deluxestogie Grow Log 2014

[deluxestogie]

May I ask a question totally out of context here - the Magnolia leaf you have pictured shows those yellow spots on the leaf. If the leaf was NOT ripe (presumably, as the leaves below it would still be totally green), what would cause that spotting??

Those yellow spots are a sign of the dreaded condition know as maturation. The leaves below it have already been primed. Maturation is reached when the leaf achieves the texture shown. Fully ripe is when most of the leaf is yellow. This leaf is closer to mature than to ripe. Once a smidgen of yellow begins to appear, the leaf will easily color-cure.

If you look closely at the very tip of the Metacomet leaf (a mature leaf), it is just barely beginning to show some yellowing.

Bob

 

[deluxestogie]

The Joy of Weather Forecasts

I check the local weather forecast on TV each evening, though always taking it with a grain of salt. Friday evening, they said temps would be in the low 40s on Saturday night. We're not due for frost for several weeks.

Late yesterday afternoon (Saturday), while the 30+ mph winds were whipping past, I checked Weather Underground on-line. To my surprise, there was a frost advisory for my area for Saturday night. It was far too late in the day to make any significant arrangements, other than to just relax, and eat Shrimp Scampi at a local Italian restaurant.

This morning, the temp hovered at about 34ºF until the sun came up. I haven't gone out to look at the tobacco. If a green leaf gets frosted, it looks perfectly healthy, until the noonday sun cooks it. I still have about 1/5 of my crop (much of the upper leaf) to harvest.

My curing capacity just barely squeaks by, but only if I can move fully yellowed leaf from the shed into my enclosed back porch. Yesterday afternoon, there was no room at the inn. So I just had to take my chances.

On a happier note, my flue-curing has finally come to a successful close for the season, so my Cozy Can is once again available for kilning cigar leaf. I always seem to run short of ready cigar filler during the flue-cure season. This year, flue-curing spanned from early August into the start of October--so about 8 weeks.

Bob

 

[Bex]

We don't get a lot of frost here - fortunately - but I have heard that if you hose them down in the morning, before the sun gets a chance to 'cook' them, you have a better chance of having no damage. I hope your remaining plants are ok....

 

[deluxestogie]

Actually, the hosing would work before they freeze. The additional mass of the water must dissipate quite a bit of energy at the freezing point (a physical characteristic of water), before it can freeze. So when plants are near the freezing point, hosing will prevent the leaf from frosting.

Once a leaf is frosted, water crystals (ice crystals) disrupt the cell structure, and no amount of lamentation or hosing can put Humpty back together again. If the frosting is very light, it can cause a kind of Perique effect. Otherwise, frosted leaf is just mush.

I walked the tobacco a little while ago. There is scattered, minimal frost damage. Yesterday's winds, however, tattered some of the fairly rigid, mature leaf. Not a big deal, since much of it is destined for filler. But a small bit of wrapper leaf is worse for the wear.

This year's weather has delayed my tasks from time to time, and made sun-curing difficult, but I've experienced minimal blow-downs and minimal pest damage. So, I'm a happy guy.

Bob

 

[Jitterbugdude]

Bob, it was 34 degrees in my tobacco plot this morning. Lots of frost but as of late this afternoon there appears to be no damage to any of my sucker crop. Maybe the tobacco gods were good to you too.

 

[Bex]

Glad there was not too much damage for you. We had 50 mph winds here last night with stronger gusts, and I was waiting for my polytunnel to fly past the window like the Wizard of Oz. Fortunately, nothing happened to it. So I guess the tobacco gods were out in full force yesterday.
Actually, I understand that if you wash the frost off of the plants before the sun comes up, you have a chance of saving them. Maybe a myth.....

 

[deluxestogie]

Yellowing Leaf the Knucklehead Way

It's been so cool for the past couple of weeks that primed leaf hanging in the shed is not yellowing at a pace that allows me to move it out of the shed and into the back porch, in order to make room for more leaf in the shed.

Knucklehead reports successfully using his seedling heat mats to yellow leaf. To use this method effectively with my single 1020 tray-size seedling mats, I place the mat on top of a layer of closed-cell foam padding.

