How to grow shag at home?

Makhorka rustic tobacco cultivation

In this article, you will learn how to grow shag and what to do with it later.

The 1 of May.

I sowed two varieties of makhorka, this mopachoand some kind of local variety that has been grown for 50 years and naturally no one knows the name.

Makhorka sown

You need to take a larger container for seedlings, because we will grow makhorka without picking. I took a small container, because I need no more than 5 bushes of each type. I rarely smoke it, let's just say: when you want something unusual. You can sow tobacco seeds directly into the garden bed and cover with cellophane, and then, when they grow up, choose plants and plant them in a permanent place.

The seeds of makhorka are larger than those of tobacco, and therefore after sowing, I sprinkled them with soil about 5mm. unlike tobacco seeds, they will easily break through. After sowing, I put the container in the greenhouse along with the tobacco and covered it with a lid. Why do I start sowing in May, and not earlier, I wrote in the article makhorka.

9th May.

With makhorka, I missed a little, namely by the fact that after sowing the seeds I put the container in the greenhouse. The nights are still cool and the seeds are frozen. It was decided to bring the container into the house, and after a couple of days, shoots began to show.

All plants love warmth and our shag is no exception.

May 20.

The seedlings of the makhorka do not develop very well, and I associate this with my mistake. It was not necessary to immediately put the container in the greenhouse after sowing, but to keep it warm at home for a couple of weeks and then such problems would not arise.

Well, okay, ten bushes will grow anyway, but don't make such mistakes. In theory, the seedlings should now be 5-7 centimeters in height, and I have little suffocations. So I think, maybe they can be seated in separate glasses.

26 of May.

Tobacco seedling pests

Woke up this morning and saw something.

This slug ate all the seedlings of the makhorka. Maybe he was not alone, of course, but the fact is on the face)). Of course, I was not particularly upset, since the makhorka was sown to write this article and this snail even survived with a belly full of delicious makhorka. The seeds have been sown again and the article will be finished. At the same time, I will check how everything will ripen with such late crops.

June 13.

The newly sown makhorka seeds look like this today:

On the left is a mopacho, an order of magnitude behind the local makhra. I think in a couple of weeks it will be possible to plant it in open ground.

June 19.

The makhorochka is growing, with a delay of almost a month. In a week or two, when I get to the village, I will plant it on the mainland. Now she is like this:

I thinned it out.

3 July.

Disembarkation of the makhorka

The makhorka has grown well in two weeks. If the snail had not eaten the seedlings, then such seedlings should have been by the first of June.

Since I got to the village, the makhorka was immediately set free. After disembarkation, it will be watered for three days in the morning, tk. the weather is hot now. When she takes root, she will no longer see watering.

July 16.

The makhorka has grown in two weeks and by the end of August, the beginning of September it should be ripe.

In the foreground there are six local makhorka bushes, in the far field there are seven mopacho bushes.

July 28th.

Makhorka is growing at a fast pace, it rains more than necessary.

Has already begun to bloom.

Makhorka, in contrast to tobacco, I have never been sick with anything. In this regard, she is a big plus.

August 14th.

The makhorka is blooming with might and main. True, after the photo session, I cut off all the flowers to ripen faster.

When the makhorka ripens

The lower leaves of the makhorka began to ripen. A kind of rust began to appear on the leaves. The photo can be seen.

When such rust appears on most of the leaves, it means that the makhorka bushes are ripe. I will be chopping bushes in a week and a half, two. If the seeds had sprouted normally, the bushes would have already been removed.

August 28.

Harvesting shag at home

So the season has come to an end. The makhorka is ripe and the lower leaves have already begun to turn yellow.

The bushes were cut and piled up for a couple of three days.

Drying the makhorka at home

After the makhorka bushes are dry, you can begin to process them. You can chop with grains along with the trunk or cut some leaves. How you can cook chopped shag, read the shag article.

P.S. Summing up, I will say: growing makhorka, unlike tobacco, is the most unpretentious, even with such a late sowing, it matured perfectly and I did not meet any diseases in it.

Delicious smoke to you!

If you have any questions, ask in the comments or write to the mail.

Growing tobacco or makhorka is not difficult at all. We are often asked about this process, and, combining personal experience with the advice of experienced ones, including our readers, we decided to publish this material. I must say that the process of growing tobacco is not much different from growing, for example, tomatoes. But still, growing tobacco, you need to know certain features of this plant. This is what our publication is about.

