Tobacco
I settled on "native tobacco" or "sacred tobacco", known as nicotiana rustica as the variant of tobacco I was going to try first. Regular tobacco, "Virginia tobacco" is nicotiana tabacum. Rustica is a smaller plant, but more potent than Virginia tobacco, having anywhere between 3 and 9 times the nicotine concentration in it. It is the variety of tobacco that was grown by the Indians here when the English first set foot on these shores at Roanoke Island NC and a little later at Jamestown, VA. It is why the first clay pipes made in England for smoking tobacco had tiny bowls - a little bit of it goes a long way.
Since it is "sacred tobacco", protocol demands that I don't sell any of it. It may be gifted, or used as an offering or to smudge or simply to smoke, but selling it in crass commercialism is a big fat no-no. Rustica was replaced commercially by nicotiana tabacum, first imported as seed (illegally I might add) by John Rolfe at Jamestown. He obtained some seed smuggled from the Caribbean and called it the Orinoco variety. It was smoother, less harsh, and less potent than the native tobacco, and therefore more pleasant to smoke. Rolfe experimented and perfected the method of growing it, and from that point forward it was the type of tobacco exported commercially from the Virginia Colony to Europe, and became known as "Virginia tobacco".
Tobacco use in Eastern North America can be dated certainly to 200 BC, and may be inferred into the second millennium BC. A pipe found as grave goods at the Boucher site in Vermont, east of Lake Champlain (characteristic of the Middlesex complex of the Early Woodland culture, broadly affiliated with the Ohio Valley Adena culture) , has been dated to around 200 BC, and has been confirmed to contain nicotine residue. The pipe was a tubular pipe (no pipe bowl, just a long tube ), about 15cm long, buried with a young adult female , radiocarbon dated to 125 BC to perhaps 300 BC, and predated the earliest known archaeobotanical evidence for tobacco in Eastern North America by at least 500 years.
Tobaccos are known for their concentration of nicotine, and Nicotiana rustica has the highest concentratio0n of all, anywhere from 3 to 9 times the nicotine content of "Virgina tobacco", the normal smoking mix for modern cigarettes, cigars, and pipes.
My attempts -
Last year, test seed was sewn on 8/8/21, and started sprouting on 8/13/21, so it sprouted in 5 days. This year, in the mini greenhouse, it was sewn on 3/3, and started sprouting on 3/6, so sprouting in 3 days. There are two differences in conditions - the test sprouts were sprouted in dirt (from the yard), and this year the planting medium was soaked peat pellets. The test sprouts were sprouted in an open container, but this year they were sprouted in a miniature greenhouse, with a clear cover, so the combination of those two things probably held more moisture around the seeds. and may have kept them slightly warmer.
last fall's test crop succumbed entirely to damp-off, and that killed every single one of the seedlings within a month or so, most of them dying in a week's time. We're hoping for better luck with this year's production crop.
Last year's test sprouts:
![[Image: attachment.php?aid=10790]](http://rogue-nation3.com/attachment.php?aid=10790)
Last year's sprouts at the height of their health, before the damp-off started taking them out:
![[Image: attachment.php?aid=10791]](http://rogue-nation3.com/attachment.php?aid=10791)
This year's sprouts, photo taken yesterday afternoon:
![[Image: attachment.php?aid=10792]](http://rogue-nation3.com/attachment.php?aid=10792)
Notice the little tendrils coming out of the seedling's stems like a spider web into the planting medium. I've never seen that on any other plant, and have no idea what it is, or the reason for it. It may be some kind of pseudo-roots to anchor the seedling to the ground while it punches a tap root into the dirt.
.
I settled on "native tobacco" or "sacred tobacco", known as nicotiana rustica as the variant of tobacco I was going to try first. Regular tobacco, "Virginia tobacco" is nicotiana tabacum. Rustica is a smaller plant, but more potent than Virginia tobacco, having anywhere between 3 and 9 times the nicotine concentration in it. It is the variety of tobacco that was grown by the Indians here when the English first set foot on these shores at Roanoke Island NC and a little later at Jamestown, VA. It is why the first clay pipes made in England for smoking tobacco had tiny bowls - a little bit of it goes a long way.
