How Tall Does a Tobacco Plant Grow in One Year?

Each type of Nicotiana has its own growth habit and yearly height. Some types are common garden varieties and others are wild plants. Smoking tobacco is grown as a crop and as a garden plant.

Flowering tobacco cultivars of Nicotiana alata are annuals that usually reach heights of between 12 to 24 inches. They have been bred to fill beds and borders. Nicotiana sylvestris is the tallest of the flowering tobacco garden cultivars. It reaches a height of 5 feet during a year.

Nicotiana glauca is an evergreen perennial with a shrubby habit that eventually grows to the size of a small tree—up to 25 feet. It can grow up to 10 feet in one year. Coyote tobacco is a strong-smelling wild annual that grows from British Columbia to Baja California. It can reach 40 inches in one year. Depending on climate Nicotiana obtusifolia (Desert Tobacco) behaves as an annual, biennial or perennial. It grows throughout the southwestern states and reaches up to 3 feet in one year.

Nicotiana tabacum is grown in tubs for its showy flowers. When field-grown as a crop the tops are cut back to enlarge the bottom leaves. It grows up to 10 feet in a year.