this is not done, the seedlings may stop and no longer grow. The covering must be removed after 4-5 true leaves appear, and the seedlings can already be picked. If the seedlings were in separate cups, then you don’t have to do this.

For the first two or three weeks, it may seem that the seedlings are not growing at all and are in one place. However, this is not true at all, it’s just that at this time the root system grows and only after its complete formation the above-ground part becomes stronger and gains all its power. To prevent small bushes from falling off or lying on their sides due to the weight of their own leaves, you can hill them up or sprinkle a little soil on the roots.

A very important factor is monitoring the soil moisture, because if you moisten it too much, you can get a black leg and, accordingly, the complete destruction of all seedlings. Growth is necessary bright light from 8:00 am to 20:00 pm. To do this, you can and should use lamp lighting. It is strictly forbidden to place seedlings in direct sunlight, as small and thin leaves will immediately burn.

3 weeks before transplanting the seedlings into open soil, it is necessary to feed the seedlings with any potassium-phosphorus fertilizer. Tobacco is very thermophilic and at temperatures below 4 degrees, may die. Therefore, seedlings should be planted in the soil at the end of May, when all the frosts are behind.

Planting seedlings in the ground

Tobacco planting occurs according to a pattern that must be followed. The hole size is 35 cm by 55 cm (the principle is the same as for pepper or tomato seedlings). From 0.6 to 1.5 liters of clean, settled water is poured into the planting hole. Then they make a mound of soil and plant a bush of the plant. Deepening it by 5 cm will have a very beneficial effect on further growth, thus stimulating additional roots.

To determine whether a plant is ready to be transplanted into open soil, you can count its leaves (there should be 5-7 of them) and they should be well developed. It is better not to touch the seedling by the leaves because they are very delicate and thin. If even a small scratch forms on a leaf, fungal spores and various bacteria can penetrate there. Therefore, it is better to use the transplantation method together with a lump of earth.

On the 4th day after the tobacco is transplanted into the soil, it needs to be fed with organic fertilizers. There is no need to do any more fertilizing, since it is the mineral substances that remain in the leaves and then enter the lungs along with tobacco smoke. Smoking tobacco can be bitter and have bad smell, if organic matter rich in nitrogen gets there.

A long and powerful root can find useful material at any depth. If during the growth of tobacco it is very hot and the sun is baking, then it is very important to make artificial shade for the small sprouts in the first weeks. This can be a canopy made of lightweight non-woven material or gauze, or you can use metal arcs and cover them with cloth. The main thing is not to reduce the lighting, but to avoid sunburn.

Caring for tobacco in the garden

There are several options for pest control

• You can manually collect all pests. This method is acceptable if you have only a few tobacco bushes.
• Various insecticides can be used. The method will be more justified for a large plantation.

To avoid adding unnecessary chemicals to nicotine, the area where tobacco grows should be kept clean and all weeds should be promptly removed.

If the plants are unhealthy, the most common cold snap below 15 degrees can completely destroy the entire plantation. It is from health and general condition the plant will depend on whether it can withstand the temperature change or not. If the bush is very weak and frail, then most often it will not be able to live to its so-called technical maturity. There are several ways to get rid of the disease:

If you follow the advice, then all actions must be performed under a magnifying glass, since grains of sand with their sharp edges can scratch the seeds. Separate wet seeds using a needle.

You cannot grow tobacco in your garden in those beds where nightshade crops are already growing, because in this case there is a risk of making money various viral diseases from their relatives.

On soils that are poor in fertilizers, it will be necessary to fertilize with potassium-phosphorus fertilizers three times per season. At the same time, it is very important not to violate the dose and recipe, because if there is an excess in the soil minerals, the tobacco will become very coarse and smell bad.

To prevent the leaf from withering during the growing season and becoming unsuitable for smoking, it is necessary to destroy all weak leaves in a timely manner.

Harvesting and drying

With high-quality care and compliance with growing temperature conditions, good tobacco can reach 2.5 m in height and in this case there will be more than twenty leaves. The collected leaves should be left for drying in a room with high humidity (about 90%). If an attic or barn is used for these purposes, then additional water containers need to be installed there. Thus, the raw materials must be dried. However, it should not dry out and become brittle. After drying is completed, we will receive another product, which we call smoking.

In order for it to become of higher quality, and also acquire a bright and rich aroma, and the necessary strength, it must be fermented. This is easy to do on the Internet. You can find more than one recommendation on this issue. There are a lot of different tips and recipes and you can use completely different technologies and additives. The most common:

• cognac;
• cocoa.