Since it is "sacred tobacco", protocol demands that I don't sell any of it. It may be gifted, or used as an offering or to smudge or simply to smoke, but selling it in crass commercialism is a big fat no-no. Rustica was replaced commercially by nicotiana tabacum, first imported as seed (illegally I might add) by John Rolfe at Jamestown. He obtained some seed smuggled from the Caribbean and called it the Orinoco variety. It was smoother, less harsh, and less potent than the native tobacco, and therefore more pleasant to smoke. Rolfe experimented and perfected the method of growing it, and from that point forward it was the type of tobacco exported commercially from the Virginia Colony to Europe, and became known as "Virginia tobacco".
Tobacco use in Eastern North America can be dated certainly to 200 BC, and may be inferred into the second millennium BC. A pipe found as grave goods at the Boucher site in Vermont, east of Lake Champlain (characteristic of the Middlesex complex of the Early Woodland culture, broadly affiliated with the Ohio Valley Adena culture) , has been dated to around 200 BC, and has been confirmed to contain nicotine residue. The pipe was a tubular pipe (no pipe bowl, just a long tube ), about 15cm long, buried with a young adult female , radiocarbon dated to 125 BC to perhaps 300 BC, and predated the earliest known archaeobotanical evidence for tobacco in Eastern North America by at least 500 years.
Tobaccos are known for their concentration of nicotine, and Nicotiana rustica has the highest concentratio0n of all, anywhere from 3 to 9 times the nicotine content of "Virgina tobacco", the normal smoking mix for modern cigarettes, cigars, and pipes.
Quote:Nicotine functions by binding to nicotinic acetylcholine receptors, causing increased heart rate, vsoconstriction, and increased alertness. In sufficient doses, nicotine can have hallucinogenic effects equivalent to psychoactive alkaloids such as ibogaine and harmaline. Lethal overdose is possible in extreme cases, though the likelihood is far lower for nicotine than for the alkaloids in other Native American psychoactive plants such as datura. It has been argued that one reason for the adoption of tobacco was that it was safer and more controllable than datura and did not require the intervention of ritual specialists. though tobacco was actually viewed as more powerful than datura by some native cultures."
My attempts -
Last year, test seed was sewn on 8/8/21, and started sprouting on 8/13/21, so it sprouted in 5 days. This year, in the mini greenhouse, it was sewn on 3/3, and started sprouting on 3/6, so sprouting in 3 days. There are two differences in conditions - the test sprouts were sprouted in dirt (from the yard), and this year the planting medium was soaked peat pellets. The test sprouts were sprouted in an open container, but this year they were sprouted in a miniature greenhouse, with a clear cover, so the combination of those two things probably held more moisture around the seeds. and may have kept them slightly warmer.
last fall's test crop succumbed entirely to damp-off, and that killed every single one of the seedlings within a month or so, most of them dying in a week's time. We're hoping for better luck with this year's production crop.
Last year's test sprouts:
Last year's sprouts at the height of their health, before the damp-off started taking them out:
This year's sprouts, photo taken yesterday afternoon:
Notice the little tendrils coming out of the seedling's stems like a spider web into the planting medium. I've never seen that on any other plant, and have no idea what it is, or the reason for it. It may be some kind of pseudo-roots to anchor the seedling to the ground while it punches a tap root into the dirt.
.
Diogenes was eating bread and lentils for supper. He was seen by the philosopher Aristippus, who lived comfortably by flattering the king.
Said Aristippus, ‘If you would learn to be subservient to the king you would not have to live on lentils.’ Said Diogenes, ‘Learn to live on lentils and you will not have to be subservient to the king.’
Said Aristippus, ‘If you would learn to be subservient to the king you would not have to live on lentils.’ Said Diogenes, ‘Learn to live on lentils and you will not have to be subservient to the king.’