Eekay 2024 Grow Blog

[eekay]

Non-photo update. Flowers bloomed about 5 says ago, topped all plants. Del Gold's yellowing at bottom. This is where my inexperience comes into play where I play the popular "Is it ripening or is it dying" game. We were at +30C which is very unseasonal for this area. Almanac now puts first frost at Sept 11 - Sept 20th. Spending my days combing the forums to make sure I understand exactly what it is I'm supposed to do next.

 

[Knucklehead]

Do you have a place to hang the leaf inside out of the weather that allows you to control the environment? Can you warm that space? Do you have a fan?
What will your humidity be like in a couple of weeks?
Start keeping an eye on the local weather forecasts and track your temps and humidity. Day and night, they generally go up and down in my area. A digital remote weather monitor is very helpful. Do you have one?
You may have to stalk harvest at the last minute and the maturity will just have to be what it is. Thats better than freezing.

 

[eekay]

Do you have a place to hang the leaf inside out of the weather that allows you to control the environment? Can you warm that space? Do you have a fan?
What will your humidity be like in a couple of weeks?
Start keeping an eye on the local weather forecasts and track your temps and humidity. Day and night, they generally go up and down in my area. A digital remote weather monitor is very helpful. Do you have one?
You may have to stalk harvest at the last minute and the maturity will just have to be what it is. Thats better than freezing.

From my 2020 Grow I was able to stalk harvest and pile cure then hang in the basement. They hadn't even flowered though as autumn was very very early that year. Humidity is unseasonably high, I can likely manager that with piling. I will be constructing China's kiln for the next steps. Air curing in the basement is the plan after yellowing. As we get deeper into autumn the humidity will plunge significantly on its way to zero.

This year I got lucky with the weather, wanting to really dial the ripeness of the leaves for the best flavor. I'll be looking at 2-3 weeks post topping at the absolute latest.

 

[eekay]

Update. From my best guess these bottom leaves are showing signs of being mature to mature-ripe. I think I'll begin priming.

Weather wise we are looking at flux in humidity between 52% to 95% over the coming two weeks while entering a small heat bubble after the weekend showing +30C.

The plan was the box pile but I may be able to yellow these leaves by leaving them out. There is a small chance of sun curing as well.

Once I have a bit more free time after the work set I will give it a shot.

 

[eekay]

The first primings color cured. The big issue with this season is that I forgot to label my seedlings and my wife moved my pots around to make room. So. It's a surprise bag of what's what. The largest leaves are definitely Del Gold. As for the pale leaves not sure if that's a growing issue or the variety.

I failed to rotate the leaves yesterday and ended up with a couple going brown, they were discarded.

I should have another larger batch of primings in the coming days. About a week until our projected frost date.

The piling method I'm using utilizes sheets of unwaxed butcher paper between each leaf, stacked, the bundle is wrapped in a canvas drop cloth and stored in a Rubbermaid container on my deck.

 

[Ellis003]

And while I wait, I took half my crop from 2020 and tried my hand at the Carrote View attachment 50371

Hi mate. Is this after fermentation? Or Ru fermenting it this way or done so before? I saw a video on the group and going to try it later in the year. Cheers

 

[deluxestogie]

Unless you flue-cure leaf, all of it eventually color-cures to brown.

Bob

 

[eekay]

Hi mate. Is this after fermentation? Or Ru fermenting it this way or done so before? I saw a video on the group and going to try it later in the year. Cheers

This is color curing. Once the leaves are uniformly yellow I will air cure them until dry. After that they will be re-hydrated and then fermented in a kiln.

 

[eekay]

Unless you flue-cure leaf, all of it eventually color-cures to brown.

Bob

Ah I was just reading over some threads. I thought the leaves turning brown were a sign of composting. Do I want the leaves to be uniformly.banana yellow before hanging to air cure or do I carry them through until they're paper bag brown and then hang?

 

[deluxestogie]

I usually hang the mature, green leaf in my curing shed until it is fully color-cured to brown. I have zero experience with the various intermediate steps that some forum members prefer.

Bob

 

[Knucklehead]

Ah I was just reading over some threads. I thought the leaves turning brown were a sign of composting. Do I want the leaves to be uniformly.banana yellow before hanging to air cure or do I carry them through until they're paper bag brown and then hang?

Box curing is helpful when you live in a dry climate. You can skip the box cure if your leaf will go through the color cure by simply hanging it to air cure if your humidity is not so dry that the leaf dries green, or so moist that mold or rot are a concern. A digital thermometer and hygrometer are helpful.

