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And now for something completely different....

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Bex

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I have found out something that I was not aware of before, with the little digital thermostat. It appears that while I have it set for 95F, when it shuts the pot off, the temperature goes up another 2-3 degrees, before leveling off and starting to drop. I was aware of this with the oven thermometer that I had originally used, but thought that this was because of the inaccuracy of the thermometer setting. I don't know if this is normal for the digital thermostat, as I never noticed before - it's always possible that while fiddling around with it, I screwed up some settings. However, while it acts this way, I will have to be really careful about getting to close to that 104 or 120F important temps.
My second run is without incident thus far - the temps are staying nicely within the right boundaries, and I'm steady at about 96% RH. I had to go out for a while, and was concerned that the RH might drop while I was away, so I closed the vent. When I returned, the RH was up at its usual 99%. Here is something interesting (to me, at least....) I have the racks of leaves somewhat toward the center of the chamber - about the same number as I did on my first run. This time I have them closer together - 3 to a pin - rather than 2 and spread out. There is no leaf near the walls of the freezer. The interesting thing is that I'm getting a LOT less condensation all over the lid - the condensation is now mainly at the front and sides of the lid, close to where the vent is. The area of the lid that is above the racks of leaves.....is DRY. Don't ask me about the science behind this one, but whatever it is, I like it. I'm coming up to 24 hours about now.....
 

deluxestogie

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My guess about the condensation differences between the two runs is that leaf close to the rear wall substantially decreases the air circulation to that part of the chamber, so it was generally cooler than the rest of the chamber. That would suggest that you are now witnessing the effect of more efficient fan circulation.

Bob
 

Bex

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It certainly is different (and better). Not being scientifically minded, I thought that spreading the leaf evenly throughout the freezer would have been better - but it appears that keeping the perimeter free of leaf - even though the leaf is now clustered closer together, is a bit improvement. I'm also finding that I can purposefully raise and lower the RH by virtue of the position of the clothespin on the lid of the freezer. Pretty interesting.....
 

Brown Thumb

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You have more air circulation going around the out side of the hanging leaf.
You want the air being pushed thru the leaf.
Low CFM of air going thru our leaf I think is a problem with these small chambers.
But they are getting us close.
 

Bex

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I have the fans pretty much directly under the leaf and angled a bit upward, so that air should still be able to go up through the leaf. I don't have the leaf totally 'squished' together, but have moved it away from the edges of the freezer. I have found that I'm having less problems with condensation on this run. I've just crossed the 48 hour mark, and the leaves are starting to turn. I'm not opening the freezer as much (as I don't have to wipe the off the lid), and am just going to leave it until I come up to the 60 hour mark or so. Then I'll hike the temp up to about 100F for 12 hours (right now it's 95F), and then I'll look at the leaf. If it is similar to the last run (where the center leaves were yellow and the leaves on the outside were starting to turn, but really hadn't yet) I'll head into wilting, rather than waiting like I did on the last run. I found that all of the pale greeny/yellow leaves turned yellow during wilting (keeping the temp below that 120F mark), and caught up with the leaf that was already yellow. The worst part of the freezer is at the back, where the lid is hinged. I think that as long as I keep that area somewhat free of leaf, I might not have as much trouble with that row of green leaf lagging behind.

I am so weird....I wish I had another chamber - I'm itching to start another run before this one is even finished. This is somewhat like a greenhouse, where they tell you to decide how big you want one, and then build it twice as big. I'm ready to go to the dump and look for old commercial walk in refrigerators....;)
 

Bex

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Sadly, while I might enjoy the 'it's pink' bit of the endoskeleton build, it's the 'it's expensive' bit that does me in. I was thinking of something like this:
http://www.bushrefrigeration.com/media/flexslider/Walk_in_Cooler_Freezer.jpg
And se habla espanol as well.

But I thank you for the vote of confidence regarding my carpentry skills. Sadly, I have always gone for speed, rather than quality, in most of my 'work'. It shows. I have been a lifetime fan of Samantha in Bewitched. I keep wishing for things, wiggling my nose, but nothing happens. Very depressing.

I imagine that, due to the growing conditions I have here, where my tobacco normally will have to be grown under cover in some way, I should be quite Zen, and be content with the set up that I have. But still..........I dream.
 

Bex

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My new deluxe chamber aside, I am now 72 hours into this run. A fast peek shows the leaf a nice yellow color with bits of green - all the leaf seems to be at the same stage. I am making an executive decision....I am away for the night. My quandary: do I stay in yellowing for another 14 hours or so? Or do I move on to wilting?? I have decided to bump up the temp to about 110F for the night....I don't want to go to close to that 120F mark, and I won't be here to regulate the humidity, as well. When I get back at midday tomorrow, hopefully all will be ok. If so, I'll hike the temp up that bit further so I hover just under the 120F mark, and see where I am when I get to 96 hours. Sounds like a plan....hopefully a good one.
 

deluxestogie

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Ever since I viewed that massive walk-in freezer on the Bush Refrigeration site, I have been treated to Bush Refrigeration advertisements on about 50% of the web pages I visit. Creepy.

Your batch seems to be going well.

