Cultivation and Harvest

Between the tiny tobacco seed and the first draw on a cigar lie years — and the most decisive weeks of them happen in the field. Understand what takes place there and you will read every cigar differently afterwards.

From Seedbed to Field

Tobacco seeds are so fine that a single gram contains thousands of them. They are therefore sown not directly into the field but into protected seedbeds. After typically 45 to 50 days, the seedlings are roughly hand-high and sturdy enough to be transplanted. In the field the plant then grows rapidly: as a rule of thumb, the harvest begins around 40 to 60 days after transplanting — in Cuba often at the lower end of that range, in other terroirs more towards the upper end.

Sun or Shade

Light determines what the leaf becomes. Tobacco grown in full sun develops thicker, darker and more robust leaves — ideal for filler and binder, and for distinctive wrappers as well. For especially fine wrappers, growers use the Tapado method, cultivating under fabric canopies: the filtered light encourages thinner, more elastic leaves of uniform texture. Cuba’s wrapper leaves are grown this way, as is the famous Connecticut Shade; in Ecuador, the near-permanent natural cloud cover fulfils the same role as the cloth.

From Bottom to Top

The plant is not harvested all at once but leaf by leaf, priming by priming — from the bottom upwards, because the leaves ripen in that order. On the first pass, the pickers take the lowest Volado leaves; they return at intervals of roughly a week and take two or three leaves per plant per pass, working up through the Seco to the Ligero, which ripens last. A single harvest therefore stretches over several weeks — and each leaf comes off the plant at exactly the right moment.

The Curing Barn: Air-Curing

Freshly picked, the leaf is green and moist — and unsmokeable. In the curing barn — called the casa de tabaco in Cuba — the leaves are hung in pairs on laths and air-cured for typically six to eight weeks. During this time the colour changes from green through yellow to brown as chlorophyll breaks down and moisture escapes. The farmers manage the process solely through doors and vents, which they use to regulate airflow and humidity. Even so, the tobacco is far from ready: fermentation has only just begun — and that is the subject of the next chapter.