Tobacco Cultivation

Efficient cultivation of tobacco requires a set of key factors:

  • favorable climate: tobacco products of high quality come from leaves not exposed to thermal shocks;
  • neither too wet nor too dry soil;
  • sufficient moisture;
  • and tobacco farming skills.

To obtain healthy and ready-to-plant seedlings, seeds are germinated in special polystyrene trays with peat, which are placed in pools inside the greenhouse. When the seedlings grow 15 cm high, they are planted outdoors. Intensive greening of the upper leaves starts in 10-15 days after transplanting the seedlings in the field, then the stem grows rapidly, with more and more new leaves on it. The plant forms until the time the first flower appears. To improve the quality of the product and to increase its mass, the tops of the tobacco plant are broken off, its side shoots and branches are removed. This operation is performed before the flowering of tobacco; as a result, the juices are sent to the leaves and their mass increases.

By the time tobacco is harvested, yellow spots begin to appear on the leaves between the lateral veins; the leaves become sticky and rough.

The moment of harvesting is very important for tobacco and affects its quality; early harvesting, for example, produces leaves with little aroma and susceptible for rotting during the process of curing. For this reason, tobacco leaves in our fields are harvested manually as they mature: starting with the mature lower leaves and gradually moving to the upper ones. This process is called priming; it produces tobacco of higher quality and value.

After preliminary sorting, the leaves are placed in curing chambers with hot air currents and forced ventilation. Once curing is complete, containers with tobacco are removed from the oven to be sorted and placed in cardboard boxes. After that, tobacco is sent to a production facility for further processing.