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Smokin Harley leaf curing (air cure )

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Smokin Harley

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Had a very hot humid Labor Day weekend. The tobacco barn showed good results as far as color curing - yellowing of a good bit of leaf. Still have some of the big leaf varieties just start mottling. Just a few not doing anything yet, still very green but the ones that were green a long time from the 2nd priming are finally going yellow ,just slowly. Some even went through yellow to brown already . The aroma coming from the barn when I open the doors every morning is just wonderful. Looking at my Machu Picchu Havana and Vuelta Abajo....what beautiful brown leaf it is becoming. The color is so rich , dark and even across the leaf . The main midribs are still yellow but I'm leaving it hanging until that browns out. Today is only predicting 79*F and quite cloudy so I will open the doors for air exchange and a thorough leaf inspection, then do a major cleanup of the garden and cut grass. I have a couple sources of garden soil fill to check out today too.
Tomorrow is my sons 19th birthday and I plan to spend all day with him ,take him to the (Dekalb) county fair a couple counties away as is our tradition. So not much other stuff going to happen. Just good father/son quality time.
 

Knucklehead

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Had a very hot humid Labor Day weekend. The tobacco barn showed good results as far as color curing - yellowing of a good bit of leaf. Still have some of the big leaf varieties just start mottling. Just a few not doing anything yet, still very green but the ones that were green a long time from the 2nd priming are finally going yellow ,just slowly. Some even went through yellow to brown already . The aroma coming from the barn when I open the doors every morning is just wonderful. Looking at my Machu Picchu Havana and Vuelta Abajo....what beautiful brown leaf it is becoming. The color is so rich , dark and even across the leaf . The main midribs are still yellow but I'm leaving it hanging until that browns out. Today is only predicting 79*F and quite cloudy so I will open the doors for air exchange and a thorough leaf inspection, then do a major cleanup of the garden and cut grass. I have a couple sources of garden soil fill to check out today too.
Tomorrow is my sons 19th birthday and I plan to spend all day with him ,take him to the (Dekalb) county fair a couple counties away as is our tradition. So not much other stuff going to happen. Just good father/son quality time.

I have some Vuelta Abajo and Machu Picchu Havana in the kiln right now. First year growing either one. Eleven more days ... :cool:
 

Smokin Harley

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we may have to swap some kilned leaf...study the differences between the same variety grown in both IL black loamy soil and Alabama red clay in the same season.
 

Smokin Harley

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Yesterday the curing barn didn't even get the doors open for a peek.
Instead, I took my son to the fair (our tradition since he was born), it was his 19th birthday. One thing we can always talk about is machinery, hit-n-miss engines , tractors ,cars and trucks. It was a great day.
This morning , however, I did take a stroll out and see whats going on. Besides picking two horn worms off and squishing them both between my fingers, its all going well. Temp was 70*F and the rH was 75% . Got some cold rain coming down right now and supposed to be off and on for next 3 days. If the cool weather continues ,I may have to kick the current batch which is almost in its 4th week out of the kiln and put it in color curing mode to get the green and mottled ones finished yellowing. I called for garden soil to be delivered but with the rain we had a couple days ago and the rain we're getting ,they won't deliver thinking they'll get their trucks stuck. Maybe in a couple more weeks.
 

Smokin Harley

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Ok , so yesterday when I checked my barn curing leaf from the last harvest, I still have a few wires worth that are still green . The tips are slowly turning but we're now getting our fall weather which is lower day temps and the humidity has been considerably less than that of a week ago. We are still supposed to get some more warm days but I don't know how long that will last. I had the doors open yesterday for a few hours to let the sun in to warm it up. It did get to 70*F and 60% rH but I'm thinking there is something more I should do to help the leaf color cure before they dry green and then its over and they'll be an addition to the compost...
Wondering if I can color cure in the kiln. The batch that is in there is ready to come out anyway.
 

DGBAMA

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I have done a bunch of yellowing in my curing chamber. Works great. I like to target 95-100 deg and 75-80% rh until yellow.
 

Smokin Harley

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Thanks DG...I'll try it...how long did it take...at those values I'm sure I'll need to keep an eye on it for mold issues.
 

DGBAMA

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Thanks DG...I'll try it...how long did it take...at those values I'm sure I'll need to keep an eye on it for mold issues.

Living leaf (green/yellow) won't mold. Once yellowed, dump the RH, for drying/browning.

5-7 days seems normal for me, some did take a couple weeks, but that was late harvested leaf that was not fully mature.
 

Smokin Harley

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ok, good to know. I learned something today. And thanks for the quick reply...I put a batch of Little Dutch in first about 30 minutes ago since it tends to yellow and go brown almost instantly. I set the temp to 100 and the can in the crockpot is full of water,without a rH gauge of any kind its pretty humid when I open the door . I'll check it tomorrow and see how it is. If it shows signs of yellowing I'll put the rest of the green leaves in as well.
 

Smokin Harley

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Bob, thank you...(learned something else today. I guess I knew about ethylene gas and ripening and I thought it only applied to fruits ) I just loaded it up.
That would explain then why when I loaded the barn up with a nice harvest load and the summer heat,they all turned yellow very quickly.
 

Brown Thumb

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You can fill it with ripe bananas and that will accelerate the curing faster also:cool:
 

Smokin Harley

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I'm not sure what to think of the first batch that I pulled from the kiln...it was in for 4 weeks. I pulled them out by variety and straightened and smoothed the leaves and stacked them neatly so I can (vapor proof) bag them for storage. The aroma is still grassy ,not a whole lot different than when they went IN the kiln.
Did I do something wrong or did I not let them kiln long enough? I was expecting a different aroma .
 

Knucklehead

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I'm not sure what to think of the first batch that I pulled from the kiln...it was in for 4 weeks. I pulled them out by variety and straightened and smoothed the leaves and stacked them neatly so I can (vapor proof) bag them for storage. The aroma is still grassy ,not a whole lot different than when they went IN the kiln.
Did I do something wrong or did I not let them kiln long enough? I was expecting a different aroma .

Give them a few days out of the kiln. They improve with some "rest" after kilning.
 

Smokin Harley

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The leaf that came out of the one month kiln process ,has been sitting and resting in the garage almost a week now and its still smelling grassy. I have Little Dutch and Fl Sumatra (very nice quality wrapper looking ,light brown) and a few Pa Red leaves that are smoothed out and stacked in perforated plastic bags , I just checked them all and no mold and very low case yet still pliable.

I'm thinking of putting them in the Vapor Proof Bags ("VPB"'s), sealing them up and letting them re-kiln long term (speed aging so I end up with 5 yr aged in only 5 months )and maybe I don't have to worry about adding a drop water to the kiln crockpot, just use what little moisture is sealed in the bags . Has anyone tried it this way...
should I maybe just tightly close the bags for a month then re-open the bags at the end of that kiln session to allow any ammonia and moisture to escape?
Should I kiln then let it cool down ,rest a week ,then rekiln and so on or just let the heat roll non-stop for the duration ?
Is this (any/all) a good or bad idea?

This is my last weekend on a day time schedule again for a while. I start working Monday on night shift and will surely be a zombie by End of October /early November.
I'd like to just treat this like a Ron Popeil commercial and just "set it and forget it" if I can without damaging any leaf.
 
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