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First priming

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andrewislord

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Well, tell me what you guys think. This all happened yesterday, pictures taken yesterday.

It is Virginia Bright Leaf in the front. I'm not really sure if they were ripe enough yet. Maybe some of you could tell from the pictures?
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Here is my attempt at Hands. Burley on the left and Virginia on the right.

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My Golden Burley never really did well. It was always yellow and never did a lot. I don't think it's supposed to be that yellow, but I don't know. Also, the stems are white.


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And here is after. The Burley is on the right. I re tied them up so they make look crooked.
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Also, I only really took two leaves off the potted plant. The rest were all torn off by my dogs tail or the gardeners blower.


As a side note, I lit up a cigar I rolled a while ago, one that I rolled too long and cut in half. The first half I smoked a week ago and it wouldn't burn, it wasn't very good. This one though, was perfect. Best one I've had so far, including the two $10 ones I bought. No point, just saying it was a good day.
 

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SmokesAhoy

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Its ripe. The alligator skin is what I use to judge. Leaf only looks like that when ripe in my (albeit limited) experience. You cab also safely stalk harvest when most are alligatored and you start getting root level suckers
 

Chicken

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looks like you got things going in the right direction,

but as stated, wait till the leaf is completelly done with the curing process, before making them hands,

hands are for long storage purposes,
 

andrewislord

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None of the stems in the hands are green or yellow. It's just the first two that are hands, the other yellow stuff is two yellow leaves hanging together.

I had a bunch of problems this last weekend. I asked the gardeners if they can remove the palm tree fawns without destroying the tobacco, as I have been having trouble with it and do not have the tools to do it. They attempted this and destroyed tobacco in the process. Most of the leaves got ripped off of two of them, one plant got re-topped. Almost all the leaves got ripped up.

I hung what I could, most of it was not ripe yet. Then later I found a bunch of leaf in the trash, like they thought if they threw out what they destroyed I wouldn't notice or something. They also destroyed another plumaria plant.

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I still have a lot of leaf left so I guess it's not that bad. And the Burley was untouched, mostly.

Here is the hanging leaf.

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Forgot to mention how I hung it.

I started with string, and tied two together. It worked but I didn't like it and the stems shrink and the knot is too big. I'm not good at tying things, I was a boy scout drop out.
I've been using Christmas ribbon for a few years now to hang other things, and I like it. It's easy to tie and loosen, it kind of grips to itself, and everyone's girlfriend or wife has a bunch of it in a closet somewhere. Oh, and you can keep reusing it.

So, now I'm threading two leaves together with an upholstery needle and curling ribbon, then I tie it to some twine. It's working well for me, so I think I'll keep it up.
 

Fisherman

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Dam that spammer loves you :)
Some of those leaves look like they were center of a cat fight LOL I saw the cat there in the pics. He does look guilty to me too.
 

LeftyRighty

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If you tie leaves with green (or even yellow) stems into hands, they will mold.

Bob

last year, I bundled 2 or 3 ripening leaves together, while stringing, and no mold problems. But I could see that bundles or hands of more leaf would mold - takes forever for those stems to dry.
 

Hanzy4200

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I can't understand where people keep getting the idea that leaves must be hung individually. Do they have any clue how long and how much room it would take to hang 100+ plants? I have 165 plants and it's a long job just to do a small priming. Every leaf I have harvested and cured this year has been bundlled into bunches of 4. Four leaves together, rubber band, then pull bunch open and drop it on the hanging line. Mold is only a issue if your curing conditions are poor and you don't monitor the curing. Every week you check your bunches, separating any leaves clinging together. Do you see tobacco farmers stringing individual leaves on thread "not touching each other"? NO. they tie bunches of leaves together then string the bunches onto poles to be hung, or spear the entire plant and squeeze 5-6 of them together. Either way, leaves are bunched up all over the place. Airflow and humidity.
 

Knucklehead

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Bunching methods are many times dependent upon your humidity. In some areas of the country they must be tightly bunched to share the moisture to prevent drying green. In other parts, they are spaced apart to prevent mold. I use the stringing horse method shown in this thread with great success. I also bunch 3-4 leaves per bunch depending on the current and predicted RH readings. You can string a gazillion leaves on one stick like this: http://fairtradetobacco.com/threads/1071-Stringing-Tobacco
 

deluxestogie

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Do they have any clue how long and how much room it would take to hang 100+ plants? I have 165 plants...
I do have something of a clue. All of my primed leaf is strung in pairs, back-to-back, with each pair spaced 0.5 to 1" apart. I typically grow ~250 plants. As Knucks points out, it depends on your average humidity in the curing area, and specifically during the time that a particular batch of leaf is being cured, as well as the leaf variety. Some leaf stems are considerably more succulent than others, and require wider spacing, in order to avoid molding.

Bob
 

CT Tobaccoman

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In my grow blog CT Tobaccoman's backyard patch I have posted a pic of a real sewing machine for attaching leaves to a lath with a string. Two leaves are put together face to face at a time. It might help to take a look to find out about hanging leaves. Before the machine was invented the same thing was done by hand with a large needle and string.

