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Green to Brown

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DistillingJim

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Hey guys,
quick curing question (this is my first year growing and first batch of curing). I'm finding that my leaves are going more or less straight from green to brown with little obvious yellowing in between.

The first batch was Little Dutch (leaves were strongly alligatored, some yellowing/browning and some of the mud lugs were fully cured on the branch) and they've been hanging in the shed in quite rainy horrible weather. I was concerned that the lack of yellowing meant they were curing green but the color is quite dark and brown and not at all obvious like in some photos I've seen.

The second batch I took in last night was Izmir, I put it in my cozy-can overnight and again, its gone from green to light chocolaty brown with no obvious yellowing. As I write this, the leaves are still soft and pliable, the environment is at 37*C with humidity at 90%. Should I leave them a little longer or is it time to crank the heat up?

These have been in stark contrast to the few leaves I've taken of Cherry Red which goes through a very distinctive yellowing phase before curing. I'll try and get some photos up this afternoon if that helps
 

Alpine

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Ripeness, temps, relative humidity are all factors that influence the colour of the cured leaves. In fact, the Turks are exposed to full sun (and harvested mature rather than ripe) in order to fix the yellow colour. It's the poor man's flue cure. If you harvest ripe (or overripe, as I did my first year) Turkish strains they go from green to brown, with no yellowing at all (or, the yellowing phase is so quick to pass unnoticed). For air cured, the higher the RH the darker the leaves turn out. If your crop is already color cured, dry it as fast as you can.

Pier
 

Jitterbugdude

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Some varieties simply go from green to brown, Little Dutch is one of these. It probably has a lot to do with the sugar content in the leaf.
 

DistillingJim

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Thanks guys, its hugely reassuring to hear I'm not too far off track.

Closer inspection of the Izmir shows a few dark green veins amid the brown so I'll give them another 12 hours before cranking the heat up and drying them out. And if Little Dutch tends to show no obvious yellowing, I think my batch is on track.
 

mwaller

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Interesting discussion. Here is my first priming of Little Dutch. It yellowed really nicely before finally shriveling and turning light brown...
Ambient temperature is around 75F. Humidity is in the high 60's, aided by a humidifier.
IMG_20170714_080436400.jpg
 
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