# As tobacco prices keep skyrocketing people are growing their own **URL:** \ **Category:** Miscellaneous and Personal Stuff I Must Share\ **Created:** [June 28, 2009, 10:38pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/as-tobacco-prices-keep-skyrocketing-people-are-growing-their-own/501287 "2009-06-28T22:38:37Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 19\ **Page:** 1
**Author:** ![astro](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/9dc877/32.png) [@astro](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/astro)\ **Post date:** [June 28, 2009, 10:38pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/as-tobacco-prices-keep-skyrocketing-people-are-growing-their-own/501287/1 "2009-06-28T22:38:37Z")
[Smoker decides to grow his own tobacco](http://www.ohio.com/news/top_stories/49365072.html) > [@](#): > > David Dugan, Ohio State University extension educator for a 10-county area in southern Ohio, said he began receiving inquiries about planting tobacco around the time the taxes were increased. > > ‘‘I had several calls back in March and April when that was going on,’’ Dugan said. ‘‘People calling me were looking for where they could buy tobacco plants and seeds.’’ > > Dugan said it is no easy task to grow tobacco. ‘‘He has a real adventure in front of him,’’ Dugan said of Carey. Three-quarters of an acre of tobacco, he said, could ultimately yield up to 2,000 pounds of tobacco. > > ‘‘If the crop grows well, he is going to need a lot of space to hang this stuff to get it to cure and then a lot of space to store it once it is stripped,’’ he said. Curing tobacco is a process that depends on the weather, he said. ‘‘You don’t want it to dry too fast,’’ he said. > > There has to be just the right amount of humidity in the curing process that results in a leaf that has the right color and quality. Plus, he said, you have to watch out for insects and rodents when storing it. If .75 of an acre yields 2000 lbs I wonder how much a small backyard garden could yield. I wonder if there will be “craft” tobaccos like there are craft beers? ---
**Author:** ![ZipperJJ](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/zipperjj/32/211_2.png) [@ZipperJJ](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/ZipperJJ)\ **Post date:** [June 29, 2009, 12:58am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/as-tobacco-prices-keep-skyrocketing-people-are-growing-their-own/501287/2 "2009-06-29T00:58:55Z")
One of my neighbors has a large garden and he is growing tobacco this summer for his son, who is supposedly selling it on the Internet. I’ve seen the plants - they’re not very big yet. The other day he put up a motion-sensor light, presumably to keep the critters away. If nothing else, it’s getting the old man a lot of gardening help this year 🙂 ---
**Author:** ![Zsofia](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/z/7bcc69/32.png) [@Zsofia](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Zsofia)\ **Post date:** [June 29, 2009, 1:14am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/as-tobacco-prices-keep-skyrocketing-people-are-growing-their-own/501287/3 "2009-06-29T01:14:02Z")
I can’t believe people would actually try to grow their own tobacco. Grow pot, and sell it and buy some cigarettes. I have to say, though, those curing sheds smell _so good_. ---
**Author:** ![drastic\_quench](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/e36b37/32.png) [@drastic\_quench](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/drastic_quench)\ **Post date:** [June 29, 2009, 1:27am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/as-tobacco-prices-keep-skyrocketing-people-are-growing-their-own/501287/4 "2009-06-29T01:27:29Z")
Lots of pipe smokers are simply stocking up, since tinned tobaccos typically get bettter (to divine) with age. ---
**Author:** ![Mr\_Buttons](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/a6a055/32.png) [@Mr\_Buttons](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Mr_Buttons)\ **Post date:** [June 29, 2009, 2:55am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/as-tobacco-prices-keep-skyrocketing-people-are-growing-their-own/501287/5 "2009-06-29T02:55:53Z")
I’m still waiting for some guy with a trunk full of cigs from NC or some such place to be selling them for $3/pack somewhere. The way they’re starting to jack up prices, they’re just asking to breed a black market. Seriously, 10 years ago when I got hooked it was buy 1 pack get one free (Marlboro’s!) for $1.81 at the place I worked at. Now it’s $5 for a pack of freaking USA brand cigarettes. ---