My leaf is strung on aluminum wire, with about 40 to 60 leaves per wire. Each wire is labeled. Without needing to remove the leaf from the string to place it on a seedling mat, I open a gap near the center of the wire's length, and fold the wire in half. For most leaf, this brings it to a size that matches the dimensions of the mat.

A heavy plastic bag is then placed over the leaf, and tucked under the long edges of the mat. Each end is loosely folded under.

Seedling mats of this size are rated as 17 watts. They have no temperature control. But they seem to top out in the mid 90s (F). I just take my chances with the temp. 24 hours sealed on top of the mat, and the leaf (which has been struggling to yellow in the shed for many days already) is either yellow or brown. There is significant condensation on the plastic during that time.

Out it comes. The wire is straightened, and the leaf is hung inside the back porch. Voilà! Leaf that can now be dried.

I have only two of these mats, but the flow of leaf from field to shed to porch is now improving.

Bob

 

[Bex]

I don't get it - are you doing this one leaf at a time? I have a seedling propagator - a plastic container with the seed mat built into the bottom, and a fairly high, removable plastic lid so that seedlings can grow to about 5 or 6 inches high before they have to be moved out of this. I think perhaps all seed mats run at about 95F, as my propagator runs at that temp, as well. Could you not do something with some sort of sealed container with the mat at the bottom and a number of leaves in it, rotated occasionally? Is there a purpose for your plastic bag to be weighted? Does the box of Bounce have some function??

 

[deluxestogie]

My leaf is strung on aluminum wire, with about 40 to 60 leaves per wire. Each wire is labeled. Without needing to remove the leaf from the string to place it on a seedling mat, I open a gap near the center of the wire's length, and fold the wire in half. For most leaf, this brings it to a size that matches the dimensions of the mat.

Each batch is 40 to 60 leaves, still on their stringing wire. That's what is hidden beneath the bag in the photo.

The box of Bounce (unscented, I might add) is just to keep that end of the bag tuck from popping open.

Bob

 

[Knucklehead]

I actually use my mats to finish drying the leaf after browning (or almost brown) and to completely dry the stem. My humidity can stay up for several days and the stem just won't dry out and mold becomes a worry. I stack the leaf in piles on the propagation mats without a cover, and the stack warms all the way through. I turn the piles every day until all dry. Tall piles I will turn inside out one time. I can get about 3 or 4 stacks of leaf per double mat, or 5 to 6 stacks of orientals per double mat, stacked as high as 12" or so. In about two days the leaf is out of case and the stems snap, crackle, pop dry. I keep the surveyors tape label loosely tied around the butt ends to keep the varieties separate. The leaf in the stacks lay out as flat as if they had been ironed. I have to carefully take them outside at night to rehydrate, but I know the stem won't mold later and they are ready for storage after bringing back into case. Like you noticed with your yellowing, using the mats for final dry out speeds the leaf through the shed and into the vapor proof bag. You've come across a great adaptation.

 

[BarG]

I was gonna speak up but I am glad you did knucks, You guys take home growing to a whole new level with the innovations and techniques for a small scale.

 

[Mad Oshea]

Maybe this has nothing to do with tobacco for You Guys, I'm in the dead-sert. The orange growers use smudge pots and wind machines when frost is a threat? The air circulation keeps the frost from setlling on the plants, saveing the fruit? So wind is good, I would think? Would a fan work on Your problem? Mad?-

 

[deluxestogie]

I'm a big fan of fans. A box fan runs in my shed year round, and a double window fan starts up electronically if the temp rises above 75ºF, to minimize flash curing. The back porch has an oscillating fan.

But...all that a fan can do is equalize the temp and humidity within its range. Hanging leaf is less likely to mold with a fan going, not because moving air prevents mold, but because it eliminates local pockets of high humidity. If all the air is below the freezing point of water, then a fan does nothing to prevent a freeze. If leaf is damp, then a fan actually increases the likelihood of freezing, because the air movement increases evaporative cooling from the leaf surface.

The only remedy for too cold, or persistently high humidity within a shed is the addition of heat. A 20ºF increase in ambient temperature will drop the humidity by ~50%. I don't have any heater for the shed.

