Howdy folks! Let's grow some tobacco ☺

And I don't mean "whacky tabacky" - I mean REAL Nicotiana Tobacco, which can be grown in all the 50 states and Territories of the U.S.

I originally got the seeds in capsules given to me by tribal members of the Klamath First Nations people who were living in SE Portland during the mid-1980s. From that time, up to the present, I have done several "grow outs" of the tobaccos to maintain seed viability.

Klamath Tribes
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/...

I sent some of these same seeds (shown here in high resolution scans) to Daniel Erdy in Catawba SC (username > ediblelandscapingsc) so he can follow how I sow the seeds, and grow the plants, and harvest the leaves, etc.

The seeds have been in cold storage since their last harvest dates of 2005 and 2009, so the first thing we will be finding out is the viability of the seeds and the approximate % of germination, whether good or poor.

I just sowed some of my seeds in 4 small flats or plant trays in the greenhouse yesterday.

The first pic is a sheet that I keep with the seeds, which has notes on the 4 kinds of tobacco that I have. There is some uncertainty with some of the information, so hopefully a grow-out this year will clear some of that up.

1st pic - Plant trays in the greenhouse, sown with the 4 varieties of tobacco seeds. The seeds were sprinkled on the surface of the soil and a very light application of sand was put through a wire strainer, just enough to barely cover the seeds. The trays were then watered with a fine mist from a tank sprayer. The trays should be misted periodically to keep the surface of the soil moist, until germination occurs.

2nd pic - A very blurry pic showing a tape measure. The plant trays are about 10½" square.

3rd pic - N. rustica (tobacco #1) which has naturalized in the greenhouse in various places. Note the numerous seed capsules.

4th pic - N. rustica (tobacco #1) again. The red pot on the right contains plants of Black nightshade (Solanum americanum) with both green and ripe (black) fruits. In the background are native ferns.

5th pic - Seed packets of the varieties of tobacco which were sown directly in the garden 25 June 2019 - ONTARIO LIGHT TOBACCO Nicotiana tabacum and ONTARIO BOLD TOBACCO Nicotiana tabacum

6th pic - Red arrow points to a seedling which may, or may not be tobacco. Too early to tell yet. Also shown is a volunteer tomato plant (yellow arrow) and a Jimson Weed seedling (Datura stramonium) blue arrow.

7th pic - Suspected tobacco seedlings (red arrows)

8th pic -Suspected tobacco seedling (red arrow)

9th pic - Suspected tobacco seedlings (red arrows)

I got my seeds in today

Thank you so much Nick.
It's going to be fun growing these along side you

Yes indeed. Yes indeed it will!

Some valuable info on tobacco seeds :

"Howses of the Towne of Secota Have Gardens … Wherin Groweth Tobacco (E)
[arrow points to tobacco plants]

Engraving by Theodore de Bry

From: National Geographic on Indians of the Americas copyright 1955 - p. 34

see Wikipedia > Theodor de Bry
[quote] :
" Village of Secoton, engraved illustration by de Bry accompanying Thomas Hariot's book of 1588 ' A Briefe and True Report of the New Found Land of Virginia ' "

From :
The Story of America
The Reader's Digest Association, Inc.
copyright 1975
p. 108

EVIDENCE OF GERMINATION

Got my seeds started yesterday evening. I went to go get my flats but the sun dry rotted them.

So instead I went with some pots and plan on scooping them out with a spoon when its time to transplant.

How well do they handle transplanting?

It all depends on how big the seedlings are when you transplant them, and what the weather is like outside. What I usually do is THIN the seedlings in the flat so that there is about an inch space between the select seedlings, and let them grow until the leaves begin touching the ones next to them. Then they are big enough to transplant. It may be best to CUT the soil into squares and lift the transplants out carefully. If the soil is cut into squares, each transplant will have a portion of undisturbed root system within the little square portions of soil.

DEFINITE GERMINATION

Several seedlings with green cotyledons noted today (shown by arrows in pics below)

You will be hunted down , tarred and feathered by the -- We-know-what-is-best-for-you -- god wannabe safety nazis.
OOOOOOOHHHHH!

RpR

Yikes ‼ ‼ ‼ ‼ ‼ ⚉

illustrations from :

Tobacco: Its History, Varieties, Culture, Manufacture and Commerce, with an Account of its Various Modes of Use, from its First Discovery Until Now.
By E. R. Billings
HARTFORD, CONN.
AMERICAN PUBLISHING COMPANY,
1875

Those old field pics look like me outside in 2019. Working the fields with no modern machinery to plow or move earth. Just me, my basic tools, and the stumps. It sucks being poor

No, my brother. I have a massive hoe almost that big myself. The ancient Romans developed incredible technology for use in battle and warfare but thought it far more noble to use human strength instead of machinery to do work. If I could, I would be right there beside you in the fields for as long as I could bear it in the heat wave you're having right now.

By the way, those huge old hoes were used to make "hoe cakes" - a type of corn bread baked on the blade of one of those hoes held over the coals ... (one of those little items that stuck in my head over the years since I read it in a book).

illustrations from:

Tobacco: Its History, Varieties, Culture, Manufacture and Commerce, with an Account of its Various Modes of Use, from its First Discovery Until Now.
By E. R. Billings
HARTFORD, CONN.
AMERICAN PUBLISHING COMPANY,
1875

The tobacco seeds have germinated amazingly well after being in cold storage for so many years, all except for tobacco #2, which has always been more difficult than the others, for some reason. But there are still seeds which are germinating, and there are some little green plants now showing, their first pair of leaves tilted to the first light of morning.

1st pic - tobacco #1 (upper left)
2nd pic - tobacco #2 (upper right)
3rd pic - tobacco #3
4th pic - tobacco #4