Tobacco: USA Grow Your Own Tobacco

By Stacey Federoff
TRIBUNE-REVIEW
Sunday, April 10, 2011

Next to the tomato vines and pansies, Betty Hazuza set out some small tobacco plants for sale in her family’s Rillton greenhouse two years ago.

“Whenever cigarette prices got to be out of this world, we figured more people would want to try and grow some,” she said.

On April 1, 2009, taxes went up $7 on a carton of cigarettes and nearly $24 per pound on loose tobacco. Smokers now shell out on average $5.39 for a pack of cigarettes in Pennsylvania, the 20th highest in the nation, according to the Campaign for Tobacco-Free Kids. That includes $1.60 in state taxes and $1.01 in federal taxes.

Hazuza figured right. Frustrated about digging deeper into their pockets for cigarette money, some smokers have started planting tobacco in their backyards.

The Hazuzas have sold about 100 tobacco plants in each of the last two seasons. This year, they have 250 plants of two tobacco varieties sprouting at their Sewickley Township greenhouse. They bought 200-seed packets for $6.95 from a British company and will sell plants for $2 each.

Jim Weinberg, owner of Organica Seed Co. in Massachusetts, sells packets of about 60 tobacco seeds for $12.50 to home gardeners across the country. He said the heirloom seed company saw tobacco sales double last year to 5,000, up from 2,500 orders in 2009.

“I think that because of the economy, people are trying to save money wherever they can,” he said. “People are just very resourceful.”

Growing tobacco for personal use is not regulated or taxed by the state, said Jeff Graybill, an educator with the Penn State Cooperative Extension in Lancaster County.

The federal government regulates the sale of manufactured products, such as cigars, cigarettes and chewing tobacco. Whole-leaf tobacco is not taxed.

Each plant produces about three-quarters of a pound of tobacco, and a single pound can produce about 40 packs of cigarettes, said Dennis Hess, a commercial tobacco grower for 20 years in Lititz, Lancaster County. The county produces 8,000 of the 9,000 acres of commercial tobacco planted each year in Pennsylvania.

While the process is labor-intensive, a person could grow about 20 plants and make enough cigarettes to smoke more than one pack per day for a year, he said.

Don Carey of Peninsula, Ohio, just north of Akron, put in his first tobacco crop after the 2009 federal tax increases, growing 7,000 plants on about an acre of ground.

Carey said he has saved thousands of dollars on cigarettes, although he could not give a precise number since he also is invested in contract growing for others and has spent time experimenting with different types of tobacco to produce a better-tasting cigarette.

“Growing home-grown tobacco is like comparing home-grown tomatoes to store-bought tomatoes,” he said. “Very little regard is given to the taste. It’s more about the yield.”

While the tobacco seeds and plants are significantly cheaper than the finished product, home-grown tobacco takes time and nurturing to successfully be used for cigarettes.

“Somebody would have to be awfully committed to doing it as a hobby, I think,” said Hess, former manager of the Pennsylvania Tobacco Marketing Association, a co-op of growers disbanded in 2003.

Tobacco plants are easy to grow but are susceptible to frost and need warm temperatures, which is why the crop is more prevalent in the South, Hess said.

The Hazuzas, both nonsmokers, said they grew tobacco plants with ease when they tested a few in their own garden last summer.

“We didn’t treat them with anything at all and they grew to be 6 feet tall,” Greg Hazuza said.

The process can be compared to brewing beer, said Lisa Fleck of Girard, Ohio, part owner of Tightwad Tobacco, a chain of tobacco outlets, and Tobacco Outlet Express, a distributor of roll-your-own cigarette machines, both based in New Castle.

“It matters to what degree you want to take it,” she said. “It would be like people who buy a beer in the store, or you can buy all the components to make beer at home.

“Taking it one step further, growing your own tobacco would be like someone growing their own hops and barley and grains. That would be the most time-consuming, but the most cost-effective if they don’t mind waiting,” she added.

Home-grown cigarettes taste harsher than commercial cigarettes because they don’t have additives, Carey said. The key to a good smoke is in the curing, according to experts.

Plants bought in Southwestern Pennsylvania in mid-May would grow until November when they would need to be harvested and the leaves hung to dry in order to cure, Hess said.

Two types cured differently are most often used in cigarettes. Flue-cured tobacco takes seven to 10 days and needs heat and humidity to dry individual leaves that have been stripped from the plants. Burley tobacco takes two to four months without humidity and can be hung and dried as an entire plant.

Robert Gehrmann of Crafton has started 15 tobacco plants in pots and in a garden plot outside his home. Like Carey, this will be his third season growing the large-leafed plants.

While he initially wanted to save money on cigarettes, he found the process too time-intensive.

“I’ve tried to dry it,” he said. “I tried to put it in a pipe, and it wouldn’t even burn.”

Now, as the Pennsylvania representative for the Citizens Freedom Alliance and Smokers Club International, a smokers rights group, he said he continues growing tobacco as a conversation piece and a symbolic gesture of defiance of the amount of tax responsibility placed on smokers.

“This is about freedom; it’s not about much else,” he said.

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Fed up by expense, smokers grow own tobacco
Seed suppliers report a tenfold increase in sales as many seek cheaper fix

Aug 19, 2009

RICHMOND, Va. – Something unusual is cropping up alongside the tomatoes, eggplant and okra in Scott Byars’ vegetable garden — the elephantine leaves of 30 tobacco plants.

