Few people around here use plant beds anymore. In fact the only person I know is my brother-in-law. He starts the beds the first part of March. Works the seed bed, mixes the seed with sand to get an even stand, cast's the seed over the area, sprinkles it with a light coating, very light coating of straw and then covers the area with remay. I'm not sure about the length of time for germination but he usually has transplants ready for the field by the middle of May. Good luck finding a source.

Janet

please help

Now I've been told that the seeds out of that "wacky backy" stuff will grow....lol...if you know what I mean.

Sue

I've just started growing tobacco myself, not even sure if its legal here, but hell, I can buy it in the store, so in my head it is legal. hehe.

Anyho, I started for a month ago, I got a manual with my seeds telling me to put them in a can of some sort, and keep it at 20-25c's and put some plastic sheet on top of it, to keep it moist, and wait til they come up before I sow/expose them to light.

But, as usual, I did it my way, and just planted them in the soil, got up my 400W HPS grolux kit, which is ment for growing, this sweet thing produces upto 60.000 lumens, within a week I could see results, now it has almost gone a month and the plants are huge, like, the biggest ones are 4cms on each leave, others from 2-3cm. The first week I thought I wouldent get any results, but when I looked closely I saw small green thingis =D.

I water them daily / spray them, and I've also gotten up two fans to keep it chilly, and improve the stems.

Anyway, anyone know how many hours tobacco plants usualy should have light, how many hours that are normal?. I thought it was between 16h and 20h, like 18h would be fine, but im not sure, so im asking ;-).

I have had the light on 24/7 for almost 4 weeks now.

I’m in South Carolina on the border of North Carolina and I’m planting about 2 to 3 hundred plants of 5 different types just to see what I can do.

As fate would have it, just as I got into this project, I got laid off again. This time for good. Sure put a damper on things.

So instead of plowing up a field, or tilling a huge garden plot, I’m in the process of digging hundreds of holes in my back acre the size of 5 gallon buckets. I figure the mountain clay soil will act as a pot and I’m filling the holes with a mixture of store bought potting soil, store bought top soil, humus and a 10% mix of clay from the ground to save on costs.

Oh and I bought 4 bags of sand to add a few cups to each hole to help break up the clay. I burned an entire mobile home I scrapped out and am mixing that stuff into the soil also. (Potash from what I understand)

I just dug 15 holes and almost died, been yr since I did that kind of stuff, but I figure I have 2 weeks until the sprouts come up and another week or so before planting them outside.

So 10 to 15 holes a day should do it for me this 1st yr.

Search around on the net, there is tons of info out there, I have yet to grow my first plants and already I feel like an expert on the subject.

I have read every post on every forum I can find, this is my 3rd time on this thread.

Just research and study, why reinvent the wheel, just copy what others do and you'll be fine. Tobacco is supposed to be an easy plant to grow, except the maintenance, kind of like the funny tobacco.

Anyways-good luck from a former buckeye.

I see this is a late post, but I grow my own tobacco at home here in N. Central Texas near Dallas. I don't think you should buy transplants, too expensive. Get seeds.
There are a few forums dedicated to growing tobacco and I will give you a list of them. The URL I posted below is an interview I did with Fox News on my homegrown tobacco. You might find it interesting and informative.

Let me know if you need any help.

Bob Kemp
Weston, Tx
GYOtobacco@yahoo.com