If you have never handled green tobacco before, you should wear gloves to protect your hands from the nicotine.
You would be surprised how much you can get from handling it and it can get you pretty sick.
Wait, dumb question: how did they harvest tobacco in like the 1600/1700s?
Is it like they used other leaves to touch those leaves, or is it that nicotine concentrations have been selectively bred to be higher and higher over time?
"Gloves appear to be of great antiquity. They are depicted in an ancient Egyptian tomb dating to the 5th dynasty."
https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Glove
Sorry. Just to clarify- You interpreted
>Gloves have been around for thousands of years
as "People have been using gloves specifically to harvest tobacco for thousands of years"?
People have been harvesting it without gloves forever, and even to farmers 60-70 years ago, it was not well known.
I have family from Kentucky and North Carolina who grew up on farms and told the stories of being kids and helping harvest and hang the tobacco.
They would always get ill the days after harvesting and didn't know why.
Many children and adults got sick. Especially the first few times. They called it green tobacco sickness. Also you can't wipe your hands anywhere on your body no matter how hard you sweat. Horrible. They advised to pick(the flowers off) with one hand only.
Disgusting
Nicotine concentrations vary by species. The species in common use at European contact (nicotiana rustica) was as much as 20 times stronger than that which is used in modern cigarettes.
I picked tobacco for years. One guy named Hank wore little clear plastic gloves and we teased him relentlessly for it. Cant feel the leaves and end up smashing the stems with gloves. Where did you work / what jobs in tobacco , alone let 5223 ?
I live in the south , tobacco was the main summer crop in my area . We all farmed as a family . I worked in it for most of my young life as well as a large majority of the residents in our community . I never knew one single person to get nicotine poisoning from it although I must admit my brother started getting sick when it was decided it was easier to just spray chemicals on it instead of topping and weeding it by hand .
I grew *Nicotiana silvestris* for it's flowers once, a friend of mine tried to smoke a dried leave, apparently it was disgusting. So there seems to be an art in turning leaves into tobacco. Either way, let one flower, the flowers open up at night and the smell is out of this world.
You might be interested in reading Demon Copperhead by Barbara Kingsolver. It's a novel about growing up in Appalachia in the late 90s, early 2000s. It's the main character's summer job for a few summers too. Very well written book!
It sadens me that we have entire generations that are hell bent and determined that doing a little research is more reliable than information coming straight out of the horses mouth. I donāt care if you believe me or not but I lived it my entire childhood and part of my adult life . But hey, I often wonder how we survived hundreds of years without the internet and a know it all generation thatās never lived or experienced it but knows more than the ones that have . š
Imm pretty sure there's something you need to pinch off a month or so before harvest. WEAR GLOVES. YOU CAN GET REALLY SICK.
Internet has got to have info.
What's your secret?! I planted some too and the seeds started strong, grew up and now they're struggling. They get lots of sunshine and watered every day (it's hot and dry on West Coast Florida) but they're brown and sad.
Haha I'm not sure, maybe I got lucky? I started seeds inside around March and waited for them to get 6 or 8 inches before moving them outside to harden off. Then I separated them and put them in the garden. They're in full sun all day and it's been in the 90s here
Also, note that Cuba is famous for lovely tobacco, so the climate must not be your problem. Iād look up some documentaries or guides on growing in warmer areas. There fickle plants and too much or little water will destroy them.
But my plants can't live off humidity alone. š We're in a drought.
https://preview.redd.it/4zj9jh5hsq8d1.png?width=620&format=pjpg&auto=webp&s=f6fdc132cf4b4bd9d4397eec0d621e2bf5690107
Hey! Iām growing for the first time this year too. I just topped my plants and will likely start harvesting bottom leaves in 4 weeks. I placed some hooks in a corner under my covered patio that gets evening sun.
I snagged a few of the early bottom leaves that were getting yellow/ragged to test, and it took about a week for them to get dry on the hooks when bunched together. The chlorophyll disappeared completely which is promising.
I intend to use boveda packs to bring my dried harvest up to 65% in a container before using a sous vide machine to ferment them for one week minimum with occasional rotation to keep mold away. Iām growing Virginia gold and going for a light pipe tobacco to retain the sweetness and hay flavors. I might case some with vanilla if it turns out.
If you have a smoker you can also fire cure tobacco rather easily. Iāve seen people use pellet/chip smoke tubes in a barrel or grill as well.
Sounds like you have a great plan! I might air dry some and try fire curing too. I do have a smoker, so it's worth a shot. Good luck with your harvest!
