How much time between germination and being able to smoke a cigar?

[Pugsley]

I must admit--I am officially obsessed with Cigars and the whole process of growing leaf, rolling, and smoking your own. About two months ago my son gave me a Romeo y Julieta 1875, and the rest is history. Since then, I have watched a bunch of videos about cigar history, cigar companies, growing, rolling, etc. I am pretty good at growing a decent garden--so I thought why not try growing your own tobacco, rolling them up, and eventually smoking them. I have ordered my seeds, and I'll start the sowing process on Feb, 1st and let them grow in the basement until taking outside in May.

Assuming I am successful at growing, harvesting, curing, fermenting etc------ will I be able to actually roll and smoke this years crop immediately after fermenting is done OR am I supposed to store it away and let it age before rolling and smoking????

Any advice from anyone will be greatly appreciated.

 

[CobGuy]

Welcome aboard!

Sounds like a pretty early seed start to me but the experts here will chime in on that.
It takes patience and time to obtain good leaf for smoking.
However, in the meantime, order some leaf from WLT.com and start practicing your technique.
All the info you'll need is in these pages … great place!

~Darin

 

[Pugsley]

Welcome aboard!

Sounds like a pretty early seed start to me but the experts here will chime in on that.
It takes patience and time to obtain good leaf for smoking.
However, in the meantime, order some leaf from WLT.com and start practicing your technique.
All the info you'll need is in these pages … great place!

~Darin

Thank you, Sir, for responding. I probably said February 1st because I am so anxious to get the process started. I should probably wait until mid March so they can have a couple of months start before planting in mid-May. I have already looked at the leaf options with WLT, and I'm thinking I will get a few of their Blending Kits to get started. Have a great day.

 

[deluxestogie]

Welcome to the forum. Be sure to read the FAQ for Beginning Growers (link at top), and the Index of Key Forum Threads (also on the menu bar).

For your location, starting seed in early to mid March seems about right. How soon can you smoke one? That depends pretty much on the specific varieties that you grow. You may roll and smoke your first cigars soon after the leaf completes kilning (which is the primary period of fermentation). On the earliest possible schedule of color-curing in the shed, followed by kilning, that might be around Thanksgiving or Christmas. They may or may not meet your expectations at that point, but will continually improve with rest--over months. Some varieties just need lots of time.

My current practice with Corojo 99, Piloto Cubano, Olor, Criollo, Vuelta Abajo, as well as American cigar varieties (PA Red, Little Dutch, Glessnor, etc.) is to mostly stalk-harvest them (rather than priming more than just the lowest leaf), and hang the stalks in the shed to color-cure and rest and rest and rest in the shed until the following summer. (Buy whole leaf from Whole Leaf Tobacco--just click the banner ad at the top of the page--until you make it through the first year of patient waiting.) Then I begin to kiln the leaf for about 4 to 6 weeks. Once they come out, and rest for another week or three, they produce immediately smokable, spectacular cigars.

Keep in mind that every home tobacco grower's second year of growing is always better than the first.

Which varieties of seed are you planning to start?

Good luck with your first grow.

Bob

 

[Charly]

Welcome to FTT,
Growing your own tobacco is really a great experience, as Bob said it takes time to get some good leaf.
The more you can let it age, the better.

I had some mud lugs cigars right after the color curing that were fine, but it takes at least a year (with one month in the kiln) to become really good (in my experience).

And I agree, you can begin your seed in the first two weeks of march, it should be more than enough.

 

[Alpine]

Welcome to FTT

pier

 

[Pugsley]

Thank you, Sir, for responding. I probably said February 1st because I am so anxious to get the process started. I should probably wait until mid March so they can have a couple of months start before planting in mid-May. I have already looked at the leaf options with WLT, and I'm thinking I will get a few of their Blending Kits to get started. Have a great day.

Welcome to the forum. Be sure to read the FAQ for Beginning Growers (link at top), and the Index of Key Forum Threads (also on the menu bar).

For your location, starting seed in early to mid March seems about right. How soon can you smoke one? That depends pretty much on the specific varieties that you grow. You may roll and smoke your first cigars soon after the leaf completes kilning (which is the primary period of fermentation). On the earliest possible schedule of color-curing in the shed, followed by kilning, that might be around Thanksgiving or Christmas. They may or may not meet your expectations at that point, but will continually improve with rest--over months. Some varieties just need lots of time.

My current practice with Corojo 99, Piloto Cubano, Olor, Criollo, Vuelta Abajo, as well as American cigar varieties (PA Red, Little Dutch, Glessnor, etc.) is to mostly stalk-harvest them (rather than priming more than just the lowest leaf), and hang the stalks in the shed to color-cure and rest and rest and rest in the shed until the following summer. (Buy whole leaf from Whole Leaf Tobacco--just click the banner ad at the top of the page--until you make it through the first year of patient waiting.) Then I begin to kiln the leaf for about 4 to 6 weeks. Once they come out, and rest for another week or three, they produce immediately smokable, spectacular cigars.

Keep in mind that every home tobacco grower's second year of growing is always better than the first.

Which varieties of seed are you planning to start?

Good luck with your first grow.

Bob

Bob-- Remember I am a newbie--so don't laugh.

I bought Havana 608, Habano 2000, Long Red leaf, CT Broadleaf, Florida Sumatra, Java Besuki, and Criollo 98 seeds.

I tried to buy varieties that could be used for filler, filler or binder, or filler binder and wrapper .

Do you think this is sufficient for what I want to do OR do I need to scrap all of these and go with other seeds.

Any suggestions or help will be greatly appreciated.

 

[deluxestogie]

That's an excellent choice of varieties for cigars. Now, while the iron is hot, start looking at plans for building a kiln. (Index of Key Forum Threads, under Curing Other) I'm rather partial to my endoskeletal box kiln. Build one larger than you think you will need. Should you wait until you have tobacco? No. A kiln is really an essential tool for a home cigar leaf grower. The concept is initially daunting, but it's just a weekend project for around $100.

Bob

 

[MarcL]

Welcome to Fair Trade Tobacco.

 

[burge]

Welcome and to answer your question a good cigar min for leaf is 5 years aged. I have not tried to roll a cigar yet but when at my brothers will have a cohiba. Dons tobacco is aged as such.