Tobacco is a relatively easy plant to grow and can grow as far north as Canada and Alaska with the proper planning and preparation. Like most plants, they start out in tobacco nurseries or greenhouses.
How Does Smart Fog Help?
Just like temperature, there are optimal humidity levels to maintain throughout your plants’ lives. Smart Fog can ensure that your Tobacco seedlings have the best environment to germinate and thrive before heading out into the fields.
Smart Fog takes the guessing out and does the work for you!
Our non-wetting products to help plants reach their maximum potential. Smart Fog also takes cleanliness seriously. Using antibiotic fittings and piping as well as generating pure fog. We can help lower your energy costs with its patented technology, it reduces the utility costs by stabilizing the grow environment instead of usual spikes and dips throughout the life-cycle like other systems.
Smart Fog Humidifiers
Maintain a precise humidity level for every growing stage, while retaining a clean environment with no wet spots. What makes Smart Fog® an ideal solution for Tobacco growing ? It is all about our humidifiers’ key features.
- The 4.2-micron droplets created by Smart Fog® systems evaporate completely into the air before reaching any surface. We achieved 100% evaporation rate, water efficiency and dust suppression. SMART FOG IS A FOG THAT DOES NOT MOISTEN THE EXPOSED SURFACES!
- Smart Fog® can maintain non-fluctuating humidity 24/7. Maintaining precise humidity enhances the quality of the product and eliminates the possibility of condensation, which can cause mold and other issues.
- Our technology uses clean fog, so you can expect no bacteria, no viruses, no cysts, or other pathogens.
- Smart Fog designed their humidifiers with fully automated controls and data logging capabilities. This is essential for maintaining different humidity levels throughout every stage of the growing process. With Smart Fog, you can change and verify the humidity 24/7 with easy-to-use timeframe programs, so your crop can reach new heights!
Energy Efficient Natural Process
- Energy efficient – 50-90% less energy than other technologies.
- Utilizes Smart Fog® Decorrelation technology – a non-chemical mechanical process that reverses cohesion and maximizes adhesion
Controls and Monitoring
- Smart Fog designed their humidifiers with fully automated controls and data logging capabilities.
- This is essential for maintaining different humidity levels throughout every stage.
- With Smart Fog®, you can change and verify the humidity 24/7 with easy-to-use timeframe programs.
- Our Humidifiers come with fully automated controls and data logging to ensure that your environment is always perfectly balanced.
- Four Functions in One System
- Precise Humidity Control
- Fumigation/Sanitation
- Cooling
- Dust Suppression & Static Elimination
Plug & Play Installation
- Designed for fast and low-cost installation. There are no moving parts and our systems do not require the use of any adhesives and comes with push-in connectors which are reusable.
- Our systems meet the highest industry standards, building codes and electrical requirements. All standard system piping is made of plastic flexible piping is extremely durable and easy to install. Smart Fog® systems can be mounted on the wall, placed adjacent to air handling units, suspended from the ceiling or inserted into ducts.
- All systems operate utilizing only low pressure compressed air (100 psi) and any available water pressure.
- The Smart Fog® Humidity Sensor gives accurate and reliable control, with full data reported and stored on a PC.
- Smart Fog® utilizes the patented enforcement technologies to reverse the correlation effect.
- The system’s large 1.5 mm orifice will not clog like pinhole foggers, so easy annual maintenance is sufficient.
- All our systems come with comprehensive one-year warranty. We also provide a comprehensive economical extended warranty plan, covering all equipment.
How Our Product Helps
Our humidification and evaporative cooling solutions offer the following benefits:
- Improve plant quality & uniformity
- Increased germination and production
- Reduces stress on plants by eliminating the excess humidity & regulating the temperature evenly
- Speed up plant growth
- Decreased waste
- Reduces employee related injuries due to airborne pathogens
- Monitor environment 24/7/365
Easy installation and low maintenance make Smart Fog Humidifiers the only choice for “dry fog.”
