Today, most of the world's population cannot imagine their life without smoking. This bad habit is confidently attaching more and more people to itself. Some prefer cigarettes, others will not trade their pipe for anything. A person who smokes a pipe enjoys not only the very process of smoking, but also the care of his pipe. For such tobacco gourmets, preparation for smoking turns into a whole ritual. They slowly stuff it with tobacco, clean it thoroughly and polish it after smoking.

Many smokers grow on their own. This interesting activity becomes a real hobby for them. Gardeners often grow tobacco along with other plants that benefit, heal, and please the eye.

Tobacco varieties

Due to the fact that the cultivation of tobacco has become a fairly popular occupation, breeders have taken care of the variety of tobacco varieties. The exclusive seeds of this plant make it possible to grow tobacco that is difficult to distinguish from real Cuban varieties.

If you do not have a garden plot, but have a great desire to grow smoking tobacco, then this can be done even at home on the windowsill. You can sow cigar tobacco or shag. There are many varieties of tobacco.

• For those who decide to grow pipe tobacco, the Orinoco variety is perfect. It is a classic smoking tobacco with prune and aromatic vanilla flavors. Its cultivation does not require special knowledge and care.
• Another favorite of smokers is Kentucky. Ideal for cigars and roll-ups, it burns well in a tube. Its flavors of walnut and chocolate are a real treat for tobacco connoisseurs. Kentucky surpasses all other varieties in the amount of nicotine. This tobacco does not need to be fermented, it is easy to use, it is dried, steamed and cut for smoking.
• The American variety is easy to grow. It is designed for pipes and cigars. Despite the high cost of its seeds, there are many fans of this variety. This classic smoking tobacco practically does not get sick, it needs minimal watering. Due to its spicy taste, it is often used in smoking mixtures, which allows for a magical aroma.
• The Perik variety, aged in oak barrels, is unique.

More than 60 species of this plant grow in the wild, but only two species are grown as a cultivated plant in Russia: Verginsky and Makhorka tobacco. The first species loves warmth, it is problematic and expensive to grow it. Therefore, Makhorka has become a real favorite of gardeners. It is otherwise called Rustic tobacco precisely because it is easy to grow on its site.

Planting and growing smoking tobacco

Growing tobacco in the garden, gardeners often face a lot of problems. Seeds are sown for seedlings in winter, only after three and a half months the first shoots appear. Every day, smoking tobacco plants need weeding, loosening, feeding and garter stems. The difficulty of caring for tobacco is that it reaches a height of 3 meters. Shag is much easier to grow.

Tobacco seeds are sown for seedlings in flower pots or wooden boxes with nutritious soil, which are installed in a greenhouse or on a sunny windowsill. It is better to pre-soak the seeds so that they hatch a little. Soak them for a day in warm clean water. You can add some crystals of potassium nitrate or a couple of drops of tartaric acid to the water. In this way, you can increase the yield of tobacco.

After a day, the seeds are washed and left in a warm place for 4 days for germination. Sprouted seeds are dried, mixed with fine sand or humus and in boxes. When planting seeds in the ground, it is important to monitor the planting depth. Makhorka should not be deeper than 0.5 cm, and tobacco - 0.8 cm. Before and after sowing, the soil should be watered through a thick sieve.

Periodically, seedlings are fed with mineral fertilizers or chicken droppings. When it reaches 15 cm in height, you can start planting in open ground. A week before planting, seedlings need to be accustomed to open air and less watering.

Care and protection from disease

So, in the second half of spring, tobacco is planted in open ground. Now it is important to take proper care of him. Like other plants, smoking tobacco needs regular loosening of the soil, removal of weeds, timely watering, etc.

During the growing season, tobacco is watered at the rate of 6-8 liters of water per plant. Two or three waterings over the summer are enough. In plants that bloom, the tops and side shoots must be broken off.