Bob
 

Bex

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I was away for the night, and didn't want the RH to drop uncontrollably, so I shut the vent. I bumped the temperature up to 111F or so. When I came home this morning, the RH was back up at 99% - however I don't think I had a choice with this. If the night is cold and dry, I find that the RH gets somewhat sucked out of the freezer. Anyway, I quickly wiped down the lid, put my vents back in, and hike the temperature up a bit to about 115F. I plan to sit there all day, and see what is happening by 5PM or so. I won't leave wilting until I'm happy with the color. As I'm not really studying the leaf when I'm quickly wiping down the lid, I can't tell in detail what's going on in there - there appears to be some yellow, still some pale green, and, naturally, a small bit of brown. I'm assuming that I have this idea right - not to go beyond that 120F until 'yellowing is complete', as there will be little color change beyond that temperature. I am hopeful, as last time my pale green leaf did turn yellow during wilting.
I'm beginning to think that my main problem is the weather here - it is impossible for me to plant out before the end of May at the earliest, even with the tunnel. I currently have burley plants that are only about 3 feet high (although there are others that are about 8 feet tall). The Orientals didn't do much, and of the surviving ones, they have only just begun to show any signs of real growth....and it's the middle of October. I think that, at best, I have about six weeks left to go.....

And thanks for the heads up about Bush Refrigeration!! I'll stay away from their website, as I'm tracked enough by ads as it is. It's not only creepy, ut annoying as well, and I imagine that if I ever had any intention of buying from, say, Bush, the fact that you're inundated with their ads would make you think twice about doing so. Kind of strange marketing......
 

Bex

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I am a wee bit behind the 8 ball in timing, due to my 'big' Saturday night... I'm fully into wilting now, with the chamber vented and temp set just under 120F. I seem to remember Dgbama (?) telling me last year that he allowed the RH to dictate his time frame, ie waiting for the RH to drop to whatever level he wanted, prior to moving the temperature on to the next stage. I believe this is what I read! And (whether it is or not) this is what I'm currently doing. My RH is was fairly steady in the mid 80's over night, with the temp set at 115F or so. I hiked it up to 118F (if my celsius to fahrenheit calculation is correct) and now my RH is dropping, currently at 72%, and I expect by mid afternoon it should hit the mid 50% range. At that time, I am moving on to leaf drying, and will allow the RH to dictate when I move to stem drying, etc. I hope that this run should be finished by tomorrow evening, so that I can start another one on Wednesday morning. I have been a good little tobacco curer, and after looking at the leaf rather quickly yesterday, have not poked my nose into the chamber at all, so I have no idea what's going on inside, how much more has turned yellow, brown or remained green. It will be like Christmas tomorrow when I open the chamber when all is done, to see what the result is.

At some point, I will have to start studying about the procedure to use for the burley plants that I have going - as burley constitutes over 50% of my current blend, I hope to do them so that they come out well. However, unless the weather fails me, I hope to have the majority of the virginia cured before I tackle the burley, possibly then using the freezer as a controlled environment, considering that the weather here can be so horrible.....
 

Bex

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As above, I sat in yellowing perhaps a bit longer than I should have - I took a peek at my leaf, now that I am hoping to finish with wilting. A quick observation shows much of the leaf is brown. BUT, and this is my question, the midrib in most of the leaf, regardless of whether the leaf is brown or yellow (or green) still remains a pale green. Should the midrib be changing color as well, and if so, is there some reason why this isn't happening on my run? Having looked at photos for other threads on flue curing, it does appear that the midrib is supposed to change....?????
 

Bex

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Leaf ripeness is (and probably always will be) a problem for me. My plants are only out since the beginning of June. They were topped about 3-4 weeks ago, but none of the lower leaf is showing any sign of yellowing on the stalk. Lower leaf is somewhat paler than the upper leaf, but nothing like what I've seen in photos. It is now the middle of October, so I am starting this process, as I think either I, or the plants, will run out of time. Sadly, at least for me, there is no way around this - I just don't have the proper growing season, made even worse by the cool and damp summer we have had this year, with temps never even hitting 60F. Even with doing this grow in a tunnel, it appears that I am unable to get the proper length of a growing season.

Another thing that I have just noticed, as I was prepared to go from wilting into leaf drying.....My RH has been dropping as I wanted, and is now at about 56%. I took the liberty to open the chamber and really investigate the leaf. The leaf itself is dry - nothing like what I would have anticipated '56% humidity' to be. I assumed that at 56%, the leaf would still be somewhat supple - is that not correct? I had found during my first run that at 35%, my leaf and stems were already crispy - there was no need for me to hit 15%, although I did, in order to get into stem drying. Either my hygrometer is inaccurate, or else my idea of what these levels should be is somewhat off-base.

In any event, I should have photos to post by tomorrow evening. I still have a load of tobacco up in the tunnel, and while I am trying to be careful as to what I am harvesting - taking what appears to be the very palest leaf with some indication of yellowing that the tips and perimeter of the leaf, this continues to be a problem. I doubt that this run will be as 'successful' as my last......
 

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You could save some time and electricity by hanging some leaf in your shed until it turns yellow before putting it in your chamber. You could do this while running the previous load.
 

Bex

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I might try this again - the first year that I grew tobacco (before I read about flue curing) I tried hanging the leaf in my shed. I didn't do anything with circulation, etc., although the shed is meant to be a 'drying' shed, as this is normally where turf and hay would be stored. There are holes in the walls for ventilation. My tobacco wilted, and then molded almost overnight. Last year, a friend of mine had some of the plants that I was growing (mystery plants). He hung the leaf in February (it had never even begun to yellow on the plant) - the leaf went from green to brown. He enjoys smoking it in his pipe, although he says it's quite mild. As I am growing proper plants this year, hanging them to yellow for a bit may be something that I'll try.

I was also reading some literature that Amax had posted a couple of years ago - an old book, where they talk about 'sapping' - getting the flue curing chamber up to the 95F at the start of the run, and then quickly raising the temp to 125F, holding it there for a few minutes, and then letting it drop back to the 95F for yellowing. Supposedly this was meant to open the 'pores' of the cells, or something similar, which allowed the leaf to turn yellow more quickly. I have never heard of this before, nor do I notice that any of the forum members who flue cure actually do this. It would be nice to get a chamber of yellow leaf without struggling......
 
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