looking for tobacco seeds

[Avery L. Breath]

Nicotinia glauca or other non commercial varieties would be appreciated.

[Stonehenge]

I have some tobacco seeds. I'd have to look to see the species but it's a highly potent variety. I can send you some of the leaf if you want to try it. How many do you want and what would you like to trade?

[Avery L. Breath]

Hey Stoney.

I'm just looking for a few seeds, say a hundred or so, of a hardy and tasty strain (nothing too potent)  I just hear tobacco grows well in pots, thought I'd give it a try this spring.


I can trade (depending on what variety you have)  Caapi resinous extracts or whole vine sections, cacti cuttings, doodads, mushie I.D. books, And I've been carving alot of pipestone body jewelry lately.  Septum spikes, plugs, beads, hair spikes, pipes exc.  But it'd have to be a pretty good trade to part with the crafts.

[Amomynous]

I think I have some N. rustica around here somewhere. Do you know how long tobacco stays viable? I think they're about 2 years old.

[Avery L. Breath]

I believe they are viable for several years if kept in a cool and dry place.

[Amomynous]

I'll see if I can find 'em and shoot you a PM in the next day or so.

Don't need anything in trade right now, but I got a lot of them when my plants flowered, so I don't mind giving them away.

[Avery L. Breath]

Sweet!  Thanks Amom.  I'm sure we'll figure something out.

A~

[boomer2]

Well,

I do not have any seeds. Never thought about that since i quit smoking 8 years ago.

 I just spent 2 months this summer on my friends farm on Koh Samui and studied the Thai local manufacture of Baiya and Baiyasoob ( the tobacco and the finished product).  

I planted seeds (lost those images), grew the plants with the natives. Helped harvest the leaves, prepare them for the lumphao (ancient chopping instrument used to shread the tobacco), and then lay it on trays to dry in the sun.  Later, people come in trucks and load the tobacco and take it to the mainland and south to Yala district where it is processed into local cigarettes like buglar and Top Tobacco.

Here is a picture of the drying trays



Sorry I cannot post a lot of the images because Mark Merlin and I, along with my colleague in Bangkok, are writing a paper for the Journal of Economic Botany on the complete cultivation of the tobacco.  I have more than 1 few hundred images.  Maybe later I can post a few more if anyone is interested.

I saw at least five other growers of the leaves on the island. Probably more than I could image.

Each farmer grows fifty kilos a year.  There are hundreds of such growers in the southern provinces of Thailand.  They get $200 dollars each for their fifty kilos.

Some of the growers chew kratom and others betel nut.  They also collect coconuts all day, tend cattle, feed chickens, prepare fertilizers and composts, Shuck husk coconuts and burn the shells and hairs.  Tend water buffalo and other cattle, often moving them from shady area to other shady areas throughout the day.

It is a hard life and they are at it from sunrise til sunset.

boomer2

[Avery L. Breath]

Nice Boomer!  Always good to read about your random projects.

Say, I heard you and Lizjah got together the other day.  He's a great guy, and thinks well of you.

[boomer2]

What the hey,

a few more images for a tease.

Here my friend is chopping the baiya into a cole slaw looking opile of vegetaticve material.

You can als see the prepare leaves in rolls to be put into the Lumphao for splicing.



And here my friend gathers the shreaded tobacco and arranges it across the bamboo screen and later the tray is placed in the sun to dry. The locals use two sized leaves for two different grades of tobacco.  Here you can also see how she uses her big toe to balance her tray on her leg.



So whatt do you think about this.  I learned something new this summer.

Cool,

have a shroomy day,
boomer2

[jus407]

OMFG!!! thats alot of tobacco and thats cool that you were able to do that.