Various solutions are used to fight diseases. If aphids have appeared on your plants, treat them with actelik at the rate of 30 grams of the product per 10 liters of water or rogor at the rate of 20 grams per 10 liters. With peronosporosis, a 0.3% polycarbacin solution or a 0.4% suspension of cineb will do an excellent job.

Growing tobacco for smoking is not an easy task, but the result is worth it. After all, tobacco grown by one's own hands has an indescribable special aroma that does not at all look like cigarettes from a store.

Smoking samosada saves a budget by cutting out the costs of purchased cigarettes from family spending, and it is also considered less hazardous to health.

It is a multipurpose plant. It is also used to protect against harmful insects on the land. Experts advise using only those grasses that grow in your region, area. The dacha is a convenient place for growing tobacco, but only in this case, if competent care is selected so that the smoking samosad has a decent strength, aroma and excellent taste.

There are a sufficient number of varieties. An example can be given that from 1999 to 2010 more than 20 new species were bred in Russia, which are very productive and have excellent properties.

Seed planting

Tobacco loves warmth and is quite capricious, so you need to know how to care for it. For those who have decided to start growing a crop for the first time, it is recommended to plant a few units first in order to delve into this process.

Tobacco seeds have characteristic features:

1. They are very small and look more like dust. Therefore, to plant the grains, it is enough to "salt" them on the soil surface and press them a little.
2. The material has a long period of germination resistance. Therefore, fairly old samples can be used.
3. To obtain an amount equal to the annual "smoker's rate", one-quarter of a gram of seeds is enough. Such a small volume of grains produces a good harvest.

Smoking varieties for seedlings are planted at the end of the winter season or early spring.

The cultivation of seeds is specific. They should be distributed no deeper than 1 cm. Care should be taken that the ground is mulched. As a container, you can take boxes, plastic cups. Then carry out gentle watering with a weak stream of water or use a spray bottle. If the liquid pressure is too high, the seed is easily washed out, which is not desirable. It is advisable to cover the containers with a film. It is opened several times a day to increase air access.

The optimum temperature for germination is about 26 degrees. Good lighting is required.

After the first shoots appear, you should not rush to open them. Let the sprouts grow stronger in their familiar environment. It is recommended to send a fluorescent lamp to the seedlings for two days. Watering is light, without pressure.

You can transfer seedlings to open soil when the ground warms up. This usually occurs in the last decade of May. A certain distance between seedlings should be maintained (30-50 cm).

In-ground tobacco care activities

In the process of growth, you should systematically loosen the soil, pull out weeds, water and feed. The latter can be done by relying on the norms suitable for the tomato. Watering usually consists of two to three times in the summer season, consuming 6 to 8 liters per bush. Waterlogging is unacceptable.

Blooming crops need to do the punching (break off the inflorescences) and constantly cut off the lateral processes, in other words, pinch them.

Samosad is preferable to plant on fresh soils, if this is not possible, then after winter crops. It is not recommended to do this in areas where beets and potatoes used to grow. Sandy loam soils are considered good soil for tobacco, in which there is a sufficient amount of nitrogen and potassium.

An excellent fertilizer is mullein. Bird droppings, oilcakes will also be useful. Soils that are scarce in lime are shown to be enriched with this substance.

Immediately after planting, the seedlings need a sufficient amount of nitrogen to grow a lot of green foliage, and this, in turn, completely affects the yield. It is necessary not to miss this period and to carry out top dressing in a timely manner. You can apply a complex fertilizer, with a predominant nitrogen content. Urea is good for this.

To recharge, you need to dissolve a spoonful of fertilizer in water in the ratio of one tablespoon to a ten-liter bucket of water. The resulting solution is poured under the root.

When to harvest from the fields

Harvesting begins when the leaves become slightly yellowish. First, they are broken out from below - 3 or 4 from each bush, the subsequent collection is 4-5, the third is increased to 5-7. Further, the number of removed leaves begins to be reduced.

