ProZachJ's 2024 Grow Log

[PressuredLeaf]

Wow! A few more degrees and you may need to rename your “hothouse” to “solar oven”. Your almost at the leaf drying temp for flue cured. At the very least, when your tobacco is color cured, you won’t have to build a kiln.

I may have missed it earlier, but are you planning on hanging your cigar varieties in there for color curing?

 

[ProZachJ]

I can say it feels like death if you go in there

 

[ProZachJ]

Wow! A few more degrees and you may need to rename your “hothouse” to “solar oven”. Your almost at the leaf drying temp for flue cured. At the very least, when your tobacco is color cured, you won’t have to build a kiln.

I may have missed it earlier, but are you planning on hanging your cigar varieties in there for color curing?

No color curing is going in the cool house which is staying closer to 100° and I'm putting in an evaporative cooler to keep the humidity high

 

[ProZachJ]

Got the new cooler in today. Making a decent difference, although still not as much humidity as I would like.


Near the peak of the day


After the sun went behind the tree to the west

 

[PressuredLeaf]

How long is it taking for your freshly harvested leaves to turn brown? Despite it being very hot, most of them look like they are coloring up well.

 

[ProZachJ]

Most of what I have already brown in the hothouse was harvested mostly yellow or already having some brown.


The stuff that is pictured hanging in the cool house today was harvested mostly mottled green and hung on Thursday night.

My first priming of Southern Beauty went from this...


To this, in 3 days.


In another 3 days it was completely brown except for the midrib.

I don't have a lot of references but they seem to be coloring very quickly. I'd guess another 3-4 days and this batch will be fully brown. So maybe 7-10 days. I'll know more as the process continues.

 

[Anders A]

Most of what I have already brown in the hothouse was harvested mostly yellow or already having some brown.


The stuff that is pictured hanging in the cool house today was harvested mostly mottled green and hung on Thursday night.

My first priming of Southern Beauty went from this...
View attachment 51338

To this, in 3 days.
View attachment 51339

In another 3 days it was completely brown except for the midrib.

I don't have a lot of references but they seem to be coloring very quickly. I'd guess another 3-4 days and this batch will be fully brown. So maybe 7-10 days. I'll know more as the process continues.

Looks perfect

 

[ProZachJ]

Liking what I'm seeing so far from this approach. CoolHouse continues to stay about 20 degrees cooler and 20% higher relative humidity.



Hothouse stuff...during the day I dare not touch it, but in the morning it is nice and soft.

Left two rows little dutch, closest row Perique


Front Staghorn, back Southern Beauty


Coolhouse batches...


Little Dutch


Texas Cuban


Staghorn

 

[PressuredLeaf]

Looks like it’s curing beautifully. It being soft in the morning is really nice, means you won’t have to worry about rehydrating it too much when you take it down. Here in AZ it’s so stinking dry all year that I have to rehydrate overnight in my curing tent, otherwise the tobacco shatters if you look at it wrong.

 

[ProZachJ]

P3 of the Perique harvested and hung up this evening. I had to get out there due to another couple days and 3 more inches of rain. May going out with a bang of almost 20" compared to my area's average of 5". This batch will stay on the porch for a couple days, just like the Little Dutch did, while the current batch finishes up color curing and gets moved over to the Hothouse.

 

[ProZachJ]

Reorganizing and learning some lessons.

All of the P2 stuff hanging in the CoolHouse has been moved to the Hothouse. I'm definitely noticing the trend that more than 24hrs of clouds, rain, and SETx swamp humidity will begin to cause me to struggle with mold in there. Anything that is near fully color cured is in danger at that point. No big losses but another day like yesterday and it wouldn't be good.



Instead of letting the HotHouse fully cool and get humid at night, I'm going to keep the heater running. That will keep Hothouse temps near 90-100 degrees and humidity in the 60-70 percent range at night. Once a stringer is fully dry and I'm ready to do something with it I will move it back into the Coolhouse overnight to get a bit of case.

Current status looks good and ready for more priming to go into the Coolhouse.



Hothouse is currently pretty full. I can maybe squeeze in the remaining two stringers of Texas Cuban that are still in the CoolHouse (left in above pic). I'm going to have to get onto building a kiln or rolling lots of carrottes or something.

Suggestions welcome for what to do with stuff after it is fully dry after the 3-4 week process here. I just won't have enough space to leave it all hanging over the longer term in an environment I can control well enough to prevent mold.

 

[johnny108]

Siggestions for storage:
1. Smoke it.
2. Stackable totes or cardboard boxes work well for me, but my cellar is bone dry.
(Behind the couch in the living room tends to upset the harmony in the home…..)
3. Carrotte and presses make a compact storage of large crops, providing you aren’t using it for wrappers. (not sure if it would be good for filler)

Have you got a kiln set up?

 

[ProZachJ]

Have you got a kiln set up?

No, I've been keeping an eye out for a large commercial freezer but not scored yet.

 

[ProZachJ]

Smoke it.

My Perique mud lugs are pretty darn good after this process, so I probably will begin using some of it in blends immediately. However the Little Dutch wasn't so good, had that very raw, grassy kinda taste so I definitely need to find a way to ferment/age it. I'll probably try a bit of everything I can think of at a small scale at least. Still need to try the other varieties....speaking of which....I think some of the fully dry first priming of Southern Beauty is calling my name!

 

[ProZachJ]

Just grabbed the smallest leaf. It started out with a smaller amount of that raw flavor, but once the pipe was going fully it is enjoyable. Minimal flavor overall probably because of it being such an early little leaf, but a promising tiny hint of sweet.

 

[PressuredLeaf]

If you can find a spot that stays above 120 or so your risk of mold goes to basically nil. I ferment bags of the tobacco in the trunk of my car. I believe I’ve seen members here who do “attic kilning”, kind of the same idea.

One other thing I’ve noticed during fermenting is if you start releasing ammonia, the risk of mold is greatly reduced ( in my experience). One final point is that a little mold on the midrib isn’t a huge deal, and is pretty common on a lot of air cured varieties.

 

[ProZachJ]

My attic is full of fiberglass insulation so I'm nervous to put it up there, even in bags or boxes. I constantly find that $#!+ inside every holiday storage box I put up there.

I probably need to just build a mega-kiln inside my carport shed since it already has its own breaker box and outlets.

 

[ProZachJ]

After 48 hrs on the porch the P3 Perique was moved into the CoolHouse. The P3 Texas Cuban looks maybe a day or two from being done with color curing.


The porch now holds P3 Little Dutch and Southern Beauty.

 

[ProZachJ]

Pics of the plants a day before last night's harvest. Still a swamp out there, it's almost like I had a premonition planting in raised rows!

 

[ProZachJ]

A few of the best leaves from Southern Beauty first priming.