Grow your own snus video series

[squeezyjohn]

Hi there, me again!

I've decided to try and make a properly detailed how-to series of videos for YouTube on how to grow your own tobacco and process it in to snus this year. There is practically nothing out there on the net for anyone wanting to have a go at this themselves (and you can't say that about very much these days!)

So my first video is ready ... about sowing tobacco seeds.

I hope it's of use to some people.

[whalen]

That looks like about 60 billion seeds in that one bag!

[whalen]

Any thoughts to long term seed viability? I seem to get good results only if I keep them well sealed. I use test tubes.

[squeezyjohn]

Yeah - it probably is ... it's from one plant last year! The best tip I ever learnt for seed saving was to completely dehydrate the seeds without any heat and then keep them in a nice cool place in a sealed container.

The tip is this. Take enough rice to half-fill an air tight container - then bake it in the oven for 5 hours on the lowest heat just enough to drive off any remaining moisture in the rice ... this is your humidity sump - cool the rice and then pour it in to your airtight container. Then you take the seeds you have saved and dried naturally and pour them in to a handy cheap permeable receptacle - the ideal one is that old sock that you can no longer find the pair for ... so put the seeds in the sock (or cut off end of your wifes discarded tights or whatever). Tie a knot in the end of the sock after popping in a label to remind you what kind of seeds are in there and place it on top of the rice in the container and seal it. After 4 weeks - any remaining moisture in the seeds will have migrated to the completely dry rice and your seeds will be in perfect condition to seal in an appropriately sized airtight container of your choice. Then place it in the best cool place for you and your seeds will last as long as they possibly can.

An important thing to think about when keeping seeds long term is that the viability follows a distribution curve - so if the average lifespan of a seed is 10 years and you do indeed keep 60 billion seeds then there's a very good chance that you will still have some viable seeds after 100 years!