Hello From Central Kentucky

[bbfarmky]

Evening y'all,

Married, retired USAF Veteran, father of three, and grandfather of three. Run a small market farm with mixed vegetables, small fruits, and honeybees.

Smoked cigarettes for 32 years and am now trying to transition to a pipe without cigarettes. The past few months of pipe tobacco education has sparked an interest in growing my own. I am told this is the place to be for good intel on that subject.

Look forward to learning and sharing if I learn enough.

 

[Alpine]

Welcome to FTT

pier

 

[jclif43]

Welcome!

 

[Wombat_smokes]

Welcome to the Forum. Best wishes as you choose your varieties. Remember, Whole Leaf Tobacco is a great resource to sample different categories of plants while practicing what to do with your finished crop.

 

[WillQuantrill]

Welcome to FTT! Lots of reference material here to help accelerate your hobby and bypass commonly made mistakes from growing to finishing. While I only dabble with pipe blending Im sure you will find that it is much more enjoyable to make blends tailored to your pallet without all of the BS found in those sold commercially.

 

[deluxestogie]

Welcome to the forum. You may wish to scan through the topics in our Index of Key Forum Threads, linked in the menu bar. Now is a good time of year to select what tobacco varieties you will grow in 2027, and to purchase the seed, since germination will start for you in late march (~8 weeks prior to last frost date).

Northwest Seed is a reliable source of specific varieties of tobacco.

Bob

 

[GreenDragon]

Welcome! We have a lot of fun here. Tons of resources and friends to get you started and be successful.

 

[vktr]

Yeah come fly with us

 

[deluxestogie]

How many plants were you thinking of growing for 2027?

Bob

 

[bbfarmky]

How many plants were you thinking of growing for 2027?

Bob

Have a popcorn patch I grow that is 100' x 32'. Planning on dedicating the two outside rows to tobacco (I don't really need 300-500 lbs+- of popcorn anyway) so there is roughly 64 spots available assuming 36" plant spacing.

Now, what to put in those spots is an entirely different question. Definitely want a good VA and Burley and they are going to have to be air or sun cured. No infrastructure for anything else at the moment. I am also interested in trying a few N. Rustica plants just to play around with. I have plenty of row cover around to make seed head bags.

I'm all ears...(while I guess eyes in this format) if anyone has specific recommendations as a starting point. I perused around a lot here yesterday reading some of that discussion specifically.

 

[deluxestogie]

• Virginia Bright Leaf (assumed sun-cured) spaced at 24 to 36"
• TN 86 or TN 90 burley (shade-cured) spaced at 24 to 36" [I have become fond of the lovely Canadian burley variety, Harrow Velvet.]
• Basma [Oriental] (sun-cured) spaced at 9"

This will give you a nice start for pipe blending.

From any or all of these, you can also cook them into Cavendish, or ferment into Perique.

Bob

 

[johnny108]

I would add a few Little Dutch plants to any grow designed for pipe smoking tobacco.

 

[bbfarmky]

Created the attached list to grow for 2027.

I have plenty of experience growing but none with tobacco specifically.

Does this look like too much for a noobie to bite off?
200' (100' x 2) of planned row space; any variety distribution rates suggested between those varieties? (they will be used mostly for pipe blending but may sneak a percentage to play with cigarette blends)

 

[deluxestogie]

Unlike growing veggies, growing multiple varieties of tobacco will require careful labeling of the starts, the transplants and the harvests, in order to keep it all straight—from seed packet to tobacco blending. If that sounds fine to you, then it's just a matter of a lot of work that tends to be considerably grubbier than for most veggies. I always suggest growing at least 4 of each variety, so that you can more easily spot abnormal ones (or mix-ups).

Bob

 

[bbfarmky]

Unlike growing veggies, growing multiple varieties of tobacco will require careful labeling of the starts, the transplants and the harvests, in order to keep it all straight—from seed packet to tobacco blending. If that sounds fine to you, then it's just a matter of a lot of work that tends to be considerably grubbier than for most veggies. I always suggest growing at least 4 of each variety, so that you can more easily spot abnormal ones (or mix-ups).

Bob

Thank you and yes. There will be concise labeling and definitely more than 4 more each one.

 

[Wombat_smokes]

That's a good list. I chose 20 varieties for my first growing season. 3 VA/Brightleaf, 11 Orientals, 2. Burley, 4 air cured.

NO REGRETS

 

[StoneCarver]

I don't think its too many varieties for anyone at any experience level to grow. However, ime keeping things labeled accurately can be a challenge. A label fell off of one of my boxes of tobacco and I didn't notice. That box got mixed up with I don't know which other varieties. I later found the tag on the floor after it was all too late. Now at least half of the varieties I grew this year could be mixed up and I have no way of correcting it. I only grew 6 varieties. So, I recommend being fierce in regards to keeping things labeled and organized if it matters to you. I was forced into not caring this year because one label fell off. Next year, I'll be more careful with the labels.

 

[bohdan.zaremba]

Created the attached list to grow for 2027.

I have plenty of experience growing but none with tobacco specifically.

Does this look like too much for a noobie to bite off?
200' (100' x 2) of planned row space; any variety distribution rates suggested between those varieties? (they will be used mostly for pipe blending but may sneak a percentage to play with cigarette blends)

View attachment 61157

First time grower here. Grew 11 varieties (28 plants total) this season. Making sure everything is labeled correctly was probably the most tedious part, otherwise no issues.

I labeled each individual leaf by attaching the label through the leaf stem using a thin nylon thread. I also recommend using a pen/marker to write on one side of the label, and using a pencil on the other side, in case the first side smudges from humidity.