One of the widely grown plants that are unrelated to cooking is the tobacco plant. Many economies around the world have grown tobacco as an integral and essential part.
It can be grown in large plantations and in small quantities or in backyard gardens. It can be grown both for industrial purposes and for individual uses as well.
Why Grow Tobacco
If you are one who uses tobacco products growing tobacco on your own might be a good idea. The first benefit, of course, would be that you will eventually save money.
Though doctors consider smoking an unhealthy habit, if you grow your own you’ll avoid inhaling any added chemicals that are mixed with it in commercialized tobacco products.
Another benefit is that you don’t need any previous gardening prowess to display.
Needed Items
Growing tobacco will require only the simplest gardening implements. You’ll need a hoe, a garden spot, and other basic equipment.
You can grow your tobacco outdoors and even indoors. You can even add organic fertilizers to aid in the plant’s growth.
Use only natural products to protect the plant from disease and pests. A good example of such a product is pyrethrum.
Favored Climates
There are those who would ask where tobacco grows best. This plant favors warm weather wherever it is cultivated. It will also grow very well where there is rich soil.
Those who live in the south will find that this plant will grow well in their area. Those who live in cooler places and regions can get the opportunity to grow tobacco but may only do so indoors via container gardening.
They should keep the plant indoors during the colder seasons of the year.
Steps to Growing Tobacco
The first step to growing tobacco on your own would be to prepare the soil you’ll be planting them in. The soil ideally should be kept quite moist but not that very soggy.
The ideal temperature should be within the range of 70 to 80 degrees Fahrenheit. If you grow your tobacco from seeds then you should expect them to bud within the first 15 days.
If you plan to transplant seedlings instead make sure to purchase six-week-old tobacco seedlings.
Choose a garden site that has the most sunlight. You might want to work manure and compost into the soil before transplanting.
Make sure that you add a lot of potash and nitrogen to the soil, which would be supplied by burned leaves and wood. Take note that this plant is a heavy feeder of the soil’s nutrients.
Later care is important to grow tobacco. Keep the soil drained well and break the clay with peat moss.
Top off buds when they start to flower to make more leaves grow. You should expect to harvest leaves by late fall.
