Grow tobacco at home tobacco growing guide

Good day, dear reader. Today, we will talk about the rules of growing tobacco at home. To find out how whimsical tobacco is and what conditions are necessary for its cultivation, a native of the Krasnodar NGO for tobacco products will help us.

So, as you know, in terms of climate, tobacco is more whimsical than the well-known shag. A favorite of smokers, the product loves the sun and the mild southern climate. Makhorka, on the contrary, can grow in any climatic zone. You can see the revised and updated manual at this link. There I described my experience as simply and in more detail as possible.

As a rule, Russian lands become fertile soil for the growth of Hollyleaf 215, Trapezond, Trapezonda 15, Yubileiny. And also for shag varieties: Pekhlets, AS 18/7, local Pekhlets, local Datura.

It is known that from seven and a half to eight kilograms of tobacco falls on one would-be smoker a year.

One hundredth of a hectare of land under favorable conditions can produce up to forty kilograms of dry weight of tobacco. (Considering that the weight of a dried tobacco leaf can vary from eight tenths of a gram to one and a half grams, and up to thirty-three usable leaves can form on a tobacco plant per season).

The period from planting seedlings in the ground to the moment of harvesting is 135 days, makhorka - up to 80 days. Forcing seedlings takes up to 45 days. Usually, there are four tenths of a gram of seed per square meter of field, and about seven tenths of a meter of greenhouses or greenhouses per hundredth of a hectare. Just such an area gives up to nine hundred plants.

How to grow tobacco seedlings at home

You can grow tobacco and makhorka seedlings at home, this is usually done in flower pots or wooden boxes.

Before sowing, the seeds must be soaked in water. The soaking process takes only a day, while the temperature in the room should not drop below twenty-five degrees. The warmth in the room will catalyze the seed ripening process, which will shorten the seedling period and increase the tobacco / makhorka population.

As a rule, you need to take about three milliliters of solution per gram of seeds.

After a day, the seeds are washed, dried and laid out in several layers in a special container.

When germinating, the seeds should be covered with damp gauze or cloth from above and left either in a thermostat or in a constantly ventilated and consecrated room.

A bit of the process of planting seedlings.

Sprouted seeds are evenly distributed over the surface of the soil, slightly pressing them into it, then moisten the soil with a spray bottle.

One square meter of the greenhouse area contains thirteen hundredths of a cubic meter of nutrient mixture, which includes two hundredths of a cubic meter: humus - 50%, earth and sand - 25% each.

The middle nutrient layer can be up to ten centimeters long. The optimal sowing periods are considered to be the third decade of February and the first decade of March.

Sowing raw materials are used in the following proportions:

• one bucket accounts for up to four grams of tobacco (makhorka - up to twenty grams).

Tobacco seeds are planted at a depth of up to five tenths of a centimeter, tobacco seeds - up to eight tenths. Before and after planting seeds, it is customary to irrigate, where one liter of water falls on one square meter of land.

After sowing has been carried out, it is very important to ensure that the moisture level in the soil does not drop... The seed growth process is divided into specific phases:

1. Phase "Cross"
   This phase requires a liter of water per square meter per day;
2. "Ears"
   There are three to five liters of water per square meter.

Also, each phase requires maintaining its own special temperature regime. For example, until the "cross" phase from sowing in the greenhouse, the temperature should be at 23-25 ​​degrees, in the next - 20 degrees Celsius.

Top dressing of tobacco seeds

In the process of growing tobacco at home, like other plants, tobacco and makhorka require mandatory feeding. So during growing, seedlings should be sprinkled up to four times and fertilized.

As a top dressing, a mineral fertilizer solution is usually used, which is prepared in the following proportions: ten liters of water, thirty grams of ammonia nitrate, up to sixty grams of superphosphate and either twenty grams of potassium sulfate, or twenty grams of forty percent potassium salt.

Tools:

• For feeding, experienced gardeners use a watering can with a special nozzle, the holes of which are a quarter of a centimeter in diameter. There are about ten liters of water per four square meters of the nursery.

