All About The Tobacco Plant

The tobacco plant is a very interesting plant. Of equal interest is tobacco growing. Growing tobacco is something that may seem difficult and only left to the professional tobacco growing companies that grow tobacco and process the tobacco plant into cigarettes. In reality, as with many crops, the tobacco plant and tobacco growing goes hand in hand.

The tobacco plant is a leafy green plant. It is planted in the late spring and early summer. Each tobacco plant will yield approximately one hundred grams of tobacco that will later be used to make cigarettes, cigars, pipe tobacco, or rolling tobacco. Growing tobacco is best accomplished in soil that is rich in organic material. Growing tobacco can be accomplished just about anywhere, even in the United Kingdom, as it has few special requirements. Really all that is needed for a tobacco plant to flourish in growth is water, sunshine, and some nutrients.

Delivering tobacco plant nourishment is accomplished with fertilising. Some tobacco growing is accomplished with regular, chemically processed fertilisers. Other fertilisation is done with organic fertilisers. An organic fertiliser is a naturally occurring fertiliser such as manure, phosphate rocks, and gypsum. The tobacco plant does not know the difference between organic and non organic fertiliser. It is the prerogative of the grower to determine the type of fertiliser to be used. Many feel that it is better for the end product as well as for the vitality of the planet to use organic fertilisers.

Tobacco growing occurs for about ninety days. During the course of this time the tobacco plant will shoot up to a height of around seven feet! But thanks to the durability of the tobacco plant it can withstand areas prone to rough weather (like the United Kingdom). The stalk of the tobacco plant is very tough and is not likely to break in bad weather, though some tobacco growers decide to reinforce the tobacco plant with a steak as a form of insurance against the weather.

After ninety days of growing tobacco it is time to harvest the tobacco. Once harvesting is complete the tobacco plant is then prepared to be hung and cured. Curing is a process where the tobacco plant is allowed to undergo a chemical and colour change that will render it into a form that allows for it to be processed into its form for smoking. The colour change that occurs is one where the leaves change from green to yellow and finally to golden brown.

After the tobacco plant has been cured it is processed. The leaves are shredded and then readied for production as cigarettes or cigars. Some tobacco is specially cured for flavour that gives it a unique taste and sold as pipe tobacco. Other tobacco is sold as rolling tobacco.

The tobacco plant and tobacco growing is both simplistic and interesting. There is little that can harm the tobacco plant, other than a catastrophe. The tobacco plant will grow any weather so long as there is adequate sunshine and water. This means that tobacco can be grown as easily in the United Kingdom as it can be in areas known as "major tobacco growing spots."