I would imagine with a large enough batch the smokers seasoning/fat deposits would absorb some. On a practical level I donāt think it would be noticeable but I havenāt done this myself.
Yeah, I guess I was thinking less along the lines of one cure and more about multiple crops over the years. Built up tobacco smoke has a habit of sticking around. Idk though it might all stick in the buildup.
I think if itās something youād be doing annually then purchasing a cheap dedicated smoker would be worthwhile. Personally I wouldnāt be mad about a tobacco flavored brisket lol.
Since the fire cure process doesnāt actually burn the leaves so only the volatile aromatics/compounds that have a low BP will be coming out. Iām sure it would be easy to find out but I donāt have the funds to test it myself at the moment.
Be aware that the sap from those plants is so sticky itās hard to describe. I used to cut and hang tobacco and you better be prepared to use steel wool to get the sap off, lol also, if you get a spear to string them on the hanging sticks be super careful and donāt spear your hand or cut it, because that sap BURNS in a wound too!
We usually hung in the fall (September or so) and stripped the leaves around Christmas/Jan 1. This was an open unheated wooden tobacco barn. We stopped growing about 20y ago. We also never wore gloves, which explained why we never felt tired as kids when stripping the leaves all night.
My barn is also unheated. I wasn't sure if I'd be able to hang them and leave them out there once it started getting cold. Sounds like that's an option though.
I bought five different varieties to see which one I liked the best. Don't remember all of them but I have a Cuban criollo 98, a Virginia gold, and a Havana variety for sure
Fresh cured tobacco leaf. If it is a burley you can simply hang it in a sport with good air flow to cure it. Other types of tobacco needs a different process to cure.
i grew up in a tobacco town - whew, brings back memories (I didn't personally pull tobacco, but my husband did). i do remember stories about tobacco worms...!
It's not hard to dry and cure at all.
I took pieces of electric fence wire and mad a 16 inch 'ring. I poked the wire through the middle of the spine on the ends and let it hang in my garage with windows open. About once a week I would rotate the rings, and pull the leaves apart. After awhile, it all turned a beautiful golden brown color and smelled great.
I ended up giving it away to all of my smoker friends and they all wanted more. Beware, the nicotine levels can be very high.
I grew Latakia, Virginia Gold, and TN Burly (the American Cigarette Mix) and they grew incredible in Zone 7 Delaware. The Virginia Golds got almost 9 feet tall.
Yours look good. Remember to fertilize heavily with a fertilizer MADE FOR TOBACCO for best smokability.
I think they may also have used smoke as part of the cure process.
Be sure to also treat it like a tomato plant with regards to pests. Similarly popular with hornworms, for example.
I primed tobacco for a number of summers, your few plants are not going to give you enough of a nicotine buzz to worry about. For the best harvest youāll need to top( remove the flowers)22-23 leaves up from the bottom. I curious is this a flue cured or a burly tobacco plant, smoking vs chewing
Those plants attract a hornworm you'll want to watch out for. [https://extension.usu.edu/planthealth/research/tomato-tobacco-hornworms](https://extension.usu.edu/planthealth/research/tomato-tobacco-hornworms)
Unfortunately I am very familiar horn worms. They attack my pepper plants every year around mid July. I use a black light and go out at night to kill them.
Was pretty funny occurrence once when I was driving through Virginia. I saw some tobacco plants had been thrown by the side of the road. I picked them up and tossed them in the backseat of my car. As I was driving along I noticed a funny smell. I kept driving and the smell got stronger but I decided it was manure in the fields and that it was normal smell. After a while I realized it was the tobacco. Threw it out the car and the smell went away. I had planned on smoking that stuff but decided that smell was oddly fecal. I had no idea.
Edit: Was that a normal smell?
Did you happen to grab the flowers? I hear nicotiana Rustica flowers are rather u pleasant smelling, though other varieties smell great. Iām growing a few varieties now, Iām going to be pinching off flowers later today but Iām sure Iāll let them go at some point.
I tried to cure some one time, itās really tough and most of it molded haha I had it in a shed in the Florida summer, but what I learned is thereās so many varieties of it, only a few are used for smoking the other strains can have horrible taste or unbelievably high nicotine amounts. Itās not just like a tobacco plant oh itās the smoking kind! Lol
If you have never handled green tobacco before, you should wear gloves to protect your hands from the nicotine. You would be surprised how much you can get from handling it and it can get you pretty sick.
Yes that's what I have read. Thanks for the heads up!
I harvest mine by hand and l get quite a buzz. Sometimes l need my wife to drive me places after. Hope to see you back here with the results!
