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Paraord's grow blog 2018

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Paraord

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Ok so there was one day left for the 4 week mark yesterday and I wanted to check out some tobacco. Should it be darker? Or is it just luck of the draw. I could leave it in longer if that will have a benefit.

Top from left to right (Little Crittenden, Tennessee Red Leaf, Indian Black)
Bottom from left to right (Yellow Orinco, Yellow Twist Bud, Tennessee Red leaf)
7yh4maol.jpg


Its gotten a touch darker while resting but not much. This picture was like straight out of the gate from the kiln.

My longer term storage thought was destem and vacuum pack in those food saver bags after letting them rest for a few days post kiln. Thoughts on that?
 

ChinaVoodoo

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They would be darker if the kiln had higher temperature and humidity. Lower humidity requires longer kilning in my experience. I've been trying different parameters from my normal 124° x 80% this summer. Right now, the tobacco is in smokable (non-moldable) case @118°. I'm three months in with some Piloto and it's starting to smell like I had hoped it would. The color has hit Colorado. Higher temps and humidity would likely have made it Maduro in a month.
 

deluxestogie

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While temp and humidity can influence the final leaf color, the primary determinants are the variety and the priming level. My kiln batches, for years, have been of mixed varieties and mixed priming levels. The lower leaf always comes out lighter and thinner than the upper leaf, under identical conditions. I have kilned tied hands of stalk-cured leaf--each hand typically containing all the leaf from two entire plants. When the tied hand come out of the kiln, the lower-stalk leaf is often a light claro, while the upper-stalk leaf is a maduro or even oscuro. Priming level and variety.

One aspect of kilning for lower vs higher primings that I've noticed is that leaving lower leaves in the kiln for 6+ weeks makes no difference, compared to 4 weeks, whereas leaving upper leaves in the kiln for 6+ weeks tends to shorten the subsequent rest and aging required for it to rate as excellent.

If you use FoodSaver bags, I would suggest not sealing the bag. Just roll the top, and hold it closed with a wooden clothespin.

Bob
 

Paraord

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Ive read a few places in the forum where storing in cardboard boxes is ok, just need to rehydrate before cutting with a few mists of water from a sprayer bottle. Ive got boxes, and a kiln full of fully cured tobacco that I've been taking out to try different blends, but really been poking the puppy as far as getting it all out and stored for my next big batch to run thru it. Any suggestions to that? Should I take the center stem out before storing? I was going to try the freezer bag but mine are too small.

Sorry for the lapse in posts and such, life was a bit crazy the past month or so.
 

OldDinosaurWesH

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I just let mine hang 'till I'm ready to use it.

Tobacco seedlings 9-13-18 some of last years crop.jpg

Of course, you may not have the space.

I live in a dry climate, so I pick the leaves and put them in a plastic bag overnight with a spritz of water to re-humidify. I then stem the humidified tobacco and shred it. I store the shredded tobacco in a zip-lock bag to retain moisture. After I've shredded sufficient volumes of multiple tobaccos, I start tinkering with blends. The photo is of one-year old stalk hung tobacco. I had about a hundred of these many of which have been recently reduced to shreds. Many of last years' stalks have now been replaced by about 100 of this years' crop that are currently coloring down. At any given time I will have anywhere between one and three pounds of shred is storage.

My basement is pretty full, and it smells very nice.

Tobacco seedlings 9-13-18 new crop colored down & hung to dry out.jpg
At least that's how I do it.

Wes H.
 

Paraord

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Thats awesome Wes! I wish I had a dry basement but an 1850 farm house with a half dirt floor cellar in Western NY. If its wet out I have a wet cellar floor. I was thinking the boxes because they could breath, I could stack them, and keep them in my hunting room which is dry and stays around 70 degrees. Down cellar I am sure I would lose a lot to mold unfortunately.
 

OldDinosaurWesH

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I imagine you have more humidity in your local atmosphere. Most places east of the Mississippi are fairly humid. Out here in the west where I live, our average humidity is only about 40%. Not Las Vegas dry, but pretty dry. Good luck with your endeavors!

Wes H.
 

Paraord

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I destemmed and packed a batch of Indian Black and Tennessee Red Leaf on Friday, here are some pictures. Ill get the rest of whats in there out and packed before putting in the next batch of tobacco into the kiln. It really is some great smoking and tasting tobacco. I did a mix of 1/3 Indian Black, 1/3 Little Crittenden, and 1/3 Tennessee Red leaf. That turned out very good. At some point I will get into shredding/mixing/pressing a cake or two. That will be another learning process, but for now hopefully this will keep mold at bay and give me plenty of my own grown tobacco for a long time. From what I gather I just need to take out a few leaves as I need them, spray them with a mist of water and wait about 20 minutes and they'll be ready to work with again.

Anyways lets roll some footage

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I better get back to destemming, got a lot more to do!
 
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