I've noticed that the atmosphere in my basement has been changing.
I've adopted a two stage process for initial curing. That is, the curing necessary to get to actual kilning. In stage one, I hang my strings in the store room in the basement, where I can maintain a humidity level of 65 - 70% I leave the strings in there for ten days to three weeks depending on the variety. After the leaf has lost all it's green and is starting to color down, I move the string out into the main basement to hang.
The main basement maintains a humidity level of 50 - 55% This level of humidity is too low for the initial phase (stage one) of color down - getting rid of the green chlorophyll. Previous attempts to use this level of humidity for color down resulted in a lot of green flash. Chock that up to "live and learn" learning curve. After the green is gone, stage two begins, by moving the string out into the main basement. With the somewhat lower level of humidity providing a slow drying atmosphere that takes three to four weeks to get the fat stems fully dried out and ready for kilning.
One of the things that I have noticed by using this two stage process is the ammonia smell. Ammonia is a by-product of curing, and as I increase the amount of hung tobacco in my basement, the ammonia smell gets stronger. This is an interesting side-effect that although I have been aware of this phenomenon, I've never had sufficient critical mass of tobacco in one place for the scent to be this strong.
Tobacco growing is definitely a learning curve, and maybe one of these years I'll get off of the steep part of the curve!
Wes H.
P.S. to Bob. Fire cured indeed!