Brown Thumbs Walk In kiln, Flue Cure, Attempt

[Brown Thumb]

Thanks Guys,

Very well done! What a load! In know it's premature, but how does it taste? Got a favorite so far?

I have not tried any yet, But it shure smells good.

Damn fine results. Hope you took good notes.

I did but forgot them.

Ah! Ze "showing of ze tobacco in ze sunlight" ploy.

Bob

My work table and floor was full of fresh picked for the next load and I had nowhere else to put them.
They do look Good in Ze Sunlight almost as Good as hanging in the Ze Kiln.
I had my kid pull them on the plastic over to the house to unload in the Baccy Basement since they were a llttle brittle yet.

 

[leverhead]

... My work table and floor was full of fresh picked for the next load and I had nowhere else to put them...

That's the best part of flue-curing, all the spare time that you don't know what to do with.

 

[grgfinney]

Excellent Tom even with the chinese sensors

 

[Brown Thumb]

Thanks Greg, I have another controller that oversees them jap ones. I split the difference when adj. rh and heat but I am also working on gut feeling now. And my gut says go to wilting.

 

[DGBAMA]

Thanks Greg, I have another controller that oversees them jap ones. I split the difference when adj. rh and heat but I am also working on gut feeling now. And my gut says go to wilting.

Funny how things come full circle.

The run I just finished is probably my best so far, with just mechanical thermostats, gut feeling, and a work schedule that only allows for a couple adjustments per day. I find myself thinking a lot how nice it would be to have digital controllers. You have them, and are now overriding the control with gut feeling. Maybe I will save my money and leave well enough alone.

 

[deluxestogie]

Sounds like the best laid kiln plans are devolving into big, square Cozy Cans.

Bob

 

[leverhead]

Sounds like the best laid kiln plans are devolving into big, square Cozy Cans.

Bob

Simple and rugged wins, it's evolution.

 

[Brown Thumb]

Funny how things come full circle.

The run I just finished is probably my best so far, with just mechanical thermostats, gut feeling, and a work schedule that only allows for a couple adjustments per day. I find myself thinking a lot how nice it would be to have digital controllers. You have them, and are now overriding the control with gut feeling. Maybe I will save my money and leave well enough alone.

I find going up slowly with the temps makes a difference. But I could be wrong. But since I put my wife on during the day to raise the temps every hr. the leaf comes out a lot better.
I have ramping on my controller but I can not figure it out.
I have been checking out some cheap kiln controllers on eBay that say easy to program.
I might get one so my wife is not bothered with it and sometimes she is not around to do it.
I will be flu curing for another 5 to 8 weeks and I know she is going to start getting cranky doing it soon.

 

[DGBAMA]

My current theory on bright cure, is that after yellowing, humidity is the controlling factor to get a "bright" cure.

104 deg seems to be accepted as the temp where any green becomes ”set".

As far as drying brown/losing color, there seem to be thresholds too, where the rh/moisture content is too high for the temp, and the leaf cooks brown. Ie, don't go over 100 unless rh is below 90, 110 below 80, etc. I really think with enough airflow, Leaf drying could be done at normal wilting temps, then run straight to 155-160 to kill the oxidaise enzymes to lock the color. Moving temp in steps instead of gradual, is working fine, if using the falling rh to indicate when the next step should be taken.

 

[Rickey60]

My current theory on bright cure, is that after yellowing, humidity is the controlling factor to get a "bright" cure.

104 deg seems to be accepted as the temp where any green becomes ”set".

As far as drying brown/losing color, there seem to be thresholds too, where the rh/moisture content is too high for the temp, and the leaf cooks brown. Ie, don't go over 100 unless rh is below 90, 110 below 80, etc. I really think with enough airflow, Leaf drying could be done at normal wilting temps, then run straight to 155-160 to kill the oxidaise enzymes to lock the color. Moving temp in steps instead of gradual, is working fine, if using the falling rh to indicate when the next step should be taken.

I think you might be right. Every time I have had an issue with brown leaf my humidity was very high and my temps were above 100. This run I am watching my humidity Very close. Also when the humidity stays high when the temp is increased the leaf cannot let go of moisture and I thinks this also turns it brown.

 

[Brown Thumb]

I went to leaf drying this morning, usually I just lower the rh controller halfway to 47%rh. Before I go to work and the wife ramps the temp. During the day. I lowered it to 38% this morning and it is looking a lot yellower Locking in the color.

 

[DGBAMA]

I think for us home growers flue curing in boxes of limited air space, not barns, I am thinking dumping humidity as soon as yellowing is done, before temps get too high, may be key to our small scale operations.

How Bob runs his cosycan seems to bear this out also. Crock with water, can closed, for yellowing; crock no water for wilting, can vented; No water can closed for drying, after a lot of moisture has been removed.

 

[Rickey60]

I think I agree with this line of thought. I believe that keeping the humidity to high for an extended period of time traps moisture in the leaf leading to brown.

 

[deluxestogie]

Actually, I keep the can vented for all but the stem kill.

Probably for the same chemical reasons that higher humidity allows flue-curing leaf to darken, air-cured leaf will come out darker if the humidity in the shed is higher during the browning phase, even at the same temperature. I think, also, that steaming for Black Cavendish effectively darkens only the leaf directly exposed to the steam, rather than the leaf in the same batch that happened to remain sheltered within a pile of other leaf.

Bob

 

[DGBAMA]

Perhaps, in all the references and literature our collective flue curing knowledge is based on, we have misinterpreted the term ”wilt " as part of the flue curing process. When i read ”wilt " I think of soft,DAMP,floppy, like leaf left in full sun too long. If rather "wilt" refers to removing enough moisture from the leaf for it to become soft, supple,Floppy, without feeling of wetness, and not dry, like a cured leaf in high case. With this "dry wilt" definition in mind, the flue curing schedules seem to suddenly make more sense.

Just thinking out loud.

 

[Brown Thumb]

I am at stem drying and had some leaf your were referring to laying around, the sun cured, yellow but still containing moisture. I threw in a bunch of leaves to see what happend to them last night. Well they dried dark brown.
So I would think that removing as much moisture as possible at the end of leaf wilting will hold the color in more evenly.

 

[Brown Thumb]

Something just ain't right. I pulled my hair out last year with this chamber trying to get it right.
This year everything is going too good from some reason.
This chamber works so easily a caveman could run it.
I think it has to do with the fan put on the vent to remove rh faster.
The Third batch is awesome also.
So I spiced things up a little for this run.
Three different types, Gold Dollar, hickory prior and bright leaf.
All different leaf positions and maturity levels and she is stuffed tight.

 

[POGreen]

Looks like you're keepin the kids busy

 

[deluxestogie]

A truly beautiful run. Congratulations.

Bob

 

[DGBAMA]

Great results.