Content:

• General information about the tobacco plant
• Should you grow tobacco?
• Features of growing tobacco
• Tobacco pests and diseases
• Tobacco drying and fermentation

General information about the tobacco plant

Tobacco (Nicotiana) is a genus of perennial and annual plants of the Solanaceae family. Grown to obtain raw materials used in tobacco products. In culture, the following types are most often found:

• Ordinary tobacco, or Virginia Tobacco, or Real Tobacco (Nicotiana tabacum). The plant is up to 3 m high with pink flowers, a tubular corolla with sharp lobes, leaves are oblong-lanceolate, sessile. Real tobacco is quite thermophilic, therefore it is especially productively grown in hot regions. In our country, ordinary tobacco is grown south of 55 ° north latitude (this is approximately the latitude of Ryazan, Smolensk, Ulyanovsk, Ufa, Chelyabinsk, Kurgan, Omsk, Novosibirsk and Kemerovo). Ordinary tobacco is cultivated in many countries of the world and has many varieties.
• Common shag, or Rustic tobacco (Nicotiana rustica) - a plant much lower than ordinary tobacco (up to 120 cm high), yellowish flowers, corolla with a short tube and rounded blades, ovoid leaves, narrow, obtuse at the end. The leaves of this more unpretentious plant contain half as much nicotine.

In the 19th century in Russia, makhorka was cultivated on an industrial scale everywhere (even in the Urals and Siberia). Even now, some villagers traditionally grow this plant from their own seeds.

Bolivia and Peru are considered the homeland of tobacco; it was brought to Europe by the expeditions of Christopher Columbus. Traditional areas of cultural cultivation - North America, China, India, Asia Minor. On the territory of the former USSR, ordinary tobacco is cultivated in the Transcaucasia, Uzbekistan, Kazakhstan, Moldova, Ukraine, Crimea and Krasnodar Territory. Tobacco is a thermophilic plant, the optimal summer temperature for it is about 30 ° C. Moist, light, free-flowing sandy soils are suitable for it.Tobacco is propagated by seeds, growing seedlings from them, which are then planted in the ground.

All parts of the plant contain nicotine (nicotine leaves most of all - 0.75-2.88%). Nicotine is a potent neurotoxin and cardiotoxin that causes short-term euphoria. The use of tobacco in various forms and in various ways (smoking, chewing, sniffing) causes physical and psychological dependence. Nicotine is extremely toxic. Some of the substances in tobacco are carcinogenic. That's why smoking tobacco is dangerous to health.

Should you grow tobacco?

Suppose you are a smoker, and you have the good fortune to live somewhere in the south of Russia or in Ukraine. You have at your disposal several acres of land. Why not try on the role of Philip Morris or at least Jack Vosmerkin, an American?

First, some fun arithmetic. One cigarette contains about a gram of tobacco. And the cheaper the cigarettes, the less it is there. That is, the pack contains about 20 grams. If a person smokes a pack a day, he will need about 6-8 kilograms of tobacco per year.

Under favorable conditions, about 30 g of smoking tobacco can be obtained from one plant, and six to seven plants can be placed on 1 square meter. The planting density of large-leaved varieties is 70 × 30 cm, and the planting density of medium-sized tobacco and makhorka is 70 × 20 cm.It turns out that you need to grow 270-300 plants, occupying about 40 square meters. m. plot. Moreover, if the tobacco turned out to be too "evil", it can be diluted with the stems.

Therefore, from the point of view of economy and finances, it is definitely profitable for a smoker to grow tobacco.

Features of growing tobacco

Further in the article we will talk about the cultivation of ordinary tobacco. If you decide to grow shag (Nicotiana rustica), then you will not need many of the tips given, shag is much easier to grow and less thermophilic. For the middle lane, it is sown in May in the ground under a film or covering material, and it has time to grow and give a crop.

So, the first thing to attend to is the seeds and their planting. Seeds are now sold on the Internet on many sites, you just need to choose a store convenient for you and a variety of tobacco.

Tobacco varieties

There are many varieties of ordinary tobacco. It is worth saying that for the period from 1990 to 2010. in the All-Russian Research Institute of Tobacco, more than 20 new productive and disease-resistant varieties of tobacco with excellent characteristics have been bred.

