Tobacco can grow anywhere where there is enough rain for maize, and no frost from July to March (Southern Hemisphere).

Preparing the Seedbed

Tobacco must be planted in seedbeds and then transplanted in fields. If you make 10 seedbeds each 1mx10m you will end up with enough plants for one hectare of tobacco.

Make your seedbed in a sunny place where there is well-drained soil.
You will have to make a fire on top of the seedbed before planting to kill diseases in the soil. Put branches or maize cobs as high as your knee for the fire. Light it and leave it. After the fire has burnt down to ash, take the ashes away. You can use the ash in your compost heap.
Make sure there are no weeds anywhere near the seedbed before you plant. Rake the seedbed very well and protect it from wind.
Fertilize with a wheelbarrow full of manure or compos or fertilizer. Don't use anything containing chlorine, as it will damage the tobacco.

Tobacco seeds are terribly small, so you will need to mix one level teaspoonful of seeds into a watering can and sprinkle the water over the seedbeds.
Some people also mix a teaspoonful of seeds with two handfuls of fine flour and scatter the mixture by hand.
Do not rake the seeds in, they need to lie on top of the soil.

Your seedbeds will need to be watered twice a day, but don't get them too wet - your tobacco will get diseased.

Transplanting

Transplant from the seebed to the fields after about 12 weeks.
Your rows will need to be 1,5m apart with the plants 50cm apart in the rows.
Your young plants will be fragile and easily damaged by the sun, so transplant early in the morning or in the evening.
If you transplant before the summer rains, give each plant 2l of water.

Harvesting

Tobacco should be ready for harvesting about two and a half months after transplanting.
When a quarter of your field has flowered, cut off the tops of all the plants. This makes the leaves grow bigger. VCut off all new stems. Always cut at an engle, never cut straight or break the plants.
You can harvest the tobacco when the leaves closest to the bottom start getting brown patches.
You should get about six leaves per plant every two weeks.

Curing

Curing means drying the tobacco slowly - this is done so that it burns properly, has a good flavour and stays fresh.
Cure your tobacco by hanging the ripe leaves close together in a barn so that the leaves are just touching each other.
Let them dry slowly until the stalks in the middle of the leaves are dry.

This can take up to eight weeks.

NB: If you try to smoke the tobacco before then you might get stoned or you might get sick, or both. Don't do that.

Crop Rotation

Grow tobacco in rotation with crops like maize or sorghum.

Don't grow it in rotation with potatoes, tomatoes or pumpkins because tobacco can get diseases from these vegetables.