Thanks for accepting me into the group: @magikk67

[magikk67]

My names Mike. I’m in central Pennsylvania. I’m an avid pipe smoker I also enjoy a good cigar.I got my first pipe at 18 so been 40 years on the pipe. Used to spend quite a bit on cigars but now mostly a special treat now and then.I look forward to learning from the group. Lots of great information here . I won’t be planting until next year so I’ll have some time to learn. I smoke alot of Virginia blends in the pipe. So that will be one thing I want to plant would also like to try rolling some cigars. I have maybe an acre that I can plow up. Only about 6 inches of topsoil then yellow clay. I’m combining two new hobbies. I just recently fixed up
An old tractor and a plow and want to put them to work. Thanks

 

[johnny108]

Welcome to the forum!

You are going to want to spend the rest of the year amending the soil- tobacco tends to struggle in clay, giving stunted growth (I have heavy clay soil, too: sand and compost is the best remedy I’ve found.)

 

[magikk67]

Welcome to the forum!

You are going to want to spend the rest of the year amending the soil- tobacco tends to struggle in clay, giving stunted growth (I have heavy clay soil, too: sand and compost is the best remedy I’ve found.)

I have a pretty good compost pile. We have chickens and have a nice pile that’s composted to nice black dirt.

 

[jclif43]

Welcome!

 

[Wombat_smokes]

Aged/composed chicken manure is great for your tobacco - high in nitrogen. I dumped my 20 chickens worth of bedding in the garden. My chickens spread it out crossed what became two 30 ft rows. My rotary tiller is able to reach a depth of 8 inches. My clay soil and "shallow" eoot depth paired with transplanting 10-13 weak old plants did stunt my Burley (Shargo), but it's 5 ft compact height (out 8 ft max potential) is still yielding large leaves. The neighboring Frog Eye Orinoco reached its maximum 5 ft height.

 

[deluxestogie]

Welcome to the forum. Read the New Growers' FAQ, linked in the menu bar. You may wish to scan through the topics in our Index of Key Forum Threads, also linked in the menu bar. Consider contacting your local Agricultural Extension Service, and sending a soil sample for testing now, so you'll have plenty of time, if soil amendments are needed.

When you begin your grow (indoor germination in March), feel free to start your own grow log in the Grow Blogs forum.

Bob

 

[WillQuantrill]

Welcome! The combination hobby of aged farm equipment and growing/finishing tobacco sounds like enough to keep a man satisfied. If I were in your geographic location I would be tempted to try my luck with Pennsylvania Broadleaf given its rich history in cigar tradition. Cool thing about small scale tobacco plots is that any soil can be amended for decent results.

 

[magikk67]

Welcome! The combination hobby of aged farm equipment and growing/finishing tobacco sounds like enough to keep a man satisfied. If I were in your geographic location I would be tempted to try my luck with Pennsylvania Broadleaf given its rich history in cigar tradition. Cool thing about small scale tobacco plots is that any soil can be amended for decent results.

Pennsylvania broad leaf is on the short list since it’s I guess a traditional Pa tobacco.

 

[WillQuantrill]

Pennsylvania broad leaf is on the short list since it’s I guess a traditional Pa tobacco.

Copyright wouldn't let me post on here but YouTube has some pretty cool videos on "Lancaster Tobacco".

 

[magikk67]

Welcome to the forum. Read the New Growers' FAQ, linked in the menu bar. You may wish to scan through the topics in our Index of Key Forum Threads, also linked in the menu bar. Consider contacting your local Agricultural Extension Service, and sending a soil sample for testing now, so you'll have plenty of time, if soil amendments are needed.

When you begin your grow (indoor germination in March), feel free to start your own grow log in the Grow Blogs

My names Mike. I’m in central Pennsylvania. I’m an avid pipe smoker I also enjoy a good cigar.I got my first pipe at 18 so been 40 years on the pipe. Used to spend quite a bit on cigars but now mostly a special treat now and then.I look forward to learning from the group. Lots of great information here . I won’t be planting until next year so I’ll have some time to learn. I smoke alot of Virginia blends in the pipe. So that will be one thing I want to plant would also like to try rolling some cigars. I have maybe an acre that I can plow up. Only about 6 inches of topsoil then yellow clay. I’m combining two new hobbies. I just recently fixed up
An old tractor and a plow and want to put them to work. Thanks

Going to be hard to decide what variety to plant. Sure are a lot of options. I’d like a Virginia burley and some cigar leaf. I will do the Pa broadleaf as suggest below. Are any easier to grow for beginners? I would thing air drying would be it for now. Although I have my shack where I make my maple syrup it has a steel roof and good ventilation and I can build a fire in the so might work to try glue cured. Do I need the smoke to hit the leaves or is it more the heat. Thanks again.

 

[magikk67]

Copyright wouldn't let me post on here but YouTube has some pretty cool videos on "Lancaster Tobacco".

I’ll check that out been watching a lot of videos and reading. This site is like a jackpot of info.

 

[johnny108]

Going to be hard to decide what variety to plant. Sure are a lot of options. I’d like a Virginia burley and some cigar leaf. I will do the Pa broadleaf as suggest below. Are any easier to grow for beginners? I would thing air drying would be it for now. Although I have my shack where I make my maple syrup it has a steel roof and good ventilation and I can build a fire in the so might work to try glue cured. Do I need the smoke to hit the leaves or is it more the heat. Thanks again.

Flue curing uses only the heat.
Fire cured uses smoke from various hardwoods, as well as some specific plants that can be hard to come by in the USA (Latakia is made this way).
For a traditional pipe smoke that’s easy to grow, I’d recommend Little Dutch- it also makes a good cigar filler, especially if you are bored with Cuban varieties.
To round out your pipe smoke, I’d say you might want to add an Oriental variety- Prilep is a high yielding with great flavor: very easy to grow.

 

[Alpine]

Welcome to FTT

pier