As with vegetables, it is better to choose local varieties for your site. Therefore, we list some popular varieties that are zoned for the territories of the former USSR:

• Refectory Kubanets. The growing season from planting seedlings to the last breaking is 103-134 days. Technically suitable leaves on average 27 pcs. Nicotine content 2.6%.
• Refectory 92. The variety is resistant to numerous damaging factors, viral tobacco diseases. It has a short growing season. On average, leaf breaking occurs 98 days after planting.
• Samsun 85. The variety belongs to intensively ripening varieties, mid-season - the number of days from planting to leaf breaking will be approximately 105-110 days. The number of technically ripe leaves from one tobacco bush is about 50 pcs.
• Jubilee new 142. The growing season from planting seedlings to ripening of leaves of average breaking is 78 days, to the last breaking 82 days. The nicotine content in the leaves is 2.0-2.1%. The variety has a complex resistance to tobacco diseases.
• Holly 316. Late ripening form, intensive type of leaf ripening. Low in nicotine. From planting to maturation of the leaves of the last breaking 120 days.

Planting seeds

We recommend growing just a few bushes for the first year. So you will test your strength and find out all the nuances of the process. Therefore, you need very few seeds to get started. Tobacco seeds are small, like dust. There are about 12 thousand tobacco seeds in one gram, and about 4 thousand pieces of makhorka.To get the annual "norm" of a smoker, you need to sow only a quarter of a gram of tobacco seeds or three-quarters of a gram of tobacco seeds. You don't have to buy seeds anymore. Two or three bushes will give them more than needed for sowing a hectare.

Tobacco seeds remain viable for a long time, so sowing with old seeds is also possible, although it must be borne in mind that their germination decreases over time.

Tobacco can be planted on the seedlings on the windowsills, with or without a pick. The required age of seedlings is 40-45 days. But this technique is good only for small (up to a quarter of a hundred) volumes. However, for the first experiment we don't need more. When growing tobacco in large volumes, it is either immediately planted in the ground (in warm climates), or greenhouses and nurseries are used.

Tobacco seeds are sown superficially, scattering them over wet soil.

An important point. The seeding depth of tobacco seeds is no more than 0.7-0.8 cm (0.3-0.5 cm for shag). After sowing, they are only slightly pressed into the ground and watered very carefully so that the seeds do not go deep.

You can sow not dry seeds, but hatched seeds. In this case, 4 days before sowing, the seeds are soaked in warm clean water and placed on a damp cloth. This will speed up the germination of the seeds and shorten the time to forcing the seedlings by a week.

The optimum temperature for germination of tobacco seeds is + 25ºC… + 28ºC. If the temperature is lower, then this can delay the emergence of plants, or even destroy them altogether.

It is impossible to overmoisten, as well as overdry the seedlings. It is best to water a little, almost daily.

Transplanting

Seedlings are planted when it reaches a height of 15 cm, has 5-6 developed true leaves and a well-developed root system. At this moment, the danger of spring frosts should be avoided outside the window, and the soil at a depth of 10 cm should warm up above 10 ° C. This period is different in different regions, but approximately it is from the end of April to the end of May.

A week before planting, it is necessary to start hardening the seedlings, reducing watering and accustoming them to open air. 2-3 days before planting, watering the seedlings is completely stopped, watering abundantly only 2-3 hours before planting.

Plants are planted one at a time in the holes, after pouring 1 liter of water into them. In general, the process is very similar to planting tomato seedlings. And of course, every transplant is a shock for the plant. Therefore, it is advisable to preserve on the roots the soil in which the seedlings grew.

Care

During the growing period, it is necessary to regularly loosen the ground, remove weeds, feed and water. You can feed the plants based on the fertilization rates of tomatoes. Watering is usually limited to two to three waterings per summer, consuming 6-8 liters of water per plant. It is better to water the tobacco insufficiently than to water it.

A rooted tobacco bush can have roots up to several meters, and many tobacco growers find watering mature bushes harmful. However, it would be nice to water the tobacco a few days before harvesting.

In flowering plants, the inflorescences are broken off (verchkovation) and lateral shoots are regularly removed (pinching).

The soil

Tobacco is planted on fresh soil, in the absence of such, it is placed either after steam, or after winter crops or other plants that impose other nutrient requirements on the soil. For this reason, tobacco should not be planted, for example, after beets and potatoes.

The best soils for tobacco should be considered sandy loam, characterized by the presence of potassium and nitrogen, which are necessary for the tobacco plant.

Like all immigrants from the New World, tobacco is rapidly depleting the soil. But the remedy is known - fertilizers perfectly solve this problem.