 

[eekay]

Box curing is helpful when you live in a dry climate. You can skip the box cure if your leaf will go through the color cure by simply hanging it to air cure if your humidity is not so dry that the leaf dries green, or so moist that mold or rot are a concern. A digital thermometer and hygrometer are helpful.

I'm sitting at 57F and 77% humidity presently. Think those are suitable for letting them sit out in the open air?

Are you able to weigh in on what I'm looking for color wise? In my crop from 2020 I pulled them from the box as soon as all the green was gone, they were in uniformly golden yellow, and then hung them to dry. I'd post a reference for what I discarded but unfortunately they went in the green bin with the cat little.

 

[Knucklehead]

I'm sitting at 57F and 77% humidity presently. Think those are suitable for letting them sit out in the open air?

Are you able to weigh in on what I'm looking for color wise? In my crop from 2020 I pulled them from the box as soon as all the green was gone, they were in uniformly golden yellow, and then hung them to dry. I'd post a reference for what I discarded but unfortunately they went in the green bin with the cat little.

My humidity swings up and down depending on the day, night or day, and the weather. I try to maintain around 70% humidity over three day blocks of time. Humidity can go up or down over 3 day blocks of time but try to average ~70%. I sometimes have to manipulate my micro climate (shop or garage) by opening or closing doors, turning on a fan, bunching leaves closer together if humidity low, spreading leaves further apart if humidity high, etc. I monitor temp, humidity, and weather forecasts. Its not a constant struggle but occasionally challenging. I box cured one time and forgot to rotate the leaves one day. Next day the leaves had areas of black (not brown, black) a spongy slimy feel, and would just fall apart when handled. Brown should be good, black not so much. After my limited one time experience I've been a little leery of box curing in my climate. It turned bad so fast, one little slip. In a dry climate great but my humidity swings around too much for me to try it again unless the weather turns wonky and I need to box cure to prevent drying green.

If what you are doing is working carry on, but it won't hurt to try hanging a few leaves for air curing. If that works out you can skip the box step and not have to shuffle the deck every day.

What basically needs to happen is that you want to keep the leaf alive long enough to turn from green to yellow (without drying green on one end - low humidity for too long, or rotting at the other end of the extreme - high humidity for too long). At that point you can go ahead and let the leaf die, turn brown, and dry out.

 

[wruk53]

Ah I was just reading over some threads. I thought the leaves turning brown were a sign of composting. Do I want the leaves to be uniformly.banana yellow before hanging to air cure or do I carry them through until they're paper bag brown and then hang?

Once my leaf turns yellow, I immediately go to the drying stage. When the midrib is completely dry, then bring it back into case and cycle it in and out of case. During this time the leaf will gradually get darker until it assumes its final color. If you leave the leaves in a pile past yellowing, they will begin to rot. I do not have a barn or curing shed. I color cure mine on a screened porch if the humidity is high enough, or in a box if it's too low, then move it to my garage where it's hotter and dryer for drying. From then on, I alternate moving it from the garage to the lanai for the cycling part. The leaf shown in your picture are ready to be dried.

 

[Skafidr]

Like the others said, you'll want to pull them out of your pile as soon as they're yellow to avoid rot; AFAIK box/towel curing is a convenience colour-curing method used by home growers when they don't have other means to colour-cure the leaves.

However, brown is not necessarily rotten or bad: "over colour curing" is involved in making srinthil. I did also mess up at taking some leaves out in time, and some had brown and did not smell nor feel like rot. They're now cured but I haven't tried to smoke them yet, will let this age first. (Reference to my blog entry about it: here.)

I'm a first time grower, so my experience with this is limited so it has to be taken with a grain of salt

 

[eekay]

Unseasonably hot weather. +32C and 12% RH so I'm drying this lot in the sun. Since priming the bottom leaves the rest of the main plant have slowed down on ripening. I'll continue to ride the weather out until the very last minute. It's likely I'll have to basement air cure the remainder.

 

[eekay]

First priming vs. 2nd priming. The 2nd one I will have to keep a closer eye on. The first batch color cured no problem just strung up under the gazebo, but it's getting colder which means the RH is going to drop. If needed I will take them down and finish by box curing. What you see would be the bottom 3 layers.

 

[eekay]

Sun is out and humidity is high. Repurposing my turtledog hammock stand (a design which came from a different forum full of crotchety old men) to give them some sun.

 

[eekay]

Humidity is starting to get too low for sun curing. I dont have time to tend to them , take them in and out of the sun. The only solution for next year is to consider season extension via a greenhouse , and also to get the plants started as soon as physically possible.

Stole the ever popular coat hanger trick. These will be going into the basement to fully dry.