Stupid question of the day.......Tobacco Flowers?

[99call]

So tobacco flowers!!!??.......I have no idea if CC tobacco gets picked before the plant matures to the point of flowering, but:

So many questions.  Do the petals contain nicotine?.  As the floral flavour note is considered very enjoyable, have they ever been included in a cigar?

At it's very worst, this would be a wonderful next level bullshit selling angle for Gurka cigars, as its very best,  this might be some wonderful untapped resource. 

What say you FOH??  worth a try?  or aimless alchemy?

 

[DeskSmkr]

No information to add. Only share the enthusiasm. Pure creativity, worth a try!? Small panetala with petals wrapper?

[99call]

Just now, DeskSmkr said:

No information to add. Only share the enthusiasm. Pure creativity, worth a try!? Small panetala with petals wrapper?

Haha,  I think you'd struggle with petals wrapper.  

I was thinking of a nice colorado claro especial no 2/carlotta , with fermented tobacco flower petals instead of ligero

[JohnInCleveland]

It’s like I always say, there are no stupid questions, just stupid people that ask questions.  

[99call]

Just now, JohnInCleveland said:

It’s like I always say, there are no stupid questions, just stupid people that ask questions.  

I like it

[JohnInCleveland]

3 minutes ago, 99call said:

I like it

(I’m actually curious to hear the answer.  I have nicotine flowers on the brain now)

[99call]

Just now, JohnInCleveland said:

(I’m actually curious to hear the answer.  I have nicotine flowers on the brain now)

hopefully some FOH forum ninja will chip in shortly and clarify

[Corylax18]

The flower buds are removed from the plants as early as possible. For two reasons. 

First and foremost, they don't want the plants to waste on ounce of energy on producing worthless(to the farmers) flowers. Farmers sell tobacco by the pound, not pretty flowers. 

Second, they don't want/need the plants to pollinate, then start wasting even more energy on producing worthless(to the farmers) seeds. They also don't want any uncontrolled pollination/cross pollination. The Cuban tobacco institute regulates and provides the seeds that all the farmers grow. Similar to a Monsanto or Cargill, the farmers get the seeds from the Tobacco Institute at the beginning of every growing season, they don't produce them themselves. 

I'm only aware of one flower that smokes well. I'm sure someone has experimented with it at some point, but I don't see flowers adding anything to the flavor of a cigar as we know it. 

[Fuzz]

5 hours ago, 99call said:

So tobacco flowers!!!??.......I have no idea if CC tobacco gets picked before the plant matures to the point of flowering, but:

So many questions.  Do the petals contain nicotine?.  As the floral flavour note is considered very enjoyable, have they ever been included in a cigar?

At it's very worst, this would be a wonderful next level bullshit selling angle for Gurka cigars, as its very best,  this might be some wonderful untapped resource. 

What say you FOH??  worth a try?  or aimless alchemy?

 

Do not give your significant other a bouquet of tobacco flowers for Valentines/Birthday/I'm Sorry I'm a Screw Up/Please Don't Hit Me With a Frying Pan Again or any other day.

[Meklown]

4 minutes ago, Fuzz said:

give your significant other a bouquet of tobacco flowers for Valentines/Birthday

I was totally thinking this part 

[nKostyan]

Cuban Institute of Tobacco (Instituto de Ivestigaciones del Tabaco) gave a reference that the hybrid "Habano 2006", which Tabacuba switched to from 2006, has the following features: "the presence of large leaves and the absence of flowers"

[Corylax18]

5 hours ago, nKostyan said:

Cuban Institute of Tobacco (Instituto de Ivestigaciones del Tabaco) gave a reference that the hybrid "Habano 2006", which Tabacuba switched to from 2006, has the following features: "the presence of large leaves and the absence of flowers"

Yup. The Tobacco Institute engaged in heavy line breeding of the "Old" strains. They created the "New" strains that are grown today through line breeding. Blue mold and other pest resistance was their main goal 20-25 years ago, but they've continued to experiment. Drought resistance, leaf size, less flowers, you name it. 

I'm not aware of any line breeding techniques that reliably produce truly sterile plants like genetic modification does, I'm also not aware of the Cuban Institute using any Genetic Modification, but its certainly possible. With out genetic modifications Zero flowers isn't really possible (you couldn't make more of that same plant if it doesn't flower/produce seeds) but you could selectively breed for "fewer" flowers. 

[nKostyan]

Yup. The Tobacco Institute engaged in heavy line breeding of the "Old" strains. They created the "New" strains that are grown today through line breeding. Blue mold and other pest resistance was their main goal 20-25 years ago, but they've continued to experiment. Drought resistance, leaf size, less flowers, you name it. 
I'm not aware of any line breeding techniques that reliably produce truly sterile plants like genetic modification does, I'm also not aware of the Cuban Institute using any Genetic Modification, but its certainly possible. With out genetic modifications Zero flowers isn't really possible (you couldn't make more of that same plant if it doesn't flower/produce seeds) but you could selectively breed for "fewer" flowers. 

It is difficult to say what they mean by the absence of inflorescences. They do not make publications, this information was obtained by Dmitry Drutsa, brand ambassador of HSA, while visiting the Tobacco Institute in 2010. In my understanding, this is every time a hybrid of the first generation, which is obtained by crossing two parents. Farmers get their seeds from Tabacuba each time, rather than making them themselves.

[JohnInCleveland]

On 6/6/2021 at 6:59 PM, Corylax18 said:

The flower buds are removed from the plants as early as possible. For two reasons. 

First and foremost, they don't want the plants to waste on ounce of energy on producing worthless(to the farmers) flowers. Farmers sell tobacco by the pound, not pretty flowers. 

Second, they don't want/need the plants to pollinate, then start wasting even more energy on producing worthless(to the farmers) seeds. They also don't want any uncontrolled pollination/cross pollination. The Cuban tobacco institute regulates and provides the seeds that all the farmers grow. Similar to a Monsanto or Cargill, the farmers get the seeds from the Tobacco Institute at the beginning of every growing season, they don't produce them themselves. 

I'm only aware of one flower that smokes well. I'm sure someone has experimented with it at some point, but I don't see flowers adding anything to the flavor of a cigar as we know it. 

You did not disappoint 

[rabidraccoon]

Yep the farmers cut off the flowers so the plant puts more resources into the leaves instead of flowers. After cutting the flower pods, new flowers start to spring up called “suckers”. The suckers also have to be cut off. It’s very labor intensive.

Traditionally they would leave a few select plants to flower and they could collect thousands of seeds for the next planting. Since tobacco strains are tightly controlled and the breeding/seed supply is centralized now, they no longer need to do this.

[janarnold]

All parts of tobacco contain nicotine, somewhere a more significant percentage, somewhere a smaller one. As you know, most of the tobacco is included in the leaves of the plant.
This does not interest me much because I do not smoke at all, and I think it is very harmful to my health. Only the tobacco flowers are very beautiful and exciting. That's what I really love, so it's flowers. There are a lot of very different varieties of flowers in my garden. I plant these flowers not only for beauty but also for bees. We all know that there are catastrophically few bees left. So I hope that this can help them.
 
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https://troopscout.com/bloom-and-wild-voucher-code/

[Cigar Surgeon]

To answer the original question: Does the flower contain nicotine?

64% of the total nicotine exists in the leaves, 18% in the stem, 13% in the root, and 5% in the flowers.