**Author:** ![Sampiro](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/2acd7d/32.png) [@Sampiro](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Sampiro)\ **Post date:** [June 29, 2009, 6:39am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/as-tobacco-prices-keep-skyrocketing-people-are-growing-their-own/501287/6 "2009-06-29T06:39:42Z")
Tobacco isn’t like corn or tomatoes- it’s a very complicated plant to cultivate. It starts in beds, then is transplanted, then if it’s a good harvest it has to be cured and seasoned, and then it’s extremely dependent on exactly the right amount of sunlight and water for quality, and location and exactly what kind of soil and fertilizer are used makes an enormous difference- in short it’s a pain in the ass as well as risky and requires a lot of equipment and expertise most people don’t have unless they’re tobacco farmers. I think 99.999999999999% of smokers will quit smoking or just keep buying long before they consider starting their own crop. Of course if we see tobacco leaves starting to sprout on the White House lawn we’ll really know we’re in trouble. (Maybe that’s why there’s increasing talk of re-establishing trade with Cuba.) ---
**Author:** ![FairyChatMom](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/fairychatmom/32/21825_2.png) [@FairyChatMom](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/FairyChatMom)\ **Post date:** [June 29, 2009, 10:18am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/as-tobacco-prices-keep-skyrocketing-people-are-growing-their-own/501287/7 "2009-06-29T10:18:00Z")
About 10 years ago, you would pass acres and acres of tobacco here in St. Mary’s county. This year, I’ve seen one small planting - maybe a dozen acres? I expect there are others growing tobacco, but it’s dramatically different from a decade ago. I can’t imagine growing it as a do-it-yourself project - over the years, I’ve seen various stages of harvest and drying. It’s definitely not like planting a few tomatoes in the yard. ---
**Author:** ![ZipperJJ](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/zipperjj/32/211_2.png) [@ZipperJJ](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/ZipperJJ)\ **Post date:** [June 29, 2009, 11:11pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/as-tobacco-prices-keep-skyrocketing-people-are-growing-their-own/501287/8 "2009-06-29T23:11:27Z")
So I just talked to my mom and she said “your neighbor’s son is in the newspaper about his tobacco.” I finally clicked on the OP’s link - it’s a story about my neighbor’s son (from post #2) 🙂 No idea why he’s growing it in his dad’s yard. It’s quite a trek from Freedom to here, and he’s only got about one row’s worth. ---
**Author:** ![Dewey\_Finn](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/dewey_finn/32/4222_2.png) [@Dewey\_Finn](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Dewey_Finn)\ **Post date:** [June 30, 2009, 2:40am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/as-tobacco-prices-keep-skyrocketing-people-are-growing-their-own/501287/9 "2009-06-30T02:40:29Z")
Isn’t there a middle ground between buying Marlboros and growing and curing your own tobacco? Like just buying cured tobacco and rolling your own. (How do the taxes on cigarettes compare to that for loose leaf tobacco?) ---
**Author:** ![Pushkin](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/p/ee59a6/32.png) [@Pushkin](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Pushkin)\ **Post date:** [June 30, 2009, 10:31am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/as-tobacco-prices-keep-skyrocketing-people-are-growing-their-own/501287/10 "2009-06-30T10:31:25Z")
> [@FairyChatMom](#): > > It’s definitely not like planting a few tomatoes in the yard. Well, what do you know, someone really did make [Tomacco](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Rob_Baur#Tomacco). And a briefly interesting wikipedia article to boot. ---
**Author:** ![Broomstick](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/broomstick/32/246_2.png) [@Broomstick](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Broomstick)\ **Post date:** [June 30, 2009, 11:51am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/as-tobacco-prices-keep-skyrocketing-people-are-growing-their-own/501287/11 "2009-06-30T11:51:58Z")
I doubt very much he’s going to get a 2,000 yield from his 3/4 acres. Given this is his first foray in to tobacco farming he’ll probably have significant losses his first year. But growing your own for private consumption is different than running a commercial operation for profit. He doesn’t need to squeeze every last leaf out of the ground that he can. Have people forgotten that up through the 19th Century, and even into the early 20th, people did, in fact, grow their own tobacco? It’s no crazier than brewing your own beer, making your own wine, or any number of other labor-intensive hobbies one can have. ---
