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1st Time Flue curing, Looking for a bit of advice, Leaf isn't yellowing quick enough.

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KiwiGrown

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Hi,

About 6-7 weeks after topping there was still very little yellowing on my Virginia so I picked it anyway and now I have my 1st batch in my Flue curing box at the moment, I put my 1st and 2nd priming's in at 6.30am Saturday my time and advanced the temperature 2-3F per hour up to 100F by around 1am Sunday, I had a peak last night about 8pm Sunday and was feeling quite confident with the progress, All leaves were looking lighter in colour and some had some yellowing maybe 10-15% on those leaves. Today after work I had another peak about 4.30pm, there was almost no change at all in the yellowing and a couple of leaves had few brown spots.

I've been keeping my fan grills pretty much closed but with the fans running and am managing to keep the RH around 85-95%, There hasn't been any condensation (there was some when I left the fans off for about 8 hours because I hadn't installed the grills over the fans yet and the RH had dropped down to 75% so I was trying to raise it back up).

I think another mistake I made was I washed my leaves and didn't allow them to dry before putting them in to cure, I did run the fans on full(With no grill so just wide open) at the start till they looked mostly dry.

I'm using 2 x Slow Cookers filled with water for heat/humidity, 1 x fan on each wall of the box about 1.5inches off the floor, 2 x fans on the roof which are switched separately and I've not had on yet. Its a sort of copy of a up draft barn thats about 3.2x3.2x3.2 feet. I've hang the leaves all on the same level in the box, 4 x strings of leaves about 12 leaves per string with space around each leaf for air to move.

I would take a picture but I don't want to open the box again for a while and its dark now. Also, Can anyone tell me how wilted you want the tobacco to look before moving onto the leaf drying stage ?

Thank you for your help, Sorry for the wall of text I was trying to be as detailed as possible.

Regards,

Sam.
 

ChinaVoodoo

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I pile the leaves for two to four days in the garage without any heat, depending on the yellowing, then hang and leave it at 100F 85% until it's almost completely yellow, minimum 1, maximum 3 days. If there are some leaves that I suspect will cure green, I remove those individual leaves and sun cure them. It isn't until then that I increase the temperature. 120F 50% for 24 hours, followed by 135F 35% for 24 hours, and 165F 15% until stem dry.
 

DistillingJim

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You should still have a lot of time left in the season - do you need to rush it if the leaves arent yellowing on the plant?

Otherwise, just give it more time in the chamber before cranking the heat up. If the leaves weren't quite ready coming off the plant its going to take longer to consume the chlorophyl. I had to wait 3-4 days for adequate yellowing on a couple of my runs last year but they turned out fine.

What temperature are you running? Dont crank it up too early or it will cure green.
 

KiwiGrown

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I'm keeping the temperature at 100F(37.7C), there is a few months of summer left but it rained pretty much constantly the last 2 weeks with another week of rain forecast for this week and I had the time/good weather in the weekend so I took my chance.

I was wondering if maybe I over fertilized (I read somewhere this can make it harder to colour cure the leaf) or if all the rain had something to do with it ? I read somewhere 1st and 2nd priming's should colour cure in 1-2 days max, I'm just trying to work out why mine haven't so next season I get it right.

Can anyone describe to me properly wilted leaf ? Am I looking for curled edges or some sort of texture to the leaf ?
 

ChinaVoodoo

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Wilting stage is at 120F, not 100. Once your leaf is yellow and you move on to the wilting stage, just follow the rule of thumb of 24hrs at wilting stage. It'll be fine.

It does sound to me like you've picked too soon. Be patient. Wait until the leaves are like, 10 to 20% yellow before you even pick them.
 

deluxestogie

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All good advice above. If the leaf from the first priming has begun to yellow on the stalk, then yellowing requires 1 to 2 days. Otherwise, you just have to be patient.

My practice is to remain in yellowing phase until the leaf is sufficiently yellowed (most of the lamina, ignore the stems and veins), before going into leaf wilt--no matter how long it takes. Once I've decided that the leaf is yellow enough, then I stop peeking into the chamber, and just follow the schedule.