The best fertilizer for tobacco is cow dung. Bird droppings and oilcakes are also considered useful fertilizers for tobacco. On soils poor in lime, liming is used, it has a beneficial effect not only on the culture, but also on the completeness of combustion of the tobacco plant.

Harvesting begins when the color of the tobacco leaves changes from green to yellow-green or light green.Since even one bush will have leaves of varying degrees of color, the harvesting can take several weeks.

Tobacco pests and diseases

Tobacco is damaged by a number of pests, namely:

• Peach aphid, Greenhouse aphids, Tobacco aphids. Dangerous tobacco pest. A widespread species, it feeds on many cultivated and wild plants. Peach aphid inhabits all organs of the tobacco plant and sucks the juice out of them, which leads to a decrease in the yield and quality of raw materials.
• Blackleg... It is manifested by lodging and mass death of seedlings. The base of the stems becomes thinner and decays. A brown or white bloom appears on the affected surface. The pathogen remains in the soil.
• Powdery mildew. It is observed shortly after planting seedlings in the ground. Separate spots with a cobweb-powdery bloom appear on the lower leaves; then the plaque becomes solid and covers the upper leaves. The mushroom hibernates on plant debris. The disease reduces photosynthesis, leads to plant oppression. Reduces the yield and quality of raw materials.
• Black root rot more often it affects seedlings, but adult plants also get sick. On the affected seedlings, the leaves wilt, turn yellow and dry out, the roots turn brown or black and often die off. In adult plants, the leaves become attached, and black and white spots form at the ends of the roots.
• Common broomstick... Distributed throughout the south and southeast of Kazakhstan. The parasite settles on the roots of tobacco and develops at the expense of the host plant, forming a powerful branching stem of purple color. As a result of mass destruction of plants by broomrape, the yield of tobacco and the quality of raw materials are reduced. Broomrape propagates by seeds that remain in the soil for many years.
• Mosaic... The leaves of diseased plants have normal green patches that alternate with light green. Later, the tissue dies off in spots. The main source of plant infection is post-harvest residues of diseased plants, both in greenhouses and in the field.
• Bacterial hazel grouse. Oily or weeping spots appear on the tips of the leaves of young seedlings or along the edges of the leaves. In wet weather, they rot, and the whole plant becomes infected from them. Round chlorotic spots appear on the leaves of grown plants, which merge, forming patches of dead tissue. The causative agent of the disease is stored in tobacco leaves, in tobacco dust, in inventory.

Tobacco drying and fermentation

Well, the most important part of getting smoking tobacco is drying and fermentation. Let's make a reservation right away: if you do not smoke, have no previous experience with tobacco, it will be quite difficult for you to determine the degree of readiness. You can either not dry it out, or rot. However, let me remind you that our grandfathers grew and dried makhorka without a higher education.

Drying

After collecting, the tobacco leaves are hung to dry in a ventilated room, while it is advisable to place containers with water there to increase the humidity. The leaves dry out in about a month.

Then the dried leaves must be moistened with clean water from a spray bottle and folded into piles, covered with polyethylene, and kept for up to a day for uniform moistening. The leaves should be soft, but not soggy. After that, the leaves, either whole or cut, are hidden in sealed glass containers (jars) for fermentation.

Fermentation

Fermentation is a biochemical process that takes place at a constant temperature of 50 ° C for several weeks. Tobacco is fermented to reduce the strength, change the taste for the better, and reduce nicotine and tar. This can be done, for example, in electric ovens at a temperature of + 50ºC… + 60 ºC. Sometimes it is more convenient to dry cut leaves rather than whole leaves.

The resulting tobacco can be smoked in pipes, wrapped in cigarettes, fortunately, wrapping machines and tissue paper are now sold in many places. Finally, you can try making a cigar - it's easy and fun.

Of course, our material does not claim to be a detailed textbook, and many subtleties remained unaffected. And if you are serious about growing tobacco, you will need to study this issue more. But in order to get the first harvest, you already know enough.

We'd love to read your tips and secrets for growing, drying and fermenting tobacco.

And in conclusion, we remind you once again: smoking is addictive and harmful to your health. If you don't smoke, don't start. If you smoke, maybe it's time to quit? Nerd against smoking!

In our country, cigar or cigarette tobacco can be grown in open soil only in the southern regions. As for the northern and central regions, they will need greenhouse structures for this. But makhorka has become widespread throughout Russia (with the exception of the Far North, of course).

