Hi everyone, new smoker, soon to be grower

[tempbond]

I've been smoking cigars regularly for about 2 years now and I want to try and grow my own tobacco and roll my own cigars.
I know it won't be easy, but with a bit of help from you guys, sure it'll be fun !

I already have 2 seed varieties and 5 more on the way, gonna start seeding indoors soon.

Just need some advice : is it ok to post info or ask about vendors of seeds and whole leaves or is frowned upon ?

Thanks !

By the way, I'm from south western Quebec, Canada.

 

[deluxestogie]

Welcome to the FTT forum, tempbond.

No frowns here. Post away.

I've been smoking cigars (far too many) for the past 40+ years. These have encompassed the best in the world, including whole boxes of Havanas of various brands (I lived overseas while in the military). While I won't claim that my home-grown, home-rolled cigars are the best of all of those, I will say that I'm quite happy with what I've made myself.

A kiln is a must for cigar leaf, so you'll need to look into the possibilities before next autumn. Mine (based on a Crockpot in a box) cost ~$25 to build, plus another $25 for an optional digital thermometer/hygrometer.

Learning to roll cigars, for me, required about 30 individual tries before they were consistently smokable. You can get about 5 to 8 corona-size cigars per tobacco plant, so plan accordingly.

What varieties are you planning to grow this season?

Bob

 

[Jitterbugdude]

Just need some advice : is it ok to post info or ask about vendors of seeds and whole leaves or is frowned upon ?

Thanks !

By the way, I'm from south western Quebec, Canada.

Normally it's perfectly OK to ask/post about vendors etc. but you being from Quebec... I dunno know???... all kidding aside, this is a pretty open minded forum, so ask away and post away
Randy B

 

[deluxestogie]

By the way, if you click on My Profile (upper right), you can add your location to your profile. That will allow your location to appear beneath your name in every post. Other members will then be better informed in addressing your questions.

Bob

 

[tempbond]

Thank you for your welcomes and advice. I'll edit my profile as suggested.

As for what varieties I plan on growing, I'll try every one I'm buying ! Since I'm new at this, I want to see what grows well in my neck of the woods and what flavor profile I like.

I bought these from Seedgnome.com : huge leaf tobacco and cuban tobacco (no more info than that...)

I bought these from tobaccoseed.ca : Cerimonial Mayan, Cuban Havana 503, Cuban Havana 142, Cuban Havana 608, Cuban Havana 501

I bought these from seedman.com :

Small Stalk Black Mammoth
Connecticut Shade Leaf
Pennsylvania Red Leaf
Havana Long Red Leaf
Long Red Leaf
Connecticut Broadleaf
Florida Sumatra Tobacco
Keller Brown Tobacco

 

[FmGrowit]

Welcome to the forum.

The selections you're growing are primarily cigar binders. The varieties from seedgnome are made up names and are not recognized as legitimate tobacco varieties. This is somewhat common when a vendor either is selling cross pollinated seeds or wants to protect the true identity of a really great variety so you have to go back every year to buy more. My guess is the former is most likely the situation, but that's just my guess.

South West Quebec should be very close to the same conditions where tobacco is grown commercially in southern Ontario and similar to the conditions in Wisconsin where almost only cigar leaf is grown. You should have plenty of time during the growing season to produce a good crop.

Back to your seeds selection...Havana 142 is one of my all time favorite varieties. It's technically a "Binder", but it works well as a filler for both cigars and cigarettes. It's also a fine wrapper when primed before the veins become too developed. The 503 is almost obsolete these days because of the disease problems and I personally don't find any value in it because it is very bland tasting. I suppose it would work fine as a "Filler" blended with some other stronger tobacco...like your Ceremonial Mayan (also an invented name), which I'm assuming is meant to represent a "Rustica" type variety.

There is no reliable or trustworthy information on Havana 608 either.

I'd recommend going through the forum and select a couple other types to include in your planting schedule this year. Bob (DeluxeStogie) has some pretty detailed reviews of different varieties he has grown and used in his cigars.

 

[tempbond]

Welcome to the forum.

The selections you're growing are primarily cigar binders. The varieties from seedgnome are made up names and are not recognized as legitimate tobacco varieties. This is somewhat common when a vendor either is selling cross pollinated seeds or wants to protect the true identity of a really great variety so you have to go back every year to buy more. My guess is the former is most likely the situation, but that's just my guess.

South West Quebec should be very close to the same conditions where tobacco is grown commercially in southern Ontario and similar to the conditions in Wisconsin where almost only cigar leaf is grown. You should have plenty of time during the growing season to produce a good crop.

Back to your seeds selection...Havana 142 is one of my all time favorite varieties. It's technically a "Binder", but it works well as a filler for both cigars and cigarettes. It's also a fine wrapper when primed before the veins become too developed. The 503 is almost obsolete these days because of the disease problems and I personally don't find any value in it because it is very bland tasting. I suppose it would work fine as a "Filler" blended with some other stronger tobacco...like your Ceremonial Mayan (also an invented name), which I'm assuming is meant to represent a "Rustica" type variety.

There is no reliable or trustworthy information on Havana 608 either.

I'd recommend going through the forum and select a couple other types to include in your planting schedule this year. Bob (DeluxeStogie) has some pretty detailed reviews of different varieties he has grown and used in his cigars.

Thanks for the advice !

 

[FmGrowit]

I bought these from seedman.com :

Small Stalk Black Mammoth
Connecticut Shade Leaf
Pennsylvania Red Leaf
Havana Long Red Leaf
Long Red Leaf
Connecticut Broadleaf
Florida Sumatra Tobacco
Keller Brown Tobacco

You must have been editing your post while I was responding to it. These added varieties are some very nice additions to the original list. You should have more than enough variety to create quite a few blends of cigar filler.

Are you planning on growing any of your wrapper under shade?

 

[tempbond]

Yes I am, but I don't know how many plants I will cover yet, it'll depend on how difficult it will be to do and how expensive it's gonna get.
Any idea how to go about it ?

 

[deluxestogie]

johnlee1933 would be the man to connect with on shade growing. Drop him a PM.

Bob