**Author:** ![levdrakon](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/l/49beb7/32.png) [@levdrakon](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/levdrakon)\ **Post date:** [June 30, 2009, 12:09pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/as-tobacco-prices-keep-skyrocketing-people-are-growing-their-own/501287/12 "2009-06-30T12:09:31Z")
> [@Broomstick](#): > > Have people forgotten that up through the 19th Century, and even into the early 20th, people did, in fact, grow their own tobacco? Yeah, that’s what I came here to say. Modern cigarettes are handy, but haven’t been around all that long. ---
**Author:** ![shiftless](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/e9c0ed/32.png) [@shiftless](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/shiftless)\ **Post date:** [June 30, 2009, 12:58pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/as-tobacco-prices-keep-skyrocketing-people-are-growing-their-own/501287/13 "2009-06-30T12:58:01Z")
Growing tobacco is the easy part. Then, if you are lucky, you have a plant with sticky green, leaves and a long way to go before you have a fine modern cig. You could also skip the growing part and just go to a tobacco auction. There they sell lots of cured tobacco leaves of various quailities to middle men. I was young when I last went so I don’t really know how it works but I bet you could buy what you need before the various government taxes drive the price up. The smell is heavenly in those places too. ---
**Author:** ![Shirley\_Ujest](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/45deac/32.png) [@Shirley\_Ujest](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Shirley_Ujest)\ **Post date:** [June 30, 2009, 1:33pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/as-tobacco-prices-keep-skyrocketing-people-are-growing-their-own/501287/14 "2009-06-30T13:33:59Z")
[GIS on How to Grow your Own Tobacco.](http://www.howtogrowtobacco.com/) I don’t smoke, and I think Michigan would possibly be too cool at night to have a successful crop, but growing the stuff appeals to me. ---
**Author:** ![levdrakon](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/l/49beb7/32.png) [@levdrakon](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/levdrakon)\ **Post date:** [June 30, 2009, 1:45pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/as-tobacco-prices-keep-skyrocketing-people-are-growing-their-own/501287/15 "2009-06-30T13:45:25Z")
> [@Zsofia](#): > > Grow pot, and sell it and buy some cigarettes. No see, I grow the tobacco to camouflage my pot plants. It’s win-win. ---
**Author:** ![Ferret\_Herder](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/f/e47774/32.png) [@Ferret\_Herder](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Ferret_Herder)\ **Post date:** [June 30, 2009, 1:50pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/as-tobacco-prices-keep-skyrocketing-people-are-growing-their-own/501287/16 "2009-06-30T13:50:28Z")
> [@Broomstick](#): > > It’s no crazier than brewing your own beer, making your own wine, or any number of other labor-intensive hobbies one can have. As a homebrewer, this sounds more like if I was going to plant my own barley and hops, sprout and roast the barley, and then proceed to brew my own beer - assuming that barley and hops have suddenly become extremely labor-intensive plants, which generally they aren’t. Brewing beer is really easy. Brewing **good** beer is another matter entirely. 😃 ---
**Author:** ![evilhomer](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/e/43a26b/32.png) [@evilhomer](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/evilhomer)\ **Post date:** [June 30, 2009, 3:24pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/as-tobacco-prices-keep-skyrocketing-people-are-growing-their-own/501287/17 "2009-06-30T15:24:37Z")
> [@Shirley\_Ujest](#): > > I don’t smoke, and I think Michigan would possibly be too cool at night to have a successful crop, but growing the stuff appeals to me. Not necessarily. South-western Ontario has quite a few tobacco farms around Tillsonburg and Delhi, so I’d imagine that parts of Michigan would be ok climate wise. ---
**Author:** ![Derleth](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/b9e5f3/32.png) [@Derleth](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Derleth)\ **Post date:** [June 30, 2009, 10:17pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/as-tobacco-prices-keep-skyrocketing-people-are-growing-their-own/501287/18 "2009-06-30T22:17:19Z")
So, how long until someone’s tobacco fields get raided by the DEA looking for a marijuana crop? ---
**Author:** ![Sampiro](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/2acd7d/32.png) [@Sampiro](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Sampiro)\ **Post date:** [June 30, 2009, 10:57pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/as-tobacco-prices-keep-skyrocketing-people-are-growing-their-own/501287/19 "2009-06-30T22:57:31Z")
Tobacco will grow almost anywhere. _Quality_ tobacco is another story. Sir Walter Raleigh (he was such a stupid git) started tobacco plantations in Ireland, but there’s a reason nobody ever says “I could go for a good Irish cigar right now”.