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Well, we cultivated, virginia, oriental and kentucky

Good luck and keep us updated!

Thanks!
This week:

Hot news:

Don't forget to top and sucker all but your best plant. That means to remove all flowers from the top and all shoots that appear between the main leaves and stem. This will give you a better harvest, because plant energy goes into the leaf, rather than reproduction. The seeds from one plant are enough to start a tobacco plantation.

Thanks kbadkar for the advice, I followed your earlier posts. It was verry useful.

harvest

Drying, after 5 days:

It looks like giant moldy lettuce...LOL

Thanks for continuing to post this. It is fascinating!

Very nice! I am curious: I have never seen tobacco cured in this bundle format; is that how they do it in Romania?

pierredekat wrote:Very nice! I am curious: I have never seen tobacco cured in this bundle format; is that how they do it in Romania?

I vaguely recall from my boarding school days in the "back country" that the growers similarly bundled them in South Africa.

Awesome!

@pierredekat: No, the method "in boundle format" is not used in Romania, but similar, leaves are lined scattered


The fermentation installation (finally I used a hob not the hair dryer like in picture):

After fermentation, the tobacco is ready for press:

Wow, that looks great. Keep us posted!

That's interesting. A quote from Rolando Negoita lead me to believe that tobacco sales (and I assumed cultivation) was illegal in Romania. He said of his days in Romania that "while it was possible to smuggle tobacco in the country, pipes were not available on the market" (http://pipedia.org/index.php?title=Negoita).

I'd be curious to hear the current legal status of tobacco in Romania.

It is illegal to sell tobacco in Romania without paying the dutyes and without hallmark, but to cultivate for your own use is not illegal. I think the same is true in any country, including US.
In fact, growing tobacco is subsidized by the Romanian state.

Negoita refers to the fact that pipe tobacco was not available in Romania 20 years ago under communism. From tobacco store, in that period could be bought only 2-3 types of tobacco.
Therefore, smuggling was a variant.

But now, things are different.

The flake:

Well? How's it smoke?

im fascinated, how DOES it smoke looking at your plants, im almost certain i have one growing in my front yard, that the previous owner planted, though im not brave enough to try it unless i were SURE