MAB 2019 (Prilep, Criollo and Costello)

[MAB]

Moth, for the yellowing it needs a lot of humidity, at least 80% but if it's 85% it's even better! You also need heat, at least 70 ° F (21 ° C), but the more there is, the faster yellowing will be there! I have stacked the leaves inside a plastic bag many times, but the middle and high leaves do not cure uniformly:



Thus, there are parts of the yellowed leaf, a part that is still green and a brown part with mold lurking ...



But you have to organize yourself with a hygrometer and find a place where the humidity is very high, the yellowing of the leaf is the most important part of the whole process: if you wrong up it, you won't have tobacco to smoke! (or you'll get very bad quality tobacco).

 

[MAB]

Hello everyone!
Small update after the 8th week in the garden



So, on Sunday, June 23rd, the 8th Week in the Garden for my Plants ended and I made a census

Costello Negro: 43 plants of which 16 are Flowered.
This will be my core-business (I am a smoker of light / mild type cigarettes) and I'm not really satisfied: in my opinion, I now have 5 excellent plants (140 cm high / 55 inch and with the leaf larger 60 cm long / 23 inch), 36 good plants (110 cm / 43 inch tall and with the largest leaf 40 cm long / 15 inch) and 2 mediocre plants (85 cm high / 33 inch and with largest leaf 30 cm long / 12 inch).

Garden A



Garden B



Meanwhile, on June 20, I packed the budflowers of the best plant for the seeds, using an old tent in my wife's living room:



Cuban Criollo 98: 7 Plants including 4 Flowery.
I'm growing this strain out of curiosity well, I'll try to make some cigar, but above all I've read that Cuban tobacco are also good for cigarettes. Like all the other strains, this one is not Topped because I have noticed an enormous difference of aroma with respect to the Topped plants.
For Criollo, I have 3 excellent Plants (155 cm. / 61 inch tall and with the largest leaf 45 cm./18 inch long), 2 good plants (115 cm./45 inch tall and with the longest large leaf 40 cm./15 inch) and 2 mediocre plants (90 cm./35 inch high and with the largest leaf 30 cm long./12 inch). Even here, during the last week, I bagged the best plant for seeds.




Prilep P66-9/7 : 30 plants and no flowers.
This I believe is the strain that is going worst of all. I had started to cultivate it with the traditional Turkish system even though it is Macedonian (plants nearby, without fertilizer and without watering it) but I had to start watering it because even if the plants was not in danger of dying, I saw that with the enormous heat the leaves began to burn and the plant also struggled to grow.
For the Prilep I have only 3 excellent plants (100 cm./39 inch tall and with the largest leaf 33 cm./13 inch long), 10 good plants (90 cm./35 inch tall and with the largest leaf long 28 cm./11 inch) and 17 mediocre plants. (60 cm./23 inch tall and with the largest leaf 20 cm long. 8 inch).



Watering
After a very rainy month of May we had dry June (it rained only once in the last 27 days!) And almost as hot as it was in August! Thus, I am watering every two days with 3 liters of water per plant and one liter per plant for the Prilep. Maybe I waited too long before starting to water so abundantly after the last rains of May, but I didn't think I had a soil that drains water so well!

Harvest
I have been harvesting for a couple of weeks now, it is still early but I am harvesting the low leaves that are yellowed and deteriorate if I leave them in the plant.
For now, I'm doing the yellowing inside the plastic bags and then I dry them in the sun (I'll put the images in the next update).

That's all for now, and I'm open for criticism and suggestions!

MAB (Marco American Blend)
.

 

[Alpine]

That prilep looks perfect to me... keep up the good work!

Pier

 

[Moth]

Like all the other strains, this one is not Topped because I have noticed an enormous difference of aroma with respect to the Topped plants.

Just so I am clear - more /better aroma with flowers, less so when topped?

Your garden looks lovely.

 

[MAB]

@ Pier: thanks for the encouragement but 17 out of 30 plants are very poorly developed (only 60 cm / 2 inch tall) and on the Skychaser website I read that it should grow up to 130 cm / 4 1/2 ' feet ...

