BamaTinkerer Grow Log 2021

[deluxestogie]

That upper leaf of Little Dutch will have no greenish tint after kilning. Here is a Little Dutch maduro wrapper from 2014:

Bob

 

[BamaTinkerer]

They look really nice. Did the CT broadleaf color even out?

Thanks, Knucks.
No, it was a dismal failure. I'd say it all went wrong post-harvest, but at this point, I dont know what effect(s) growing at 6.7 pH may have had. The bruising or blackish discoloration was 100% tied to area that dried crispy green in no time, and simultaneously the other lamina was floppy wet/high case. Super bizarre to feel like a piece of thin leather but crumbling in the green area. At one point I chuckled to myself calling it camo leaf as it looked like each leaf had every color of camo used in the Vietnam era. I have only a few leaves that have the wrapper area cured successfully, and the rest are just small brown strips with crispy green all around. It doesnt even case when wet -just sheds water and crumbles. I also had a problem with mold only on CT Broadleaf. There are multiple darker areas of cured leaf about the size of dimes that grew their own white fuzz mold just on the dark spot. I should have known,(and will carry into the future), the CT Broadleaf I have from other leaf supplier has been in bag for months and stays leathery, damp. After wrapping it takes forever to dry to crispy. The curing leaf in my shed, Alabama, August, needed a dehumidifier. It was losing chlorophyll, but was not drying down in a days cycle and therefore was perfect for mold to set it. The leaf itself was always wetter than the other 5 varieties it hung with. I moved it to the garage with AC in early Sept. It still has taken until now to get crispy. Next year I am going to plant CT early, harvest earlier, and use the heat in July and August together with electronic controls for dehumidifying and venting to hold it no higher than 65-70%, 24 hrs a day. Hopefully I can force it to yellow, and brown, and then strip from stalk and move to garage before the other, S.A. varieties are ready to stalk harvest.

 

[BamaTinkerer]

That upper leaf of Little Dutch will have no greenish tint after kilning. Here is a Little Dutch maduro wrapper from 2014:

Bob

I read that from another of your posts, Bob. So I was hoping my results, provided kilning is successful, are in line with yours. Thanks for the reassurance that that plant SHOULD be perfectly smokable.

 

[deluxestogie]

Good grow. The camo leaf illustrates the curing difference between living areas of lamina and dead / dying patches of lamina. I think you will find that your own blow-by-blow analysis of the current season will be valuable to yourself and others in the future. While "Grow Blogs" seem like a poor man's reality TV, creating them requires each of us to think more about what we have done, and how the results might be improved. I find that writing my thoughts clarifies them more than just thinking them.

Bob

 

[BamaTinkerer]

Just when I thought it'd be smooth-sailing through the Fall, we are going in to a 7-10 day period with upper 90 % night time humidity and above 80/85% daytime. This is the most critical it's been all curing season because almost all leaf has browned except some of the stalk tip ligero/medio tiempo leaves and the stems are still drying. To slack off now could surely ruin the whole first year grow. I have started 4 times a day checks on the inkbird and running thermostat controlled space heater through the night, maybe during the day as well. Probably going through at least the 15th, maybe 20th of Oct.

 

[Cray Squirrel]

Just when I thought it'd be smooth-sailing through the Fall, we are going in to a 7-10 day period with upper 90 % night time humidity and above 80/85% daytime. This is the most critical it's been all curing season because almost all leaf has browned except some of the stalk tip ligero/medio tiempo leaves and the stems are still drying. To slack off now could surely ruin the whole first year grow. I have started 4 times a day checks on the inkbird and running thermostat controlled space heater through the night, maybe during the day as well. Probably going through at least the 15th, maybe 20th of Oct.

Will that heater get the room up to 128 f so you dont have to worry about mold and can get in a little curing in the mean while? Have to move the green tip leaves out for a few days till they lose any remaining green though.

 

[Cray Squirrel]

I'm not too worried about my chamber but my leaf that's as brown as yours is moved to another chamber and getting dry smoke. Havent had ANY mold at all in there and believe the smoke helps that.

 

[BamaTinkerer]

Will that heater get the room up to 128 f so you dont have to worry about mold and can get in a little curing in the mean while? Have to move the green tip leaves out for a few days till they lose any remaining green though.