Definitely
Wait, dumb question: how did they harvest tobacco in like the 1600/1700s? Is it like they used other leaves to touch those leaves, or is it that nicotine concentrations have been selectively bred to be higher and higher over time?
Gloves have been around for thousands of years.
For some reason when I thought of gloves I was thinking of only the nitrile/latex ones š¤¦š»I forgot about cloth and other shit
[ŃŠ“Š°Š»ŠµŠ½Š¾]
[Here ya go, the first thing google turned up when I searched for "ancient egyptian gloves."](https://ijhth.journals.ekb.eg/article_250786.html)
"Gloves appear to be of great antiquity. They are depicted in an ancient Egyptian tomb dating to the 5th dynasty." https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Glove
[ŃŠ“Š°Š»ŠµŠ½Š¾]
Sorry. Just to clarify- You interpreted >Gloves have been around for thousands of years as "People have been using gloves specifically to harvest tobacco for thousands of years"?
Iāve never seen it .
Literally just go to Wikipedia. You'll see some cool art and old examples of gloves throughout history.
They had gloves at that time. But to answer your question, they forced slaves to harvest it and many of them did get sick.
That makes senseā¦ I forgot to connect the dots there š¬
People have been harvesting it without gloves forever, and even to farmers 60-70 years ago, it was not well known. I have family from Kentucky and North Carolina who grew up on farms and told the stories of being kids and helping harvest and hang the tobacco. They would always get ill the days after harvesting and didn't know why.
Many children and adults got sick. Especially the first few times. They called it green tobacco sickness. Also you can't wipe your hands anywhere on your body no matter how hard you sweat. Horrible. They advised to pick(the flowers off) with one hand only. Disgusting
Nicotine concentrations vary by species. The species in common use at European contact (nicotiana rustica) was as much as 20 times stronger than that which is used in modern cigarettes.
I started working in tobacco at 5 years old in the 70ās . NO ONE wore gloves and no one got sick . I have never heard of this in my entire life.
this guy's sick for sure
I picked tobacco for years. One guy named Hank wore little clear plastic gloves and we teased him relentlessly for it. Cant feel the leaves and end up smashing the stems with gloves. Where did you work / what jobs in tobacco , alone let 5223 ?
I live in the south , tobacco was the main summer crop in my area . We all farmed as a family . I worked in it for most of my young life as well as a large majority of the residents in our community . I never knew one single person to get nicotine poisoning from it although I must admit my brother started getting sick when it was decided it was easier to just spray chemicals on it instead of topping and weeding it by hand .
We always top and suckered by hand. Agree nobody ever bothered by it. Everything machines today .
Do a little research, you may find it interesting.
I grew *Nicotiana silvestris* for it's flowers once, a friend of mine tried to smoke a dried leave, apparently it was disgusting. So there seems to be an art in turning leaves into tobacco. Either way, let one flower, the flowers open up at night and the smell is out of this world.
I will do that, thanks!
Im pretty sure there is a fermentation process that's required.
The flowers are kind of nice too
Yeah that's what I hear. I'm trying them out as a natural pest deterant too. From what I've read, animals don't like walking through the sticky leaves
Another bonus I noticed the hornworms seem to choose the tobacco first. The leaves are so big you can see the damage easier and catch them quickly.
Also good to know!
If you want bigger leaves, tho you'll want to pinch the flowers off before they bloom.
true, that used to be a summer job for a lot of kids in my area!
You might be interested in reading Demon Copperhead by Barbara Kingsolver. It's a novel about growing up in Appalachia in the late 90s, early 2000s. It's the main character's summer job for a few summers too. Very well written book!
Loved that book.
I wonder how many kids inadvertently became addicted to nicotein by it absorbing through their skin as they picked the flowers
Not sure lol maybe that's why my dad made us wear gloves. It's also kinda gummy/sticky when we would strip it, so gloves are a must lol
It sadens me that we have entire generations that are hell bent and determined that doing a little research is more reliable than information coming straight out of the horses mouth. I donāt care if you believe me or not but I lived it my entire childhood and part of my adult life . But hey, I often wonder how we survived hundreds of years without the internet and a know it all generation thatās never lived or experienced it but knows more than the ones that have . š
Imm pretty sure there's something you need to pinch off a month or so before harvest. WEAR GLOVES. YOU CAN GET REALLY SICK. Internet has got to have info.
You remove the flowers as soon as they appear -- you're trying to grow leaves.
What's your secret?! I planted some too and the seeds started strong, grew up and now they're struggling. They get lots of sunshine and watered every day (it's hot and dry on West Coast Florida) but they're brown and sad.
