Tag Archives: tobacco

Planting Seedlings

I planted all of the plants that I had growing in the seed tray. Well, the ones that survived anyway. The tomatoes and peppers look like they are going to do really well.

I'm excited about my fruits this year. All except for one raspberry plant is doing really well so I should have a decent crop this year and a great crop next year. All of the blueberries look good and are flowering. The scuppernong vine has started to break out in leaves. I'm very happy to have my grape vine. I hadn't really expected to get one this year, much less one this large. If you haven't had the please of having a scupperong grape I highly suggest you try to find some this year. The seeds and tougher skins make them harder to just munch on like other grapes but it's worth it. They're like eating hot wings, after eating a bowl of them you're hands and face may be covered in juices and it will be totally worth it.

I haven't quite kept up with my calendar. I still need to seed the muskmelon and eggplant. Also, it looks like I won't have nearly as many tobacco plants as I had hoped. I'll try to seed a few more this year, but I don't expect to have very many.

Tobacco

As with the cotton, I am growing another popular North Carolina crop, tobacco. There are more varieties of tobacco than I realized.  I chose Orinoco as the description calls it a “tobacco with thick textured, crinkly leaves that produces a rich brown pipe tobacco that is a favorite of pipe smokers worldwide.” Since I enjoy pipe smoking this seems like a good choice.

I've never cured tobacco either. Traditionally it is air dried which takes a long time. A newer method used my industry now is to dry by means of heaters. Since I'm in no rush and I have such a small amount if I attempt to cure any (and lets be honest, I probably will) I'll do it the slow way.

Someday if I'm really industrious I may try to roll cigars but that's complicated, I think I'll stick to my pipe for now.

I am starting the seeds indoors like I'm supposed to. The seeds are so small I used tweezers with place them on the soil. I have chosen to grow nine plants this year, to ensure growth I extra seeds. I'll thin once things have grown some.

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Cotton

I felt that with my garden this year I should plant some retro crops. What is more North Carolina than Cotton and Tobacco?

Did you know that cotton comes in more colors than just white? I understand there are green, blue, yellow, brown and even pink varieties. This year I chose a green variety, Erlene's Green.

Even if I can't actually do anything with the cotton the experience of growing it should be fun.