But, isn't Burley better cured by cutting the whole plant and hanging it?
 

squeezyjohn

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I can't understand where people keep getting the idea that leaves must be hung individually. Do they have any clue how long and how much room it would take to hang 100+ plants? I have 165 plants and it's a long job just to do a small priming. Every leaf I have harvested and cured this year has been bundlled into bunches of 4. Four leaves together, rubber band, then pull bunch open and drop it on the hanging line. Mold is only a issue if your curing conditions are poor and you don't monitor the curing. Every week you check your bunches, separating any leaves clinging together. Do you see tobacco farmers stringing individual leaves on thread "not touching each other"? NO. they tie bunches of leaves together then string the bunches onto poles to be hung, or spear the entire plant and squeeze 5-6 of them together. Either way, leaves are bunched up all over the place. Airflow and humidity.

i find this this post very patronising ... given that I know full well that if I cured my leaves as you suggest, they would mould before September had even got going.

This is forum is global in its membership ... And conditions vary massively between climates. I have no doubt that what you say is true for your part of the US ... But no amount of airflow and attempts to alter the humidity here in the UK will allow leaves "bunched up all over the place" to cure successfully.

Its always better to be to be safe than sorry if you have the space in my opinion.
 

Bex

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In my grow blog CT Tobaccoman's backyard patch I have posted a pic of a real sewing machine for attaching leaves to a lath with a string.

Whoa, with a SEWING MACHINE??? How cool - I've got to find this post!
Found it by, eck, get this message when I try to access it:

You don't have permission to access /threads/4537-CT-Tobaccoman-s-Backyard-patch-blog on this server.

???
 

vinconco

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I string them on 14 ga. electric fence wire. don't need a needle, thread or whatever. I space them 1 - 2" apart in alternating directions.

I put 200 plants in the top of this small barn and had room to spare, no mold issues.




 

BigBonner

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What is the stove for ?

Drying tobacco too fast is not good . Color problems and quality problems like yellow cure spots , green , etc .
Slower cure makes darker tobacco . I close up my doors when my tobacco yellows up and drys down a little .
 

vinconco

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What is the stove for ?

Drying tobacco too fast is not good . Color problems and quality problems like yellow cure spots , green , etc .
Slower cure makes darker tobacco . I close up my doors when my tobacco yellows up and drys down a little .


We had an extended period of cold rainy weather at just the wrong time so I had the stove in there to warm it up a little and keep it from molding. I only fired it once and then briefly. I had a really late harvest too.
 

CT Tobaccoman

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Whoa, with a SEWING MACHINE??? How cool - I've got to find this post!
Found it by, eck, get this message when I try to access it:

You don't have permission to access /threads/4537-CT-Tobaccoman-s-Backyard-patch-blog on this server.

???

Really? It is still there in my CT Tobaccoman's backyard patch blog. I can see it, at least. Well, here it is again, just for you Bex. Let me know if no picture came through.
 

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Bex

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Thanks, CT, the pic came through - it's a bit beyond what my imagination was indicating a 'sewing machine' was. I guess I'll keep my Singer where it belongs. That leaf looks awfully green to me - I'm still learning.....
 

CT Tobaccoman

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Thanks, CT, the pic came through - it's a bit beyond what my imagination was indicating a 'sewing machine' was. I guess I'll keep my Singer where it belongs. That leaf looks awfully green to me - I'm still learning.....

It's green. It was picked less than an hour before. It's Conn Shade cigar wrapper. The plant gets primed 6-7 times over the 6-8 weeks of picking. If we waited for leaves to yellow we could never get the crop in. When I worked on shade farms I was taught that a leaf is ripe to pick when it loses its brightness and its wrinkles, and turns a dull flat green.

They are Swiss made machines from the 1950s, which are still in use today.

It is essential that shade not be picked too soon. If it is it will cure to a greenish brown tinge which is no good for cigar wrapper. Picking, beginning with the 2 or 3 lowest leaves starts 7-8 weeks after transplanting. By that time the plant is 5-6 feet tall. The farms are 150-200 acres and employ about 300-400 people to pick and sew. Each priming follows the last by 10 days-2 weeks.

It is cured with low heat, which wilts it and yellows it first. Eventually the temp can be brought up to 90-95F. The curing takes 8-10 days but the tobacco is re-fired many times after to dry the stems and veins, and remains in the curing sheds 6 weeks.

I worked for the company in the photo during the 1960s and 1970s. They began raising Conn shade in 1911 and had been in existence as broadleaf and Havana growers and leaf brokers from 1853, headquartered in Hartford, Connecticut. Alas, the company folded in 1978, a casualty of the "cancerous" growth of Gulf + Western owned Consolidated Cigar and its eventual failure in 1982. In the first decade of this century I had the good fortune to return to shade, working with people from before for an independent grower with 3 farms totaling 500 acres in two states. They folded too, by the machinations of the same Consolidated Cigar Corp., now known as Altadis.
 
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