Cigars: Growing Tobacco Part 2

How Many Tobacco Plants per Acre?just-in-time harvesting is very important for cigar
Each type of tobacco has an ideal denseness in thetobaccos in general and particularly for wrappers.
field. To ensure a well balanced development of theFavoring Leaf Development
plant and produce the product required by industry, theThe leaves are the useful part of the tobacco plant.
grower has to respect spacing between plants whenThe farmer has to remove the greedy and useless
transplanting. The range is quite large, from 4,800 plantsparts of the plant: buds coming at the petiole of the
per acre for some large and thick dark tobacco toleaves and blossoms. The more buds and blossoms
16,000 plants per acre for lighter tobacco. Even moreare removed, the more nutrients go the leaves which
for the tiny oriental type. Wrappers are generallyin turn can become very large and thick. For some
transplanted at a denseness of 10-12,000 per acre.types of wrapper tobaccos, blossoms are not cut so
How Many Tobacco Crops per Year?leaves can stay thin. For some types of fillers, buds
A tobacco plant grows and ripes within a 5 monthare removed and the stalk is cut above the 12th leaf.
period. However, it is nearly impossible to get 2 usableThe leaves grow to 25 inches and up, and are thick
crops in the same year because of the weatherlike leather.
condition requirements.Greedy Tobacco
Tobacco and WaterTobacco is a fast-growing plant that needs a lot of
As many other plants, tobacco does not like extremenutrients to develop properly. Even when fertilizers are
weather conditions, particularly the lack or the excessused, the soil is impoverished. It is often impossible to
of water. Drought will give thick, yellowish, paper typeyield tobacco crops on the same land for two
leaves, rich in starch and sharp in taste. Floods washconsecutive years so farmers must rotate,
out the leaves. They are very thin, fragile, unable tointerspersing regenerative cultivation.
ripen properly, with ghastly colors, white veins and badEarth Up!
taste. Tobacco hates putting it's feet in water !In order to ease the feeding and the development of
A Tobacco Farmthe plants in the tobacco fields, the lower leaves, which
Tobacco is grown either in huge plantations or on smallare useless, are picked out. Then the grower earths up
farms. The type of settlement depends on the historythe plants and new roots are going to grow in place of
and the culture of the country where the tobacco isthe removed leaves. Earthing up also helps the plant to
produced. Once tobacco is harvested and cured, thestand and to resist better to strong winds.
processing requires big volumes. If his crop size is notAdjusting leaves characteristics to industry
large enough, the farmer can't process his ownrequirements
material, and he will sell his cured tobacco toThe tobacco industry requires leaves with a specific
companies that aggregate small crops for processing.texture and size. To reach their goal, the grower uses
Large plantations growing enough tobacco that allowsdifferent techniques. One is to play with the density:
them to process it themselves are not so many, whennumber of plants per acre. The more plants per acre,
compared to the millions of small producers all aroundthe smaller and thinner the leaves will be. Another one
the world.is to top the plants: less leaves on a stalk, makes for
Harvesting Wayslarger and thicker leaves. That is easy to understand:
There are two ways to harvest tobacco when it isfor a given amount of nutrients, the less mouths you
ripe. Either leaf by leaf (starting from the foot andhave to feed, the more everyone is going to eat. In
picking up 2 or 3 leaves every 2 or 3 days) or by stalkfact in each growing area, and for each type of
(cutting the plant at once). In the first case, each leavetobacco, standards are settled for density and topping.
is supposed to be picked up at the right ripeness. In theA Ride for Wrapper Picking
second case, the tobacco is harvested at an averageAs far as wrapper is concerned, tobacco has to be
ripeness condition, that means over-ripe for bottompicked leaf by leaf. It's tough work, it's generally in
leaves and under-ripe for top leaves. As far assummer time, and workers have to be careful not to
wrappers are concerned, the leaf-by-leaf picking is thebreak leaves. Connecticut growers have invented a
rule!very helpful machine to collect the leaves, avoiding too
Harvesting Ripe Tobaccomany people walking in the tobacco rows. A 2ft wide
Ripeness comes first on bottom leaves and goes upbelt is laid down between two rows of plants. One end
day after day. As soon as the green color of the footis attached to a core set in action by pedals like the
leaves starts becoming a light pale, it is time to pick uprear wheel of a bicycle. Only one worker goes in the
without delay. If you wait too long, color turns fast torow, picks the 2 or 3 leaves from each plant and puts
yellow and it is too late: tobacco will come out thin likedown the leaves flat on the belt. Once he reaches the
cigarette paper, with a very sharp taste. In comparison,end of the row, a guy starts pedaling, rolling up the belt
because they are thicker, top leaves take longer toaround the core while two people, one each side of
ripe. Very often, the farmer has to stop harvesting athe belt, remove the leaves and put them into baskets.
few days after having picked the upper middle leaves,At the picking season, you can see tens of these
just to let the top leaves reach the proper ripeness. Amachines aligned on the edge of the fields.