Radagast Grow blog attempt 2020

[plantdude]

I have the same sense of flue curing locking in the sugar content. Yes the so called 'dark Virginia' thing seems like uncharted territory so it's fun to play with. Have you tried flue curing your staghorn? Some days I wish I grew more straight up cigar strains. Other days I feel like I wasted space where I should have grown nothing but flue cure. Sometimes I yearn for the perfect pipe, and often, the perfect pipe is a cigar. It may all boil down to just simply enjoying what I've got.

No, I don't have a flue cure chamber/kiln. Everything I do is air cured or sun cured. I have not tried sun curing staghorn in any quantities since I like the color it turns when air cured and don't know if sun curing would do much for it flavor wise. I might have to try sun curing one of my small old seed plants that are still hanging around the backyard for fun.

Since I'm more into cigars I was kind of feeling the same way about the orientals being wasted space until I tried one. Now, I'm glad I have a wide variety of options to choose from. Even though it's probably non conventional for standard cigars I can see the possibility of getting some pretty uniques tastes and aromas from using a wide variety of tobacco. I like variety, I have bought mass quantities of cigar sampler packs over the years yet very few boxes of a single type of cigar. That's what is fun about WLT and being able to grow your own - so many new things to try. I suppose for a pipe smoker there would even be more blending and flavoring possibilities.

 

[plantdude]

Yay!

There is a continuum of assorted characteristics among all the "market classes" of tobacco. Dark Virginia; Red Virginia; Virginia Red! These terms become less and less helpful as the number of them proliferates.

I believe...not sure...that "Dark Virginia" is a dark air-cure/dark fire-cure category sort of. (Virginia is not only a category of tobacco, but also the name of a geographic location that historically grew several different categories of tobacco.) Like @Tutu's "dark sun-cured", it may or may not be an accurately descriptive term, but inserting it into a 19th century lexicon of USDA market classes adds to the terminology chaos.

SUMMARY: don't have a clue about "Dark Virginia".

Bob

Thanks Bob. That's still helpful even if the naming chaos doesn't allow for a definite answer
Do you have any experience/personal preference with staghorn vs Goose creek red?

 

[deluxestogie]

Neither

 

[Radagast]

This is interesting:

An almost cured stalk of Harrow Velvet throwing off a desperate, sneaky blossom in one final attempt at passing on its dna. Kinda feel sorry for it, so I'm going to let it happen. Maybe I'll smoke the dried flowers.

 

[plantdude]

This is interesting:
View attachment 33792
An almost cured stalk of Harrow Velvet throwing off a desperate, sneaky blossom in one final attempt at passing on its dna. Kinda feel sorry for it, so I'm going to let it happen. Maybe I'll smoke the dried flowers.

I have a Connecticut broadleaf stalk curing that flowered and actually set seed while hanging. These plants are weeds
I tried some dried flowers last winter and wasn't real impressed. I think mentally I was expecting more of a floral flavor.

 

[deluxestogie]

Back in 2012, I think, I saved a quart bag of blossoms for each variety that I grew, separated by variety. Over the years, I've tried them, kilned them, aged them more, etc. They are smokable in a pipe, but not very impressive. The best (most flavorful) came from Little Dutch. My conclusion is that it was a fun excursion, but not worth the effort.

One year, I stripped then bagged leaf auricle remnants that cling to the stalks when you prime the leaf. I mixed all the varieties together, aged them, kilned them. Meh.

Bob

 

[plantdude]

I had to bust open the seed pods to make sure I wasn't mistaken about the buds on the stalk harvested plants setting seed. The pods are a little small and probably should have been allowed to dry down more but all three were able to set seed. Not a huge amount of seed, but still impressive for the plant not knowing it was supposed to be dead. I know at least two of the buds were hanging for close to 4 or 5 days before they began flowering. These plants are amazing.

 

[Radagast]

I don't know how but this Prilep 66-9/7 stalk, which was cut down in September 2020, now curing/aging in my laundry room, is STILL ALIVE. While not exactly thriving, it has found the gumption to form little bud heads, (harbour a bunch of aphids), and crank itself towards what little bit of light it can sense. Amazing.

 

[plantdude]

I don't know how but this Prilep 66-9/7 stalk, which was cut down in September 2020, now curing/aging in my laundry room, is STILL ALIVE. While not exactly thriving, it has found the gumption to form little bud heads, (harbour a bunch of aphids), and crank itself towards what little bit of light it can sense. Amazing.