Bob

 

[BarG]

But...all that a fan can do is equalize the temp and humidity within its range. Hanging leaf is less likely to mold with a fan going, not because moving air prevents mold, but because it eliminates local pockets of high humidity..

Bob

Would a fan help with midew? I had mildew ruin a lot of bezuki leaves.

 

[Mad Oshea]

YES

 

[deluxestogie]

Would a fan help with midew? I had mildew ruin a lot of bezuki leaves.

Mildew is mold. The connotation of "mildew" is of a flat vs. fuzzy growth, but this usage is not consistent (e.g. downy mildew is fuzzy).

I have had both mildew spots, as well as fuzzy molding of stems appear while the fan keeps on chugging. I have to assume that it would have been either much worse or developed much sooner without the presence of the fan.

The basic task of the fan is to stir the pot of air. Like scorching spaghetti sauce, where stirring redistributes the heat throughout the sauce, stirring won't prevent scorching if the temp of the entire pot of sauce is too high.

With green leaf hanging in a shed, there are two potential sources of water vapor: atmospheric humidity and transpiration from the leaf. If the atmospheric humidity is, say 75% (a level that would not rapidly encourage molding), transpired water vapor from the leaf lamina and stems can tip the balance into mold city. But this is more likely if localized pockets within the hanging leaf (between leaves, within folds, etc.) are left undisturbed by the air currents of a fan. Because the total mass of transpired water vapor is insignificant in comparison to the total mass of atmospheric water vapor, the fan's action reduces (or increases!) the humidity in those localized pockets to approximately that of the atmospheric humidity.

The crucial factor for an unheated shed is that the atmospheric humidity, averaged over several days, not remain too high.

Bob

SUMMARY of windy statement on fans: Yup. It may help reduce mold or mildew.

 

[BarG]

Thanks Bob, On the issues of mildew and fan relief. It all makes sense . I think I am transitioning this year from our drought cycle to a previous rainy cycle several years ago..

 

[deluxestogie]

Tomorrow...ah, tomorrow...I will harvest the tips of the Columbian Garcia, and the smidgen of FL Sumatra that remains to be harvested. That's all there is. Except for the timid seed pods that will be left on the Columbian Garcia until mere moments before the first freeze.

Some of the last leaf to have been harvested may or may not cure enough to avoid freeze damage in the shed. We'll see. The accidental suckers on the PA Swarr-Hibshman produced some huge leaf--not as large as the primary leaf. I took a 60-leaf string of what was close to maturity. If it makes it, then yippee! If it doesn't, that's okay too.

While I don't really look forward to winter [Those Hot Hands Toe Warmers are a godsend. I buy them by the case. I have crappy circulation in my toes.] I am truly glad to have the harvest behind me.

Last Tyvek tags for 2014.

It feels like I've written out enough Tyvek tags this year to reach from here to Paducah. Using an extra-fine Sharpie, I write the same thing on both sides of each tag. I do that because otherwise, the blank side is always the one facing me when I'm squinting to see what it says in the shadows of the curing shed. I record the variety, the year, the rough stalk position, and any other meaningful information (stalk-cured, sucker, etc). For any curing/finishing other than air-curing, I write an abbreviation (FC, K, SC, etc.) in the corner, and circle it. The tag follows the leaf wherever it goes, until it is finally smoked.

I usually receive enough mail contained in Tyvek envelopes each year to provide an ample supply to cut into tags. They don't fade. They don't melt in flue-curing or kilning. They are waterproof. They are strung on the leaf wire or nailed into the stalk-harvested plants. They can be tied by string to a hand of tobacco, taped to the outside of a poly-Nylon bag, or just tossed into a Ziplock. I use a large "stringing" needle to puncture each tag, to allow a wire to pass through. Tyvek does not tear, and doesn't puncture easily.

Bob

 

[ArizonaDave]

Bob, I can't wait to hear how the Colombian Garcia tastes!!!

 

[Bex]

I usually receive enough mail contained in Tyvek envelopes each year to provide an ample supply to cut into tags.

Bob

This forum is certainly a learning experience. Not only about tobacco, but I've just googled Tyvek and Hot Hands Toe Warmers, and have expanded by knowledge base considerably.....