Fertilizers:

• Infused chicken droppings are good organic fertilizers. To prepare it, put a kilogram of droppings in a ten-liter container of water and leave to infuse for ten days. Remember to stir occasionally. At the end of the period, the mixture will ferment and the resulting "result" can be filtered. Add water to the strained litter solution: one part of the solution is five parts of water.

A week before planting, the seedlings need to be hardened by reducing the number of water supplies, a couple of days before planting the seedlings, the water supply should be stopped altogether. Such a procedure will help you to increase the resistance of plants to unfavorable external factors, will give immunity to growing in the ground in the open air.

Well seasoned seedlings do not break even when the stem is screwed onto the finger.

Water the seedlings generously a few hours before hauling. It is usually chosen individually, thereby reducing the risk of sampling diseased or not yet fully developed plants.

Basically, plants are suitable for planting, reaching a height of fourteen to sixteen centimeters, with a stem thickness of up to three to five hundredths of a centimeter and with at least five leaves.

Planting tobacco in the ground

Planting in the ground is carried out at the most favorable temperature and the plants are planted at least ten centimeters in depth.

Tobacco planting starts on April 20th and ends on May 25th.... during strong thaws, when the risk of frost has passed completely.

The ideal planting density of tobacco is 70 by 30 centimeters, makhorka - 70 to 20. When planting seedlings along the drawn furrow, the holes are usually placed at a distance of at least thirty centimeters from each other for tobacco, and twenty for makhorka. After landing, half a liter of water is poured into the holes.

Remember: seedlings must be laid out along the furrow, turning the leaves to the left of the planter.

The planter positions the body so that he can deepen the hole with his left hand, and plant the plant with his right hand and cover its roots with earth, if you plant more than a hundred square meters, it will be much faster, I have already gotten used to it with a friend.

To help the plants adapt to the new environment and increase their growth, the roots of the seedlings can be dipped in mullein solution. It is prepared from cow dung and an appropriate amount of clay. The excess solution is shaken off from the roots, and the roots themselves are sprinkled with humus mixed with superphosphate. (1: 4)

In order for the plant to grow successfully, do not forget to regularly loosen the ground, remove weeds, water the plant and treat against parasites and diseases.

As soon as the tobacco (or makhorka) blooms, break off the top inflorescences and side shoots.

Watering the plant is done depending on the humidity. Typically, one plant has six to eight liters of water.

Diseases and Difficulties in the Growth Process of Tobacco

There are several main diseases that should be actively combated:

Peronosporosis. A solution of 0.3 percent polycarbacin or 0.4% zineb suspension is usually used against it. Five liters of such funds are sprayed on one hundredth of a hectare of land;

Aphid. When fighting aphids, experienced gardeners usually use actelik or rogor. The first of them is added 20-10 grams per ten-liter container, for the second 10-20 grams for the same amount of water. When aphids appear, the plants are sprayed with actelik (20-30 g per 10 l of water) or rogor (10-20 g per 10 l of water).

Harvesting and drying of the tobacco crop

The collection of tobacco leaves begins from the lower tiers of the plant, focusing on the degree of their leaves, yellowing, distributing the collection into five or six steps.

Tobacco leaves should not be removed in an unripe or overripe state, nor should they be picked when wet. The collected leaves are spread in layers thirty centimeters thick and folded in the shade. After about twelve hours, the dried leaves are attached to cords and suspended from a drying facility. Naturally, do not forget that the leaves will not dry out either in the rain or in a strong wind.

Sun drying should not last more than seventeen hours. By the way, it is after it that we get the final raw material for the product.

In cloudy weather, the raw material dries up slowly, acquiring a darkish color.

The dried tobacco must be removed carefully so that it does not crumble. Lows with tobacco leaves are folded in four and fastened to a cord in bundles of six laces. (such a set is low with tobacco will be called a havanka). Havanka, as usual. They are hung on poles in a special storage room and left until autumn. Then, in the fall, the tobacco leaves are removed, smoothed and packaged.

Fermented tobacco is suitable for making cigarettes. In addition, this very fermentation can be done at home.

