Simulated Sun Curing

[DistillingJim]

Living in the UK, I'm a little concerned about how well I'm going to be able to sun cure the orientals that I'm growing. Sure I could just hang them in the shed to air cure, but I got to thinking about the mechanics of sun curing vs flue curing and wondering if it could in some way be replicated? Could one set up the flue so that it cures at a relatively low temperature (30-40*C) for 10 hours or so, then drops, simulating the effects of leaving the leaf out in the sun? This would obviously need to be repeated over multiple days until appropriately cured.

There are probably other effects the sun has besides the heat but what's the forums thoughts on such an idea? Has anyone tried anything similar?

 

[Jitterbugdude]

Why not just flue cure? The only reason Turkish is sun cured is because the Turks didn't have the technology available to them to flue cure so they adapted and used the sun. All you are doing is trying to dry the leaf quick enough to prevent the sugars from being destroyed.

 

[deluxestogie]

There may be photolytic chemical changes in sun-cured leaf. This is likely, though I'm not aware of any benefit. Flue-cured leaf is sweeter, because the flue-cure regimen never allows regression, following the yellowing phase. Flue-cured leaf remains sweeter, because the 165ºF (74ºC) temp of stem kill denatures the primary oxidizing enzyme within the leaf.

So, sun-curing might be likened to a flue-cure kiln that's broken (or incorrectly operated), and just can't get the job done.

What about Turkish perspiration? Fine Turkish dust? We can strive for verisimilitude, but that's not necessarily the optimal outcome. I would suggest building a flue-cure chamber (~$100), and flue-curing the sweet Oriental varieties.

Bob

 

[DistillingJim]

Oh. Haha, well that solves that problem. For some reason I thought sun-curing had a more distinct effect and that flue curing was generally not great for a lot of orientals (although I had read Prelip flue cured well).

Plan is definitely to build a flue-cure chamber regardless, I have some bits lined up for ordering. In terms of orientals - this year I'm growing Izmir, Yenidje, Prilip and Black Sea Samsun. Would they all do well flue cured?

 

[deluxestogie]

I've flue-cured a number of different Oriental varieties. I believe that, fundamentally, flue-curing is the way to go with most varieties that are traditionally sun-cured. The Samsun family (Samsun, Samsun-Maden, Bafra, Trebizond) are a group that I have not tried to flue-cure, since I did not grow any of them while the Cozy Can was functioning.

Some Oriental varieties came out excellent, while others were not impressive. But I was running mixed batches, and over-yellowed some of the Orientals, while waiting for various flue-cure varieties to lose enough green.

That being said, the thinner, lighter nature of most Orientals, compared to typical flue-cure varieties, means that more attention needs to be paid to the homogeneity of each flue-curing batch--same variety, same stalk level, same degree of ripeness. This applies only to the yellowing phase, which is the art of getting most of the batch "yellow enough." After yellowing, all runs are the same.

The duration of yellowing needs to be as rapid as possible for that particular batch, in order to capture the sugars. I typically set the chamber for somewhere between 92 and 102ºF for yellowing. The entire art of flue-curing is observing and timing this. It might need 2 days or as many as 5 days just to yellow. Once I am satisfied with the yellowing, then I close up the chamber (never to peek again), and just fiddle with the temperature progression.

Bob

 

[BarG]

I have tried some of Bobs prilep, it was sweet. flu cured. Jitterbugdude makes the best chew . It can't be beat, deer run from if you spit it out though. heh heh I did it once and this young buck just freaked out. It was funny.