Selfsufficientish.com

@ SE - the package arrived safe and well this morning. You weren't kidding when you said you had loads!!

Anyway, I'm looking forward to many happy sniffs - they certainly look interesting.

Many thanks once again - I'll be looking for the opportunity to redress the balance.

Mike

Ah good, i'm glad they arrived!

Hi
Do you have any seeds left. Only looking for a few to grow in a container in a patio.

stuball wrote:Hi
Do you have any seeds left. Only looking for a few to grow in a container in a patio.

If you don't have any luck here i think i've seen them on eBay before pretty cheap.

I think the snus is similar to skoal bandits that we used to have in the UK

They were banned as an increase in mouth cancers was noticed

Tru&Ad wrote:I think the snus is similar to skoal bandits that we used to have in the UK

They were banned as an increase in mouth cancers was noticed

Skoal bandits were American dipping tobacco. Swedish snus is very different. Take a read of the article in my signature and/or go here...

http://www.smokersonly.org/

Skoal Bandits would have i imagine higher levels of tobacco-specific nitrosamines. Swedish snus is different in that it is usually air-cured instead of fire-cured and then it is pastuerised.

Saying that, in my opinion Skoal Bandits would be much safer than smoking - i think they were banned after Action on Smoking and Health launched a crusade as they believed them to cause oral cancer. Yet, a few years later the former head at Action on Smoking and Health Clive Bates states that it is combustible tobacco that is bad for you and smokeless tobacco is better than smoking, here:

http://www.smokersonly.org/others/Bates ... 043007.pdf

An update on the tobacco plants ...

The tallest is now just under my chin and the rest vary - most are at the waist height they've been for a couple of weeks now. The important point is that they're all trying to flower, even though the two lots were planted out at different times. I've topped them as the buds have pushed out far enough to enable me to get at them - which they don't for a few days. The only one I'm leaving to flower is the one in the pot, but that will provide loads of seed for next year. I've dried and tried a couple of leaves which were yellowing from further up the plants than the lowest lot (which were extremely mild) and they definitely contain more nicotine - so the top leaves should be suitable to knock out elephants.

All in all, I think the growing experiment a success (certainly so far, at least).

As for drying and curing, I'm firming up on my opinion that there's an awful lot of bullcrap around. Unless my shed miraculously has turned out to be the best drying shed in the world, it takes nowhere near the usually quoted times for a leaf to turn yellowy-brown (that's colour-curing) and then to dry out to a smokeable level of dryness. And there is none of this "smells like (fill in your own description)" rubbish - it smells like nothing in particular and the smell is far from unpleasant - sort of neutral, really. You do NOT need to shred the stuff, although it does make things slightly easier - merely crumbling it gives you something which will roll up with a bit of patience and which will stay alight. And a curing chamber? Well, I'm slowly coming to the conclusion that a) there is no need to reduce the nicotine content if all of the leaves - the mild ones and the more concentrated later ones - are mixed together, and b) there is no great need to add flavour by spraying during curing with sugar solution or anything else. In fact, all that's going to do is increase the carcinogens, the level of which may be a factor in growing your own in the first place. I smoke because of my nicotine habit rather than as an epicurean delight. In future, I shall be drying full stop - it's quick and effective (and certainly so in view of the fact that, hopefully, I'll be turning the stuff into snuff rather than smoking it).

I think that's all for now ...

Mike

EDIT: I've just noticed that between the three threads running on smoking-related matters, there have been over 5,500 views. I wonder what that tells us?

Mine are now up to my chin.

Mind you I do get muddy lying on the floor like that!

Mine are looking good, this extra rain has cheared them up no end, they are bushy and about 60 - 90 cms high now.

Thanks for the advice on drying and blending, all good tips!

I've only just planted mine out as I didn't have space before. Are they supposed to be really pale green in colour?

Depends how pale you mean, MMM. They don't get very dark green, certainly. Maybe they've been a bit starved of nutrients - they should perk up now you have them in the ground. But yes, they don't get as green as a cabbage - more a lettuce kind of colour.

Mike

I thought they needed feeding and potted on a couple a few weeks back but they didn't seem to change colour. I've planted them out now and they are a bit lighter than the plants should be (I googled). The lower leaves are not just yellow, they are white. Anyway they 'should' perk up and start really growing now they are in the soil! Darned mangetout just keep going on and on and there wasn't space before I got rid of that and 1st lot of broad beans!

Hi all, how's it going with the baccy grow ?

I've just got through processing 15 leaves. They took ages to dry but then again I'm in a static caravan and not the warmest of things in the world

Cut them up with a knife as finely as I could and then used a hand powered kitchen chef type thingy. Seemed to work ok. Burns evenly, smoke's not too bad, very mild. Not sure of nicotine content, will have to monitor my smoking and see if I crave more or less of the little white sticks !!

I will need more space to dry rest of crop though ... I've got Sh*tloads :-D

Ad

Really pleased everyone is enjoying their baccy growing! pbf.

I am, I am - but now I have a question.

I've been very active taking out every flower bud and every sucker - oh, those suckers - they just insist upon regenerating (for those who haven't got there yet, it's the same as tomato side-shoots. Pinch 'em out, but go back every day and pinch 'em out again - they're insistent little buggers). The plant in the pot - the one I decided to allow to flower - has now flowered. Not the most glorious display I've ever seen, but definitely flowers. Now I've reached the stage at which the flowers are dying off, having done their job, and seed pods are swelling.

How do you collect the seed? Do I bag the whole thing or do I wait for the pods to dry out and then gently pick them off?

Do tell, O great done-it-before tobacco guru!! I need advice.

Mike