After the tobacco is processed in this way, its taste will be high quality and unusual. When following growing instructions and proper preparation and fermentation, smoking tobacco can serve as an unusual and a wonderful gift for those who love good, and most importantly, high-quality smoke.

Growing tobacco at home will bring a pleasant feeling to the gardener. And let the Ministry of Health warn...

Currently, the cost and quality of industrially produced tobacco products leaves much to be desired, so more and more entrepreneurs are starting to grow smoking tobacco from seeds independently, which brings them quite a bit of income.
In the recent past, growing tobacco at home was a profitable activity for more than one generation of people living in the southern regions of Russia. However, sellers of smoking tobacco were gradually forced out of markets and bazaars by large industrialists due to huge volumes and lower prices.
Currently, this business is relevant because consumers want to purchase tobacco High Quality. Many smokers prefer aromatic tobacco, grown according to all the rules, rather than store-bought goods with strange fillings and harmful additives.
Before you start engaging in this activity, you need to learn about all its features, including the weather conditions necessary for cultivation, the timing of ripening, harvesting and drying of the crop.

Types of tobacco for smoking

The first thing you need to do before you start cultivating tobacco is to familiarize yourself with the variety of varieties of smoking tobacco. About 30–40 varieties of tobacco plants are successfully cultivated in our region, the most common of which are Trapezond, Yubileiny, Ostrolist, Kentucky Burley and Ternopil. The most famous varieties of shag grown in central and southern Russia are Pekhlets local and Pekhlets 4, as well as Datura 4. The leaves of tobacco plants are mainly used for smoking, snorting and chewing purposes. Cigar tobacco varieties characterized by a larger leaf width and smooth structure. Cigarette varieties are considered less valuable product, since the leaf of this plant is no different large size sheet and smoothness, so they are most often crushed. It is necessary to know these features of tobacco varieties in order to understand where to sell the product after harvesting and drying the crop.

Conditions for growing smoking tobacco from seeds

The main advantage of tobacco is that this plant is quite unpretentious and can be grown in different conditions climate, but it is best to plant it in warm regions of the country. In open ground, tobacco thrives at an air temperature of 20 to 30 degrees Celsius. If there is no opportunity to engage in this activity in the southern zone of Russia, the problem of maintaining the necessary temperature regime will decide to grow in greenhouses or heated rooms.
When growing this crop, it is worth considering that it requires not only heat, but also watering. Tobacco is best grown in light sandy soils saturated with moisture. The best soils for tobacco are considered to be chernozem, loamy, sandy loam, which are rich in lime, potassium and nitrogen. Tobacco is grown in fresh soil or sown with other plants to produce a more flavorful variety.
To understand how to start this business, it is also worth carefully studying the issue of technology for cultivating the product. Only by following all the rules and stages of the technological process can you grow high-quality smoking tobacco.

Growing tobacco from seeds video:

Sowing shag seeds and caring for the plant

Sowing seeds of smoking plants cannot be done directly in open ground; they are characterized by low germination and instability to diseases. To solve this problem it is necessary to grow tobacco or shag seeds in closed warm conditions. Boxes or pots placed on the windowsill on the south side are best suited for this purpose. Growing seeds can also be done in a greenhouse, but before planting the seeds in the ground, they must be soaked for 24 hours in wine vinegar or acid. This operation allows you to increase seed germination by 10–30%. Seeds are planted closer to March in pots or a greenhouse with prepared soil containing 1/4 sand and 3/4 soil. Regularly feed and water the seedlings.

In April or May, seedlings must be transferred to open ground. At this time, the plant already has a stem 0.5–0.8 cm thick, and its height reaches up to 15–20 cm. A healthy and strong plant easily tolerates replanting and is highly resistant to changes in night and day temperatures.
The seedlings are stirred in rows, the distance between plants should be at least 25 cm. After planting, the soil should be well watered clean water. While the seedlings are growing, the rows are constantly weeded, loosened and fed. Watering should be rare, but of high quality. So, during the entire period, smoking plants are watered 2–4 times, but abundantly, at least 5–8 liters of water for each bush. When tobacco and shag begin to produce flowers, they need to be pinched.
After 120 days, you can harvest tobacco, and shag ripens faster - in 70 days.

