Each year, I usually buy my tobacco seeds from LeafOnly.com. I like their selection, and I've had good luck with germination and growth of seeds from there. I have had a light level of luck with seeds from my tobacco flowers, but we'll touch on that later on in this article. You can select any types you like, but in Arkansas I've had good luck with Havana, Virginia, and Burley. This year, these are the varieties I'm going to be growing: Havana Long Leaf, Turkish Basma, Indian Rustica, Golden Seal Special Burley, Small Black Mammoth, Virginia Gold. When you get your first order of tobacco seeds you'll notice they are very, very small!
I usually seed start my tobacco plants indoors. This is usually done 6-8 weeks before your projected last frost date. I use the Farmer's Almanac to see my projected last frost date. This year, I started my seeds on March 18th, 2025. I start mine in trays, usually EZ Foil Cake Pans. For my soil, I usually get seed starting soil from my local Wal-Mart. I use the Jiffy Seed Starter, and have had good luck with it. Seeds aren't planted, they are sprinkled lightly on the surface of the soil. From there, I give them a misting of water.
After this is done, I put the plastic covers on the trays and put them on a rack. Then, I position my LED grow lights over them. You can buy any of these you want. I have a ton of them that I bought from Amazon over the years. These are an example of the kind that I use. I usually set mine to warm white light during the day, and then the darker purple at night. After this, I give mine a light misting of water each day. I don't let the soil get super wet, but I don't let the soil dry out, either. From there, we wait!
When they sprout varies. I began seeing mine sprout on March 23rd, and the last ones sprouted on March 25th. So that's anywhere from 5 to 7 days after seed starting. This can vary, I've had some sprout after that. So, if they don't sprout within a week, don't give up on them, they may sprout a few days after the week mark. As mentioned earlier, I continue to give them a light misting of water each day. I keep my covers on for humidity, because I've seen good luck doing it this way. But it's up to you how you do it.
It's April 29th (42 days since seed starting), and the sprouts are getting bigger. The weather is also starting to warm up, staying above 60° F at night, and hovering between 70-80° F outside during the day. So, I'm going to transplant these sprouts into individual trays and move them outside. This year, I had a lot of luck with my plants sprouting. I ended up with a lot of sprouts to transplant! In total, what we had sprout this year:
Homegrown Perique (2024) - 18 plants
Havana Long Leaf - 30 plants
Turkish Basma - 36 plants
Indian Rustica - 36 plants
Golden Seal Special Burley - 36 plants
Small Black Mammoth - 36 plants
Virginia Gold - 36 plants
Total - 228 plants
Note, all these plants won't make it until the end. You will have some die. That's okay, it's normal. Each plant will yield, on average, 4-6oz (113-170g) of dry, finished tobacco. If all 228 plants made it until the end, that could be as much as 39kg (or 85 pounds) of finished tobacco (over 900 cans of loose snus!). That's a lot of snus! I don't usually end up with that much, though. Don't expect a lot at first as you're learning the process. My 2023 crop yielded just 168g, but that was my first year going all the way through the process.
I usually move these into a potting mix. This year I used Expert Gardener Potting Mix, acquired from Wal-Mart. A note, I'm not getting paid for any of these links, I'm just supplying them so I can fully explain my process and what I'm doing. I use the little 6-cell trays, then put those into a bigger tray. From there, I move them out to my greenhouse.
For me, I bought a cheap, basic greenhouse from Wayfair. I think this one is the model we purchased, it's a little over $100. We've had this one for several years, I think we got it around 2020 or so. Mine got a little wind damaged over the years, so the front door isn't there anymore, it's just a piece of clear sheeting, but it still works. What can I say, I'm cheap. I usually will leave it open during the day and close it at night. As far as watering, I don't let the soil get too dry, but I also don't let it get too damp. From here, we'll continue to keep an eye on the plants, and watering them, before we move on to the next step!
To be continued...
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Cost Summary (So Far)
My 2025 Total Costs
Tobacco Seeds (LeafOnly.com) - $47.80
Seed Starter Soil (6 Bags Jiffy, Wal-Mart) - $35.82
Potting Mix for Transplanting (Wal-Mart) - $9.97
Total So Far - $93.59
Things I already had:
I'm not including the Greenhouse in the cost because I already had it and use it for vegetables and other stuff. But that is around $109.99 if you want to factor it in. The plant trays I already had, I acquired them over the years from local greenhouses. The shelving/racks I use I've had for several years. You can find them locally used on Facebook Marketplace or Craigslist for pretty cheap, I spent around $40 for two of mine. Once you buy many of these things, you can re-use them each year. The LED lights ($39.99) and pans ($14.88) I use for growing, I save and re-use those each year so I don't have to buy those yearly, either. If I added in the cost of these things, that's an extra $204.85 in cost, but that's stuff I re-use from year to year. Your first year, you may have more out of pocket cost in growing, but that will lessen in your second year.
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