The dangers of mould developing (UK)

[squeezyjohn]

Well - my first year of growing is over ... I have certainly thrown away more tobacco leaf than I have left! But I have also learnt a ton of information through experience for next year's exploits!

My main problem was that my work can take me away for up to 3 weeks at a time - and that's plenty enough time for the weather to turn and the mould to grow on air-curing leaves that aren't in a controlled atmosphere. I guess most people here know that already - but I learnt the hard way. This has also been one of the wettest years I've known in the UK.

The leaf I still have that is not mouldy is about half my harvest of Black Stalk Mammoth that I made in to pigtail twists when only just colour-cured. Those are currently wrapped in tissue paper and ageing in my wardrobe (to keep away clothes moths allegedly). The twists are nice and compact and a good way for me to store the tobacco for use later as chewing tobacco, pipe or snus - I suspect it would make them hard to shred for smoking using a machine though.

My lesson is that next year - at any time I might be away for a long period I will bring the leaves inside in low case to store until the next time I can keep an eye on hanging them ... sadly hanging indoors is not an option for me.

Cheers

Squeezy

 

[johnlee1933]

Sorry about your losses but we all have them. My second year it was hail. This year was good. You seem to have the attitude we all have to develop. Persevere. That plus a little Pollyanna "I just know next year will be better" generally gets us thru the rough patches and on to SUCCESS! Good luck in 2013. -- John

 

[Michibacy]

Sorry to hear about it John! Keep your chin up though, like John(lee) said, we all have those times. Experience is half the battle!

 

[squeezyjohn]

Thanks for the condolences chaps - given that I expected to end up with nothing at the beginning of the season I'm still winning very nicely thank you.

I do think that I will twist-cure a lot of what I grow next year - it's a really neat way to store the tobacco away to age rather than hanging as whole leaves. I've had a chew of a little piece of one of the pigtails with no casing at all and I have to say that although it's a little bit harsh on the throat at the moment - the underlying flavour of this baccy is so clean and aromatic that it beats anything I've ever tasted that's commercially available already.

Cheers

Squeezy

 

[Markw]

Sorry to hear that John. I have had the same problem as well with all this damp weather. I was lucky and caught it in time and moved it inside to finish off. When the leaf has nearly dried I will be cutting the ribs out of them next year as they just take to long to dry.

Markw

 

[darren1979]

John your not alone with the mould battles, looks like we've all had it at some point. Mine was the first year growing and lost a lot of baccy to mould and also my own stupidity by hanging the leaves too close, black rotten leaves arn't a good look.
Hears to next year tho and all the lessons learnt should make it a bumper year for us all.

 

[johnlee1933]

We seem to have slipped a gear here. Markw was the one with the mold problem. Thankfully that one hasn't gotten me yet. -- John

 

[Michibacy]

Johnlee, I thought sueezyjohn was the one with molding issues

 

[squeezyjohn]

You're both right!

There's another thread I just came across in Curing>Air curing where Markw is seeing the first signs of the moulding problem and taking evasive action. Unfortunately mine had already gone too far to rescue on returning home from a tour away.

I'm not surprised though! The humidity sensor in my greenhouse was registering 99% - and my propane heater had unfortunately run out of gas while I was away. There's been just over a week of constant heavy rain here with some awful flooding in some parts. My remaining tobacco went on the compost heap - but I'm just glad I live on high ground - there's some people being evacuated nearer the rivers.

Cheers

Squeezy

 

[Markw]

Hi John trust me to confuse everyone, This weather is bad nothing dries I suppose we should put this dawn as a learning curve. I have had major problems trying to get the last leaves dry. and as for some of the seed pods they even went mouldy on the plants. I hope you are not too badly effected by these floods, I feel sorry for some of them who have now been flooded three times within a year.

Mark

 

[squeezyjohn]

The floods are nowhere near getting us thank goodness - the water's starting to go down now in Oxford.

I think the problem here in the UK is that we need to use as much of the growing season as possible to get ripe leaves (with the bad summer I didn't get my plants in open ground until the beginning of July about a month after I thought I would be able to get away with it!) - that means harvesting the leaves in to October - which doesn't leave much time for colour curing before the really wet weather can set in. I definitely will have a re-think about my curing arrangements to see what might be possible for next year.

With a better (more normal) summer and getting the plants in the ground late May/early June - I reckon we could have most of a decent September & October to get the leaves properly colour cured. Let's just keep fingers crossed!

Cheers

Squeezy

 

[BarG]

Hey squeezyjohn, I left some tops hanging outdoors too long last year and got mold like crazy. Any leafs that are colored cured . or tops that aren't can be finished cured by bringing into a dryer environ, Do not leave out under conditions that you deem to be undesirable. It s a learning experience.