Harvesting begins with the lower leaves, which have begun to turn yellow. Drying is carried out in three stages. First, the leaves are laid in a layer of 20–30 cm and allowed to remain in the shade for 12 hours. After which the leaves are collected on cords in a well-ventilated place, protected from rain. An outdoor canopy or terrace is best for this. Pre-drying usually takes about two weeks. After the expiration date, the laces with leaves are removed and transferred to closed room, where the leaves are dried until autumn.

After drying, fermentation is required, thanks to which the tobacco is of high quality and more fragrant. Armfuls of leaves are placed in a container, heated to 40–60 degrees and kept at this temperature for several days, maintaining a humidity of 60–70 percent. Then gradually, over several days, the leaves are cooled and the humidity is reduced. At the end of the fermentation process, the leaves must “rest” for 30 days. Only after all these procedures will the tobacco be considered ready.
Running a manufacturing and selling business tobacco products, it is worth remembering that this activity is regulated by law; according to all the rules, products sold must have an excise tax and an appropriate marketing permit. Therefore, before starting sales, it is necessary to prepare the appropriate papers.

It is quite difficult to calculate the payback of a business for growing smoking tobacco or shag; it can range from several months to 2-3 years. Everything will depend on the entrepreneur’s costs for preparing and purchasing raw materials, as well as on the positive dynamics of sales growth.
In any case, businessmen from ten acres collect 200–400 kilograms of finished tobacco. At a wholesale price of up to 2,000 rubles per kilogram of tobacco, you can earn up to 800 thousand rubles. Shag will cost the entrepreneur a little less, since average cost of this product is 400–500 rubles per kilogram on the wholesale market, which means that revenue will be 4 times less than from smoking tobacco.

Widespread information about the dangers of smoking is unlikely to serve as an incentive to purchase tobacco products. But few people know that tobacco grown according to all the rules not only does not pose a serious danger to the body of an adult, but in some cases it also has beneficial effect on the smoker's body. Medicine has long established that this plant helps reduce the level of “bad” cholesterol and glucose in the blood, relieves pain in diseases gastrointestinal tract and cordially vascular diseases, has disinfectant properties and improves recovery processes in organism. The above properties of tobacco are also a compelling argument for starting to grow this unique plant for the purpose of resale.

At home, the matter is not at all difficult, as you might think at first glance. The main thing is the desire to work and have 1.5-2 acres of land available. This area is enough for you to provide yourself with tobacco for a year. But over time, your appetites may grow and then you will look at your capabilities.
I myself started growing tobacco spontaneously. A friend asked me to order tobacco seeds for him on the Internet, since he was on good terms with the Internet. I thought about it and decided to order one for myself to try. Here you can read about. And now it’s been the sixth year since I will grow tobacco in the garden for smoking and believe me, I have never regretted it.

Pros of growing homemade tobacco

Smoking your own tobacco is much more pleasant than these store-bought sticks with unknown filling. Plus, to all this, you get a vast field for experimentation from different varieties of tobacco, various mixtures of tobacco varieties, various sauces with which you can ferment tobacco, i.e. here your imagination is not limited.
And now, smoking my tobacco and taking a sip of my homemade wine, you experience bliss and a sense of satisfaction.
I hope I have convinced you to engage in this noble cause. You yourself won’t regret it later. You will also get savings on your budget; at today's prices for cigarettes, it will be significant.
If you have decided to grow your own tobacco, I suggest you read the description of my experience on the pages of this site, and we will start with.

Growing tobacco in an apartment

Is it possible or not? People ask this question. To be honest, you won’t get anything good from this idea other than initial experience. There are no smoking qualities, but the bush itself looks cool in a pot and perfectly complements the interior.

Do you think growing tobacco at home is difficult? Not at all, just read the articles on this site and most of your questions will disappear. The main thing here is not to repeat the mistakes of others, although after reading these articles, there will still be mistakes, but not so global.

If you have any questions, ask in the comments or write by email.

Even in something like smoking, experienced gardeners want to stand out and grow their own product, which will be significantly different from what manufacturers offer. But the differences will be for the better or worse - it depends on what efforts are put into the matter.

The main danger of smoking tobacco grown in your own garden is that you probably cannot know how much nicotine it contains and how strong it is. Although this does not stop heavy smokers and many of them consider that, even though it is strong, it is nevertheless homemade.

