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Tobacco barn temps

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mountbaldy

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Hi guys,

I'm looking for good info on tobacco barn temps. My harvest is late this year (first timer!) and I'm having a cold spell in the high country. Evening temps are dropping into the mid forties at night. I was going to throw my temp controller on my curing shed and harvest prime leaf. Most plants are good and prime so harvest is eminent.

Anyhow what's the best temp for drying?

I was going to use a heat lamp as my heat source for this. Temps inside the shed during mid day are into the low 100's.

Advice here is appreciated!

Thanks!

Joe
 

Jitterbugdude

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The most important thing when curing is humidity. Your temps are in the 100's, what's your humidity like? If it is low you'll need to raise it. I cure all my tobacco in my barn with no additional heat source other than the sun. It is usually about 90 degrees during the day with high humidity.
 

Chicken

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A heat lamp won't deliver much heat..

We really.need to know the size of your barn..a heat lamp may heat a makeshift kiln made from a freezer...

What size is your barn??
 

webmost

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Hi guys,

I'm looking for good info on tobacco barn temps. My harvest is late this year (first timer!) and I'm having a cold spell in the high country. Evening temps are dropping into the mid forties at night. I was going to throw my temp controller on my curing shed and harvest prime leaf. Most plants are good and prime so harvest is eminent.

Anyhow what's the best temp for drying?

I was going to use a heat lamp as my heat source for this. Temps inside the shed during mid day are into the low 100's.

Advice here is appreciated!

Thanks!

Joe

Jeepers! You have a sixty degree swing there?
 

mountbaldy

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Dimensions sure would help. My barn is 33" x 35 1/2" x 47". So it's more of a shed than anything. It was an old unused dog house. Yes the temp swings we have here are quite extreme. Some days in the fall it can be 80 degrees difference.

Humidity here is very low. Less than 20 percent most days. We are in a high mountain desert. I plan on putting a humidifier inside the barn. What RH is ideal for curing?

Thanks guys!!

Joe
 

ChinaVoodoo

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Dimensions sure would help. My barn is 33" x 35 1/2" x 47". So it's more of a shed than anything. It was an old unused dog house. Yes the temp swings we have here are quite extreme. Some days in the fall it can be 80 degrees difference.

Humidity here is very low. Less than 20 percent most days. We are in a high mountain desert. I plan on putting a humidifier inside the barn. What RH is ideal for curing?

Thanks guys!!

Joe

You wanna keep it at 70% if possible.
 

Knucklehead

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Dimensions sure would help. My barn is 33" x 35 1/2" x 47". So it's more of a shed than anything. It was an old unused dog house. Yes the temp swings we have here are quite extreme. Some days in the fall it can be 80 degrees difference.

Humidity here is very low. Less than 20 percent most days. We are in a high mountain desert. I plan on putting a humidifier inside the barn. What RH is ideal for curing?

Thanks guys!!

Joe

You want an average of close to 70%. It can swing down to 50% for half a day and get up to 80% for a short period after a rain, but if it start staying at those extremes for two or three days running, you can either dry green (garden mulch) or mold or rot (garden mulch). In low humidity you can wet the floor, pack the leaf tightly together, raise the door when night time humidity is higher, close the door in the morning to trap the higher humidity, fill a bucket with water and hang a towel in it as a wick. For high humidity you need to introduce air flow, spread the leaf further apart, open the doors during the day when humidity is lower, close the doors at night to trap the drier air, or introduce heat. It's a balancing act that turns into an art.

If you build a kiln at some point, you can air cure in the kiln with a crock pot as both heat source and humidity supply.
 

Knucklehead

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Almost forgot. Green leaf is 80% water, so you can also throw a plastic tent over the leaf to recycle the moisture that the leaf is giving off as it cures down. A smaller space is also much easier to climate control than a large space.
 

Knucklehead

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Relative humidity takes temperature into account, so the hotter the temps the lower the humidity, all else being equal. It might help to shade your shed, especially if it has a black or metal roof. A space that small could turn into an oven and cook the leaf green before you knew it was happening.
 

mountbaldy

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Thanks for all of the advice!