Approximate fermentation algorithm:

1. Fold the tobacco into a container and heat it for several days at temperatures up to fifty degrees Celsius, while the air humidity should be kept within sixty to sixty percent;
2. After the expiration of the period, the humidity of the air must be increased to seventy-five percent (the temperature remains unchanged) and the raw materials must be left to infuse for five days;
3. Gradually lower the air temperature over forty-eight hours and at the same time increase the air humidity to eight ten percent;
4. Cooling tobacco to twenty-twenty-five degrees and reducing humidity to eleven percent. The tobacco cooling process lasts up to three days, after which the raw material is allowed to rest for a little less than a month.

Tobacco cutting is carried out with fibers, the width of which reaches five to seven tenths of a millimeter. Cigarettes are usually eighty-five millimeters long and eight millimeters in diameter. One cigarette accounts for eight tenths of a gram to one gram.

High quality cigarettes are usually made by mixing different tobacco varieties.

The sale of tobacco is not a priori problem, since due to the widespread use of cigarettes, the tobacco business is a profitable business.

How much tobacco is enough for a smoker for a year

I plant seedlings with a margin of 200-220 bushes, usually about 10% does not emerge and dies (a lot depends on what, but mainly on seeds and climatic whims), I usually plant Burleigh and Virginia 30% by 70%. I agree with the author of the video, hundreds are quite enough.

I will definitely write about the seeds, a couple of subtleties.

For a season, about 150-200 bushes of tobacco (less than 1 hundred square meters) are enough even for an inveterate smoker.

Who grows the most

Cultivation of tobacco is carried out in the most unexpected corners of the world due to its high adaptability to various conditions of existence.
The appearance of tobacco depends on the environmental conditions in which it lives. Nicotiana tobacum began its commercial production in Virginia in the early 17th century.

Subsequently, it turns out that it is the climatic conditions of the southeastern United States that are ideal for growing tobacco.

Today, it is the United States that is one of the largest producers and exporters of tobacco around the world.

The first place among manufacturers of tobacco products is China, which itself consumes a significant part of its own crop. Tobacco is also actively grown in India and Brazil.

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 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 zoned in 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 option. So, take care of the nutrient layer, consisting of humus and sand in a ratio of 3: 4. Cover 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 particular 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 perching (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 crossbars.

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

It is not difficult to grow tobacco or makhorka; these crops have no more secrets than vegetables. True, you will have to tinker with the post-harvest processing of tobacco - fermentation to make it aromatic. But this is no more difficult than canning cucumbers. If you smoke, boldly follow the path of the ancient Indians, from whose "personal plots" tobacco came to us.

If makhorka grows everywhere: from the south of Russia to the Arctic, then tobacco is more thermophilic. He succeeds well south of 55 ° north latitude, approximately this line passes through Ryazan, Smolensk, Ulyanovsk, Ufa, Chelyabinsk, Kurgan, Omsk, Novosibirsk, Kemerovo.

Tobacco varieties for cultivation

It is better to choose zoned varieties.So, Trapezond Kubanets and Trapezond 162 are recommended along with the North Caucasian for the West Siberian region. Sigarny 17 and Bryansky 91 are considered the best for the Central, and Trapezond 15 - for the Central Black Earth Region. Most varieties have been created and zoned for the North Caucasus, where tobacco is a traditional culture.

On a personal plot, I advise you to plant Trapezond 15 and Trapezond Kubanets. They ripen in 100 days, a month earlier than many other varieties. Plastic - quickly adapt to different climatic conditions, while maintaining good smoking properties.

Beds and tobacco seeds

The average smoker smokes up to 8 kg of tobacco per year. Based on this, we will determine the planting area so as not to look at the tobacco kiosk for a whole year.

Under favorable conditions, about 30 g of smoking tobacco can be obtained from one plant, and six to seven plants can be placed per 1 square meter. The planting density of large-leaved varieties is 70 x 30 cm, and the planting density of medium-sized tobacco and makhorka is 70 x 20 cm.It turns out that you need to grow 270-300 plants, occupying about 40 square meters. m. plot.