Growing tobacco on your own plot is a simple process. IN general outline it is reminiscent of growing tomatoes. Another question is: for what purpose are you planning this activity? Tobacco is used both for smoking and for agricultural purposes. Let's take a closer look at the issue and consider a well-known and popular variety of tobacco!

For growing for smoking purposes, the Virginia variety is very popular. Those who have tried smoking this tobacco claim that it is quite strong and pleasant to the taste. Plants of this variety do not require special care when caring and do not require pinching, since they do not have side shoots.

Tobacco, like other crops, is grown by seedlings and without seedlings. Which to choose? This depends on several factors.

1. On the climatic features of the region. If you live in the south, then it makes no sense to grow seedlings at home; sow directly into the ground.

2. On the volume of plants grown. For large areas It is absolutely not advisable to grow seedlings. If you are planning to plant an entire plantation, then it is better to use greenhouses or a greenhouse and sow the seeds directly into the ground.

3. From the purposes for which tobacco is grown. At small area and in the middle zone, the seedling method will be the most suitable.

Sowing seeds for seedlings

Since growing seedlings is a more labor-intensive process than direct sowing in the ground, we will consider its features. Let us immediately note that the seedling method of planting gives the harvest much earlier than when sowing in the ground.

Seeds remain viable for a long time; it is permissible to use not very fresh material. If you're growing tobacco for the first time, you probably won't need a lot of seeds. The seed material is very fine, yes, and it is difficult to call it seeds, since it looks more like dust.

The time from the beginning of growth to planting in the ground is 40-45 days. Sowing of seeds is carried out dry or slightly germinated. In the first case, the seed must be scattered over the surface and crushed with a mixture of humus and sand no more than 0.5 cm thick.

To germinate seeds, place them in a damp cloth 3-4 days before sowing. Keep the fabric damp. As soon as the seeds hatch, sow. This method accelerates germination by 5-7 days. The seedlings grow faster and are healthier. If it is not possible to sow immediately, then the seeds should be placed on the bottom shelf of the refrigerator. There they can be stored for 2-3 days.

Before sowing, dry the seeds a little and mix with sifted humus and coarse sand. Then sprinkle on the surface of the soil.

What is the best way to sow tobacco - in common or separate containers? It's just a matter of your convenience. You can sow in a common container, since the material is very small.

You will need approximately 8-10 cm of nutrient substrate. You can purchase ready-made soil mixture or prepare it yourself. To do this you will need turf soil, humus, a little ash, coarse sand and sphagnum moss. Mix all the ingredients thoroughly, sift and pour over the potassium permanganate solution.

Take containers with drainage holes and fill them with soil. The room temperature for seed germination should be +25...+28°C. Decreases can lead to poor germination. As soon as the sprouts appear, it is advisable to lower the room temperature to +23...+25°C.

Seedling care

So, you have decided to grow tobacco through seedlings. If you have already sowed, now it is important to provide the seedlings normal conditions for development.

In addition to the temperature regime, watering is very important for seedlings. Moisturize little by little but regularly. Look at the condition of the soil. Overmoistening also has a negative effect on seedlings, as does drought. Water with a small stream from a watering can with a sprayer, because light seed material is easy to wash away.

The volume of soil in containers is limited, and accordingly, the nutrients become smaller over time, so the seedlings need to be fed. For tobacco, mineral, phosphorus and potassium fertilizers will be most suitable. In principle, you can use a solution of chicken manure diluted with water in a ratio of 1:20. For the entire growth period, as a rule, two feedings are enough.

A week before planting in the ground, it is necessary to begin hardening the seedlings. Place it on a balcony or unheated veranda. The time of such a “walk” should be no more than 10-15 minutes for the first time. Then, gradually increase the plants' time outside and by the end of the week, bring it up to a whole day. Thus, it will be easier for plants to adapt to new conditions and they will more easily tolerate planting in open ground.

At the stage of 3-4 true leaves, the seedlings are ready for picking. If you sowed in separate containers, then wait until the plants become 15 cm in height and plant them in the ground. At this stage they should have approximately 6 true leaves and a developed root system. 3 hours before transplanting seedlings into the ground, water them generously.

Preparing the site and planting seedlings

Tobacco is demanding in terms of illumination of the site, but the place for the crop should be in light shade. If you don’t have one on your site, then you need to build a small canopy. The material for this is lightweight but durable. You can install a mobile greenhouse made of agrofibre. This covering material helps maintain soil moisture, but does not interfere with air exchange; moreover, it is easy to open and ventilate.