It may very well, but in my amateur opinion, I have noticed the humidity/temp fluctuations are continuing to darken leaf that was previously dried golden brown in Aug.- now cardboard box/milk chocolate brown. If I go to 128 I will not be able to add humidity and it will be a desert chamber.

 

[Cray Squirrel]

It may very well, but in my amateur opinion, I have noticed the humidity/temp fluctuations are continuing to darken leaf that was previously dried golden brown in Aug.- now cardboard box/milk chocolate brown. If I go to 128 I will not be able to add humidity and it will be a desert chamber.

In my equally amateur opinion, I believe that the high humidity for longer periods darkens the leaf.
Crockpot for humidity supplement??

 

[deluxestogie]

I have started 4 times a day checks on the inkbird and running thermostat controlled space heater through the night, maybe during the day as well.

This is not about kilning temperatures. As I've noted before, if you raise the ambient temp 20°F, that will drop the relative humidity by half. So you are doing the right thing by using the space heater.

Bob

 

[Cray Squirrel]

This is not about kilning temperatures. As I've noted before, if you raise the ambient temp 20°F, that will drop the relative humidity by half. So you are doing the right thing by using the space heater.

Bob

He was concerned about high humidity causing mold. By heating up the space only for the color cured leaf, he would be safe from the mold that might appear due to his high humidity. He is aware that raising the temperature will drop the humidity and maybe dry his leaf too quickly. Thus the thought of the crockpot to raise his humidity if he needed to. The removing the part that was still green leaf from the equation and thus out of his curing chamber would protect that from drying green and if he wanted to then dry down the colored cured leaf the heater running at the high 120s would protect the leaf from mold . Personally I would prefer to prime leaf instead of stalk cure due to the better control over a set of leaves in the same stage of ripeness. Not as easy when your lower leaves are curing brown but the top leaves are still green.
This wasnt talking about kilning. He felt anxious about mold due to his high humidity.

 

[Knucklehead]

Just when I thought it'd be smooth-sailing through the Fall, we are going in to a 7-10 day period with upper 90 % night time humidity and above 80/85% daytime. This is the most critical it's been all curing season because almost all leaf has browned except some of the stalk tip ligero/medio tiempo leaves and the stems are still drying. To slack off now could surely ruin the whole first year grow. I have started 4 times a day checks on the inkbird and running thermostat controlled space heater through the night, maybe during the day as well. Probably going through at least the 15th, maybe 20th of Oct.

If you have any leaf that has color cured except for the midrib, you can stack those leaves on a propagation heat mat and shuffle them as needed until the stems are dry. Rehydrate to low case and put them in storage or until you have a kiln load. I not only had to do that during periods of high humidity but to keep my assembly line going when there was a bottleneck in my hanging area.

 

[Cray Squirrel]

If you have any leaf that has color cured except for the midrib, you can stack those leaves on a propagation heat mat and shuffle them as needed until the stems are dry. Rehydrate to low case and put them in storage or until you have a kiln load. I not only had to do that during periods of high humidity but to keep my assembly line going when there was a bottleneck in my hanging area.

I dont get em in a bunch about a bit of stem mold or house burn.
Just cut out the affected portion and life goes on. At times I'll have a leaf that I'll literally pull off the wire from between hundreds of others because it was well yellowed and at risk of rot or mold. Just toss it to the side and every few days get the orphan leaves and put em on a short hoop of wire and take em to the other property to hang in the smoke room. Saves me futtering about when I dont need to be. Always glad to take strings out of color cure and move them to drying. Like to think of it as banking them.

 

[Oldfella]

I do the same thing. Why waste good leaf. When I was just a kid we were taught not to waste good food, if the Apple had a spot of rot or a worm just cut it out and carry on munching.
Oldfella

 

[Cray Squirrel]

I do the same thing. Why waste good leaf. When I was just a kid we were taught not to waste good food, if the Apple had a spot of rot or a worm just cut it out and carry on munching.
Oldfella

You threw away the worm part?
You must have been rich to waste that much protein..
Yep Bama has had some bad breaks but he's got it in the bag now.
Nice chamber btw!

 

[Oldfella]

You threw away the worm part?
You must have been rich to waste that much protein..

No the worm got fed to the cat. I grew up on a farm so in a lot of ways I was rich, just had no money.
Bama will be good the forum is about learning and sharing. It's all good .
Oldfella