Tobacco plants can be quite beautiful. Even if you do not approve of smoking tobacco or using it in any form, it is still possible to grow a tobacco plant to be ornamental in your garden. Since most varieties of tobacco plants have large attractive flowers and nice green leaves, you will probably receive quite a few comments. from neighbors and people passing by. My grandfather maintained a garden for many years and during that time he grew only one tobacco plant, which easily received the most comments of all in his garden.
One of the qualities that make tobacco plants (members of the Solanum family) so unique is that their size and character vary according to climate. and the kind of land in which they grew up. Or in other words, wherever you choose to grow your tobacco plant greatly affects how it looks; and the differences between the same plant grown in two different regions are quite dramatic. For example, a commercial plant called nicotiana tobacum will mature to a crimson color when grown in sandy. In Virginia soil, however, the same variety planted in the black soil of Louisiana will ripen to a brown color. The size of the plant also varies from two to seven feet depending on its environment.
Growing tobacco is not difficult, but the plants will require a little extra care initially. Because tobacco seeds are tiny, it is necessary to keep them covered and inside for the first eight to ten days. Start them about five weeks before the last frost, and use a seed tray with a mixture of soil and half potting soil medium peat soil. Scatter the seeds evenly over the soil, first moistening them, not covering them, because they will need a lot of light. Then put it in a refrigerator having a constant temperature of 70 to 80 degrees. After about eight or ten days you should hatch them. Then you have them inside, but put them somewhere with a lower temperature of about 55 degrees. A few weeks and they will be ready to plant outside, but make sure they are placed in a very cultivated and fertile soil, if the ground is full of mud, it is necessary to add something peat moss Keep the plants about two feet apart and give them plenty of water, since tobacco plants are always thirsty. Once outside your plants will do best if they have a lot of nitrogen and potash. Wood ash and charcoal are good sources of this. (There are usually easy-to-follow planting directions on the back of any tobacco seed package).
Tobacco plants are susceptible to a few diseases such as root rot and mosaic, but as far as insects are concerned the Sphinx moth will usually be the only pest. This moth (also known as the “hawk moth” or “tobacco worm”) when in its stage is reddish green with a white diameter bruise and has a horny tail. Hand picking is the safest way to remove these pests. Use tweezers or gloves if you don’t want to touch them. and if you want to make a rocket chamber, simply put the rocket in a container, pour some rubbing alcohol snails in the lid. Savin is the best bet for fighting any insects. But if you are thinking about using tobacco, you should never use insecticides that surface plants will penetrate.
Resistance of tobacco insects to most natural plant insect repellent (at Mount Tobacco variety generally considered the most effective. At the end of the season you can cut off the stem above the root system and leave the leaves soaked in water. Use this water to spray other plants to repel insects. Then next time a new stem will grow from the root system.
If you want to grow tobacco to grow your own cigarettes or pipe tobacco, you must have an area of at least 8 meters by 1 meter. This will be enough to grow about fifty tobacco plants, which will allow you to make about 5000 or more cigarettes. (But remember that smoking is dangerous to your heather and we do not recommend it!).
Three more tips for growing tobacco plants:
1. Make sure your area is not too cold for tobacco. In hot climates it will be fine, but too cold will kill the plants.
2. If you are looking for ornamental tobacco plants, Jasmine Tabaci and Rose Tabaci varieties will grow particularly large and flower nicely.
3. Keep your hoe around the edges of the tobacco plants when the roots do not grow deep into the ground.
Tobacco plants are very interesting to grow, because the process can also be seen as an experiment in determining what kind of plant you get from a particular soil and climate.
Sources:
Growing Tobacco in the Home Garden, http://edis.ifas.ufl.edu/AA260
Wikipedia, Tobacco, http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tobacco