Growing tobacco at home

Once growing tobacco at home for the purpose of its further sale, it was considered a common occupation for many families, and self-garden, as it was called, was a familiar commodity in the markets. This was largely due to the high cost of tobacco products, but later, when cigarettes became noticeably cheaper, this type of business began to decline. Be that as it may, even today the makhorka has a lot of admirers, so the question of how to grow it on your site is still relevant.

Cultivation of smoking tobacco - is it worth it?

Let's say you are a smoker and live somewhere in the southern part of the country. You have several acres of land on which you would like to grow tobacco. In this case, you should start with simple calculations: one cigarette contains about 1 g of tobacco (the lower the quality, the less), which means that in a pack it is about 20 g. On average, a smoker needs one pack of cigarettes per day or from 6 to 8 kg of tobacco annually. If conditions are favorable, then one plant can produce up to 30 g of tobacco, while 6-7 copies can be planted on 1 m². If the variety is large-leaved, then the planting density should be 30x70 cm, and if we are talking about makhorka or plants with medium leaves, then 20x70 cm. It follows from this that in total, it is necessary to plant from 270 to 300 plants, which will require about 40 m² ... Moreover, the tobacco itself in this case will be extremely strong, so it will have to be diluted with the stems. If this suits you, if you considered everything to be quite appropriate, or if you plan to sell products, then proceed according to the step-by-step instructions given in this article.

All parts of the plant contain nicotine

Note! All parts of plants contain nicotine - a powerful cardio and neurotoxin that leads to short-term euphoria (most of this substance is in the leaves - from 0.75% to 2.8%).

Step-by-step instructions for growing tobacco

The article will focus on how to breed ordinary tobacco. If you give preference to Nicotiana rustica (this is the scientific name for shag), then you will not need most of the advice presented, since this variety is less thermophilic and easier to care for. In the regions of the middle lane, it is sown in May in open soil (under a film or any other covering material) so that it has time to develop and give a good harvest.

Growing tobacco on site

Traditionally, work should begin with the selection of planting material. There are tons of tobacco varieties available, but you should only choose local ones.

Table. Tobacco varieties released on the territory of the CIS

As for makhorka, we advise you to pay attention to such varieties as Datura 4, Pekhlets 4 and Pekhlets local.

Note! Then there is the Kentucky Burley, which has the advantage of being low in sugar, so the foliage doesn't ferment. Immediately after drying, the leaves are steamed and crushed for consumption.

Stage one. Germinating seeds

The cultivation technologies of tobacco and makhorka are in many ways similar, and the main difference lies in the same ripening period. So, makhorka ripens in 75-80 days, and tobacco, therefore, in 105-120 days. You also need to remember that seeds in this case are not grown in the garden, that is, in open soil - this should be done in a greenhouse or, alternatively, at home, using pots or seedling boxes.

Step 1. First, prepare the previously purchased seeds - soak them in a solution of tartaric acid (proportion - 3 ml per 1 g of grains) for 24 hours 2-3 days before sowing. The air temperature all this time should fluctuate within 25-30 ° С. This simple procedure will provide earlier ripening of seedlings (by about 7 days) and an increase in germination by 20%.

Tobacco seed

Step 2. After 24 hours, remove the seeds from the solution, dry them a little and place them in a ceramic / enamel dish with a 3 cm layer.

Step 3. Keep the material in this form for several days, moisturizing and stirring at least 5-6 times daily. As for the air temperature, it should already be 27-28 ° C.

Stage two. Preparing the greenhouse

In view of the fact that it is more expedient to grow tobacco seedlings in a greenhouse, we will focus on this particular option. So, take care of the nutrient layer, consisting of humus and sand in a ratio of 3: 4. Fill the greenhouse with the resulting mixture in a layer 10 cm thick.

The greenhouse must be covered with humus and sand

Seeds should be sown in the last days of February or early March, so make sure that the greenhouse structure is heated in addition. The area of ​​the structure will be insignificant, so this will not cause any special difficulties.

Stage three. We sow seeds and grow seedlings

Step 1. Immediately before sowing, moisten the nutrient layer (water consumption for irrigation should be 1 l / m²). Over time, by the way, the watering rate will have to be increased to about 4 l / m².

Step 2. Sow tobacco kernels superficially, spreading them evenly over the moistened soil. Consumption should be 4 g / m² (if sowing makhorka, then 20 g / m²).

