While reading one of the many wonderful threads here on FTT a link was posted to a method of curing tobacco in Brazil. Leaves were harvested and allowed to wilt in the sun. Then while still showing an alarming amount of green color they were deribbed and twisted into a massive rope. The rope over time appears to take on a deep brown color as the leaves cure. It looked on one hand like crap, and the other like some of the finest tobacco I've ever seen.
It caught my interest right away. I ran around the web looking for smoke reports of Brazilian rope thinking that while it might look good, perhaps the chlorophyll is still there but covered up. Not having an option to try it myself I tried to gauge the overall reception from the internet. It seemed promising.
Where I live I have a large issue finishing my grow, I am hoping this is one possible answer to that. i have started priming and testing this and so far it is promising. The wilted green and yellow leaf is bunched into a cylinder about an inch thick after deribbing. Half leaves are wrapped cigar style around the cylinder which I try to keep equal in thickness from one end to the other. About twice as many leaves are used to bind it as a cigar, as I'm trying to compress it as much as I can so instead of one leaf going the whole length it'll only go a couple inches and then another is added until the whole thing is covered. I don't twist it so am using nylon rope tightly wound so no leaf is visible while maintaining lots of tension on it so the leaf is incredibly compressed. As I work my way down, tightly coiling as I go, sap is released and is dripping by the time I get to the end. I tie the rope off and let it hang for about a week. With green leaf it seems it needs to be unravelled around then and rewound as the cylinder doesn't feel solid anymore, so rewinding the rope allows it to be tightly compressed again. In Brazil I think I read somewhere they redo their ropes periodically for the same reason.
Well initial progress with my lugs and then first primings have been (visually) a huge success. The leaf has gone in both instances from a mishmash of colors to a solid chocolaty brown in very little time. Based on the success so far I will be documenting the next one for people who perhaps have similar issues as I do as well as for myself so I can collect my observations in one spot to remind myself in the future.
So stay tuned, I will be getting some pictures later during the week of the process from first picking, then wilting, then compressing. Then way down the line some smoke tests in the pipe. And maybe I will even be able to talk our members with more refined palettes and writing skill into sampling it and giving their opinions. It could be great, it could be trash or anything in between. I mean to find out.
It caught my interest right away. I ran around the web looking for smoke reports of Brazilian rope thinking that while it might look good, perhaps the chlorophyll is still there but covered up. Not having an option to try it myself I tried to gauge the overall reception from the internet. It seemed promising.
Where I live I have a large issue finishing my grow, I am hoping this is one possible answer to that. i have started priming and testing this and so far it is promising. The wilted green and yellow leaf is bunched into a cylinder about an inch thick after deribbing. Half leaves are wrapped cigar style around the cylinder which I try to keep equal in thickness from one end to the other. About twice as many leaves are used to bind it as a cigar, as I'm trying to compress it as much as I can so instead of one leaf going the whole length it'll only go a couple inches and then another is added until the whole thing is covered. I don't twist it so am using nylon rope tightly wound so no leaf is visible while maintaining lots of tension on it so the leaf is incredibly compressed. As I work my way down, tightly coiling as I go, sap is released and is dripping by the time I get to the end. I tie the rope off and let it hang for about a week. With green leaf it seems it needs to be unravelled around then and rewound as the cylinder doesn't feel solid anymore, so rewinding the rope allows it to be tightly compressed again. In Brazil I think I read somewhere they redo their ropes periodically for the same reason.
Well initial progress with my lugs and then first primings have been (visually) a huge success. The leaf has gone in both instances from a mishmash of colors to a solid chocolaty brown in very little time. Based on the success so far I will be documenting the next one for people who perhaps have similar issues as I do as well as for myself so I can collect my observations in one spot to remind myself in the future.
So stay tuned, I will be getting some pictures later during the week of the process from first picking, then wilting, then compressing. Then way down the line some smoke tests in the pipe. And maybe I will even be able to talk our members with more refined palettes and writing skill into sampling it and giving their opinions. It could be great, it could be trash or anything in between. I mean to find out.