I've watched a few of his videos, there is a Mr. Rogers quality about him
If it's too dry it will be more likely to crumble than shred (may have to mist it and stick it in plastic bag for about 15-30 minutes to rehydrate slightly - case). I've been trying to sun cure some leaves this week and an unexpected wind/rain storm wrecked havock. I can only imagine what that would have been like if the leaves had been pre shredded...
Did you string them or lay them out?
Were you asking me or gardengnome? I'm still messing around with the little leaves (too small to bother stringing together) mostly trying to get a semi weatherproof (wind) technique down. After the leaves wilt a bit I've been putting them in open clear plastic bags or a large clear plastic tub.
My first time sun curing I sun cured inside the mesh buds bags. In my case, five gallon paint strainers. They didn’t inhibit the sun, the leaves held together, ambient humidity was the same inside/outside the bags. You will need to shuffle the leaves occasionally due to them laying on one another so air circulation is limited, but it works really well when working with small amounts. You can also just toss them around inside the bag. As for keeping them from blowing away, go Stone Age and put a rock on the end of the bag. I prefer my clothes hanger method for larger amounts. The sun curing Kavala is the last photo in the post. I basically made a safety pin from a metal clothes hanger. My cigar varieties are on clothes hangers in one of the photos also due to having so many different varieties. One hangar to each variety.
It just struck me that sun curing in mesh bags should also be a reasonable way of sun curing pre shredded green leaf. The reason why to do it that way still eludes me but the results may be interesting.
Thanks, good tip.
That's a good idea with the bag.My first time sun curing I sun cured inside the mesh buds bags. In my case, five gallon paint strainers. They didn’t inhibit the sun, the leaves held together, ambient humidity was the same inside/outside the bags. You will need to shuffle the leaves occasionally due to them laying on one another so air circulation is limited, but it works really well when working with small amounts. You can also just toss them around inside the bag. As for keeping them from blowing away, go Stone Age and put a rock on the end of the bag. I prefer my clothes hanger method for larger amounts. The sun curing Kavala is the last photo in the post. I basically made a safety pin from a metal clothes hanger. My cigar varieties are on clothes hangers in one of the photos also due to having so many different varieties. One hangar to each variety.
2015 Knucklehead Grow Blog
What did you think about the K326 you grew? I'm growing some this year that I got from Larry, but I don't know anything about it other than it is a flue cure Bright leaf. It was okay, but I air cured it. I've sun cured all my flue cure varieties for the past two years and prefer that method. I...fairtradetobacco.com
One of the things I really love about the safety pin clothes hangers is that I could take the hangers to the patch and string as I prime, eliminating the step of having to separately string when i got the primed leaf back to the shop. I could just haul the strung loaded hangers back to hang.
I was literally just about to ask the exact same question and post that exact same video except I had no idea what variety tobacco they were curing other than it is a large possibly bright leaf...based on other videos such as this:
Would you recommend either of those varieties to grow and air cure for use in a cigarette blend?
