Dear Diane,
I start tobacco seed in pots or small plastic flats filled with a 1:1
mixture of perlite and vermiculte. I wet the planting mixture thoroughly,
let drain, then sprinkle the seed on top and cover with a glass or
plexiglass plate and place under light. The light source is a bank of 6 to
8 cool-white fluorescent tubes placed about 1 foot above the seeds. I give
them any where from 16 h light per day (with 8 hour dark) to 24 h light.
At comfortable room temp (22-25C) the seedlings will be up in about a week.
I remove the glass plate and begin watering with Petersen's liquid
fertilizer. You may have to thin once or twice as it is very easy to plant
too many seeds. In about 3 or 4 weeks the seedlings will be big enough to
transplant into individual 2" pots with soil. I grow the potted plants
under the same light and temperature conditions and feed them with slow
release fertilizer pellets.
After about an additional 5- 7 weeks the plants will begin to show signs of
flowering - that is, the youngest leaves will appear much narrower and
pointier than previous leaves. Therefore, if you need non-flowering plants
you will probably want to use them somewhere in that 5 week window.
The time frames are approximate and may well vary with growth conditions
and plant variety. I use the variety "Turkish Samsun". Hope this is useful.
Kath Archer