Please tell us how to grow tobacco? The prices for cigarettes today are such that I decided to try to provide myself with "poison", as my wife says, on my own. I remember how as a child I often helped my grandfather to collect fragrant leaves and string them on a string to dry. My grandfather always smoked only his own rolls made from homemade tobacco. Only because of my small age, I did not remember anything about its cultivation. How should you sow seeds - directly into the ground or for seedlings?

Sometimes in the front gardens among roses, asters and black-shaved trees, you can find powerful bushes with large wide leaves. It grows tobacco, a close relative of peppers and potatoes, as it also belongs to the nightshade family. Some plant it for medicinal purposes, because tobacco has a good diuretic effect. But the majority still have a completely opposite task - to replace expensive and "unclean" cigarettes with homemade and natural tobacco. Whatever the reason for getting a good harvest, it is important to know how to grow tobacco. Although he is not particularly whimsical, there are some nuances of planting and leaving, but let's talk about everything in order.

Features of planting tobacco

Before you start sowing seeds, it is worth considering three main features of growing a crop:

1. has a long growing season. From the moment of planting to harvesting, at least 100, or even all 130 days pass. In order for the leaves to mature, the tobacco should be planted in seedlings.
2. The plant is demanding on heat: you can get juicy and the desired color of leaves only if it is at least 30 ° C outside.
3. The highest quality and most fragrant tobacco grows on moist loose soil.

The texture and taste of tobacco leaves can vary depending on the composition and structure of the soil where the plant is planted. On oily, damp ground, the leaves will be coarser. But if there is little moisture and fertilizer in the soil, then the leaves will grow tender and more fragrant.

They start sowing seeds in early March, after soaking them. This will speed up the emergence of seedlings and the further development of seedlings. Sprouted seeds are dried and planted in separate small pots, 2-3 seeds each. The soil should be nutritious, with the addition of humus and mineral fertilizers.

Seedlings are grown in good, but diffused lighting and warmth. Until the emergence of shoots, the temperature is maintained up to 25 ° C warm, and then it can be reduced by 5 ° C. A transplant into open ground is carried out no earlier than a stable above-zero temperature is established outside. Leave at least 30 cm between the bushes with a row spacing of up to 70 cm.

Seedlings are ready for planting when up to 6 leaves are formed on each bush. In this case, the height of the plants should be about 15 cm.

How to grow tobacco: plant care basics

Caring for tobacco in the beds is simple and includes simple procedures:

1. Remove weeds in time.
2. Water regularly, but not water the plantings - tobacco does not like this.
3. Feed the plants in a timely manner to build up deciduous mass. The first time (a week after planting the seedlings) tobacco is watered with a urea solution. In the future, three more fertilizing with the mineral complex is carried out: at the beginning of foliage ripening, 2 weeks after the introduction of minerals, and another week.
4. Remove the emerging inflorescences in time so that they do not take away strength.
5. Periodically pinch the bushes - so the leaves will be larger.
6. If necessary, carry out pest control.

Tobacco leaves do not ripen at the same time, but starting from the bottom, therefore, they are plucked gradually when yellowing begins. Then the tobacco crop is dried up, hanging in the shade.

The most important thing before planting tobacco in open ground is to harden our seedlings. To put it simply, accustom her to the open sun. To do this, a week or one and a half before disembarkation, we expose boxes of tobacco in the open sun. The first day for 20-30 minutes, the second for 40-60 and so on. As a result, before planting, our crops should be under the open sun all day and not experience any stress. We monitor the moisture content of the earth in the glasses. If you do not carry out this hardening procedure, then our seedlings, when planted in open ground, can simply burn out from direct ultraviolet radiation, turn yellow and dry.

