How to grow tobacco - what do you need to get a rich flavor?

Any garden culture requires an individual approach for obtaining a good harvest. Even people familiar with how to grow tobacco can make mistakes when choosing a location on the site or the frequency of irrigation, which will later affect the quality of the raw materials.

What kind of tobacco to grow?

This plant can be either perennial or annual. It belongs to the family of Solanaceae and is cultivated to produce smoking raw materials - leaves that are dried and ground to be used for filling cigarettes and pipes. Before planting it is necessary to make a choice, what kind of tobacco is better for growing, proceeding from its features:

1. Tobacco is rustic. Ordinary makhorka, as it is also called, grows to 120 cm and contains two times less nicotine than virgin varieties. Yellowish flowers have a corolla with a short tube and rounded lobes. In the middle belt and in the south, makhorka has been grown since the 19th century, from the first warm days until late autumn. Sorts of this type - Ostrolist 316, Samsun 85, Turkish, Durman.
2. Tobacco is virgin. It is also called "real tobacco" (Nicotiana tabacum) for the fact that its taste is classically strong. The most important feature characterizing how to grow varieties of tobacco of this category is considered to be its high thermophilic properties. Shoots he will give only in regions with high humidity or hot summer. This category includes the "Jubilee New 142", "Trapezond 92", "Trapezond Kubanets" and "Pehlets".

Planting tobacco

One hundredth of a hectare of land can collect up to 40 kg of tobacco raw materials, given that the average smoker consumes only 8 kg per year. Planting of tobacco and care for it are carried out, based on the type of planting. It has been experimentally established that when planted directly in the ground, this plant is severely restricted in growth and yields a negligible yield. Therefore, tobacco is planted through seedlings as follows:

1. Tobacco for seedlings is sown in early-mid-February at home. Before this, the seeds are soaked in water for a day, in which you can add a little potassium permanganate to disinfect the seed.
2. Seeds are washed 2-3 times and dried.
3. The soil is intensively loosened, since it is possible to grow tobacco only in a soil saturated with oxygen.
4. In a box or peat pots 4-5 cm of soil is poured, but the depth of immersion of seeds should not exceed 0.5 cm.
5. After planting the seeds, they are sprinkled with earth and abundantly watered. The box is covered with a film: the shoots under it will be visible for 6-10 days, depending on the temperature of the air in the room.
6. As necessary, the soil is poured so that it reaches the cotyledon leaves, otherwise the sprouts will die.

The scheme of planting tobacco

In the interests of any trucker - the convenient placement of rows for easy watering, loosening or transplanting if necessary. Planting tobacco into the open ground on the site should be optimized for all of the above factors. There are two ways to arrange beds:

1. Suspension. Grades with limited growth can be planted in greenhouses in pendant boxes with drainage holes in the bottom. This option is suitable for growing in the cold season, if you plan to harvest twice a year.
2. Horizontal. The habitual placement in the open ground should not have a circular shape, because the planting of tobacco in the flowerbeds inefficiently uses the area of ​​the land. Straight rows can be divided by grooves to facilitate watering.

Distance of planting tobacco

The distribution pattern of sprouts after growing up is selected depending on which grade it belongs to. Before growing tobacco seedlings, you need to choose the distance between the ridges, because they are prepared in advance. In autumn they are scrupulously cleaned of weeds and fertilized with organic additives with potassium and magnesium. In spring shoots are placed in the soil in one of two types:

1. 70x100 cm. This distance between crops is considered optimal for virgin varieties characterized by vigorous growth. They have a powerful root system, prone to sprawl, which can be prevented by expanding the distance between rows.
2. 50x30 cm. Tuber varieties are deterministic, so their compact root system suffices 50 cm between the rows and 30 cm between the plants.

The time of planting of sweet-smoked tobacco

Seedlings have to be transferred to the open ground if there are already 3-4 real leaves on the stem. Typically, the age of the plant at this time is 40-45 days. Thin tobacco leaves can be obtained by transferring sprouts to the soil at the age of 30 days, as is done in some regions of America. The exact time of planting tobacco is calculated taking into account the region of growth:

1. In the south, early spring allows you to make a transplant as early as March 2-3. Pre-temper the plant is not necessary.
2. In the middle band, tobacco is planted on seedlings later and transferred to open ground in late May - early April.
3. In cold regions, tobacco can be grown in heated greenhouses, canceling the binding of the transplant time to a specific date due to balanced conditions.