@ Moth, thank you! Yes, I noticed a huge difference between Virginia topped and not topped and between Burley topped and not topped .. but for the varieties for the cigars or those varieties that must undergo heavy treatments like the Firecured, perhaps it is better that they are topped, but I do not know! I am a cigarette smoker, I like that it is light / mild and an bit aromaric
Also, it appears that the untopped plants have a lower yield, of about 25%

 

[Jitterbugdude]

Also, it appears that the untopped plants have a lower yield, of about 25%

That's why farmers top their plants, it causes the leaves to become thicker. Remember, tobacco is sold by weight, not looks or even taste so the heavier the product the more money for the farmer.

 

[Moth]

for the varieties for the cigars or those varieties that must undergo heavy treatments like the Firecured, perhaps it is better that they are topped, but I do not know! I am a cigarette smoker, I like that it is light / mild and an bit aromaric
Also, it appears that the untopped plants have a lower yield, of about 25%

This is interesting. I am mainly growing cigar varieties and not really interested in maximising yields, if it will detract from quality. I'm an occasional smoker and growing for pleasure.

Remember, tobacco is sold by weight, not looks or even taste so the heavier the product the more money for the farmer.

Does anyone else have an opinion regarding topping/not topping and the resulting smoke?

If yield was not a concern, who here would not top?

 

[Alpine]

It has been my experience that untopped plants require more time for the leaves to ripen. In my environment, quick ripening is a must, so the only plants I don’t top are the (few) ones from which I want to save seeds. I have no idea about flavor changes though.

 

[MAB]

So, as Jitterbugdude said, the farmer has every interest in maximizing the yield with the topping and if I were a farmer I would also do the topping.
But, reading an article by Eugenio Cozzolino in the italian journal “Rivista di agraria N. 70 - December 1, 2008” (avaible in internet) It seems that in Italy there are two types of cultivation for the Burleys : the "Burley Italia" type that is not topped and is harvested leaf by leaf , and the American type that is topped and harvested with a whole plant. It seems that "Burley Italia" is not topped with having a tobacco with less nicotine.
It's an article from 2008 and maybe things have changed since then.

@ Moth, as I had written, probably for cigar cigarettes the plant must be topped so it will have large, thick leaves rich in nicotine and which can bear the fermentation (or fermentations) traditionally done in piles.
So, if you have to make cigars, maybe it is the topping with the following fermentation that will give you a quality cigar smoke!
It would be better for you to read some cigars topic, or ask Bob who is a cigar smoker and also Jitterbugdude is a cigar smoker if I remember correctly (they are the first two members I have in mind right now).

@ Pier: for the time of leaf maturation between topped and non-topped plant I don't have a precise opinion, in general maybe I tend to harvest a bit beforehand, it depends on many factors, and the apical leaves almost always I pick them with the stem and I let it cure hanging.
I have here a little bit of Burley Mississippi heirloom non-topped, it about 10% in the Virginia Gold cigarette and gives it an incredible aroma, spiced like a Turkish strain! The same amount topped, gives me a very strong smoke and without any taste.
As well as my first cultivated Virginai Gold, I topped it and it was and still is as strong as a cigar (coughs) and without taste. Yesterday I smoked Virginia Gold non-topped last year : it still has a bit herbaceous but it has a taste, indeed an incredible retro-taste, like orange peel
But I also believe that the fact that last year I dried the yellowed leaf in the sun that apparently fixes the sugars in the leaf has a role. My Virginia Gold leaves are non-topped and dried in the air but in the shade (at home) I remember that they had a taste that vaguely resembled licorice and/or anise.
This is my little experience, maybe try keeping aside the leaves of the plants that you don't topping to save the seeds, so you can make a comparison

 

[MAB]

Update after 9th Week in Garden



So, on June 30th, the 9th Garden Week for my plants ended. During this week the plants have grown on average by 10 cm. (3.93 inch) and the Costello flowered in 31 plants out of 43 in the garden, the Criollo flowered on 5 of the 7 cultivated and the Prilep flowered on 1 plant.

Harvest
In conjunction with the flowering of Costello, I did a real and first harvest, the lower leaves are still, some damaged by the sun, the others a little yellowed, others are curved and I also harvested some leaves that are still a little 'green but that hindered me during the watering.