If you raise the temperature beyond the yellowing phase too soon, then you get some green leaf. Too late, and you get some brown leaf. Brown is always, always better than green. [Brown is not as sweet. Green is not as smokable.]

And yes. Excess nitrogen in the soil will prolong yellowing. [Don't be concerned about what "wilted" looks like, because you're not supposed to open the chamber to look at it after yellowing.]

Bob
 

CobGuy

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Although there are many pages already discussing this, you guys always provide good feedback with your newest personal experience info ... much appreciated! :)
 

KiwiGrown

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Although there are many pages already discussing this, you guys always provide good feedback with your newest personal experience info ... much appreciated! :)


I 100% agree there is alot of good information out there and I greatly appreciate everyone's help but when you have zero experience it's hard to make sense of what does and doesn't apply to you so it's nice to get feedback off experienced individuals.
 

deluxestogie

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Very interesting thread, but the links do not want to work on my computer... :(
I get "Invalid Attachment specified. If you followed a valid link, please notify the administrator"
The administrator gets the same thing. It needs some Voodoo.

Bob
 

Smokin Harley

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You shouldnt be picking any leaf until the tips are turning . I usually wait until at least 1/2 inch of the tip had turned yellow or sometimes brown.
 

KiwiGrown

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Very interesting thread, but the links do not want to work on my computer... :(
I get "Invalid Attachment specified. If you followed a valid link, please notify the administrator"

I'm getting the same thing, thank you China for posting hopefully it gets fixed.

So if I'm not suppose to open the chamber at all once Ive moved on from colour curing how do you know when it's read to move from leaf drying to stem drying etc ?
 

KiwiGrown

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90% of the leaf I picked was turning as your description. Some of the other leaf on my plants is looking at a similar stage to what I picked, when I get home from work I'll take a photo.
 

deluxestogie

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Flue Cure Chart.jpg


Just go by the chart. I ignore the humidity, once I leave the yellowing stage. During the few weeks that I'm flue-curing, I use this very image as my Windows wallpaper.

Bob
 

KiwiGrown

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HI,

Thanks Bob I do have a similar schedule from a How to flue cure tobacco PDF I printed off but I like yours better thanks again.

It's good to know I can ignore humidty once I leave the colour cure stage, I was wondering if I needed to control it though drying but assumed it would just naturally dropped as the leaf lost water.

Sorry for all the questions, After you finish the wilting stage do you just open the vents and increase the temperature ? I think I was reading somewhere you close them off again at the end of stem drying ?

Everything I read is rather very techniqual or very vague about air flow during drying stages.
 

deluxestogie

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Good air flow between the leaves promotes uniformity.

Commercial flue-curing chambers are huge, like the Roanoke Barn shown below.

Roanoke_Flue-cure_Barn.jpg


So a screw-up is expensive. The humidity curve is the "ideal" path. The big chambers have a forced air system that circulates air throughout the container. They also have a humidity-controlled baffle that will open to draw in external air, if the humidity is too high, and close, to recirculate otherwise. Some FTT members have constructed sophisticated chambers that also do that, but the cost has been in the $500 to $1500 range.

My solution has been to add water to the Crockpot, if the leaf seems to be getting too dry during yellowing (while I'm still observing the leaf directly). After that, it's on its own. That's a ~$100 chamber.

Bob

EDIT: I've moved this thread from the "growing" section of the forum to the "curing" section.
 

KiwiGrown

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Nice thanks for those China, Sorry I didn't realise I put this wrong place.

I suppose I'll have to open the vents slowly while raising the temperature or I'll lose to much heat and risk shocking the tobacco.

Automation is the way to go, its a painful process manually increasing the Stat hourly, when I get some time I'll be adding a window and light then be looking to buy a programmable thermostat.

Automatic dampers is on the wish list but very far down the track for me, if it's even at all possible.
 
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