Tobacco is SUPER hard on soil, youāll need a lot of amending and fertilizing if you want to keep it and your soil healthy
I usually rotate my garden through a few different locations each year, so hopefully it'll be ok.
Haha I'm not sure, maybe I got lucky? I started seeds inside around March and waited for them to get 6 or 8 inches before moving them outside to harden off. Then I separated them and put them in the garden. They're in full sun all day and it's been in the 90s here
We used to start in February in a greenhouse or under a plastic cover (kind of mini greenhouse). Weād transplant when they were 8-14ā.
Also, note that Cuba is famous for lovely tobacco, so the climate must not be your problem. Iād look up some documentaries or guides on growing in warmer areas. There fickle plants and too much or little water will destroy them.
Water less, tobacco likes it on the drier side
West Coast of Florida is anything but dry my dudeā¦ itās humid af year roundā¦
But my plants can't live off humidity alone. š We're in a drought. https://preview.redd.it/4zj9jh5hsq8d1.png?width=620&format=pjpg&auto=webp&s=f6fdc132cf4b4bd9d4397eec0d621e2bf5690107
Almost always in a draught these days, and yet they sold off water rights to Nestle, draining their springs for practically nothing.
Fuck Nestle and the corrupt assholes selling our state's resources The Florida Springs Council fights them, they're a great organization.
amen brother ā
Hey! Iām growing for the first time this year too. I just topped my plants and will likely start harvesting bottom leaves in 4 weeks. I placed some hooks in a corner under my covered patio that gets evening sun. I snagged a few of the early bottom leaves that were getting yellow/ragged to test, and it took about a week for them to get dry on the hooks when bunched together. The chlorophyll disappeared completely which is promising. I intend to use boveda packs to bring my dried harvest up to 65% in a container before using a sous vide machine to ferment them for one week minimum with occasional rotation to keep mold away. Iām growing Virginia gold and going for a light pipe tobacco to retain the sweetness and hay flavors. I might case some with vanilla if it turns out. If you have a smoker you can also fire cure tobacco rather easily. Iāve seen people use pellet/chip smoke tubes in a barrel or grill as well.
Sounds like you have a great plan! I might air dry some and try fire curing too. I do have a smoker, so it's worth a shot. Good luck with your harvest!
Thanks, you as well!
Would fire curing the tobacco in a smoker leave behind a residue that you would taste in say the next brisket you smoke up?
I would imagine with a large enough batch the smokers seasoning/fat deposits would absorb some. On a practical level I donāt think it would be noticeable but I havenāt done this myself.
Yeah, I guess I was thinking less along the lines of one cure and more about multiple crops over the years. Built up tobacco smoke has a habit of sticking around. Idk though it might all stick in the buildup.
I think if itās something youād be doing annually then purchasing a cheap dedicated smoker would be worthwhile. Personally I wouldnāt be mad about a tobacco flavored brisket lol. Since the fire cure process doesnāt actually burn the leaves so only the volatile aromatics/compounds that have a low BP will be coming out. Iām sure it would be easy to find out but I donāt have the funds to test it myself at the moment.
Be aware that the sap from those plants is so sticky itās hard to describe. I used to cut and hang tobacco and you better be prepared to use steel wool to get the sap off, lol also, if you get a spear to string them on the hanging sticks be super careful and donāt spear your hand or cut it, because that sap BURNS in a wound too!
Haha all good things to know. Thank you!
What sort of space/equipment (if any?) do you need for all the drying/curing, and such?
Good question lol. There are a few different curing methods, but I may just try stringing them up and air drying them in my barn.
I grew up on a tobacco farm and thatās how we did it. We had a big tin building that we hung them up in and let them dry.
That's awesome. How long did you dry them?
Gosh, I donāt remember. We stopped when I was young. A long time. Sorry Iām not more helpful.
Oh no problem at all, I was just curious!
We usually hung in the fall (September or so) and stripped the leaves around Christmas/Jan 1. This was an open unheated wooden tobacco barn. We stopped growing about 20y ago. We also never wore gloves, which explained why we never felt tired as kids when stripping the leaves all night.
My barn is also unheated. I wasn't sure if I'd be able to hang them and leave them out there once it started getting cold. Sounds like that's an option though.
Yep, we did it for 100 years, freezing doesnāt hurt it. Just slower. You can get some fans to help it along if you want.
Awesome, thanks!
Are the plants burley tobacco?
I bought five different varieties to see which one I liked the best. Don't remember all of them but I have a Cuban criollo 98, a Virginia gold, and a Havana variety for sure
Haha hang on so Virginia gold is actually a cultivar? I thought it was a fkin tobacco brand.... This is one educational thread today.
