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Small-scale home growers - where do you air-cure your leaves?

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Chicken

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i cured mine in my greenhouse this year till it got good and brown and then moved it to my curing barn.... when it would get humid i used 2 heat lamps to battle the humidity... and when it was real hot i wet the ground to create some humidity....

first time ive done this. and had great results.... not the first leaf had any mold on it,

after moving it to the newlly built curing barn. i heated it to 130 degrees. for a couple days and went to smoking it.... some like to let it age. but i dont have enough laying around to wait.... grow it.....cook it......smoke it,,,,,,,

allthough i do let it hang till it's needed then ill shred a pound at a time,,,, and on rainy///humid days or nights ill use the heat lamps to balance the humidity,
 

SmokesAhoy

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You just gotta pull all the stops out chicken, plant the entire property with high production modern hybrids and have everyone you grow for pitch in. No reason anyone that grows as much as you do should be running short.
 

Chicken

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You just gotta pull all the stops out chicken, plant the entire property with high production modern hybrids and have everyone you grow for pitch in. No reason anyone that grows as much as you do should be running short.

true. i had a lot of plants this year. but most of them were untried strains. and the leaf was so small i didnt even pick it,,

im done with experimenting with untried strains. '' allthough you never know unless you try unknown strains '' but ive got my 5 tried and proven strains that ive grew before and know very well...
 

ChinaVoodoo

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true. i had a lot of plants this year. but most of them were untried strains. and the leaf was so small i didnt even pick it,,

im done with experimenting with untried strains. '' allthough you never know unless you try unknown strains '' but ive got my 5 tried and proven strains that ive grew before and know very well...

Which strains did you grow this year? It would be helpful to know what is and what's not working for other folks.
 

Chicken

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Which strains did you grow this year? It would be helpful to know what is and what's not working for other folks.



True but we all shoot for different results..i like a big leaf plant..the ones i trashed were very small leaves.. allthough they would have proablly been good for pipe bacca..

Hell i dont even recall what the names were..id have to look them up..
 

ChinaVoodoo

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True but we all shoot for different results..i like a big leaf plant..the ones i trashed were very small leaves.. allthough they would have proablly been good for pipe bacca..

Hell i dont even recall what the names were..id have to look them up..

I see what you mean. I was less happy with Ostrolist than Helena because although Ostrolist had massively huge leaves and was a foot taller, Helena actually produced more tobacco.
 

greenmonster714

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Great thread. I am new to growing this year. I have access to a horse barn that is open on both east and west side. Horses are only fed in there so yeah there is some manure but not an overwhelming amount like it would be with horses housed in there 24/7. I am concerned about a comment on pg 2 about smells invading your air curing leaf. Maybe I should rethink where I will hang my product. I'd hate to have a nice crop end up smelling like horse crap..lol.
 

SmokesAhoy

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I personally wouldn't shy away from storing green wet leaf to cure in a horse barn. When it's wet and curing the color it doesn't really pick up smells I don't think. Synthetic smells like solvents and whatnot would probably be terrible, but the green leaf is full of moisture and exhausting fumes as it is. I don't think a little horse smell will ruin it.
 

greenmonster714

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I personally wouldn't shy away from storing green wet leaf to cure in a horse barn. When it's wet and curing the color it doesn't really pick up smells I don't think. Synthetic smells like solvents and whatnot would probably be terrible, but the green leaf is full of moisture and exhausting fumes as it is. I don't think a little horse smell will ruin it.

Thanks for the input Smokes. I see what you mean. I guess I will plan on hanging in the barn then. I've got tons of room in there to hang leaf. Got a question about it though. Should I hang them high in the rafters or down a bit lower so they get more airflow? Its a pretty high ceiling and there is no front or back doors just two gates. Its all open and should get good airflow. I do worry about the humidity though. It gets super muggy down here in Alabama. I'm going to try and get my harvest hanging by the last two weeks of August. August and September are warm and humid and from what I understand they need that to brown up before going into the kiln.
 

deluxestogie

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During the color-curing stage (going from green to brown), high humidity is useful. Once the leaves are brown (dead), they are at risk of mold if the average humidity (averaged over ~3 days) stays above ~75%RH.

As for ventilation, if the humidity is relatively high during color-curing, the tobacco should do fine. If the relative humidity drops below ~60%RH, then too much ventilation will raise the risk of leaf drying green. In that case, you can construct a temporary tent around the tobacco with a sheet of plastic drop cloth.

Unless you plan to grow enough tobacco to fill the entire barn, I would hang it conveniently low. Hanging high in the rafters is for 20 year old hired hands. And you do want to be able to look at the leaf and feel the leaf.

Bob
 

LordPipestoke

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I've bought myself a small (possibly too small) 'tent greenhouse.' It's the sort you'll put a few potted plants in. It's my first year trying this and I only have about 15 plants in the ground. I'm in that rather large English-speaking country in the southern hemisphere, so hoping to be harvesting soon.

My plan is to have the tent on the veranda and then open/close it up according to what's needed to keep the leaves at a reasonable humidity while colour-curing.
 

dubhelix

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I'm air curing in an old goat shed, approx 12x14 feet. Before hanging the leaf in the shed, I yellow/wilt in a pile between two towels in the 100F attic until any brown appears on the leaf. As soon as a leaf shows any brown, it gets hung. The shed has vents along the edges and roofline. The tarp/door gets opened at night (high humidity) and closed up during the day (low humidity).

So far so good.
image.jpg
 

Alpine

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I can only offer my limited experience LordP, but the best thing you can do is experiment. In my first year, ive tried pile curing, curing hanging the leaves in hands, in open air and under a plastic sheet, and whatever comes to mind. Truth is, you have to find the best method suited to your conditions (temp, RH, hours of sun exposure and so on). To be honest, I lost a good quarter of my very first crop that year, but what I learned is invaluable. Only sensible advice I can give you is: be vigilant while pile curing, leaves can rot very quickly!

poer
 
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