Growing your own Tobacco

aaron

OK...  I've done some research on this, but wanted to throw it out there to the community.  What are your thoughts on growing your own tobacco to roll your own smokes?  Obviously this would be a process that would take time, but I wanted to know if anyone else on here has tried it.  If so, what kind of tobacco did you grow?  What was the amount of time it took for the drying and curing process, and of course were you satisfied with the end result? 

Of course I love my professionally made sticks too much to give them up, so this isn't something I would do for all my smokes, but I thought it might be a cool hobby.  Thoughts?

kuzi16

i read an article in (i wanna say) cigar insider on just this topic.

it was from about two or so years ago so im a bit foggy on it.

The article was written by a guy who actually tried it. Fe went out found the seeds, planted, grew, harvested, dried, aged, and rolled the tobacco into cigars.

New Jersey Puro...

he said the hardest part was finding seeds. Apparently the strain(s) of tobacco that cigars are grown from are very hard to find at your local garden center. ...go figure.

from there its all about learning what part of the plants are used for different parts of the cigars and how to roll. Cigar.com has a good start in their articles section:

http://www.cigaradvocate.org/articles/art_archive.cfm

i seem to remember that the guy said it drew a bit loose and hot but what else could you expect from a first timer.

If you know any farmers that grow tobacco you can ask them about it. they may get your foot in the door for cigar quality tobacco. Just make sure you knwo what you are doing before you spend money on the tools of the trade. it could get expensive.

cusccrstud21

yea, there's a guy on the Cigar Aficionado forum that grows and rolls his own tobacco and cigars from Texas...his cigars just got done drying this week and so he's supposed to be sending 1 my way here this week...if i have time i'll take a pic of it and post it on here and review it when i smoke it

rdnstn

I would say that I'm interested, but I think curious is more appropriate. I am not interested in growing my own tobacco or rolling my own cigars, but would like to see someone do it and see how they turn out. Especially since my family used to grow tobacco in Kentucky 4 generations ago. We have long since left it but an interesting bit of family history with my new found hobby.

jlzimmerman

cusccrstud21:

yea, there's a guy on the Cigar Aficionado forum that grows and rolls his own tobacco and cigars from Texas...his cigars just got done drying this week and so he's supposed to be sending 1 my way here this week...if i have time i'll take a pic of it and post it on here and review it when i smoke it

Did you ever get the cigar from Texas? How was it?

aaron

I'm kind of surprised that more people around here haven't done it.  Seems like there's a bit of an underground movement on the net to grow tobacco and avoid taxes.  I think I would just enjoy trying to blend flavors and go thru the actual process myself.  I may get a better appreciation for my professionally rolled smokes.  Maybe next year I'll give it a shot.