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Hot desert curing advice

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xaphoo

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Noob here, never grown tobacco before.

In the metro area of Phoenix, Arizona, temperatures rise to 115F and higher in the summer. And, as everyone knows, it is extremely dry. Based on experience with vegetables I think I will be able to manage the actual growing of the tobacco, aiming to harvest before it gets too hot - but I don't know what to do about curing. I'm growing about 10 plants: two Southwestern rusticas, a burley, and two Turkish tobaccos. I do not want to build anything elaborate like a kiln. It's not about money but about ethos: I want the curing process to be a simple as possible. These are the spaces I can use:

- A metal shed of decent size. If the neighbors flood irrigate, it can get very humid as it too floods, but if they don't it should remain dry. This place gets HOT, probably exceeding 120F.
- A sunny backyard, which has areas that are slightly shadier and more humid than the rest.
- An indoor laundry room that is entered from outside and detached from the house's HVAC (it gets as hot or cold as the outdoors).
- If absolutely necessary I could use my actual air-conditioned house.

I was thinking that I could string up the leaves in the shed and cover the hanging leaves with a tarp, with a towel and bucket of water also underneath it. Or I could spray them with mist daily. This would be both superhot and humid, mimicking the characteristics of a kiln. I could also do the "pile curing" method, putting tightly stacked leaves under a towel and airing them out every couple days. Would there be any kind of sun curing that would work?

If anyone has any experience in hot desert curing, let me know how you did it. I am really eager to see how this comes out!
 

garryr

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I think the tin shed might be too hot, however if you can keep it humid, that would be good, The
An indoor laundry room that is entered from outside and detached from the house's HVAC (it gets as hot or cold as the outdoors).
sounds best, but you probably still will need to do something to keep the humidity up, Here in Mexico, where I live, it is very dry, I use a shower room, there are 2 "stalls" for showering, and since I only use one, I dedicated the other to the tobacco, this works out great for me, every time I shower, that increases the humidity, but then it drys out a little, so never is to humid, if it does get to dry, I just turn on the hot water for a little while, til the humidity comes up, again. It does have a small window, but I pretty much keep that closed. The laundry room, you might need to keep some buckets of water, and even through some on the floor , to help keep the humidity higher.
good luck,
 

Knucklehead

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First off, cured tobacco goes into the kiln. It is for speed aging cured tobacco for a month, rather than for a minimum of a year of natural aging. The kiln does not cure. Perhaps you are thinking of a flue curing chamber, for flue cured varieties.

You will need to maintain an average of 70% RH. You cannot let the humidity get too high for a period of days or your leaf will mold. Too low and it will dry green. Either scenario produces garden mulch rather than usable tobacco. There are some Arizona members here that can help you with recommendations for your area.

Ten plants is going to net about 4 oz per plant, the Turkish varieties even less. That's not a lot of tobacco. You will be priming very few leaves at a time. Your previous priming will be just about cured before you prime the next round. You'll prime 2-3 leaves from each plant as they become ripe. Your different varieties will ripen at different times. You will need very little space. Are you growing for cigarettes? Be sure to check out the FAQ's: http://fairtradetobacco.com/links.php?ab_s=1

An alternative is buying whole leaf tobacco from www.wholeleaftobacco.com. FmGrowit is the owner of the whole leaf site and this forum.

Welcome to the forum.
 

xaphoo

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Thanks for the advice. As for quantity, I may grow up to twenty, depending on how much space I can clear. I am primarily growing for pipe tobacco - thus the choice of burley + oriental, which are the blends I enjoy most (the rustica is an experiment). If some are suitable for cigarettes I would enjoy that too. I don't smoke too often.

Based on your suggestion and garryr's above, I realize that perhaps a simple humid box, like a plastic storage container with the leaves hanging from the lid, humidified with a bowl and towel into a kind of makeshift humidor, in controlled indoor conditions, may be all I need for color curing.

After this stage, it's time to age them. I wonder if there is some way I can use the natural heat of my environment to my advantage here...
 

