Tobacco Growing in Ireland

 Growing Tobacco in Ireland. Pics courtesy of County Museum Dundalk

I like to have a go at growing new things every year.  There is one plant that so far I haven’t tried to nurture and that’s the tobacco plant (Nicotina tabacum), but I think this year I will have a go.

Like tea (Camellia Sinensis) and industrial hemp (Cannabis sativa), tobacco plants are actually ideally suited to some areas of the country and are only not grown much because of licencing and laws. This wasn’t always the case though. Up until the 1900’s hemp was the most common material for household and farm use as it has so many uses from clothes, mulch, animal bedding, milk, paper and ropes to a valuable nutritional seed food.  

Tobacco on the other hand was really only grown for smoking, but it does have a use in the garden. On a small scale, tobacco has been used as a natural organic pesticide for hundreds of years. It’s getting new scientific attention as a potential mass-produced alternative to traditional commercial pesticides that are increasingly getting unpopular. 

It might not be long until the country is covered with hemp, tobacco and tea fields as demand for natural products increase.

Process

The simple process to turn tobacco plants into a pesticide involves heating the leaves to about 900 degrees Fahrenheit in a vacuum, which produces an unrefined substance called bio-oil.

For centuries, gardeners have used home-made mixtures of tobacco and water as a natural pesticide to kill insect pests.  A “green” pesticide industry based on tobacco could provide additional income for farmers, and as well as a new eco-friendly pest-control agent. There doesn’t really need to be any need for killing in the garden if we embraces the eco system, but this is being created more for an industrial use on farm crops. 

Tobacco History in Ireland

The history of tobacco growing in Ireland is fascinating. Tobacco was once quite a popular crop in the more eastern counties of Ireland. The notion of widespread tobacco cultivation in the country was first proposed in ‘The improvement of Ireland’ (c. 1698) by the Jacobite Thomas Carte.

One estimate has it that a fifth of all tobacco consumed in the United Kingdom during the 1800’s originated in Ireland, and the success in growing tobacco on reclaimed bogland was almost certainly a factor in the commercial spread of the crop.

In the latter part of the eighteenth century, there was an upsurge in tenant farmers cultivating the crop, and by 1831 the tobacco plant was being extensively grown in County Wexford in particular. This was most likely due to the favourable conditions that prevailed there climatically and agriculturally. A twentieth-century pioneer of tobacco cultivation in Ireland often claimed that the greatest obstacle to the growth of the crop in Ireland was never climatic but rather political, and in 1832 a prohibition act specific to Ireland was passed in Westminster and all growing of tobacco was halted.

Resurgence

Gearóid Ó Faoleán  from Limerick in his report tells us that there was a resurgence in the 1930’s.  “The spirit of self-sufficiency that pervaded Ireland under de Valera in the 1930s led to the last significant flowering of tobacco cultivation in the country. The government of the time decreed that, henceforth, cigarettes were to contain a percentage of native tobacco.” 

Tobacco experts such as Kentuckian G.N. Keller, who had come to Ireland in an official capacity almost 30 years before, were on hand to facilitate this new project, and by 1934 some 750 acres of land were under tobacco cultivation in counties Wexford, Carlow, Laois, Kildare, Kilkenny, Meath, Wicklow and Offaly. It was a popular crop, according to Meath county councillor J.P. Kelly, who stated in 1934 that ‘people who grow tobacco had made money beyond their dreams’. The knock-on effect of this industry could be seen in Belfast, where tobacco-processing was one of the only industries that actually expanded during this period; the number of people employed in this industry increased by up to 30%.

There was serious money to be made. Increasing numbers of farmers now sought to introduce tobacco onto their land. Alarmed, the government responded by introducing strict new legislation concerning the price paid for tobacco and restricting growing permits only to those who had taken part in the 1933 growing season. The experiment in significant tobacco self-sufficiency was at an end.  

Home Grown Tobacco

Growing tobacco plants seem to come with a load of health warnings. I would be growing it for a pest deterrent and wouldn’t even consider smoking ANY deadly pesticide.