When the seedlings reach 10-15 cm and have 4-5 true leaves, they are ready for planting in open ground. Follow the weather forecast here, the main thing is that return frosts do not return, otherwise our work may go to dust. Tobacco can withstand up to +4 degrees, but below it, problems can begin. You can, of course, cover our landings, but I can't imagine how this can be done on 2-3 acres. So it's better to wait for favorable conditions. It was not in vain that I wrote about the timing of sowing seeds, since we also do not need overgrown seedlings. Everything should be on time and then your planting will be pleasing to the eye.

Preparing for disembarkation.

Before proceeding with the landing, we will need to cultivate the land (plow, dig). Then mark out the landing pattern. I plant according to the scheme: two rows of aisle, two rows of aisle. Those. we plant the first row, between the plants 60-70 cm. then the second row between the rows 40-50 cm in a checkerboard pattern. You can plant in three rows, it's just more convenient for me. After that we leave a passage of 60-80cm. etc. Someone, limited with land, in this case, you can compact the planting. In general, for different varieties, a different planting scheme (large-leaved varieties, small-leaved), I use one scheme for everyone, I have enough land.

So, we have decided on the landing pattern. Next, we dig out the holes with a garden scoop a little deeper than our cups and spread the seedlings, placing them next to the holes. I also want to note that we do not water the seedlings 2-3 days before planting, so it will be better for a clod of earth to come out of the glass and the bushes themselves will be less fragile. We take our glass with seedlings, turn it over. The stem of the seedling should be between the middle and ring fingers of the hand. Then we gently tap on the bottom of the glass and pull it off, if the glass cannot be removed, you can slightly wrinkle it. Next, we lower it into the hole and lightly sprinkle it with earth.

Tobacco diseases.

Now there is a very important point. In tobacco, the most common disease is "tobacco mosaic", which is transmitted by sucking and gnawing insects (in particular thrips), so I recommend using PRESTIGE when planting, the one from the Colorado potato beetle.

I decided to test it this year on tobacco and the result was justified. For the purity of the experiment, some of the bushes were not processed and diseased plants were seen in this part. In the treated one, this phenomenon was not found. Diluted 13-15 ml. prestige for 10 liters of water and 200 ml is poured into each hole. It turns out such a process: they put the seedlings in the hole and lightly sprinkle them with earth. Pour with a liter of water, then 200 ml. diluted prestige and then again 0.5 liters of water. After the water has been absorbed, we roll it over completely with the earth.

Planting tobacco in the field

It will not be difficult to grow ordinary tobacco on personal plots, and for this you do not need to be an expert or expert in this area, because there will not be so many secrets of growing. Fragrant tobacco requires more effort: post-harvest processing is required - fermentation. In time - this is no longer than the preservation of a can of tomatoes. Ardent smokers have already appreciated the merits and preferred growing tobacco in home gardens, because this method is tantamount to the very process of quitting smoking. The family budget will hardly be affected by the cultivation of tobacco, and the pure tobacco itself does not do as much harm to the body as the added tar in regular cigarettes. You can watch video tutorials that reveal in detail all the aspects of growing tobacco at home, or simply follow a certain algorithm.

First of all, before starting to grow tobacco, you need to know that the properties of this product directly depend on the type of soil in which it grows. This plant can adapt to various conditions, regardless of the climate. But the plant itself selects heat. The variety of choice for growing tobacco at home may completely fall short of expectations, because these main characteristics depend on the condition of the soil, temperature and excess air.

• The properties and type of soil will reflect their influence on the color, size and even texture of the tobacco leaves.
• Its aroma depends on the presence of moisture and mineral salts.
• Excess air will give the tobacco a taste.

The video will help you understand the nuances of growing this plant, its varieties, the necessary conditions and little secrets.

What are the varieties?

In order to start growing tobacco from seeds, you need to buy them in specialized stores. It is there that you will be offered two of the most popular varieties: Virginia and Rural. These varieties are the best at retaining the required tobacco characteristics.

