Leverhead's Flue Cure experiment

[Chicken]

i only have resuable junk,,,

 

[leverhead]

The way I look at it your humidity would be very high at first because of the moisture in the leaves. You're not moving that much air. As they cure I would expect the moisture (RH) to drop steadily. I don't know enough about flue curing to say but maybe at the end you'll have to add moisture?

John

I'll take some better pictures today. I put some better insulation under the bottom, thinking it might be a condensing surface. Looking down at it, I couldn't see any dew. It's such a small space, the position of the wet bulb might be more fussy, there's not allot of room above the tobacco. I've got another temperature probe I can use, I'm going to try to put a wet bulb at the bottom to see what that tells me. I'm about out of yellowing time for this run, so this may take several stabs to get the kinks worked out.

 

[leverhead]

i only have resuable junk,,,

And our women just don't understand why we collect junk (good stuff).

 

[johnlee1933]

I'll take some better pictures today. I put some better insulation under the bottom, thinking it might be a condensing surface. Looking down at it, I couldn't see any dew. It's such a small space, the position of the wet bulb might be more fussy, there's not allot of room above the tobacco. I've got another temperature probe I can use, I'm going to try to put a wet bulb at the bottom to see what that tells me. I'm about out of yellowing time for this run, so this may take several stabs to get the kinks worked out.

Yeah, on the first run I say watch and measure to get a feel for it. Even if you blew 20 leaves it wouldn't be the end of the world. Oh Yes -- Keep notes.

John

 

[johnlee1933]

And our women just don't understand why we collect junk (good stuff).

I solved that problem -- No more resident women.

John

My junk is undisturbed by human hands -- Just me.

John

 

[leverhead]

I solved that problem -- No more resident women.

John

My junk is undisturbed by human hands -- Just me.

John

Do you know why men will pay women for sex? So that they will shut up and go away when we're done.

 

[BigBonner]

I've made lots of junk! A fair amount turns into gold on the recycle.

You've done Flue Curing. Does a sweet cucumber smell during the yellowing sound about right?

I would guess you could call it like that . Its a smell that I can't describe .

 

[leverhead]

I would guess you could call it like that . Its a smell that I can't describe .

Thank you!

 

[leverhead]

Here's some fresh pictures of the set up.



I've got a real mixed bag of leaves, so I took my best shot and started wilting at 1:30p. The wet bulb temp right at 100 F, dry bulb is at 110 F. I'm going to leave it for the night and start bringing it up to 118 F in the morning.

 

[leverhead]

I pulled the plug on it this morning. Between the poor mix of leaves and lack of moisture in the system I only had a couple of leaves going in the direction I wanted. Under/over yellowed and pretty close.



Tightened it up, 2 wet "T" shirts, 10 more leaves and it's running with the vents open a little @ 95 F dry/ 92 F wet.

 

[FmGrowit]

I think it's really cool that you've taken this bull by the horns. As far as I know, this is the first time a home grower has made a legitimate attempt at flue curing.

Nice job.

 

[BarG]

You'll nail it down Steve, You got to with all that southern beauty you got growing. Anyway from meeting you I have faith in you to tweak the bugs out.

Just out of curiosity could you use a shallow pan of water in the bottom near the heat gun?

 

[leverhead]

I think it's really cool that you've taken this bull by the horns. As far as I know, this is the first time a home grower has made a legitimate attempt at flue curing.

Nice job.

Thank you! I've still got to get it thru stem drying. I got ten more leaves in the drum overnight for the second attempt, I've got the two best leaves from this morning in the oven overnight to dry the stems and they still smell good.

 

[leverhead]

You'll nail it down Steve, You got to with all that southern beauty you got growing. Anyway from meeting you I have faith in you to tweak the bugs out.

Just out of curiosity could you use a shallow pan of water in the bottom near the heat gun?

All the Southern Beauty I HAD growing, this rain has really taken a toll! I'm going to wait to see what the next month brings before I call the season.

 

[Rayshields]

Hi Leverhead,
I have been following with interest your flue curing efforts...getting ready to start my own...but my Elitech controllers aren't functioning well.

I am certainly no expert here, but I am wondering if you had your barrel more densely full of leaves you would have lots more humidity being released. This should cause the leaves to yellow more uniformly?

 

[leverhead]

Hi Leverhead,
I have been following with interest your flue curing efforts...getting ready to start my own...but my Elitech controllers aren't functioning well.

I am certainly no expert here, but I am wondering if you had your barrel more densely full of leaves you would have lots more humidity being released. This should cause the leaves to yellow more uniformly?

I'm pretty certain the problem is not enough leaf, the run after this one should answer that one. I hung a couple of wet "T" shirts in the drum this time and it seems to have helped. The way this year's been going, a drum full of leaf, I'll find out my vents are too small.

Good luck on your effort! The judgment calls will keep you up at night! Limit your losses early on and take even crappy pictures of everything, you can go back to see what you missed.

 

[Chicken]

your experiment, would be great to blow heated air into my kiln,

a basic that baccy barns are built on, but they use fuel,,,as electricity and a thermoter, shut off,
would be ecxellent for a kiln of my size,

im using, 2 heat lamps, and a electric heater to do it with this year,

and with 2 crock-pot's, im hoping i can turn it into a not so dry type of heat,

my kiln is kinda big, but im hoping to hand it all up.

and kiln it all at once, and then shred it all for storage,

but your idea of a heated blower, if sucessfull, may be something i look into, in the future,

i believe it would be more beneficial for my big kiln, than what im using this year,,

but we wont know, till i flick the power switch, with about 30 hands in there, and we start the kilning,

 

[leverhead]

your experiment, would be great to blow heated air into my kiln,

a basic that baccy barns are built on, but they use fuel,,,as electricity and a thermoter, shut off,
would be ecxellent for a kiln of my size,

im using, 2 heat lamps, and a electric heater to do it with this year,

and with 2 crock-pot's, im hoping i can turn it into a not so dry type of heat,

my kiln is kinda big, but im hoping to hand it all up.

and kiln it all at once, and then shred it all for storage,

but your idea of a heated blower, if sucessfull, may be something i look into, in the future,

i believe it would be more beneficial for my big kiln, than what im using this year,,

but we wont know, till i flick the power switch, with about 30 hands in there, and we start the kilning,

I've scaled back the heater element to 350 Watts, I've got a dimmer switch on it also, I don't think I'm using 100 W (heat) with 1 drum. Nothing happens very fast, the heat is only on for a couple of minuets and then off for half an hour. I would guess humidity would be your biggest problem, seal and insulate well.

 

[Chicken]

i agree, a drum is a lot smaller scale, than im going with,

 

[deluxestogie]

leverhead,
That first attempt looks very promising. It's hard to tell from the photos if the green areas are dried green, or still moist. But the fully yellowed leaves look excellent, except for the unfinished stems. The goal of the final two days of higher temps is to dry the stems and denature the leaf's oxidase enzymes. I think you're nearly there. Congratulations!

Bob