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Cold weather curing and quality

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Planter

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I have a substantial amount of leaf which stalk-cured over the whole last winter in a shed (and spent the following summer there, too). It turned brown before spring, and looks decent, but doesn't have a typical tobacco smell to it (unburned that is); it rather smells like dusty foliage. It smokes a bit harsh, not like tobacco that has some age to it. In your experience, will kilning improve it, or is leaf which cured that slowly just of secondary quality? (I don't have kiln space available at the moment to find out by myself quickly, but a good amount of not-yet-cured to hang again, so eagerly awaiting your answers.)
 

ChinaVoodoo

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Last year was my first. I picked my tobacco too early and about half the samsun dried a deep olive / chocolate brown colour. I kilned it for two months. At first it was rather uric/ammonia smelling, but now, 10 months after kilning, it is really good.
 

DGBAMA

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Just needs aging/kilning. Tobacco does not age significantly while completely dry, so time when humidity was low pretty much doesn't count for the aging process.
 

LeftyRighty

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I got lazy with my 2014 crop, after air-curing in the shed in the fall, I processed/shredded only about 5-7 lbs, then stored in sealed glass jars in low/mid-case to age. The remainder is still aging in the shed.
This last few months, I pulled more of this over-wintered shed-tobacco, processed, again stored in glass jar.
Comparing the two, the tobacco that spent more time in the shed is noticeably milder, tastier, and a better smoke for cigs, and it's also better than my kilned tobacco.
These were half 'African Red' strain, and the rest 'Costello' and 'Yellow-Twist-Bud' burley strains.

I still have about 40% of my 2014 crop hanging in the shed, am going to leave it for another year. I expect it will continue to improve. (after growing since 2010, got plenty of smokes stored inside in FmGrowit's bags, so can afford to use the shed space). This shed-tobacco is crispy-crunchy, very low-case dry for almost all of the time it's in the shed, and shouldn't be aging much, but it does. I guess I'll confirm this next summer when I process the remaining tobacco.

Thus goes my experiment. Initially, I was concerned that mold could be a problem on very humid rainy or summer days, but this low-case tobacco seems immune. Could be a problem for those in southern states, but it works for me, or maybe I'm lucky. If this works next year, I'll have a better process for smokes - just let it hang in the shed for a few years, less work and better smokes.
 

bonehead

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i leave all my tobacco hanging in my shed and garage until i need the space for a new harvest. sometimes i open the doors on a damp day and the tobacco comes up in case then i shut the door and it slowly dries out again. it works wonders once you get a year or more ahead on your grows. last spring i emptied my shed then refilled it with the new harvest. next spring i will empty my garage then fill it with the new harvest. i never kilned tobacco and i don't think i ever will if i can stay ahead of the game. i think the tobacco comes out cleaner the longer it hangs because there is junk falling from the tobacco for a long time after it is color cured.
 

Planter

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Thanks for the replies. Probably the place is simply too dry (at least mould isn't an issue that way). I will kiln some then as soon as I have some space.
By the way, am I the only one who has wasps hiding in hanging leaves over the winter? I already got four stinges that way, and another one from a hornet which must have been squeezed for weeks in a bunch of tightly pressed leaf in a box. Never saw anybody mentioning that here, so I wonder.
 

Smokin Harley

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bonehead, I agree with you . In the difference of a day , my leaf hanging in the garage (I emptied the shed a couple weeks ago in preparation for the IL winter snow) comes in and out of case with the rainy days . Nice to get a whiff of sweet apricot or figgy aroma'd tobacco leaf during the day. and no , no mold. I have noticed and mentioned it in my leaf curing thread that Criollo 98 has quite a bit more tolerance for moisture in the air (bagged especially)than other leaf. I now have this habit of nosing my bagged leaf twice a day, catching that sweetness .
 

PercyPrune

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By the way, am I the only one who has wasps hiding in hanging leaves over the winter? I already got four stinges that way, and another one from a hornet which must have been squeezed for weeks in a bunch of tightly pressed leaf in a box. Never saw anybody mentioning that here, so I wonder.

Hi everyone (first post),
Old thread I know... but when I saw this had to reply.. I got stung last week and narrowly avoided three others hiding in the curled-up leaves hanging in my shed..
Gives you a hell of a shock!!!! German wasps.. bastards!! I think they lay eggs on the insects or on the leaves on the plant, had worms around but the wasps killed them.. They were pretty sleepy when I unfolded the leaves.. big buggers though..
It is the end of Autumn here (NZ) and I will be hanging the rest of the leaves on my 30 or so plants in the next few days.. (already have a few jars aging nicely from the earlier harvest)
My climate is pretty humid so not holding my breathe and need to be careful of mould (Had to bake/toast a some from last batch that was starting to mould, but am interested to see how that will age anyway..
Will keep you updated, they should be hanging right into mid june (Pretty wintery)

Cheers,
PercyP
 
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