So, after the harvest, I usually wash the leaves and hang them with iron hooks on an old Bursa stem, leaving them to drip in the shade until evening.



Finally, put them in a plastic bag for yellowing, this is a picture of Saturday at 6:30 PM:



And this is a picture of Monday at 4:30 PM:



As can be seen from the pictures, in two days the leaves are yellowed. I had made two batteries, here is an image of the other pile made Saturday and then an image after two days:





In truth, not all the leaves have completely yellowed, so, Monday, I made a new pile with some leaves that still had green areas (light green):



Storage
I am filling a small card-box with the first leaves of Costello (sand and basal leaves) are leaves that after yellowing I put in plateau (cardboard tray) covered with transparent plastic to dry in the sun



and the final color, for now, is a light cream / hazelnut color;



That's all for today, see you at the next update

 

[Moth]

What temperature are your plastic bags for curing?
I'm using a large heated propagator with temp / humidity controller and its taking around a week for what you get in 2 days! At 22c and 85%rh.
Wondering of I should increase the temp...

 

[MAB]

Moth, this is an image of a few years ago, before my instruments to test humidity and temperature broke.



however, the leaves that I am turning yellow, are the low ones on the plant, which turn yellow well and easily!

 

[MAB]

@ Moth:
In the image below, it is a draw for Flue-cured tobacco, for the yellowing in the first 48 hours the humidity is around 85% and the temperature is 100 ° F (37.77 ° C).

 

[deluxestogie]

My understanding of topping:

Topped plants:

• mature more rapidly and synchronously
• produce larger and thicker leaves
• produce more nicotine
• yield a stronger finished leaf with more intense aroma

Untopped plants:

• mature more gradually
• produce smaller, thinner, more delicate leaves
• produce less nicotine
• yield milder finished leaf with a more floral aroma

Since home-grown tobacco doesn't really reflect the statistics of larger plantings, the above impressions might be considered as "trends", rather than expected results.

I never top Orientals, but usually top everything else.

If you have a few slow plants among a group that is generally fast maturing, then topping those slower ones will allow them to catch-up to their neighbors in maturation. If you prefer larger though fewer leaves, say for wrappers, then top lower. If you wish to have a crop that includes potent tip leaf, then top higher. In general, I just top beneath the crowsfoot.

Bob

 

[MAB]

Perfect! Here is another piece by Mr. Deluxestogie that reaches my notes. Thanks!

I am also assuming that the aroma of an untopped Virginai Gold may be greater if the leaves are dried in the sun (like the Turkish varieties) and more if dried in the sun and closed in cardboard trays covered with cellophane, in the latter case, the drying will take place in two or three days and the leaf will remain more yellow.

 

[ChinaVoodoo]

The flue cured version of a flue cured tobacco is much more sweet smelling than an air cured version. It stands to reason that you are correct about sun curing.

 

[Alpine]

I always say that sun curing is the poor man’s flue cure. And it works, but true flue curing is, taste wise, in another world.

pier

 

[MAB]

Pier, if I had a suitable place for my leaves, after the yellowing I would only hang them waiting for nature to do its work.
But I only have a little space in the study and the central vein takes several weeks to dry, so I tried to put the leaves in the sun to speed up the process, but the wind blew them away, and I put them inside cardbox/trays in the sun but the wind blew them away even from inside the cardbox .. lol ... so, I closed the cartons/trays with cellophane.

As for taste, I should buy a natural Virginia envelope to make a comparison ... I have a vague recollection of natural Virginias in fine cut shag: Chiaravalle and Origenes had disappointed me, and instead I liked the Golden Virginia absolute.

 

[deluxestogie]

the central vein takes several weeks to dry

One possible solution is to purchase a seedling heat mat ($25), place it on a shelf indoors, then stack the leaves onto it. Rotate them every day or two. The stems dry rapidly.

Bob

 

[ChinaVoodoo]

You could make rajangan.

Attempt at making sun-cured rajangan

The process was briefly described to me by Tutu. In Indonesia, they apparently shred certain tobacco before sun curing them. This article sparked my interest even more: https://medium.com/@pylorns/indonesian-pipe-tobacco-71630487a33d Then I found this photo of the process I picked the...

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