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I started germinating my seeds in mid-February and now the plants are really growing. I planted 15 varieties, 13 of which made the "cut". 3 varieties are already developing flower buds. All three are native types - Indian tobacco, Midwivean Sacred, and Isleta Pueblo. They are growing tall with smaller leaves compared to the other varieties, but they are still only 18" to 24" tall. I'll let some of them flower as ornamentals, since I have way too many plants, but for the others...

should I remove the flowering buds to encourage further vegetative growth? (rather than expend extra energy in reproductive development)

Or should I let them follow their natural course?

Do you remove all signs of flower bud development on all tobacco plants that you intend to harvest for tobacco leaves exclusively (as in not using them for collecting seeds for next year)?

kbadkar wrote: should I remove the flowering buds to encourage further vegetative growth? (rather than expend extra energy in reproductive development)

Yep. Snip the flowers off to promote leaf production.

My neighbor, who grew up on a tobacco farm, says that they also put a dash of mineral oil on the top of the plant to prevent it from regrowing the flower.

Yep again. That was the first job I had in the 'baccer patch I enjoyed, mostly 'cuz they gave me a tobacco knife (think cheapo thin hatchet blade on a flimsy stick) to swing around.

We just lopped 'em and let 'em lay, though, no mineral oil.

Thanks for the input, fellers. I lopped and topped yesterday, but didn't swab with mineral oil. I have baby oil, but was hesitant to have tobacco infused with essence of infant.

I hope I did it right, since some of the flowers were really dense and close to the leaves. Some of the flowers appeared to be a single mass, yet came from multiple "stems" bunched together, so I had to snip a bunch of times on a single plant, while trying to avoid what looked like developing leaves.

I just pulled mine off by hand. You have to really keep after them from that point as they start to bud all over. I had to keep mine in check every couple days.
You might want to keep one or two plants flowering. If you want free seeds for next year. I just picked the pods off of my plants and am drying them out now. If you decide to let them go to seed just make sure you cover up the buds before the flowers open, I used brown paper lunch bags, to prevent cross polonation. When the flowers fall away and the pods turn brown, cut them and dry them out and you will have plenty of seeds. Plus, the plants will improve with each year!

Smitty wrote: If you decide to let them go to seed just make sure you cover up the buds before the flowers open, I used brown paper lunch bags, to prevent cross polonation. When the flowers fall away and the pods turn brown, cut them and dry them out and you will have plenty of seeds. Plus, the plants will improve with each year!

I'm almost tempted to see what comes out from cross-pollenation. Has anyone played around with tobacco hybridization? They should be hardier than single plant inbreeding, no? Just curious.

I was tempted to cross Havana and Kentucky Burley. I like the heavier leaf of the Burley because it seems to pack better in a pipe, and if I could get that heavier weight in the jumbo sized Havana leaves, that would be cool.