Uh Oh, sounds like zombie tobacco! Fire is the only way to to stop it. Better smoke it

 

[Clatsopnehalem]

Anybody know what might be causing these tomato leaves to cup like this?
View attachment 31146

russet mites can make leaves do that and curve and twist and spotting when it gets really bad

 

[Clatsopnehalem]

My first bowl of mud lugs was also Yellow Twist Bud. I got a real kick from just picking a dried leaf from my plant and smoking it in my own baccy patch. Pretty cool experience.

Ah mud lugs yes this is my favorite terminology for those leaves thank you for that one

 

[Clatsopnehalem]

Years back, when I first tested flue-curing burley, I just used a couple of leaves--right out of the flue-cure chamber--to roll a cigar. Two puffs pretty much told me that it was not smokable tobacco. Aging it made me older, but left the leaf just as horrible. Since Goose Creek Red is said to be a Dark Virginia, I have no idea what to expect from flue-curing it. For some unknown reason, that variety, which clearly appears to be an Orinoco-type, flue-cure friendly leaf, was categorized as something other than flue-cure.

Bob

I purchased some goose creek red a while back and want to grow them next year with gold leaf Orinoco. But I’ve had trouble myself figuring out what to do with it lol

 

[Clatsopnehalem]

I watched a small one go past my house maybe 200 yards away. It went by my grandmothers house and totally demolished her storage shed and scattered it several hundred yards across the cow pasture. The shed was twenty feet from my grandmothers house and it didn’t touch the house. Not one shingle blew off. Nothing. Terrified my grandmother and great uncle but zero harm. 20 ft. separation.

That’s basically a near death experience glad nobody was hurt

 

[Clatsopnehalem]

TABACCO BENEVENTANO

Beneventano leaves are picked, piled (still green) and covered with straw for 24 hours, then hung out to turn yellow.
Once yellowed, and still flexible, the leaves are piled again (leaf point toward the center) in small piles and fermented. A brief immersion in hot water of the leaves helps in starting said fermentation.
This process (in which the temperature of the pile rises to 60 C) is repeated many times during the subsequent 48 hrs , re-arranging the piles each time.
Once fermentation is complete, the leaves are hung out to dry. The whole process takes 5 to 6 days to complete.
It is labor intensive, and the finished product is no longer appreciated by the market (too strong!) apart a few connoisseurs and aficionados. It represents a mere 0.2% of the total Italian tobacco production.
It is worth noting that Beneventano descends from Brazilian tobacco, imported from Bahia, around 1840 and natural selection has made it fit for the peculiar dirt of the provinces of Benevento and Avellino.

pier

This sounds like something my family and I would really like if it’s “too strong” that’s good for us we love the nicotine and the flavors and smells

 

[Clatsopnehalem]

Smear them into oblivion with your thumb.

Bob

Agreed!!

 

[Clatsopnehalem]

Yay!

There is a continuum of assorted characteristics among all the "market classes" of tobacco. Dark Virginia; Red Virginia; Virginia Red! These terms become less and less helpful as the number of them proliferates.

I believe...not sure...that "Dark Virginia" is a dark air-cure/dark fire-cure category sort of. (Virginia is not only a category of tobacco, but also the name of a geographic location that historically grew several different categories of tobacco.) Like @Tutu's "dark sun-cured", it may or may not be an accurately descriptive term, but inserting it into a 19th century lexicon of USDA market classes adds to the terminology chaos.

SUMMARY: don't have a clue about "Dark Virginia".

Bob

I’ve done some brief investigation and a website that shall not be named sells a Virginia red tobacco seed in small amounts for ludicrous prices… there descriptions of the strain are verbatim word for word the same description as goose creek red on nwtobacco seeds minus a main historical reference to the goose creek red. I’m realizing that there’s thousands of various variety’s that may have hundreds of kinds that have comparable traits but it just seemed strange because that’s the only connection to flue curing I can find so far.

 

[Clatsopnehalem]

How does goose creek red taste compared to a burley type?

 

[Alpine]

GCR is much sweeter and with less nicotine. Many burleys have a “nutty” flavour (some more pronounced, some just have a hint) that GCR has not at all.

pier

 

[Hayden]

An addition to that. Can i flue cure the goose creek ? I

 

[Alpine]

Of course you can, but I have no idea of what the taste of the resulting leaf is... I will wait your observations about it. I suspect that flue cured GCR tastes wonderful.

pier