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Cigarette Varieties for Cigar Wrappers?

GrowleyMonster

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So I am slightly discouraged from trying to grow those beautiful high yellow Connecticut Shade wrapper leaves and I am looking for a reasonable substitute. Maybe a broadleaf variety that doesn't grow too tall and stringy under shade. Maybe a tobacco that cures to a nice golden color even when sun grown. Does anybody do this? Any favorite varieties? Pros and cons? Also, I would really like to grow wrapper leaves that are as stretchy and supple as the CT Shade.
 

Knucklehead

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So I am slightly discouraged from trying to grow those beautiful high yellow Connecticut Shade wrapper leaves and I am looking for a reasonable substitute. Maybe a broadleaf variety that doesn't grow too tall and stringy under shade. Maybe a tobacco that cures to a nice golden color even when sun grown. Does anybody do this? Any favorite varieties? Pros and cons? Also, I would really like to grow wrapper leaves that are as stretchy and supple as the CT Shade.
The list is long - Besuki, Florida Sumatra, CT Broadleaf, Habano 2000, etc. - everything on the wrapper list at northwoodseeds.com.
The bigger question is what do you like? You can grow any of them as well or better than commercial because tender loving care costs labor. They can't afford it.

As far as cigarette varieties for cigar wrapper, I personally like burley. Not so much on the flue cure but that's just me.
 
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LeftyRighty

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Yeah, the wrapper strains I've grown have always sucked, I can't get them to grow, shade or sun.
Last year, I had excess Yellow Twist Bud burley for my cigs.
The YTB leaf made a great wrapper, good tensile strength when wet for wrapping, thin veins, mild flavor/aroma, blends well with cigar strains, and easiest growth & air-curing. I am growing extra this year, just for my cigars.
 
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deluxestogie

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Garden20150723_1941_cigar_HarrowVelvet_foot_400.jpg
 

GrowleyMonster

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So a light colored Burley seems to be what I might want. Thanks for the great recommendations, guys. I was just now looking at NorthWest Seeds's list and Moldovan 456 is specifically cited as curing to "a bright yellow/brown". It sounds like the leaves might be just a bit too thick, but I might try a few plants. They have the Yellow Bud Twist listed, and the Harrow Velvet, too. I will look for the Kelly Burley. I will probably try them all, a few plants each, next year.
 

deluxestogie

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...trompeta shape? Also does the Harrow Velvet get more glossy with age?

Below is the same cigar. It's from 7 years ago, and posted on the forum then.

Garden20150723_1943_cigar_HarrowVelvet_wrapper_400.jpg


Garden20150723_1944_cigar_HarrowVelvet_wrapper_ash_400.jpg


I pay little attention to "glossy", and that particular cigar in the photos is thousands of cigars ago. The exact nature of any particular leaf depends on variety, soil conditions, growing season, adverse events, color-curing conditions, priming level, kilning conditions and duration, post-fermentation storage conditions and duration, and other variables that I can't think of at the moment. Unlike commercial tobacco supply chains that can semi-reliably offer say 5% of the total crop as a 750 pound bale of somewhat similar leaf, a home tobacco grower has the joy of a personal experience with the wonderous variability of each leaf on each plant of each variety. [Hand-tailored suit, vs selecting one size of 500 identical suits hanging on the factory clothing rack.]

Bob
 

skychaser

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Bob, Have you ever tried Paris Wrapper? Somewhere long ago I came across some info about it making a good wrapper, filler or binder so I added that info on my website. But the truth is I know next to nothing about cigars except for what I learn here. I send everyone who e-mails me with questions to this forum for answers. I do know that Paris Wrapper is classified as flue cured, produces very well and is great in a cigarette. But I always wondered why a flue cured strain would have "wrapper" in the name and be considered a good cigar tobacco. Are there other cigar tobaccos that are usually flue cured?


I think I have some Kelly Burley in my seed stash. I'll have to have a look.
 
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ChinaVoodoo

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Bob, Have you ever tried Paris Wrapper? Somewhere long ago I came across some info about it making a good wrapper, filler or binder so I added that info on my website. But the truth is I know next to nothing about cigars except for what I learn here. I send everyone who e-mails me with questions to this forum for answers. I do know that Paris Wrapper is classified as flue cured, produces very well and is great in a cigarette. But I always wondered why a flue cured strain would have "wrapper" in the name and be considered a good cigar tobacco. Are there other cigar tobaccos that are usually flue cured?


I think I have some Kelly Burley in my seed stash. I'll have to have a look.
Finally, someone said it. I been wondering the same thing.

Along the same lines, I might consider investigating Suifu. It's used in kizami pipe tobacco. See thread here:

Post in thread 'Kizami tobacco' https://fairtradetobacco.com/threads/kizami-tobacco.6469/post-119614

But it's also listed as a cigar wrapper here:
 

deluxestogie

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There is a Manila Wrapper and a Paris Wrapper that are both flue-cure classes of tobacco. I've grown both of them, but always grew them in full sun, and air-cured them. That produced presentable, lighter-color wrapper, but nothing to write home about. I suspect that the names were acquired in the early 20th century, when US-made cigars were frequently wrapped in burley and just about any other nice looking leaf, disregarding the USDA class. CT Shade was still in the process of being developed at that time, because the US slapped a massive import duty on imported cigar wrappers, like Sumatra. (Keep in mind that the same USDA classifiers mysteriously decided that "Perique" variety leaf was an Oriental, even though it is likely derived from red burley.)

My Harrow Velvet (a polite, Canadian variety of burley) produced consistently thinner and lighter-color leaf than Kelly burley, though Kelly provided a higher weight yield per plant.

Bob
 
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