Tobacco stalk drying

[Ellis003]

Hi gang

I was wondering if anyone does anything with the tobacco stalk at the end of the season after all of the leaves have been harvested? Without sounding like a proper Weiner as it's my first grow I was hoping to dry one and put it on display in my bar. Any idea if this will work or will it eventually rot?
Cheers

 

[deluxestogie]

If kept in low humidity, they will eventually dry. There is not much substance there, and they will usually not be display-worthy. But that is just my opinion.

Bob

 

[Ellis003]

Ok thanks mate. I'll give it a try anyway what's the worse that can happen lol

 

[deluxestogie]

I'll give it a try anyway

Then you have to post a photo of your result.

Bob

 

[DaleB]

I cut up and burned mine in the fire pit last fall after they had dried thoroughly, which took a few weeks. They smelled great while burning…

 

[Juxtaposer-]

Can you smoke them? I mean cut a dowel and light the end of it and puff away. Maybe poke a wire through for air if needed. Somebody please try it and let us know what we have been missing.

 

[Skafidr]

Can you smoke them? I mean cut a dowel and light the end of it and puff away. Maybe poke a wire through for air if needed. Somebody please try it and let us know what we have been missing.

Where I live there is a law that says it's forbidden to smoke within 9 m of a doorway; I wonder it the 9 m applies to the person smoking, or the thing being smoked.

 

[Ellis003]

I cut up and burned mine in the fire pit last fall after they had dried thoroughly, which took a few weeks. They smelled great while burning…

Ahh cool I've just bought a fire pit a couple of months ago. Might give that a go with the rest of them.

 

[Florida Dave]

Hi gang

I was wondering if anyone does anything with the tobacco stalk at the end of the season after all of the leaves have been harvested? Without sounding like a proper Weiner as it's my first grow I was hoping to dry one and put it on display in my bar. Any idea if this will work or will it eventually rot?
Cheers

You gave me an idea: If I can grow a really nice looking leaf and resist the urge to roll it, I may press it under glass and hang it up ... somewhere.

 

[deluxestogie]

About a decade ago, I hung an entire, tied hand of fully color-cured tobacco leaf on the wall in my living room, right next to the entrance to the hallway. For months, each time I would pass it, I would reach up and touch it, noting how it felt. Then I would immediately look at my indoor, digital thermometer / hygrometer, hanging just inside the hallway, to check the relative humidity (RH). After a while, it gave me a tactile notion of leaf case compared to RH. I could touch the leaf and predict the RH reading.

If you decide to frame a color-cured leaf, be certain that it is flattened while it drops from low case to out of case (totally dry), then frame it, surrounded by a sheet of [very dry] matting that has been cut out to an outline slightly larger than the leaf. Given Florida humidity, you may also want to seal the back of the frame.

Bob

 

[Knucklehead]

You gave me an idea: If I can grow a really nice looking leaf and resist the urge to roll it, I may press it under glass and hang it up ... somewhere.

On google images search framed tobcco leaves. Many of them in the photos look like they have a finish on them like lacquer or urethane.

 

[Juxtaposer-]

…Tobacco smoked meats!…Extra strength “Latakia”! …”periqued” stems i.e. stewed stems. …oh, oh… what about the roots, gotta do something with the roots too! …Flowers, smoke those flowers, you wouldn’t be the first there. All in fun, but I am not joking.

 

[adamziegler]

smoke those flowers

I am pretty sure I have come across literature where the flower buds were "prized" smoking material among some Native American tribal people.... I keep meaning to harvest some. Maybe next year

 

[deluxestogie]

I have come across literature where the flower buds were "prized" smoking material

Buffalo Bird Woman's Tobacco Garden

Nearly 100 years ago, an anthropologist interviewed Buffalo Bird Woman, a very old member of the Hidatsa Indian tribe. The lengthy material was published in 1917. I have excerpted the chapter on tobacco, which discusses their cultivation and harvesting practices. The variety of tobacco has...

fairtradetobacco.com

One growing season, I collected the dried blossoms captured within each bud bag, for a number of different tobacco varieties. I kept the dried blossoms in separate bags, labeled by varietal name. As with any garden flowers, each variety offered a slightly different aroma. I thought Little Dutch was the nicest.

I tried various ways of smoking the blossoms—rolled in a cigar; smoked straight in a pipe; blended into a pipe mixture. The blossoms are kind of a crumbly mess, when you attempt to cut or blend them. The exercise was interesting, but the result was always a low-nicotine, mildly floral smoke. [Buffalo Bird Woman's Hidatsa tribe grew Nicotiana quadrivalvis, which, though wild, is always a low-yield species of Nicotiana. So that may be why they bothered with saving the blossoms. AND...the Hidatsa elders lightly fried the dried blossoms in bear grease.]

Bob

 

[adamziegler]

fried the dried blossoms in bear grease

That story rings a bell and might be what I had previously read. Thanks for sharing that. Fried tobacco... That has got to be a very distinct flavor.

I appreciate the shared experience also. It kinda makes me want to give it a try more.

 

[stu]

Hi gang

I was wondering if anyone does anything with the tobacco stalk at the end of the season after all of the leaves have been harvested? Without sounding like a proper Weiner as it's my first grow I was hoping to dry one and put it on display in my bar. Any idea if this will work or will it eventually rot?
Cheers

I chop it in somewhat smaller pieces and put in the chicken ren againt blood lice

 

[deluxestogie]

One growing season, I collected the dried blossoms...

The two photos below were taken in 2018. So these are now 13 year old blossoms. They were collected during my 2011 grow.

As you can see, I did not find them interesting enough to consume, but too much work to just throw away. They might make an interesting press cake, blended with burley.

I have had zero hesitation in tossing my tobacco stalks over the fence, into a composting brush pile.

Bob