Step 3. After sowing, gently press the seeds into the soil by about 0.3 cm (for tobacco, this figure is 0.7 cm), then pour water over it. Water with extreme care, otherwise the grains may go too deep.

Step 4. Reduce the air temperature in the greenhouse to 20 ° C.

Sowing tobacco seeds for seedlings

Further care for the seedlings is to comply with several important requirements.

1. Feed the plants regularly with a solution made from potassium salt, superphosphate and ammonium nitrate (20 g, 50 g and 30 g, respectively, for every 10 liters of liquid).
2. The consumption of the ready-to-use mortar should be approximately 2 l / m² of soil.
3. You can also use organic fertilizer - chicken manure, diluted with water in a ratio of 1: 7.
4. Reduce the frequency and amount of watering 7 days before the expected transplant date. Moreover, the last three days, tobacco seedlings do not need to be watered at all.
5. Hardened and quality plants should have a firm stem that does not break when bent.
6. Water the plants with plenty of water a few hours before transplanting to make them easier to remove from the soil.

Ready-to-transplant tobacco seedlings

After 40-45 days, when the height of the stems reaches 15 cm, the thickness is 0.5 cm, and on each plant there will already be several true leaves, transplant the seedlings into open soil.

Stage four. We transplant seedlings

During the transplant, the soil temperature at a depth of 10 cm should rise to somewhere around 10 ° C (the specific indicator depends on the climatic zone).

How to properly transplant tobacco seedlings

Step 1. Make shallow holes first. The distance between them should be between 25 cm and 30 cm, and the row spacing should be at least 70 cm.

Step 2. Pour 0.5-1 liters of water into each well.

Step 3. Remove plants one at a time and transplant into holes.In fact, the technology is practically the same as when planting tomatoes. However, remember that any transplant is a shock to the seedlings, so try to keep the soil in which the plants grew on the root system.

Step 4. Before planting, dip each plant in a special mixture of clay and cow dung.

Step 5. Fill the holes with soil, carefully compact it.

Grown seedlings of tobacco in the open field

Stage five. Further care

In the future, regularly weed and loosen the aisles, and also apply top dressing. During the entire growing season, tobacco should be watered no more than 2-3 times (water consumption should be 8 liters per bush). Also periodically make pinching (removal of lateral shoots) and edging (breaking off inflorescences).

Tips for growing and caring for tobacco

Possible diseases

There are two of the most common tobacco problems. Let's consider how to deal with them.

1. Aphid... Use Rogor-S to fight it.
2. Peronosporosis... It can be defeated with a 4% suspension of zineba, introduced in a proportion of 5 l / 10 acres, or with a 0.3% polycarbacin solution.

Peronosporosis tobacco

Features of harvesting

Step 1. As soon as the leaves turn yellow, you can remove them, without fail, starting from the lower tiers. It is important that each leaf is intact and dry.

Step 2. Transfer all these leaves to the shade for 12 hours, placing them neatly in a 1-inch (30 cm) layer. During this time, they will be sufficiently attached.

Step 3. Next, put the leaves on the cords and hang to dry. If you are going to dry in the open air, then choose a suitable place for this, protected from precipitation and wind. If the weather is sunny, the leaves will dry faster, and the process will take no more than 2 weeks in total.

Drying tobacco leaves

Step 4. Take 5-6 cords with foliage, folded four times, and hang them on a special hook. This design is also known as havanka.

Step 5. Transfer one or more harbors to the drying room by hanging them on the bars.

Drying tobacco after harvesting on the harbor

Step 6. With the onset of autumn, remove the leaves, smooth them gently and put them in piles. That's it, the tobacco is already ready for use!

As you can see, there is nothing difficult in growing tobacco, the main thing is desire, as well as compliance with all the tips given in the article.

Video - How to remove and how to dry tobacco

Video - Film about growing tobacco from A to Z

Video - Features of growing tobacco

In our country, on the open ground, varieties of cigarette and cigar tobacco can be grown only in the southern regions. In the central and northern regions, greenhouses are needed for this.
But makhorka has long taken root throughout Russia, except for the regions of the Far North.
At one time, growing tobacco at home for its subsequent sale was the usual business of many families. Samosad, to which a fragrant sweet clover was added for aroma, was a familiar commodity on the market stalls.

