ChinaVoodoo
Moderator
Thank you! If you scroll up, you'll see that I picked them at a partially yellowing stage and piled them for a couple days before cutting them.
China Voodoo 2018 Air-cured and Rajangan
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ChinaVoodoo
Moderator
Last year was a tough grow from start to finish. At the end, I was headed away for the weekend, picked everything beforehand, which was too much to put in the garage, and unwisely piled it in the yard under a tarp. Unfortunately it got much colder than expected while I was gone, and some leaves which were touching the tarp froze. Some got tossed after curing because they stayed green, and some ended up appearing ok.
This is frozen Piloto Cubano PR that's been kilned and smells like pipe tobacco, unlike the rest of it, so I'm going to smoke it in my pipe. Way darker than the rest too.
This is frozen Piloto Cubano PR that's been kilned and smells like pipe tobacco, unlike the rest of it, so I'm going to smoke it in my pipe. Way darker than the rest too.
ChinaVoodoo
Moderator
Verdict. Tastes like burley and cake, and burns the nose.
My experiment last year with frozen green leaf on standing stalks involved waiting for the frost-killed leaf to bleach away the green in sunlight (still on the stalk), then kilning-->awful and harsh. Then I Periqued it-->still awful and harsh! It's still aging. I may give it another taste in a year or two.
I think you can get away with burying a few formerly frozen green and subsequently sun-bleached leaves within a bale of decent tobacco, and still sell the bale. But for personal scale growers, leaf that has frozen green is essentially trash. With enough time (years to decades), it may transform into passable tobacco--or into tobacco dust. I suppose it is always good for making insecticide.
Bob
I think you can get away with burying a few formerly frozen green and subsequently sun-bleached leaves within a bale of decent tobacco, and still sell the bale. But for personal scale growers, leaf that has frozen green is essentially trash. With enough time (years to decades), it may transform into passable tobacco--or into tobacco dust. I suppose it is always good for making insecticide.
Bob
ciennepi
Well-Known Member
Bob, if I remember right you give a very good review of the Rabo de Gallo Negro leafs that were frozen before air dried an kilned?
Yes, I did. That was my only motivation to try the frozen leaf experiment. But the exact conditions and circumstances of that Rabo de Gallo Negro crop (one which FmGrowit grew himself, back in the good old days) are somewhat uncertain. And we have no ordinary, normally cured crop of Rabo de Gallo Negro with which to compare it. Maybe it is truly awful, unless it is frozen. Unfortunately, I was unable to coax the last of the seed to germinate.
Bob
ChinaVoodoo
Moderator
I can't believe summer is almost done and I haven't hardly harvested anything. They're predicting -2°C Wednesday night.
Nostrano and Goose Creek Red don't appear to be very ripe. Everything else can be picked.
I'll be making rajangan out of all the Kasturi. I picked virtually all of it. I piled it in the garage, and will be yellowing it in piles.
The piles are sorted by size. I'm trying something a little different by stacking them back to back, front to front, so the piles look taller than they really are.
A comment on Kasturi is that although the plants did not get very tall, avg 3', there are lots of thick leaves.
Nostrano and Goose Creek Red don't appear to be very ripe. Everything else can be picked.
I'll be making rajangan out of all the Kasturi. I picked virtually all of it. I piled it in the garage, and will be yellowing it in piles.
The piles are sorted by size. I'm trying something a little different by stacking them back to back, front to front, so the piles look taller than they really are.
A comment on Kasturi is that although the plants did not get very tall, avg 3', there are lots of thick leaves.
already -2°C !
That's a small growing season !
I have not finished my harvest either, but we are not expecting freezing temperatures before some weeks, so I am confident.
Good luck with your harvest, your Kasturi looks very nice and ripe.
That's a small growing season !
I have not finished my harvest either, but we are not expecting freezing temperatures before some weeks, so I am confident.
Good luck with your harvest, your Kasturi looks very nice and ripe.
ChinaVoodoo
Moderator
The thing is, the forecast changes day to day. In the hours since that post, the prediction has gone up to a low of 0°. The average low is around 6°, and they show a dip mid week, which keeps changing every time I check. It's a one time thing caused by a massive low front that's likely to drop rain and snow. -1°C causes no damage at all, but -4°C is catastrophic. But then again, so is harvesting unripe tobacco.
Here is the maturity of my Nostrano del Brenta leaf when I harvested it in 2016.
Bob
Bob
Alpine
Moderator
Same for GCR, look for a small yellow tip ChinaV
pier
pier
CobGuy
Well-Known Member
Great looking pile of leaves, CV ... congrats! 
That Kasturi is really neat looking.
~Darin
That Kasturi is really neat looking.
~Darin
ChinaVoodoo
Moderator
Thank you guys for the advice on Nostrano and GCR ripening!
Now I'm stacking Samporis in the garage, smoking Pergeu carotte, Frog Eye Orinoco, and a pinch of MD609 vanilla, and listening to The Sky is Crying as it rains outside.
Now I'm stacking Samporis in the garage, smoking Pergeu carotte, Frog Eye Orinoco, and a pinch of MD609 vanilla, and listening to The Sky is Crying as it rains outside.
ChinaVoodoo
Moderator
I picked nearly all the KY17 today. 11 plants, about 20 leaves per plant.
CobGuy
Well-Known Member
Nice!!
ChinaVoodoo
Moderator
I think I'll wait until Tuesday, and pick the Nostrano and GCR. I definitely do see signs of ripeness, so I think it's ok. Darn, I was actually going to try flue curing at least one stick of Goose Creek Red. Oh well. Summer really ended fast.
Um...You're in Canada.
Bob
Bob
ChinaVoodoo
Moderator
Unless you've lived in Manitoba, Saskatchewan, Alberta, or Montana, I don't think you can understand just how perdurably linked our affects are to the cycles of hope, & despair caused by the weather.
A common phrase in English is "talk about the weather", meaning something along the lines of making small talk, but it's actually a serious statement here.
CobGuy
Well-Known Member
I feel for ya' CV ... but it's going to be 35-38C by day and 18-21C at night for awhile yet here.
ChinaVoodoo
Moderator
So on August 3rd, a small Nostrano Gentile plant blew down and I hung it in the curing shed. There are 5 leaves still curing, but here's a spread of the results of a stalk cured way too immature cure. Definitely some green. I'll keep it separate to see how it turns out after kilning.
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