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Topping and harvest questions cigar vars.

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Dean

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Until this grow I have not really grown cigar vars. the closest I have grown is shirey and it makes an ok cigarish flavour. I have always topped and harvested it at about 3-4 weeks usually before yellowing or just as yellowing occurs on the lower leaves, as later it seems to get very strong.

should I harvest other cigar types this way showing some yellowing? half yellowing? Wrappers with just a hint of yellow? Prime or take it all?

i have the VG and burleys down pat, I seem to let the orientals go a bit long and sometimes treat them like a VG and prime all the way to the top.

i have quite a few coming in this grow so want to be on the ball and have a bit of knowelage up my sleeve.

thanks guys any and all information or links appreciated.
 

Ben Brand

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The way I top my tobacco is: if I want to top it at 18 leaves. I wait till the 18th leaf is as big and wide as my hand, then I will top it, doesn`t matter if there are flowers or not.
Still struggling a bit with the cigar tobacco as well, used to flu cured. It seems that the cigar and oriental varieties grow much higher with more leaves. Good luck.
 

istanbulin

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Orientals are generally primed when leaves are mature (not ripe or yellowed), some varieties (i.e. İzmir) create pock like structures on leaf (aka alligator skin). When leaves turn pale green you may prime harvest them.

Wrappers are better to prime early (when leaves are still smooth not ripe) to get a good wrapper grade leaves.

Other cigar varieties (fillers and binders) may be stalk harvested, as I know American farmers harvest them like this. Priming may be better.
 

Dean

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Thankyou guys, I'd prefer to stalk them for ease of processing. But will prime if necessary this grow is mostly cigar vars so should be in leaf for a while.

ill start pulling my orientals earlier as I am not getting that smell or taste By priming, the best I have had are stalked just as they show flowers or topped and 2-3 weeks?

so take the wrappers as early as full growth no dimpling to keep them thin?

I have the thin and thick leaf sorted from growing vg's I'll treat the wrappers like my shirey and take em younger.

cheers
 

istanbulin

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ill start pulling my orientals earlier as I am not getting that smell or taste By priming, the best I have had are stalked just as they show flowers or topped and 2-3 weeks?

so take the wrappers as early as full growth no dimpling to keep them thin?

It's better to untop Orientals. Actually I meant the "leaf maturity" not "plant maturity" so it's not related with flowering. Lower leaves may be harvested before flowering.

There're some mature (alligator skin) Oriental leaf photos in the forum, like this one I posted a while ago (for İzmir). You can see the yellowing sign on the leaf tips, this means they're ready to prime.
http://fairtradetobacco.com/threads/1413-Aegean-Region-Strains-(Izmir)?p=20456&viewfull=1#post20456

Wrappers are primed more earlier, when they're just ok without a sign of ripeness.
 

Jitterbugdude

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Thankyou guys, I'd prefer to stalk them for ease of processing. But will prime if necessary this grow is mostly cigar vars so should be in leaf for a while.

I suggest you prime some and stalk cure some. After they are cured you can determine if there is a difference.
 

Dean

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To bring up one of my older posts, I have now started to prime my Samsun and it is a diferent beast, sun cred it is even better, I have used the time to try other types of baccy sun cured, the shirey is one I will never air cure again. It holds a lot more suger and the nico hit is lower once sun cured, I am getting gold spots from the sun, oranges and light browns. Air cured I get a dark cig arise leaf. If I could flue it I think it would be even better. I am also picking early from 5-10 days from topping as a fully ripe leaf has way too much nico for me to even blend away. Of those I have grown this is the best producer of leaf. My best bang for the buck, it grows anywhere good or bad soil feed or no. I am onto my 3rd growth cycle from the original plant and I have been letting them go just a little bit longer each cycle, the small leaves are very strong once stalked and are a little too much nico to smoke straight, I am finding the more cycles the root ball grows the tougher and sooner they mature, I don't think I will get a 4th pick from them but flavour and leaf thickness on the third is good, smaller leaves but a better overall product for me.
 
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