There are even warnings on touching the plants. One book tells me “First, be careful handling fresh tobacco leaves.  Touching wet leaves can cause green tobacco sickness, a type of nicotine poisoning.  The sickness frequently affects tobacco harvesters, usually migrant workers lacking adequate protection.” 

And it probably wouldn’t be very good to have them in the garden with children around “Children exposed to high levels of nicotine from wet leaves often require hospitalization. “ Challenging stuff indeed.

Low Profile

I have found out that if I am to grow tobacco in the tunnel, I first need to apply to Irish Tax and Customs at the local Revenue Office for a licence. So we’ll say no more about it, and if anyone asks, you haven’t seen me.

Perennial Nastrurtiums

I’ve been looking for “Jobs to Do” this week in the garden.  The weather has been a bit warmer and although the long johns and hat are staying firmly on until the summer, it has been mild and dry enough for me to go out and at least do a bit of tidying as well as seeing what needs doing to welcome in the spring.

Spring Jobs to Do

I generally leave all of the seed sowing until the last minute. Generally I only plant seeds about one month after the recommended sowing dates on the package. This allows for our geographic northern location and cooler climate. Nature generally rewards me by having less seeds die off with botrytis, eliminates the need for any artificial light and heat and also gives me a chance to tidy up a bit before sowing. 

The polytunel is pretty much ready to go; all I need to do is expand the beds a bit as there isn’t much growing space n there at the moment because I got carried away with the carpet and black webbing. It’s just a simple matter of lifting it up and teasing the soil loose so I can plant seedlings so there’s no rush with that. 

I have a propagator in place in the tunnel with a transparent zip cover and have put some off shoots of chamomile plants in there for the time being. This is giving me a good idea how long it’s taking for plugs to dry out as well as getting me into the habit of going out and checking them every day in readiness for the seed sowing.

I’m finding that the ground is still too wet for grass cutting. It’s been so mild over the winter that the grass didn’t really stop growing. I won’t be trimming it back for at least another month though as it could do too much damage to the soil. 

I’ve managed to put off most things from my venture outside, but there is one thing I have done which has been on my mind for a while and that’s to dig up the perennial nasturtiums before the y take over the garden.

Perennial Nasturtium

Klaus gave me a few free perennial Nasturtiums (Tropaeolum tuberosum) two years ago and I happily planted them outside.  In the two years these prolific plants commonly known as Mashua, have taken over half of the vegetable patch. They grew up the pea and bean poles and managed to kill off everything they came into contact with. I wouldn’t have minded so much but they aren’t attractive plants either as the flowers appear just as the leaves go yellow at the end of the year.  

The tubers also seem to have the ability to pop out of the soil and throw themselves across the ground to every corner of the garden. I’m not sure if this is something they do themselves or if it’s the magpies in the garden playing football but it’s an efficient method of spreading around either way.

I have read that the Mashua tubers are edible. They can be cooked like potatoes or grate them onto salads. I would try it but for a couple of differing views.  Some say these tubers have an aphrodisiac quality and others say the opposite, that they have an anaphrodisiac effect. It’s said the tubers used to be given to the Inca armies “that they should forget their wives" I won’t be cooking them up any time soon.

The cultivar 'Ken Aslet' has gained the Royal Horticultural Society's Award of Garden Merit, so it can’t be all that bad, but I’ll bet it wasn’t grown in the veggie patch.  

After an hour of gentle troweling I have managed a whole basket of the tubers and I don’t really know what to do with them. Should I give them away to friends? Throw them in the hedgerows? Sell them on ebay?  I just don’t know, but if we have a late frost I won’t have to give this another thought and needn’t have to make any decisions at all as they are just open to the elements.  And if the frost doesn’t get them straight away, the magpies will and have a good kickabout before the frost turns the tubers to mush and I can put them in the compost.

PS: I’ve just checked on ebay and the tubers are selling for £1 each…. I’m rich!  Thanks Klaus!

Airplants and Admin Woes

Thankfully I have calmed down after last week’s rant about labelling different gardening styles. After writing I felt a wave of calmness come over me and I was at peace with the world again. 