ChinaVoodoo

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I live in a dry area, (although it is not hot). If I was you, I would use the shed. It would take advantage of the heat. I would use a humidifier, and a hygrometer. It doesn't matter what the temperature is, so long as, like Knucklehead says, the humidity is ~70%. The shed will get hotter during the day, therefore you will have to turn up the humidifier in the morning-because the solubility of water in air goes up-and turn it down or off, or let it run out of water at night when the air cannot hold as much water in solution. If you got a controller, it could be automated, but I get the sense that's not your style. I would have a fan in there to circulate the air and gently move the leaves around. This would help prevent moisture from building up at night when it cools, from being trapped between the leaves. Your idea of using a tarp will likely put it at risk. It is better to maintain humidity by evaporating more water, than by preventing water from escaping. Air flow is your friend on the mold front. If you just can't get enough moisture into the air, I would tarp several walls, or the ceiling, rather than tarping the tobacco, so you could still maintain airflow within the shed through the leaves.

The hygrometer is essential. You absolutely need this. You can probably get one for less than $10 at the local cigar store. Make sure you calibrate it.

If you want to make a super simple and practically free humidifier, fill a bucket with water and hang a couple towels so the bottoms are in the water, and have a fan blow on the towels. The towels will wick the moisture, and the fans will increase the evaporation from them.

If Arizona is anything like Alberta, your curing process, in one sentence is to, "Maintain the humidity so the tobacco has time to change color, without drying completely."
 

ArizonaDave

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Thanks for the advice. As for quantity, I may grow up to twenty, depending on how much space I can clear. I am primarily growing for pipe tobacco - thus the choice of burley + oriental, which are the blends I enjoy most (the rustica is an experiment). If some are suitable for cigarettes I would enjoy that too. I don't smoke too often.

Based on your suggestion and garryr's above, I realize that perhaps a simple humid box, like a plastic storage container with the leaves hanging from the lid, humidified with a bowl and towel into a kind of makeshift humidor, in controlled indoor conditions, may be all I need for color curing.

After this stage, it's time to age them. I wonder if there is some way I can use the natural heat of my environment to my advantage here...

You might be able to keep a controlled environment in your garage, mine averages about 105*, but I've had better luck hanging it in my studio closet with the door open. There's another guy on here from Awatukee that has a room sealed off that he keeps around 80*.

I buy from http://wholeleaftobacco.com and also grow. I did a fall grow last year, and still have some little dutch growing outside right now. I grew a variety of Burley and VA. Gold, which I love the sweet smell of that one. Going into my 2nd grow any time now, but I still consider myself a novice at this until I get a couple solid years under my belt.

There's always the 5 gallon bucket method too.

I'd like to add that my best was air cure hanging indoors. It stays about 50* humidity, and takes about 3 weeks or so to turn from yellow to brown. I haven't perfected any of this yet, and am still open to suggestion. We can all learn from each other.
 

xaphoo

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Thanks to all of you! This is a great community. I'm getting a clearer idea of what I need to do and have various plans in mind. My seeds are still in the mail, so there are still a few months before I have to put these plans in action. I'll update as things progress.

Thanks again.
 

ChinaVoodoo

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Thanks to all of you! This is a great community. I'm getting a clearer idea of what I need to do and have various plans in mind. My seeds are still in the mail, so there are still a few months before I have to put these plans in action. I'll update as things progress.

Thanks again.

I look forward to reading about it. Maybe some of your solutions for the arid climate will be useful to me too.
 

Knucklehead

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After our humidity dropped here in Alabama, DGBAMA began using his kiln for a controlled environment curing chamber. You could do something similar and use less space in your buildings. It's in his grow blog, I'll try to link you to the correct page, but the whole thread is an informative read:
http://fairtradetobacco.com/threads/3881-Dgbama-2014-grow-blog?p=93815&viewfull=1#post93815

Here's the thread on the chamber he built. It's pretty affordable. http://fairtradetobacco.com/threads/3064-DGBAMA-Redneck-Curing-Chamber-Build
 
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