Hi from central Ontario!

[Radagast]

Hi everyone!
I'm glad I found this forum, there seems to be no end to the knowledge and interest among this community.
As for me, a beginning home grower and occasional pipe smoker (not an overly picky one either), I'm looking to fill my pipe with a bit of good clean leaf from my own yard.
So to start, I would love some advice on choosing a plant type (or two). I can't wait to hear from some home growers who have advice, suggestions, prefferences and/or opinions regarding this unique new hobby of mine!
Thanks in advance!
_M

 

[GreenDragon]

Howdy from Texas and welcome to FFT! Tons of information in the Key Forum Threads on the upper menu. We have a lot of fun here.
Probably the biggest question on what varieties to grow (if as you said you are not picky) is how you are going to cure your leaf.

Virginias usually are kilned, so you will need to consider if you want to build one for these varieties. (Most effort)
Burleys, Kentucky, Maryland, etc. are air cured (Least effort)
Orientals are typically sun cured (medium effort)

 

[Alpine]

Welcome to FTT

pier

 

[Radagast]

Howdy from Texas and welcome to FFT! Tons of information in the Key Forum Threads on the upper menu. We have a lot of fun here.
Probably the biggest question on what varieties to grow (if as you said you are not picky) is how you are going to cure your leaf.

Virginias usually are kilned, so you will need to consider if you want to build one for these varieties. (Most effort)
Burleys, Kentucky, Maryland, etc. are air cured (Least effort)
Orientals are typically sun cured (medium effort)

Howdy! See, that right there is a more important tidbit of information than I would have sifted out of a week's googling and youtubing. Heard of all those techniques and more but never would have known they were specific to type like that. I will for sure be going with the least effort cure in that case for my first go at this. The kiln/sweat process seems like a nightmare. Thank you!

 

[Alpine]

Curing tobacco (yellowing, browning and subsequent drying of leaves) is rather difficult the first time you attempt it: some members are lucky enough to live in a place that has the right conditions of temp and humidity, others cure their leaves in carton boxes... In my case, biggest mistake was harvesting leaves that weren’t ripe. Of course, you’ll probably loose some of your first harvest while experimenting different places and techniques to CURE tobacco but the good news is you’ll end up with more tobacco than you started with.
Kilning comes after curing, it’s rather simple and can be completely skipped: you’ll have perfectly smokable leaves by simply letting Mother Nature di its thing: be aware anyway that natural (as opposed to forced aging with a kiln) requires months for some strains, years for others.
Being an occasional pipe smoker, I can’t give sensible advice on specific pipe strains (if they exist...) but you can make an informed decision perusing this forum, and taking a look at http://northwoodseeds.com/Seed List2.html
Skychaser’s descriptions are accurate (well, most of them) and very informative.
I am partial to dark Virginia as a base for my everyday smoke but to each his own.
Hope this helps.

pier

 

[Radagast]

Curing tobacco (yellowing, browning and subsequent drying of leaves) is rather difficult the first time you attempt it: some members are lucky enough to live in a place that has the right conditions of temp and humidity, others cure their leaves in carton boxes... In my case, biggest mistake was harvesting leaves that weren’t ripe. Of course, you’ll probably loose some of your first harvest while experimenting different places and techniques to CURE tobacco but the good news is you’ll end up with more tobacco than you started with.
Kilning comes after curing, it’s rather simple and can be completely skipped: you’ll have perfectly smokable leaves by simply letting Mother Nature di its thing: be aware anyway that natural (as opposed to forced aging with a kiln) requires months for some strains, years for others.
Being an occasional pipe smoker, I can’t give sensible advice on specific pipe strains (if they exist...) but you can make an informed decision perusing this forum, and taking a look at http://northwoodseeds.com/Seed List2.html
Skychaser’s descriptions are accurate (well, most of them) and very informative.
I am partial to dark Virginia as a base for my everyday smoke but to each his own.
Hope this helps.

pier

Excellent. That is very helpful indeed, especially for the seed site, thank you! That is the first seed site I've seen that doesn't have the exact letter-for-letter carbon copy descriptions, which was a little concerning.

 

[deluxestogie]

Welcome to the forum. Do read the New Growers FAQ (link in the menu bar).

Bob

 

[Radagast]

Welcome to the forum. Do read the New Growers FAQ (link in the menu bar).

Bob

Will do
Cheers!

 

[MarcL]

Welcome to Fair Trade Tobacco.

 

[ChinaVoodoo]

Welcome to the forum, from Edmonton.

 

[Charly]

Welcome to FTT.
For pipe smoking, you will probably want some virginia (bright leaf) and something to blend with : burley, oriental, latakia (this one is hard to make yourself)
To get a virginia like the commercial ones, you need to "flue cure" it (or at least sun cure it).
For your first crop, try a few strains (3 or 4) from different kinds, so you can begin to see what you can get.

With these few strains you can then try to make cavendish, perique, etc.
This will give you more blending components for your pipe blends

 

[Radagast]

Welcome to FTT.
For pipe smoking, you will probably want some virginia (bright leaf) and something to blend with : burley, oriental, latakia (this one is hard to make yourself)
To get a virginia like the commercial ones, you need to "flue cure" it (or at least sun cure it).
For your first crop, try a few strains (3 or 4) from different kinds, so you can begin to see what you can get.

With these few strains you can then try to make cavendish, perique, etc.
This will give you more blending components for your pipe blends

Awesome thanks buddy, getting a sense of things slowly here with this kind of help. Cheers!

 

[Oldfella]

Welcome aboard from the top of NZ I'm lucky enough to be able to cure outside in the sun for most of the year. I've found that if you can't find what you need to on this site it ain't done.
Cheers Jhonny

 

[burge]

Welcome and what do you smoke? You should be able to get cured leaf in Ontario if your not over 5kgs

 

[Radagast]

Welcome aboard from the top of NZ I'm lucky enough to be able to cure outside in the sun for most of the year. I've found that if you can't find what you need to on this site it ain't done.
Cheers Jhonny

From what I've seen your homeland is pretty close to pristine and completely gorgeous. Thanks cheers!

 

[Radagast]

Welcome and what do you smoke? You should be able to get cured leaf in Ontario if your not over 5kgs

That's good news, I was just thinking of trying out some stuff from wlt.
I'm a pretty new pipe smoker again, revisiting the hobby from 15 or so years ago. Didn't have a favourite back then even with a good tobacco shop around the corner from me. Right now I'm stuck with amphora and captain black until I can make the trek to the closest tobacconist, which will be Saturday, to look over some fancier stuff. I do like those two though, particularly amphora full aroma, it's nice. I can really taste the tobacco clearly.
Cheers!

 

[burge]

Well The leaf you get hear is the fancier stuff.

 

[Radagast]

Cool. I also just enjoy gardening and watching different plants do their thing. Tobacco has always been kind of a mystery to me, so I'm find finding the information here very much fascinating.

 

[burge]

Well enjoy the experience the best time to buy tobacco is Black Friday. Maybe you can email WLT and get you started in something or what you are trying to create