Apparently it’s not healthy to moan as your brain starts thinking it’s the norm, gets used to it and then finds other people to moan to perpetuating the cycle.

I realized where the problem lay.  As much as I am enjoying the Raised Vegetable Beds Facebook page which now has over 20,000 members, I was finding, as the only administrator that I was caught up in a type of “Groundhog Day” scenario. Answering posts was a bit like running a training course every day of the week. The course is attended by people who don’t want to be there and won’t listen, then make way for new people the next day.  

The favourite topics are about chemicals in car tyres leaching into the soil, using Epsom Salts and Bicarbonate of soda, how to ‘get rid’ of pests in the garden . The favourite by far though is from people asking how to keep cats, moles and deer off the garden (A big problem in the US)  I realised that we are all right. The only rule in gardening is that there are no rules. I’m happy that people are contributing and although I don’t agree with everything that’s posted, it’s all learning, questioning and solving issues that invariably crop up when we try to tame nature.

Air Plants

I thought I needed a distraction from the group and as there is no help (as yet) for people addicted to Facebook posting (when there is it’ll be called FBA Facebook Anonymous), I thought I would try something new - and that comes in the form or Air Plants. 

I’ve cared for succulents, cosseted cacti and entertained a lot of plants in the house but never ones without roots before.  Tillandsia as they are known have over 700 different species and native to the forests, mountains and deserts of Central and South America, the southern United States and the West Indies. I thought I might put a few in our bathroom as it always seems to be really warm and high in humidity with all the showers and baths. 

I didn’t do things by half either. I ordered sixty of them from a grower in the Netherlands along with some lovely Spanish Moss (T. Usneoides) which is the grey green dangling plants you see in tropical forests.  My initial plan was to resell most of them and keep a few, but I just can’t part with any of them.  

As Air Plants have no roots I thought I could stick some of them onto plastic suckers with a hot glue gun and then onto the bathroom tiles. This didn’t work so I have rigged up some thin wire for them to rest on in vertical strips. 

Following the instructions I was dunking the plants in a bowl of water once a week and spraying with rain water every other day. I think that might be fine for hotter, sunnier climates, but I found a couple of them were going mouldy with the damp. I’m just spraying them now so we’ll see if that keeps them fresh.

The air plants absorb moisture and nutrients gathered from the air (dust, decaying leaves and insect matter) through structures on the leaves called trichomes. It’s all very clever and the main reason any roots do show is for support as they grab onto trees.  I’m hoping that after a few months these plants will reward me with ‘pups’, this is the term used for small offset plants that appear from the base of the parent plant. After reaching about a third of the size of the larger plant they can be picked off and grown on. It’ll be those that I will be selling – unless I find somewhere else for them to live, I have one growing happily on a Victorian piece of hardwood flooring covered in bitumen and there is a bit of a gap in the hallway where I think they would thrive as they like a semi shaded spot, so I’m only limited by my imagination..

Although not normally cultivated for their flowers, some Tillandsia will bloom on a regular basis. I have one in flower at the moment.  It is quite common for some species to take on a different leaf colour (usually changing from green to red), called "blushing", when about to flower. This is an indication that the plant is monocarpic (flowers once before dying) but offsets around the flowering plant will continue to thrive. 

Hopefully mine will survive the ordeal and produce a few pups. I’ll resist the urge to post the images of the little babies on Facebook.

What's in a Name? Marketing, Money and profits usually....

What’s in a Name?

Labels are big business.  You only have to look at teenagers clothing or cars to see they have a huge influence. 

I’m quite sure, putting on my rose tinted spectacles, that at one time or another there would have just been “Gardening” plain and simple.  Dig the soil, clear the weeds put the household waste into the ground, plant the veggies and flowers and away you go.  There does seem to be more and more “label” types of gardening around. Of course there’s organic gardening which thankfully got rid of some old chemical happy gardeners of the 1970’s who’d happily spray the garden and the family with DDT if they thought it would keep the greenfly off the roses. That type of gardening was advertising lead, mainly by chemical companies who were looking at sponsorship and profits. 

