Submitted by groovygardener42069 in magicplants

For some reason I assumed seeds would be hard to come by, but that wasn't the case. Pretty much any commercial seed distributor sells them.

The plants are really beautiful and eye-catching, and are pest-resistant to just about everything that can bother it unless you live in tobacco country. When they mature they throw out really beautiful, musky flowers.

A few words of caution, though: use gloves when handling, especially the roots. Green tobacco sickness isn't fun. Imagine getting a rash on your skin where you touched the plant, followed by all the symptoms of smoking too many cigarettes at once.

If you don't smoke, you can still use the leaves to make a pesticide, but don't use it on any crops in the nightshade family (tomatoes, peppers, eggplants, etc) because of potential tobacco mosaic virus contamination

It's also a fun plant to get started in little cups and give to friends. Who doesn't want a free plant that is literally the thing they pay a shitload of money for on the regular?

Overall 8/10 for smell, utility, and ease of growth. points deducted for protection being required when handling, and tobacco mosaic virus (but if you're a smoker, that's kind of everywhere anyway - wash ya hands before you fuck with your tomato plants)

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Ennui wrote

Once again, another plant I'd have no incentive to grow besides novelty. Regardless, one of the things I find interesting about tobacco is the number of strange varieties. In some places the tobacco is so strong it's downright dangerous, and it's used in diluted form in ritualistic purging ceremonies.

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groovygardener42069 OP wrote

I started this gardening project about a year ago when it seemed like society was going to rip apart at the seams any minute. In that context, growing tobacco felt like a perfectly reasonable thing to do lol - who knows what kind of bartering chips I might need if money is suddenly useless, right? But now I just sincerely like having these plants around

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