Many people still remember how this business flourished in the 90s of the last century, when the shortage and high cost of tobacco products led to the rise in popularity of tobacco, which was sold in glasses.
But then sellers of smoking tobacco and their fragrant goods gradually disappeared from the bazaars, unable to withstand competition with cigarette manufacturers.
However, recently, due to a sharp increase in prices for tobacco products and a drop in its quality, many have thought about the possibility of starting their own tobacco growing business.
We will try to answer the question of how profitable such a business can be and what needs to be done to organize it.
But before that, it is useful to get some idea of ​​the methods of growing smoking tobacco in our climate. Tobacco and makhorka varieties

Before proceeding with the purchase of seeds, it should be recalled that only a few varieties of smoking tobacco and makhorka have been tested in our country. Therefore, it would be wise to start your business with them.
As for smoking tobacco, these are:

• Refectory 219;
• Anniversary;
• Holly 215
• Meal 15.

Shag varieties:

• Pekhlets local;
• Pekhlets 4;
• Datura 4.

Recently, varieties of smoking tobacco have gained popularity - Kentucky Burley and Ternopil 14.
Ternopil 14 is an unusually fragrant variety, bred specifically for cultivation in Eastern Europe.

Kentucky Burleigh is also an adapted variety, interesting for its extremely low sugar content, due to which its leaves do not ferment. Once dried, they can be steamed and cut for consumption. Germinating seeds

The tobacco growing business requires particularly accurate adherence to the technological process, since otherwise the entire fragrant product will be hopelessly spoiled.
The growing methods of tobacco and makhorka are very similar. The main difference is that the ripening period of seedlings in makhorka is almost two times shorter. It is 70-80 days, respectively, tobacco matures in 100-120 days.
Planting tobacco seeds for seedlings is not carried out in the garden, in open ground. In the apartment, they are planted in flower pots or boxes placed on the windowsills on the south side. But more often greenhouses are used for growing seedlings. From planting seeds to planting seedlings in the ground, it takes 40-45 days.
A few days before sowing, the seeds are soaked for a day in a very weak solution of tartaric acid at an air temperature of 25-30 degrees, at the rate of 3 ml of solution per gram of seeds. Thanks to this procedure, seedlings ripen a week earlier, and seed germination increases by 20%.
After a day of soaking, the seeds extracted from the solution are slightly dried and, while still wet, are laid out in enamel or ceramic containers with a layer about 30 mm thick. In this form, they are kept for several days, stirring 5-6 times a day and moisturizing. In this case, the air temperature should be 27-28 degrees.
For sowing in a greenhouse, a nutrient layer is created, consisting of ¾ of humus, and ¼ of sand. Its thickness is 10 cm. The seeding rate for tobacco is 4 g of seeds per 10 m2, and for makhorka -20 g.
Tobacco seeds are planted to a depth of about 0.3 cm, and tobacco seeds - 0.7 cm.
Since the planting of germinated seeds in a greenhouse or greenhouse takes place in late February - early March, the greenhouses must be heated. The area of ​​such a greenhouse does not exceed a few m2, so it will not take up much space in the garden.

Growing seedlings

• Before and after planting, the nutrient layer must be moistened, based on a square meter of soil - a liter of water. As the plants grow, the watering rate increases to 4 liters per square meter.
• At the same time, the air temperature in the greenhouse decreases, from 27 to 20 degrees.
• During the cultivation of seedlings, it is poured 3-4 times.
• Plant feeding is carried out with a solution of ammonium nitrate, superphosphate and potassium salt, at the rate of 30 g of nitrate, 50 g of superphosphate, 20 g of potassium salt per 10 liters of water.
• For feeding a square meter of a garden bed, 2 liters of solution are consumed.
• As an organic feeding, a solution of fermented chicken manure is used, diluted with water in a ratio of one to seven.
• A week before transplanting seedlings into open ground, the intensity and volume of watering is radically reduced, and the last three days before transplanting, the plants are not watered at all.
• A characteristic of a well-hardened plant is the elasticity of its stem, which does not break when bent.
• Two hours before the start of transplanting seedlings, it is poured abundantly with water to facilitate the extraction of plants from the soil.
• A plant ready for transplanting should have a stem about 15 cm high and 0.5 cm thick with several well-developed leaves.

