Anyone grow tobacco plants?

[notaflyingmonkey]

DS(19) has never shown interest in gardening, and has struggling with his mental health for most of the year.

He bought some tobacco seeds online, and so I showed him how to sew them etc. He now visits the greenhouse regularly to check up on them, waters them, has bought new pots to put them in when they've outgrown the smaller pots, etc. It's quite remarkable as I can't remember his showing such an interest in anything else before. (He is learning the tricky lesson of slugs currently).

I've just been looking at the different varieties of seed we can buy in the UK, and was wondering if it was something that anyone else had tried growing?

They are attractive, often scented plants and some can be cut flowers, and may over winter if your greenhouse stays warm enough. Was he hoping to harvest tobacco? I’m not sure that will happen in the UK?

I haven't grown tobacco plant. But I am intrigued. I can relate incredibly well to your DS, OP.
I was on a dog walk last March and my heart stopped. To cut a long story short, I was given CPR and shocked 'back to life'. It was a real threshold I crossed over and the near-death experience (combined with not being well for quite a while after because of the heart damage, etc) hurled me into an almighty existential crisis/depression on steroids. During my recovery, I took to gardening. I was well enough by May to begin planting seeds, nurturing the dead plants in our garden back to life, breathing hope into struggling plants, propagating (please tell your son about the absolute joy of propegating! It's a lot of trial and error, but when it works, it totally elates me! DH thinks I am bonkers but it is magical!).
Growing things gives us such a sense of purpose. You are digging your fingers into LIFE and you become part of that living thing you've helped bring into the world through diligence and tenderness. It's a real connection to being alive and being part of something glorious. And yet it's so small, so simple, but so powerful. I hope your DS continues to recover and find joy in growing things! With small steps, he can try new things. I really, really love the RHS website.

Depending on the plant (most plants are fine with this!), he can use coffee grounds to deter slugs. Copper too. You can buy anti-slug copper rings. I tend to stick with the coffee myself. There are also things he can grow alongside the tobacco plant which will help deter slugs/snails (garlic, basil, parsley, etc... lots of herbs grown alongside the slug attracting plants can help keep them at bay).

I highly recommend giant sunflowers. He can plant seeds directly into the soil next summer (sow in May for an August show, April for a July show, or even sow in June for a late summer/early autumn show). It's better to plant the seeds straight into the earth rather than in pots if you want enormous sunflowers (they completely uplifted me this year! They were fantastic!).

Thanks for the responses. And that's amazing to hear of your journey Vanguard. We put some garlic in the greenhouse this evening in the hope that the smell will help deter slugs, so good to hear that you would recommend that as well. I had put copper tape around the previous pots, but he bought bigger pots and didn't wait for me to help repot them - so he learnt the hard way that British slugs like tobacco leaves!

He is indeed hoping to harvest tobacco that he can smoke Episode - I suspect that travelling in hope is going to keep him going for a while yet.

Well, at least he shouldn't get problems with aphids! Nicotine used to be used as a home remedy against aphids and other sap-suckers.

It might be possible to harvest. This is a similar climate, NZ. dengarden.com/gardening/Tobacco-Growing-and-Curing-at-Home

Maybe encourage a companion plant so there is something that will succeed. As pp said, the tobacco will repel some pests so something usually tricky might well grow safely beside the tobacco...

It may well be legal in the UK for personal use.

There is a channel on You Tube called Desi Gardening & he has a few videos on growing tobacco in the uk - which he has done successfully.

I've grown tobacco in the uk in the past so it can be done.

Growing tobacco for your own personal use is legal.

From seed to tobacco you smoke that tastes like tobacco you buy is a few years long process though because you need to cure it properly & most tobacco sold is blended from different varieties.

Thanks snuggle I'll get him to take a look.

Does he still have the seed packet?

There are a lot of different varieties in the tobacco plant family (nicotiana) and most of them are just flowering plants for the garden. Only a few are the type that can be harvested to use as tobacco.

I think it may even have been me that bought the seeds Ortam (otherwise I think we would be growing a different sort of crop...) and the plants do look like the ones in the YouTube video above. We bought Amber Leaf and Golden Virginia. I didn't label them, as I didn't think much would come of them, but one tray really took and has big leaves.