Using our fully automated ES100 System specially designed for SIMPLE INSTALLATION & LOW MAINTENANCE, you’ll be able to achieve the following:
- Precisely Maintain Humidity
- Save on Topping Costs!
- Eliminate Mold, Bacteria & Dust
- Conserve Energy & Water
- No Wetting Ensured
Humidity in the Tobacco Industry
Seed Knowledge
Tobacco seeds are extremely small not much larger than a pin prick and be careful when sowing seed as to not sow to thickly. Tobacco seed require warm temperatures for germination of about 75-80 degrees. You should start seeding indoors 4-6 weeks before your last frost date. Seeds will germinate in about 7-10 days with some tobacco varieties taking a up to two weeks to begin germination.
Soil and Transplanting
Soil should be moist and not dry out. Gently water freshly emerging tobacco seedlings so that the water does not uproot the seedlings. The best way to water is from the bottom, the way this is to sit the container with the seedlings into a pan of water for only a few seconds or a bit longer, the potting mix will wick the water without getting the leaves wet.
Transplant the tobacco seedlings into a larger container such as a pot or transplant cell tray to develop a good root system around three weeks. Once they are sturdy enough you can grab them with your hands, transplant to pots.
Nutrients and Water
Fertilize with a plant starter solution such as miracle grow or seaweed/fish fertilize emulsions in your watering schedule. If your plants begin to yellow or look stunted add another dose of fertilize but do so sparingly, over fertilization while in pots or trays may burn the plant’s roots and may also lead to overgrown spindly plants.
Tobacco plants are ‘transplantable plants’ meaning you can plant them without the need for any soil attached to the roots. This is a much easier way to do it but also has its drawbacks. Once planted, the bare roots of the plants will go through ‘transplant shock’. Some of the largest leaves may yellow and wilt but the main stem and bud will remain strong and will begin to flourish in a few days. If, however, you grow seedlings celled trays there is no transplant shock and plants begin to grow immediately.
Greenhouses
Growing tobacco seedlings in a greenhouse should be “hardened off” before transplanted into a field or garden. This period allows the plant to adjust to outdoor weather conditions. A week of hardening off should be ample time but 2 weeks is even better.
Tobacco Varieties
Tobacco is a self-pollinating plant, it can fertilize its own flowers without the aid of insect. Planting different tobacco varieties close to one another become cross pollinated by insects or wind. To keep tobacco varieties pure, you should always isolate by one mile to ensure continued strain purity.
Moving Outside
Tobacco is a heavy feeder and if grown continuously in the same spot will deplete the nutrients in the soil. Counteract by rotating every 2 years in your growing space. Tobacco requires large amounts of nitrogen and potash which a good compost contains but we recommend a good garden fertilizer if you do not have access or use compost.
Space the tobacco plants 2-3 feet apart in the row and the rows 3.5-4 feet apart. Water the plants thoroughly once transplanted. If dry weather is expected, water each evening for a few days till plants become established. The roots grow quickly and the structure is quite large with feeder roots that stay close to the surface. Do not till or hoe too deep and damage the roots. Keeping the tobacco plant clean and free of all weeds will help strengthen the plant. The structure of a tobacco plant’s leaves enables the plant to make use of light rains and heavy dews by collecting and funneling the water down to the base of the plant. After 3-4 weeks, only light scrapings to control weeds is all that is necessary to maintain the plant.
Diseases and Insects
Insects and diseases that can attack tobacco. Two of the prominent insects are the hornworm and aphid. However, you also need to look out for Hawworth, Budworm, Flea Beetles, Wireworms, Nematodes and Linnaeus in some areas. A full list of major insect pests can be found here.
Diseases such as fungal or bacterial can start on one plant but can quicker multiple and destroy fields of tobacco plants. Some common ones are: Barn spot, Black root rot, Hollow stalk, Leaf gall, Tobacco rattle, and Bushy top. A full list of major diseases can be found here.