Conditions for growing tobacco

Knowledge of the scheme of planting and care of seedlings is not enough to get a full harvest. A much greater influence on the palatability of the leaf is provided by the regulation of growth by removing the diseased and dead leaves, the timely removal of flowers. No matter how much one would like to grow smoking tobacco in the suburban area with minimal hassle, there are conditions that can not be refused:

1. Humidity. If irrigation is not enough because of the dry summer, humidifiers or nebulizers are installed in the garden. Plantation owners, confident in how to grow tobacco, spend a lot of money on installing such devices, while inexperienced farmers can not even imagine how moistening is important for the juiciness and aroma of the leaves.
2. Growth correction. Stephens and buds should be removed, so that all the juices go to the growth of the leaf. Tobacco begins to ripen from the bottom of the plant, so it can easily survive up to five cuts of leaves. If some of them are damaged, they are removed during harvesting.

The temperature of tobacco growing

At each stage of plant maturation, he needs a certain temperature regime. In the open ground it is difficult to regulate from the outside - for example, during the cultivation of village tobacco (makhorka) in the middle lane. Therefore gardeners try to adjust to the natural temperature changes taking into account that:

• seedlings must be rooted after transplantation at 20-22 ° C;
• the development of large leaves begins at 25-28 ° C;
• The cropping ends when the temperature drops to 15-18 ° C.

Growing tobacco in the country - soil

In Cuba and in America, the land for planting seedlings is never treated with tractors, because they too compact the soil. Where tobacco is grown, fertilizer, watering and collection is done only by hand for the same reason. At the dacha you can repeat the same conditions by creating wide rows so as not to trample down the ground near the plants while moving around the garden. Care of the soil provides for compliance with such rules:

1. Use as a humus last year's tobacco bushes and roots left after harvesting.
2. Control over the level of chlorine in the soil. Its overabundance becomes noticeable by leaf lethargy on shoots even when they are in shadow. You can get rid of it by adding sand to the top layer of the soil and then loosening.
3. Observing the depth of plowing. The land for planting should occupy a maximum of 20-25 cm.

Care of tobacco

When the seedling reaches a height of 25 cm, it begins to need a shadow to give the leaf a strong taste and a subtle flavor. After landing in the ground, the care for fragrant tobacco changes: he needs to build an awning or shelter over the beds to create shade in the hottest days. To make it reliable, it is necessary to observe certain conditions:

1. On the edges of the bed should be digged 4 pegs of sufficient thickness to withstand the weight of the awning made of thin fabric or film.
2. Pegs need to be immersed to a depth of 5-7 cm minimum, so you do not have to think about how to grow tobacco under a regularly falling tent.
3. Strengthen the "legs" can be additionally with the help of stones or gravel, poured into the pit for installation.
4. On the pegs, after completing these manipulations, a piece of cloth or transparent film stretches over the size of the ridge.

Growing tobacco in the garden - watering

In contrast to the fact that this culture loves copious irrigation at the germination stage, it likes to grow in moist but not marshy soils. Of great importance is the method of irrigation. A jet of water directed under the roots, blurs them and leads to the disease with a fungus. In all books that mention how to grow tobacco for smoking in the garden, it is indicated that it must be watered with water. Spraying by the type of a small drip shower from the spray gun is carried out in order for the water to reach the stem and leaves.

Care of tobacco seedlings - top dressing

The roots of the plant are so strong that they need a complex top dressing, so all efforts should be aimed at accelerating the development of leaves and increasing their area. Cultivation and planting of tobacco are accompanied by watering with the following additional dressings:

• phosphorus;
• ammonium nitrate ;
• bird droppings;
• sulphate or potassium chloride.

Growing tobacco in the country - diseases and pests

In addition to the usual fungal lesions for horticultural crops, there are other dangers to the stem and leaves. Understanding how to grow tobacco tobacco or tobacco at home, it is important to be able to protect it from parasites and other related diseases. Among them, the most harmful are:

1. Black root rot. It affects young plants, because of what shoots wither and fade, and on the root of the appear black-brown spots.
2. Bronze of tomatoes. The disease of tomato seedlings also affects tobacco: on the stem appear rings and arcs - traces of slow tissue death.
3. Dry root rot. Every gardener understands how difficult it is to grow tobacco if its roots gradually dry up. Dry rot wrinkles them, disrupting the transport of moisture and nutrients.
4. Blackleg. The disease thins the stem, making it fragile and brittle. The base of the plant turns black as the microorganism develops under the name Rhizoctonia solani Kuehn.