The Magic Touch of a Vegueros

The Vegas Finas de Primera have their own cultivation. The farmer may have charge of half a million plants and each plant must be visited 150 times in the course of growing season.

Each leaf on each plant matters.

Work starts in June and July, at the burning heat, continuously for 9 months. The time from sowing the seed till harvesting is around 17 weeks for shadw grown plants and 16 weeks for sun grown plants.


Thousands tiny tobacco seeds - enough to produce 30.000 wrapper leaves

The seeds flourish in the loosest soil, so field must be ploughed deeply

Seeds are grown in the seedbed covered by straws, some are grown in new method which is in floating polystyrene seed containers sheltered inside plastic-clad 'tunnels'

After 45 days, when the seedlings reach a height of 13-15 cm, they are ready to be planted out.

18 to 20 days after planting out, the soil is banked up around the base of the plant to develop stronger roots, a process called aporque
After reaching the desire height, the farmer remove (desbotonado)the top bud on each plant to concentrate the growth on the larger leaves
Removing the top bud causes an explosion of side shoots. The farmer must visit repeatedly to remove this on each plant, a process called deshije

Extraordinary labour of shade grown tobacco


Wrapper leaves are exceptional in every respect. After reaching 10-20 days of growing season, the field are entirely closed with canopies of muslin cloth - a remarkable sight. Each plant is individually strung to the frame.
Irrigation is crucial. The plant must get just the right quantity of water at the moment they need.

Flavours (filler leaves) grow in the open

The Cuba sunlight works its magic to bring on the rich variety of flavour. Under the sun, grown the leaves for the filler and binder.

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