Growing tobacco outdoors

• Transplanting into open ground is carried out no earlier than the ground at a depth of 10 cm warms up to 10 degrees, depending on the climatic zone from mid-April to mid-May.
• Seedlings are planted at a distance of 25-30 cm from each other. In this case, the row spacing must be at least 70 cm.
• Before planting, 0.5 liters of water is poured into each hole, and the roots of the plants are dipped in a mixture of cow dung and clay.
• Caring for plants consists in regularly loosening row spacings, weeding and feeding. Watering for the entire growing season is carried out two to three times at the rate of approximately 8 liters per plant.
• After the beginning of flowering, plants are pinched.

Combating plant diseases

The most common tobacco diseases are:

• Peronosporosis, against which a 0.4% suspension of zineba is used at the rate of 5 liters per 10 acres or 0.3% polycarbacin solution.
• Aphids, against it, plants are treated with rogor or atelik.

Harvesting and drying of tobacco leaves

To remove tobacco leaves begin from the lower tiers, as soon as they turn yellow. In this case, the leaves must be dry and not damaged.
The removed leaves are transferred to the shade, where they are laid in a layer 30 cm thick for 12 hours so that they are anchored. After that, they are put on the cords to dry.
In the open air, to dry the leaves, choose a place protected from wind and rain. In sunny weather, the drying process is faster and takes about two weeks.
After that, 5-6 folded cords with leaves are hung on a special hook. This design is called a havanka.
Then the gavanoks are transferred to a closed drying room, where they are hung on the beams.
In autumn, the leaves are removed and, having smoothed, put in piles.

Fermentation of tobacco

To obtain scented cigarette tobacco, the dried leaves are fermented. To do this, they are heated in a closed container for three days at a temperature of 50 degrees and a humidity of 65%.
After that, within a week, the air humidity is gradually increased, at the same temperature, up to 75%.
Then, within two days, the temperature gradually decreases, and the humidity increases to 80%.
Then the tobacco leaves must be cooled to room temperature in three days, while their humidity should be from 11 to 16%.
After that, they are laid out for resting, the duration of which is one month.
The remaining tobacco is cut into strips about 0.5 mm wide. A cigarette 80 mm long and 8 mm in diameter requires about a gram of tobacco.
It is believed that good quality cigarette tobacco should consist of a mixture of at least two varieties.
As for makhorka, to improve the taste, as already mentioned, a fragrant sweet clover or another aromatic additive of natural origin, such as, for example, fragrant St. John's wort, is added to it.

Profitability

We will make a preliminary calculation of the profitability of growing tobacco on a plot of 10 acres.
It takes about 0.4 g of seeds to sow per square meter. Therefore, to plant 1000 m2 it will take 400 g.
At retail, Virginia tobacco costs 1,900 rubles per gram, and makhorka is 1,500 rubles.
That is, to purchase tobacco seeds for 10 acres, we need 76,000 rubles, and makhorka - 60,000 rubles.
The output of finished tobacco of the first grade per hectare is 2-3 tons, that is, from 10 ares 200-300 kg, makhorka, respectively, 300-400 kg.

Mahorka can be sold in bulk at a price of 400-500 rubles / kg, respectively, the gross income from the sale will be about 200,000 rubles. Subtracting the cost of seeds, we get a net income equal to 140,000 rubles.
With cigarette tobacco, the situation is more interesting, since, on the one hand, the requirements for it are much higher, but on the other hand, it costs much more.
Unpackaged cigarette tobacco of good quality can be sold in bulk at a price of about 2000 r / kg. In this case, gross income is RUB 60,000 and net income is RUB 524,000. Sales of products

For this business, well-established sales of products are very important. With such relatively small volumes of production, its profitability can be significantly increased if it is possible to establish retail trade in tobacco. Moreover, for this it is not necessary to sell it in your store, you can try to sell it via the Internet.
But it should be remembered that the tobacco trade is governed by rather convoluted rules. Therefore, before proceeding with it, it makes sense to consult with an experienced lawyer who will help you collect the necessary papers.

Conclusion

As you can see, when calculating, we did not use the cost of fertilizers and the cost of equipping dryers and greenhouses.
The fact is that starting a business, you can get by, for example, a heated attic, where you can germinate seeds, grow seedlings and dry tobacco leaves. This will require not so much material as labor costs.
As for fertilizers, we took the minimum yield, which implies an insignificant amount of their use.
If the first season turns out to be successful, then the income received will be enough to start purchasing and installing the appropriate equipment, as well as to apply fertilizers on a wider scale. This will have a beneficial effect on the quality and quantity of the future harvest and will lead to increased income.