The seeds of the crops in question are as small as dust. In one gram there are about 12.5 thousand pieces of tobacco seeds, makhorka - 4 thousand pieces. 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.

Sowing and planting tobacco

Tobacco and makhorka are grown through seedlings, with or without a pick. The seedlings are 40-45 days old. It works well in a greenhouse, greenhouse, on a sunlit windowsill in a room - in a flower pot or wooden box, where nutrient soil is poured with a layer of 8-10 cm.

It is easier to sow dry seeds, but better to sow seeds. In this case, 4-5 days before sowing, the seeds in a cloth should be soaked in warm clean water, you can add a few drops of tartaric acid or a few crystals of potassium nitrate to it. The soaking time is 24 hours. This accelerates the germination of seeds, reduces the time for forcing seedlings by 5-7 days. It develops better, the yield increases.

Then rinse the seeds, remove excess water and put on germination in an enamel or earthenware dish in a warm place, and it is better not to cover. Moisten the rag periodically. Usually on the 3-4th day the seeds are pecked: white "dots" appear. A sprout longer than the seed should not be allowed to form: such sprouts break off easily. When two-thirds of the seeds are nibbled, they must be dried to flowability, mixed with well-disinfected fine sand or crushed humus. If germinated seeds cannot be sown immediately, then they can be stored for a day or two at a temperature of plus 1-2 ° in the refrigerator.

Important! The seeding depth is no more than 0.3-0.5 cm for tobacco, 0.7-0.8 cm for tobacco. Sprinkle the seeds with humus and sand (3: 1). Water the soil before and after sowing through a thick strainer.

Watering small-seeded crops is a delicate matter. It is impossible to overmoisten, as well as overdry the seedlings. It is best to water a little, almost daily. Before the “cross” phase (cotyledons and two true leaves growing across) usually consume only 0.5 liters of water per sowing box; keep crops where it is warmer + 23 + 25 °. Then it is desirable to lower the temperature to 20 °, and double the watering until the “ears” phase (3-4 true leaves usually stick up). It is better to dive seedlings in the "ears" stage.

Sprinkle the seedlings with fertile soil two or three times and feed them with a solution of mineral fertilizers (for 10 liters of water, 30 g of ammonium nitrate, 20 g of sulphate or potassium chloride). You can use an infusion of chicken manure: pour 1 kg into 10 liters of water, leave for 10-12 days for fermentation, stir from time to time. Strain the fermented mass and add 4-5 parts of water to 1 part of the liquid.

Seedlings are planted with a height of 14-16 cm, having 5-6 developed leaves, not counting the cotyledons, a stem 0.3-0.5 cm thick and a well-developed root system.

Seedlings should be hardened 7-8 days before planting, reducing watering and accustoming them to open air. 2-3 days before planting, watering not dived seedlings completely stop. Water the seedlings abundantly 2-3 hours before planting.

They start planting in the ground when the danger of spring frosts has passed, and the soil temperature at a depth of 10 cm rises to 10 °, from about April 20 to May 25. Make holes along the prepared furrow, pour 0.5 liters of water into them and spread the seedlings. With your right hand, deepen the hole with a peg, place the seedlings vertically into it with your left hand, press the moist soil to the roots, and sprinkle dry soil on top so that the moisture evaporates less. It makes sense to plant extended seedlings deeper - additional roots will grow.

During the growing season, regularly loosen the ground, remove weeds, feed and water. You can feed based on the fertilization rates of tomatoes. Usually they are limited to two or three waterings per summer, spending 6-8 liters of water per plant. It itself will tell you: if the leaves have wilted a little, watering is needed. But it is better to underwater than overmoisten.

In flowering plants, break off the inflorescences (vershoking) and regularly remove the lateral shoots (pinching).

S. Cherkasov, candidate of agricultural sciences. The magazine "Household economy".

Tobacco growing, video

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 Transcaucasus, 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. therefore 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.

Tobacco

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 maturation. 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 as small as 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, 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. The peach aphid colonizes 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 up, 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 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 feel soft, but not soggy. Then the leaves, either whole or cut, are concealed 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!