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Hello from Alexandria VA

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heyken

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Hi, my name is Ken, and this summer will be my first attempt to grow tobacco plants on my property. I have been reading about growing tobacco for a while and I am really excited to start. My property is only a few miles from the colonial port of Alexandria, and 1750's Huntington Creek tobacco inspection warehouse, surveyed by a young George Washington, to send Virginia tobacco to England. I want to roll my own cigars, and I am currently researching how to grow and cure the tobacco.

I am starting with 20 plants, with three varieties, Pennsylvania Red, Connecticut Broadleaf, and Havana 142. I have started two separate plots. One in full sun, another in part shade. I have the soil ready, and I hope to put my plants in the ground the first weekend in June. I have connected with a few people on this forum, who have been super supportive, and I am thankful. I have a old brick separate building in my yard to hang the harvested plants. I hope to have enough warm weather time to harvest in late summer, leaving another two months to hang the leaves before fall weather descends on the area. I don't know yet, what I will do to weather the leaves over the winter. I would love some advice. I do have a root cellar/unfinished basement which I think will be serviceable for the leaves during the cold weather months. I plan to roll my own cigars, so I have also purchased some cured leaves to try to roll some this summer while my plants grow. I am extremely interested in any advice the community has for me. At this stage, I have naive enthusiasm about making it happen.
 

deluxestogie

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Welcome to the forum. I cure my tobacco in a simple wooden shed. Sometimes it hangs there through the winter. In fact a lot of my 2017 crop is still hanging.

Bob
 

heyken

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Bob,
Thanks for the info. Blacksburg is colder weather than Alexandria. Do you do anything to keep the temp above freezing, or is it fine to leave it hanging in the cold?
 

BigBonner

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Ken Welcome to FTT

A basement or cellar might not be the best place to store tobacco . If it is damp or has a basement odor then your cured tobacco will absorb that odor .
Just keep it inside of a building or pressed in a box ( About like a bale of hay but neat ) inside your house after it has cured . If wind is not a problem you can leave it to hang in the brick building to age a bit .

You need to plant those plants as soon as you can . Planting early lets you catch the spring rains and that early growth for when it gets hot in the middle of summer .
Bob is not too far from you and I see he has been busy planting .
I would have already had most of my tobacco planted but this rain has held me up It takes a while to dry my soil out to where I can get into my fields to work . .
 

deluxestogie

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Once green tobacco cures to brown, the temperature doesn't matter much. Perhaps a greater concern is the 3 day average relative humidity. If it stays consistently over about 75%, cured, hanging tobacco may mold. I usually see mold only on stems, which are more hygroscopic than the lamina.

You may want to PM our member, BigBonner, who grows many acres tobacco commercially in eastern Kentucky.

Bob
 

heyken

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Big Bonner, thanks so much for the transportable plants you sent! I think they will arrive Friday, and I am planting them right away. Thanks for the advice. I watched your Youtube video on topping burley, and your plants looks beautiful!
 

heyken

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Marc, thanks for the welcome. I have seen some picks of your rolled cigars. They're like artwork!
 

heyken

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Bob,
Much appreciated. I will keep my eye on the humidity. Good to know about the humidity. I imagine its going to be higher than 75% most of August. I read that keeping a fan going while the leaves are drying helps prevent the mold by creating greater airflow. Do you think that will work? Hoping that come September/October the humidity will drop well below that.
 

Charly

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Welcome Ken,

You have some time before you to find out how to handle the cured leaves, to save them, you have to take care of the humidity.
A fan can be a good thing, but if your relative humidity is too high it will mold nonetheless.
It's better to store your leaves dry.

Good luck with your fisrt crop ;)
 

deluxestogie

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I read that keeping a fan going while the leaves are drying helps prevent the mold by creating greater airflow. Do you think that will work?
I keep a tilted box fan running in my shed continuously, year-round. The one window has a controlled fan that is set to turn on when the temp goes above 70°F.

The bottom line is adapting the conditions within the shed to your unique environment. I'm sure the tidewater area is more humid during the summer (when that's a good thing for the shed). I'm not sure about your humidity in the fall and winter.

Bob
 

heyken

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Here are pics of some of my plants. They are growing well. I am only a few weeks from harvest. I am looking for suggestions for details on air curing and aging fermentation.
IMG_5560.JPG
 

CobGuy

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Nice looking plants! :)

This site has pages and pages of info on curing and fermenting ... I'm still reading some of them after almost three years.
Good luck and keep us posted on the progress.

~Darin
 
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