Crop rotation is important not only when planting vegetables, but also when planting tobacco. The plant grows well in soils where legumes or green manure previously grew. Eggplants, tomatoes, potatoes, and sweet peppers are considered bad predecessors. The crops suffer from the same diseases as tobacco. Tobacco can be returned to its original place no earlier than after 3 years.

Proper site preparation is an important factor when growing any crop. What is needed for this? Deep digging with the application of organic fertilizers. This can be humus, mature compost or rotted manure. The depth of digging and embedding of components is 20-40 cm. It is necessary to carry out such an event in the fall. In the spring, loosen the soil and apply mineral fertilizers.

Prepare holes for seedlings at a distance of 30-50 cm. Sometimes you will need more long distance, depending on the variety. Fill the holes with 0.5 liters of water each. It is important to leave free row spacing, since the tobacco bush turns out to be quite spreading. Dense planting provokes the development of diseases and is a suitable habitat for insect pests.

Do not bury the growing point when planting plants.

At the time of planting seedlings in the ground, the temperature is very important indicator. If it drops below +15°C, the plants will stop developing and the leaves will begin to curl. Night temperatures below +5°C can completely destroy plants. Wait for weather conditions to stabilize and take your time with landing. Optimal time in the middle zone - the third ten days of May.

Features of care

The main requirement when caring for tobacco is weeding. In order for cultivated plants to grow and develop normally, they need to be given enough space. Weeds take nutrition from the soil and are carriers of infections.

As for watering, the volume of water increases as it grows. Like seedlings, mature plants need regular, but not excessive, watering. The row spacing needs to be loosened so that the soil remains breathable.

When seedlings are just planted in the ground, the main danger for them is a drop in temperature, while during the growth process the plants are harmed by heat and drought. For example, at + 35°C they slow down their growth and stop developing. Of course, in conditions open ground It is quite difficult to resist such factors. As mentioned above, a greenhouse with agrofiber cover will reduce the risk of crop loss, since it prevents full penetration UV rays create an optimal microclimate inside, allowing air to penetrate and not accumulating condensation.

Fertilizers for tobacco

During the entire growth period, tobacco needs 3-4 feedings. The first half of the growing season is the most the right time for nitrogenous fertilizers. Subsequent ones can be phosphorus-potassium or complex, mineral. Remember that you should not overuse fertilizing, since an excess of each element entails adverse consequences. Thus, excessive application of phosphorus will lead to premature aging green mass, although its moderate use will promote flowering and speed up its onset.

Abuse of potassium will cause an unpleasant smell of tobacco, which will reduce the quality finished product. Although potassium is an important element when growing tobacco, you should not abuse it.

From folk ways It is advisable to use chicken manure. Dilute it with water in a ratio of 1:25. You can add a little wood ash to the solution; everyone knows that it is rich in minerals and very useful for nourishing the soil.

When should you feed? The first subcortex is carried out 2 weeks after planting the seedlings in the ground. The second - after two weeks or when the plants reach a length of 20 cm, the third - during the flowering period.

Diseases and pests

The interesting thing is that tobacco is its own healer. If you find leaf rollers, spider mites, slugs, moths, or aphids on your property, then you need to act immediately, especially since there is a proven way to get rid of insect pests. Prepare a solution from dry tobacco leaves. Take 500 grams of leaves for 10 liters of hot water, brew and leave for 2-3 days. After this, add 40 grams of grated laundry soap and let it dissolve. Irrigate the plants with the resulting liquid. It is advisable not to wait for pests or diseases to appear, but to carry out such measures as a preventive measure.

Tobacco cleaning

Slight yellowness is a signal that the leaves can be removed. Tobacco harvesting occurs in several stages. It starts with the lower leaves, 3-4 pieces each. from each plant. During the second assembly, after some time, you can remove 5-6 sheets.

Cleaning should be done in the evening before the dew falls or in the morning after it has completely dried. The leaves need to be strung on a rope to dry. When hanging the leaves, make sure that they do not touch and that there is sufficient distance between them.

At first, it is better to dry the leaves in a dark place, at a temperature of +25 to +35°C. Air humidity should be 70-75%. As soon as the leaves turn yellow, they need to be moved to dry in the sun.

If you follow agricultural technology and crop rotation, harvesting and storage rules, you will probably get really high-quality tobacco. But remember that smoking has a negative impact on health. Although tobacco can also be used for economic purposes, because it helps in the fight against pests and some plant diseases.