I'm going to be using a humidistat to control my humidifier and possibly a crock pot inside the house. I got the house insulated and installed my closet rods aka stringing poles inside my house. Tomorrow after work I'll put my controller inside and test it out.

I checked temps on my thermometer today on top of the house at noon and it was 115 this morning it was 45. Pretty incredible! The heat else where wasn't that hot. It was because it was sitting on top of the tin roof on the house.

Bob I'll take a few pics. I initially was going to (and am still going to) use the house to cure meat. The house was here when we moved in and our dogs won't use it so it was up cycled into a curing "barn". After the baccy is done I'll be making some summer sausage.

Anyhow, I'll keep you folks posted!! Meanwhile, my leaf is getting very mature!! I'll be priming and hanging tomorrow afternoon or Sunday for sure!!

Cheers,

Joe
 

mountbaldy

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Knucklehead,
So I can put my green leaf directly into the kiln if I decided to go that route? That sounds like something I could do right now. I've insulated the house and built a temp and humidity controller. Hmmmm...

Do most folks go right to kiln stage when priming green leaf?

Thanks!!

Cheers,

Joe
 

deluxestogie

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...our dogs won't use it.... After the baccy is done I'll be making some summer sausage.
After the summer sausage, your dogs may have a change of heart.

Do most folks go right to kiln stage when priming green leaf?
If you have more than just a few plants, leaf will be harvested too fast for a kiln to manage. You would still need the color-curing space of a shed.

Bob
 

Knucklehead

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Knucklehead,
So I can put my green leaf directly into the kiln if I decided to go that route? That sounds like something I could do right now. I've insulated the house and built a temp and humidity controller. Hmmmm...

Do most folks go right to kiln stage when priming green leaf?

Thanks!!

Cheers,

Joe

Not really right to kilning stage, which is an operation used to speed age cured brown leaf. More like using the kiln as a climate controlled air curing box. The temp and humidity numbers will be slightly different for color curing than for kilning, and the green leaf will be putting off a lot of moisture that will have to be vented. Green leaf is 80% water. DGBAMA has used his "kiln" to color cure green leaf. I think it is in his 2014 Grow Blog.

I wouldn't say that most people use their boxes for color curing. But your humidity situation is pretty unique. My normal humidity is such that I can hang leaf in my shop and just let it do it's business most of the time. I may occasionally have to play with opening and closing the door, or turning on the fan, but those are fairly rare, extreme circumstances for normal weather in my area.
 

rustycase

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IMO

You should build a controllable environment inside that dog shed.
The shed could do a fine job protecting inner barriers of Visqueen plastic to get that humidity up.
A couple layers of cardboard over that could help stabilize the temp swing a tad.
In most strains, 20% humidity is gonna bring you a flash cure, and there's really no fix for that.
Good luck
rc
 

Smokin Harley

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I need to hop on this thread ...I just put my harvest into my 10 x10 shed rafters. except for room for me to squeeze in and check and move the leaf for space its pretty full. the weather for the week looks like 80's and up with little to no rain, but we just got a nice shower this afternoon. I'm wondering if I need to add a bucket of water to raise humidity (rH outside has been 75% or around lately) or is the amount of moisture the leaf gives off enough for a day or so. The shed has two louvered gable vents that are 12" x 6" on the north and south sides .it has some air exchange but not much . I made sure when I hung the leaf that I didn't block these vents. it does however have one jalousy (sp) window that faces west and is 12" x 16". I suppose on very hot days I could open it for more ventilation but Im wondering if light coming in late in the day would sunburn the leaf (ie - should I cover the window) or is it absolutely harmless to color curing (air cure) leaf?
 

deluxestogie

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Starting with a full shed is an advantage. I would want a fan inside there, when the leaf starts to brown. But a small metal shed can get up to 130ºF in full sun. If the humidity stays low, you may need to add some.

I wouldn't worry too much about the late day sun, but nothing is absolute.

Bob
 

Smokin Harley

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shed is wood . exposed stud, uninsulated , plywood siding, asphalt shingle roof.
I added a small kiddie pool and 5 gallons of water . Once it rained today it cooled off and humidity actually dropped. Sun is back out and starting to reheat the shed...er...tobacco barn !
 
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