Driven largely by ever-rising tobacco prices, he’s among a growing number of smokers who have turned to their green thumbs to cultivate tobacco plants to blend their own cigarettes, cigars and chew. Byars normally pays $5 for a five-pack of cigars and $3 for a tin of snuff; the seed cost him $9.

“I want to get to where I don’t have to go to the store and buy tobacco, but I’ll just be able to supply my own from one year to the next,” Byars said.

In urban lots and on rural acres, smokers and smokeless tobacco users are planting Virginia Gold, Goose Creek Red, Yellow Twist Bud and dozens of other tobacco varieties.

Although most people still buy from big tobacco, the movement took off in April when the tax on cigarettes went up 62 cents to $1.01 a pack. Large tax increases were also imposed on other tobacco products, and tobacco companies upped prices even more to compensate for lost sales.

Some seed suppliers have reported a tenfold increase in sales as some of the country’s 43.3 million smokers look for a cheaper way to get their nicotine fix in a down economy. Cigarettes cost an average of $4.35 a pack; home growers can make that amount for about 30 cents.

It’s the latest do-it-yourself movement as others repair their own cars, swap used clothes and cancel yard work services to save money.

Satisfying a habit
“Cigarette smokers say, ‘Yeah, we’re going to die of cancer, but do we have to die of poverty as well?'” said Jack Basharan, who operates The Tobacco Seed Co. Ltd. in Essex, England. Virtually all of his increased tobacco seed sales have been in the U.S., he said.

Provided the tobacco isn’t sold or traded, the Food and Drug Administration doesn’t regulate homegrown tobacco. Most people grow for cigarettes, but some blend their own cigars and chew.

The FDA and U.S. Department of Agriculture don’t keep statistics on home growers, though seed suppliers and Internet buzz suggest strong interest.

Seedman.com has sold more than 100,000 packets of tobacco seeds this year, compared with 22,000 in all of 2008, president Jim Johnson said. The Gautier, Miss.-based company offers 40 varieties of tobacco from around the globe and packages various flavor blends for first-time growers.

A grower who purchased one of Johnson’s Oriental and Turkish blends for $24.50 could satisfy a pack-a-day habit for more than three years, according to Johnson’s calculations.

However, growing and processing tobacco can challenge even the best gardeners. The nearly microscopic seeds must initially be grown inside and transplanted after the threat of frost has passed.

The plants are susceptible to an army of pests; must be topped, or pruned, to encourage leaf growth; require rotating every few years; and require the proper chemical soil balance. The leaves must be cut and hung to dry.

Labor intensive
A seed started in March can be ready to smoke as soon as October. Some anxious growers have been known to microwave leaves to hasten the drying. For purists, the leaves can be cured, or aged, like a fine wine for up to three years.

“It’s actually very labor intensive,” said Ed Baker, general manager of Cross Creek Seed Inc. in Raeford, N.C., the No. 1 tobacco seed supplier in the U.S. “There’s a reason why cigarette companies make all that money. If it was that easy, everyone would be growing their own tobacco.”

Cross Creek has seen a big increase in seed requests from home growers but it sells in volume. It’s smallest seed offering is 90,000 seeds for $170.

Novices and veterans can find smoker-friendly havens like howtogrowtobacco.com, a Web site that offers growing and curing tips, often including angry posts over ever-increasing taxes and smoking restrictions.

Many would not discuss their crops with The Associated Press, fearful a high profile would invite government scrutiny and taxes. Others proudly share stories and post photos.

Arthur Skora, 42, records his success growing and curing in Greenwood, Wis., on a how-to DVD he sells online.

“Most of the people who are ordering are just getting fed up with prices and basically they’re not going to take it anymore,” Skora said.

Saving money wasn’t the only motivation for Matt Schoell-Schafer, a landscape architect in Kansas City, who has 50 plants growing in his urban garden.

“It’s not being a victim to their manipulation of this product,” said Schoell-Schafer, 34, who enjoys an occasional cigar or cigarette. “So I’m sort of liberating myself by growing it myself.”

Roll your own
Some growers contend their tobacco concoctions are safer than commercial products, which have a stew of additives ranging from colorings and oils to ammonia.

“The quick answer to that is no,” said Thomas Glynn, director of cancer science and trends at the American Cancer Society. Glynn knew of only one study of the health risks of homegrown and commercial blends — and it concluded no difference in safety between the two.

Homegrown tobacco can also contain fungus and mold, which can cause chronic bronchitis and other ailments, Glynn said.

Philip Morris USA, the nation’s No. 1 cigarette maker, and other big companies are unlikely to shudder. Philip Gorham, a tobacco industry analyst with the investment research firm Morningstar, said he had no data on smokers who switched to homegrown. But he doesn’t see it as a mass movement.

“It’s one thing to switch from a premium brand to a discount one. It’s quite another to switch from buying a manufactured product to roll your own,” Gorham said.

At VirtualSeeds.com, Joyce Moore said she typically sold tobacco seeds as ornamental plants to gardeners who appreciated their elephantine leaves. This year, her Astoria, Ore.-based company was overwhelmed by orders from tobacco users slammed by “the market collapse, the recession, then getting hit with exorbitant tobacco taxes.”

Moore doesn’t use tobacco herself but has no misgivings about her business.

“If I sold doughnuts in a bakery would I feel guilty because fat people come in and buy them?” she asked. “It just happens to be a very good year for tobacco seeds.”