With the long, sunny days and stormy weather, our tobacco plants are doing great. They're over three feet tall at this point, with large, leafy foliage and thick, firm stems. In fact they're doing so well that they've begun to flower. We've picked the buds off all but one of the plants (as we intend to harvest them as a crop, rather than grow them for ornamentation). Growing flowers will sap the plant's energy, and it will focus on flowering instead of producing leaves. Tobacco is an ornamental plant as well as a cash crop, so either option is fine, depending on your gardening goals. We also added a bit of fertilizer to the pots, as tobacco is a heavy-feeding species. more ›

It's been a few weeks since we last checked in our tobacco crop, and they've grown quite a bit. With the days getting longer and the weather set to warm up soon, we'll be moving our plants outside into fresh air and better sunlight. In the meantime, though, they've gotten too big for the cells we planted them in. Over the weekend, we repotted the plants, using larger pots and fresh soil, so they can grow a more developed root system and get bigger before we move them outside. more ›

It's been a month since we first planted our tobacco plants, and though the last frost is still a few weeks away, our crops are doing pretty good. The method we used to plant the seeds - sprinkling them over the soil and watering them in - worked well, but the unintended side effect is that we had an over abundance of plants when they first sprouted. That was resolved with some selective weeding. more ›

In spite of this weekend's snow and cold, spring is here in Chicago, and the last frost will probably be in early May. That, along with the longer days, sunshine and warmer weather, means local gardeners are getting ready for planting season. And for those of us that grow tobacco, now is the time to get the plants ready. A relative of the tomato, tobacco is a fun and easy plant to grow, if cared for properly. In spite of its associations with the South and the Caribbean, tobacco can be raised in climates even farther north than Chicago. If you can grow tomatoes, you can grow tobacco. And even if you don't smoke, tobacco is an interesting, attractive plant, and will flower later in the summer, and will be fragrant in the afternoon. more ›