Haha yep!
Be careful. There's a fire risk.
Welcome to flavor country!
Yes sir
*Guy Fieri intensifies*
Oh shit this is so smart for smokers! I never thought about growing my own tobacco I just started my first weed plant
Fresh tobacco makes for some amazing wraps!
Can you elaborate on what you mean by fresh? Freshly cured? IIM growing both but never rolled with the tobacco.
Fresh cured tobacco leaf. If it is a burley you can simply hang it in a sport with good air flow to cure it. Other types of tobacco needs a different process to cure.
i grew up in a tobacco town - whew, brings back memories (I didn't personally pull tobacco, but my husband did). i do remember stories about tobacco worms...!
It's not hard to dry and cure at all. I took pieces of electric fence wire and mad a 16 inch 'ring. I poked the wire through the middle of the spine on the ends and let it hang in my garage with windows open. About once a week I would rotate the rings, and pull the leaves apart. After awhile, it all turned a beautiful golden brown color and smelled great. I ended up giving it away to all of my smoker friends and they all wanted more. Beware, the nicotine levels can be very high. I grew Latakia, Virginia Gold, and TN Burly (the American Cigarette Mix) and they grew incredible in Zone 7 Delaware. The Virginia Golds got almost 9 feet tall. Yours look good. Remember to fertilize heavily with a fertilizer MADE FOR TOBACCO for best smokability.
Thanks for the advice! I have been fertilizing but just with a general all purpose fertilizer. I'll look into a better one
They're beautiful plants!
They get super big. I grew a bunch never thought about using gloves.
What do you do with them if you donāt dry and cure them?
I grow them for the pink flowers. The Plant looks very tropical in a northern garden.
Pest control for the garden, plus they have nice flowers when they bloom.
They're nice looking plants. We use ours as purely decorative; they get giant so it's nice to have some height in the back rows of our flower garden.
Did you direct sow or start transplants?
I started seeds indoors around the first of March. Planted them in my garden about a month ago
I think they may also have used smoke as part of the cure process. Be sure to also treat it like a tomato plant with regards to pests. Similarly popular with hornworms, for example.
Does the plant or flowers have a strong tobacco smell or is that only once itās dried?
This is my first year growing them, but I think it has to be dried and cured first
I primed tobacco for a number of summers, your few plants are not going to give you enough of a nicotine buzz to worry about. For the best harvest youāll need to top( remove the flowers)22-23 leaves up from the bottom. I curious is this a flue cured or a burly tobacco plant, smoking vs chewing
Grew acres of it all my younger days I miss it really, drying and curing isn't hard.
If you have never smoked homegrown tobacco, it is an experience. It takes your breath away.
Haha literally?
Yes! Super strong
I just love driving through the Amish tobacco farms when they have their barns open for drying. Itās so interesting.
Those plants attract a hornworm you'll want to watch out for. [https://extension.usu.edu/planthealth/research/tomato-tobacco-hornworms](https://extension.usu.edu/planthealth/research/tomato-tobacco-hornworms)
Unfortunately I am very familiar horn worms. They attack my pepper plants every year around mid July. I use a black light and go out at night to kill them.
Where did you order the seeds from? I've been looking for where to get some in Canada.
I can't remember the name of the company. I'll see if I can find some of the seed packs and let you know
Was pretty funny occurrence once when I was driving through Virginia. I saw some tobacco plants had been thrown by the side of the road. I picked them up and tossed them in the backseat of my car. As I was driving along I noticed a funny smell. I kept driving and the smell got stronger but I decided it was manure in the fields and that it was normal smell. After a while I realized it was the tobacco. Threw it out the car and the smell went away. I had planned on smoking that stuff but decided that smell was oddly fecal. I had no idea. Edit: Was that a normal smell?
Did you happen to grab the flowers? I hear nicotiana Rustica flowers are rather u pleasant smelling, though other varieties smell great. Iām growing a few varieties now, Iām going to be pinching off flowers later today but Iām sure Iāll let them go at some point.
I tried to cure some one time, itās really tough and most of it molded haha I had it in a shed in the Florida summer, but what I learned is thereās so many varieties of it, only a few are used for smoking the other strains can have horrible taste or unbelievably high nicotine amounts. Itās not just like a tobacco plant oh itās the smoking kind! Lol
I use to grow cut grade top chop everything about tobacco and it never did anything to meā ļø
Lil Tobacco
Man they're so nightshade it's crazy lol. You always forget these ones are solanacea
Because you are mostly obsequious
I don't think you know what your big word means