New Methods

There are a lot of gardening methods around and most of the claim to be ‘new’ methods of growing which have really been around for thousands of years. These seem to be ideas that have been utilized and adopted for marketing purposes to sell a brand or lifestyle, put together to look like a club or organization to make you feel part of something special. It gets hard to tell the fact from the adverts.

So Many Methods

We have ‘Square foot gardening’, which was popularized by Mel Bartholomew in 1981. This method tries to ‘compartmentalize’ plants by growing them in pre made squares and bought compost.  There’s Biodynamic gardening from Rudolf Steiner, which includes mystical and spiritual ideas in an organic framework. Then there’s Back to Eden, started off by Paul Gautschi, who has managed somehow to make the whole process about God. Then we have Bokashi composting claimed by Professor Teruo Higa, who in the 90’s stated that composting is better with his mixture of special anaerobic microbes and special buckets(which you buy) All organic grain, bran, rice, wheat mushroom compost, dried leaves, even sawdust can host the micro organisms (which you buy)that flourish in anaerobic, acidic environments, mixed with a bit of molasses.  The idea is just ‘fermented organic matter’ and has been practised in Asia for hundreds of years. And as a matter of interest these microorganisms are in most soils anyway and you can make your own for free.

Merits

All of the methods have their merits, and a lot of merchandizing. In fact all of the methods are taken from age old gardening techniques and rebranded.  Back to Eden is really just mulching with materials, in the same way that forest gardening is done. Forest gardening was happening even before we realised we could garden. The forest was the garden. 

I for one remain open to their ideals/ideas, but still question their origins and agendas (hidden or otherwise). I’ll hopefully take the best of what they have to offer, (which is usually the cheapest option without buying anything), and incorporate it into my garden to suit my own ideas and my growing conditions. 

After all you wouldn’t just stick with one cooking recipe you’d experiment in the kitchen from chefs ideas around the world. It would be very restrictive and limiting to stick to one method, and the garden is no different.

Lasagne Gardening

Talking of cooking, there was one method I didn’t mention and that is Lasagne Gardening. It’s also known as ‘Sheet Composting’, but that doesn’t have the same commercial ring to it, which is more of less the same as ‘Mulching’.  There are books about Lasagne Gardening but thankfully no-one has claimed it as their idea. There are books about the subject but to simplify the process. To me its like “Extreme Mulching” (There’s a good title for a new method of gardening)

It’s Free

Out of a lot of then named and branded gardening methods, I like the lasagne method because it’s easy (always a priority for me) free (another priority) and there’s no digging of the soil or removing grass or weeds when you make the beds.

The first layer of a lasagne garden consists of either brown corrugated cardboard or a few layers of newspaper laid directly on top of the grass or weeds in the area chosen for the garden.  This layer provides a dark, moist area to attract earthworms that will loosen up the soil as they tunnel through it. Anything you'd put in a compost pile, you can put into a lasagna garden. The materials you put into the garden will break down, providing nutrient-rich, crumbly soil in which to plant. You can layer up grass clippings, leaves, peeled fruit and vegetables from the kitchen, manure, compost, seaweed,

Alternate layers of “browns” such as autumn leaves, shredded newspaper, peat, and pine needles with layers of “greens” such as vegetable scraps, garden trimmings, and grass clippings. In general, you want your "brown” layers to be about twice as deep as your “green” layers, but there's no need hard and fast rules to consider, just pile it high. Just layer browns and greens, and a lasagna garden will result. 

Benefits

There are a few benefits to this type of garden method. Like simple mulching, it keeps the weeds down, gives great water retention, due to the fact that compost made by the layering holds water better than regular garden soil, especially if your soil is sandy or deficient in organic matter.

No need to buy any chemical fertilizer, because you planted your garden in almost pure compost, which is very nutrient-rich. The resulting soil is easy to work: crumbly, loose, and fluffy.

Beds made like this can be done at any time of the year, they would break down faster in autumn though and that’s the time of year that most of the leaves will be to hand to make a layer or two.

There you go, I managed to explain a method of gardening without asking you to buy a product, telling you what you must do, sell you a book or lifestyle. 

Feels good.