Flue curing chamber/controller

[Emile]

I’m currently looking to built a Kiln/flue curing chamber to cure Virginia bright leaf next year. I had already read a lot of threads about flue curing and kiln. There’s a lot of info in here.

My plan is :

- dimensions will be 24” deep x 36” wide x 48” high ( 36” usable height)
- exo/endo skeletal insulated box, insulation gonna be roofing insulation (polyisocyanurate stand higher temperature than other foam)
- blower that blow in a 250/300w ceramic heater core run by a thermostat
- computer fan to exhaust excess moisture run by a humidistat with two butterfly damper (one for the inlet and one for outlet that will automatically open when the fan blow)
- rack to hold the leafs
-It will be able to be a updraft or a downdraft system.

But I still looking for few information.

- How do you control the temperature ramp when switching from yellowing to wilting to leaf drying to stem drying. I’m able to find ramp/soak temperature controller on internet but they are expensive.

- What kind of material to absolutely avoid in the curing chamber.

- how much leaf per sq/ft could fit (I planned to grow around 40 VBL plants)

- I’ve read to absolutely avoid tight spot but how do the do in recent tobacco bulk barn where the tobacco is tightly place in racks

Thanks ! Emile

Picture above is from a pdf, I’ll use it as a base for the project

https://tobacco.caes.uga.edu/content/dam/caes-subsite/tobacco/docs/retrofit/archive/bright-leaf-tobacco-curing.pdf

 

[deluxestogie]

I successfully flue-cured leaf by manually ramping in two steps for each ramp. The first step was set to increase the temp halfway to the new set point, then increased about 6 hours later to the new set point. The higher the force of your air flow, then the more densely the tobacco can be placed.

Each flue-cure run consumes about 5 to 7 days, the duration mostly depending on how much additional time is required in the yellowing phase for upper leaf. My chamber (the same dimensions as your chamber) was able to accommodate the weekly primings of about 16 plants. But I hung my leaf with generous spacing, since my fan was inside the chamber, and it simply stirred the air, rather than forcing it through.

Bob

 

[Emile]

I successfully flue-cured leaf by manually ramping in two steps for each ramp. The first step was set to increase the temp halfway to the new set point, then increased about 6 hours later to the new set point. The higher the force of your air flow, then the more densely the tobacco can be placed.

Each flue-cure run consumes about 5 to 7 days, the duration mostly depending on how much additional time is required in the yellowing phase for upper leaf. My chamber (the same dimensions as your chamber) was able to accommodate the weekly primings of about 16 plants. But I hung my leaf with generous spacing, since my fan was inside the chamber, and it simply stirred the air, rather than forcing it through.

Bob

So, the more heat source wattage, the faster the ramp will be. I don’t know if ceramic heater are dimmable. If so I could set it to a lower power to get a slower ramp.

My fan and heating unit is going to be easily removable. If my flue curing chamber is to small I would be able to put it on a bigger chamber. Extra leafs that wouldn’t fit will simply be air cured.