Description

Nicotiana rustica is a special species of tobacco held sacred by the hopi indians. 80-90% germination. Great to use for a pesticide. You can make a combination with tobacco and hot pepper tea and spray on your plants to keep bugs away.

Seeds are very small and so need light to germinate, meaning just sprinkle them on wet planting medium and lightly press them in. Put in indirect light with bottom heat (like a heating pad set on medium) to germinate in 10-20 days at 70-75F/20-25C. Keep moist by using a fine mister or watering from the bottom (put the pots in water for 1/2 hour and remove); otherwise, the seeds will be swamped. Once they are up, lower temps to 65F/18C. Transplant when they get their first set of true leaves (second set of leaves), gradually hardening off to plant in full sun when outside temperatures are warm. I have found this plant easy to grow. Normally tobacco is grown in rich soil–it greatly depletes soil nutrients. Native Americans grew this plant in isolated pockets in the woods, but in Turkey, plants are deliberately grown on poor soil and planted thickly in order to end up with smaller leaves with concentrated alkaloids; they are then cured in the sun for 2-3 weeks. Whether you grow it in rich soil or poor, the soil must be well drained; they don’t like to sit in water. This annual grows 2-3 feet high and produces suckers (baby plants); cutting off suckers means bigger leaves. Leaving suckers on usually means a greater concentration of alkaloids. If you want seeds, let the flowers form. But if you want bigger leaves, cut the flowers off before the flowers open. Hot, dry climates also concentrate alkaloids, and the higher on the plant the leaf is (and the smaller the leaf), the more alkaloids it will contain.