The most widespread and well-known variety of tobacco in use is Virginia. He has a delicate and mild taste. Although Virginia can adapt to any temperature regime, the best varieties grow in Brazil and Zimbabwe. The processing of the Virginia variety is easy: to preserve its important properties, a technology is used, which is called "smoke drying". You can learn more about this method by watching the video above, which details the cultivation of this plant.

So, it was decided - we grow tobacco at home. You can start with seeds or seedlings in order to personally learn the technique in detail. After all, it is not only entertaining, but also informative. To grow tobacco at home, you need to use dry seeds or those that have been picked. You can get them if, a couple of days before sowing, they are soaked in a cloth with the addition of tartaric acid or a small amount of potassium nitrate. This must be done for a day. This method will accelerate seed germination, increase productivity and development in general.

After that, they need to be washed, removing excess liquid, and placed in an enamel bowl in a warm place, periodically moistening a cloth. In no case is germination of shoots longer than seeds allowed, as they can simply break off. When the sprouted seeds become free-flowing, they must be mixed with sand or a special mixture.

The end of February and the beginning of March are the best times to plant tobacco in home gardens. Watering such plants must be done carefully: you cannot overmoisten or overdry the soil, then the tobacco will be fragrant and aromatic. Moistening should be carried out daily in equal amounts so that the moisture level in the soil does not fall or rise.

When growing, feeding is very important, which includes solutions of mineral fertilizers or chicken droppings.

A week before planting, tobacco seedlings must be tempered to the open air.

Landing

The place for planting tobacco should be chosen carefully. It would be nice if it was a specially allocated place in which moisture would not accumulate. The tobacco should be protected from the cold wind. The soil must be loosened and perfectly fertilized. Compost or manure is used as top dressing. The site must be cleared of weeds before planting.

Virginia smoking tobacco should be planted from around the end of April until the end of May, when the frost ends and the weather finally arrives. Seedlings of tobacco are placed at a distance of 20 centimeters, and a gap of 70 cm is kept between the rows. This is necessary for the plant to be healthy and large. In plants, it is imperative to break off the inflorescences and side shoots.

When planting in the soil, the plants need the first feeding; for this, manure with the addition of superphosphate is suitable. A solution of sulfur powder and water is also effective. Such care will certainly give a good result.

When inflorescences begin to appear, the tobacco bushes should be treated with an infusion made from garlic and onion husks. It is necessary to repeat this procedure three times, with a break of almost a week, in order for it to turn out fragrant. Fertilizers that contain phosphorus, nitrogen and potassium will repel pests.

In order to avoid plant diseases, special chemicals must be applied.

Harvesting

Already in August, you can start harvesting. The first thing to do is to pluck the lower leaves from the tobacco. Then they are kept in the sun for two days, and then dried for a month in a dark and humid room. A shed is quite suitable for this, in which you can put dishes with water to maintain the moisture level.

Tobacco consists of 4 tiers of leaves, which must be signed in order not to confuse them. With each next tier, you need to do the same as with the previous one, only with a break of a couple of weeks. They always start from top to bottom. First, the whole procedure is carried out with the upper leaves, they are the most valuable, and then with the rest.

Drying the leaves is half the battle. That is, after that, there will be the last step to obtain an excellent scented material for smoking. To make quality cigars, you need to use fermented tobacco. This procedure can also be performed at home. It will not be difficult to make a specialized cabinet yourself; you can do this even from an old non-working refrigerator.

A heating device and a temperature control device are placed there. You need to understand that not every kind of smoking tobacco is fermented using the same technologies, therefore, in order to get a fragrant and tasty tobacco, learn from video lessons or books how to track fermentation.

It is possible to grow high-quality tobacco by organizing this process at home, perhaps only if we take into account all the features.

Then it will definitely be possible not to worry that the purchase of cigarettes is a big expense, because by growing tobacco for smoking with your own hands, you can significantly reduce costs and reduce the harm from smoking ordinary cigarettes.

We wish you success and excellent harvests!