Tobaccofieldsforever 2022 Grow Log
- Thread starter Tobaccofieldsforever
- Start date
Tobaccofieldsforever
Well-Known Member
Does my Krumovgrad flowering early mean I will be or should be priming/ harvesting early? I am thrown off by this and don’t really know how to handle it. Have the leaves reached maturity early or is it just a fluke dealing only with the bud portion of the plants?
I can't answer your questions. All the published dates for bloom and maturation are based on the averages of an entire field of the plant in a specific location during a specific growing season. I would just wait and watch the leaves for signs of maturation. In particular, I look for a yellowing tip of the leaf for priming, and a thick and rugose top leaf for stalk-harvesting. If you are patient, and just wait for what the leaf does, you should harvest some nice leaf.
Bob
Bob
skychaser
Well-Known Member
When 50% of a field is in bloom it is generally considered as having reached maturity. Some plants may have started blooming 10 days ago while other plants are still 10 days away. It's an average. It varies a lot by the strain as to when the leaf is actually ripe. Maturity is just an indicator of the plants stage of overall development. Maturity is when many tobacco farmers start topping their plants. Full ripeness of the leaf may still be weeks away. It all depends on the strain. White stemmed burleys like TN 86, which is a rather late bloomer, may have lower leaves that have already fully yellowed and are nearly fully ripe by the time the first blooms appear. Blooming does not necessarily mean the leaf is ready to start harvesting. Watch for the signs Bob mentioned. Yellowing of the tips or edges. Or an overall mottled alligator skin look to the leaf. Every strain acts a little differently. A good rule of thumb is that if you are not sure if your leaf is ripe yet, it's not.
Mature leaf photo
Mature to Ripe photo
Ripe - ripe photo
Ripe tobacco leaf post by Don
fairtradetobacco.com
BigBonner's over ripe tobacco
https://fairtradetobacco.com/threads/tobacco-getting-over-ripe.7611/post-139485
When to harvest Oriental varieties #36 post for color
fairtradetobacco.com
FAQ's about Oriental tobacco
fairtradetobacco.com
I prime my leaf for cigarettes at the ripe stage, the leaf is already mostly yellow. I prime my cigar varieties at the mature stage for wrapper, and may go a little longer for the filler, but I like full flavor. If you want your filler a bit more mild, then prime at maturity. Depending on how stout or mild you want the leaf, don't top the plant and leaf will be more mild. That is why Orientals are not traditionally topped.
Mature to Ripe photo
Ripe - ripe photo
Ripe tobacco leaf post by Don
Ripe tobacco leaf
Probably the best available example of a "Ripe" tobacco leaf. This picture is all over the internet and I can't find who to give credit to. This is a Bright Leaf plant which is a Flue cured type. The leaf is allowed to get what I call "ripe ripe" due to the manner in which it is cured. For...
BigBonner's over ripe tobacco
https://fairtradetobacco.com/threads/tobacco-getting-over-ripe.7611/post-139485
When to harvest Oriental varieties #36 post for color
FAQ about Turkish tobaccos
istanbulin, I understand that you are providing the dimensions for traditional, row-planted tobacco. In intensive/biodynamic gardening, the assumption is that the soil between the rows is only minimally available to roots, due to soil compaction. I grow nothing in traditional row planting, but...
FAQ's about Oriental tobacco
FAQ about Turkish tobaccos
istanbulin, I understand that you are providing the dimensions for traditional, row-planted tobacco. In intensive/biodynamic gardening, the assumption is that the soil between the rows is only minimally available to roots, due to soil compaction. I grow nothing in traditional row planting, but...
I prime my leaf for cigarettes at the ripe stage, the leaf is already mostly yellow. I prime my cigar varieties at the mature stage for wrapper, and may go a little longer for the filler, but I like full flavor. If you want your filler a bit more mild, then prime at maturity. Depending on how stout or mild you want the leaf, don't top the plant and leaf will be more mild. That is why Orientals are not traditionally topped.
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The risk of harvesting a leaf (or whole plant) too late is that fully ripe leaves are more prone to tatter in the wind. [If you abandon a plant, the leaves will mature, ripen, sun-cure on the stalk, and eventually be ruined by wind and rain. They may even just blow away like autumn leaves.] If you can designate one plant of a variety as the "last one to leave the sinking ship," then you can observe how it changes with time. That will be knowledge that you will value for seasons to come.
Bob
Bob
Old Gasman
Well-Known Member
Thank you again Bob, that's sound and valuable advice.
Tobaccofieldsforever
Well-Known Member
Thank you for the info. I feel I have a relatively decent grasp on mature leaf signs. My issue is with the plants that have gone to seed way before I thought they should have. I will just observe them and be patient. I personally generally use flowering/topping dates as a guideline for priming dates so I just got caught off guard a little this season by the Krumovgrad. I have zero experience with orientals so just making sure what I know about other varieties translates.
Tobaccofieldsforever
Well-Known Member
The aphids have set up shop already…YAY!!
Tobaccofieldsforever
Well-Known Member
Question: if a primed leaf successfully color cured in a “normal” amount of time is it “mature”? Or can an immature leaf still be successfully color cured and be missing something on a chemical level that would give it the desired smoking properties? Sorry if this doesn’t make sense, typing quickly before work…
1. Spritz the aphids with permethrin.
2. A fully ripe leaf will likely offer you the most desirable flavors and aromas, once it has color-cured. A "mature", but not fully ripe leaf will likely offer you the best chance at a perfectly intact leaf for wrapper. An immature leaf may be more difficult to color-cure, and may or may not be fully endowed with the chemistry required for the best flavor and aroma.
On a happy note, over the years I've stalk-cured several blow-downs that had snapped the stalk at the ground, before the leaf was mature. The slow color-curing of a stalk-cure allowed them to produce useful, if not optimal, leaf.
Bob
2. A fully ripe leaf will likely offer you the most desirable flavors and aromas, once it has color-cured. A "mature", but not fully ripe leaf will likely offer you the best chance at a perfectly intact leaf for wrapper. An immature leaf may be more difficult to color-cure, and may or may not be fully endowed with the chemistry required for the best flavor and aroma.
On a happy note, over the years I've stalk-cured several blow-downs that had snapped the stalk at the ground, before the leaf was mature. The slow color-curing of a stalk-cure allowed them to produce useful, if not optimal, leaf.
Bob
MadFarmer
Well-Known Member
When you're aphids are brown like that there's no need to worry about them. A parasitoid has done the work for you.
furryfreek
Well-Known Member
Immature leaf can appear to colour-cure easily but the end product tends to be quite harsh and "raw" tasting; even if it looks and smells okay. If you want to try your luck with such leaf, I'd say treat it like white-stem Burley and keep it from browning and drying out as long as possible.
The way I see it, ripening is a matter of the plant reclaiming resources from their leaves in order to build up reserves in the trunk and roots to keep it going over winter and bounce back quickly in Spring. Some sort of chemical signalling is required to make that happen and I can't think of any reason leaves would've evolved to go through that process after their connection has been severed prematurely. If anything, it's more likely a severed limb would "want" to keep itself going as long as possible to improve the odds of asexual reproduction (though I don't think tobacco does that much in nature.)
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Tobaccofieldsforever
Well-Known Member
This is exactly why I’m asking. I had a Krumovgrad blow down that I am stalk sun curing. Seems to be coming along fine. The plant also had flowers on it a month or so after transplanting. Not all of my Krumovgrad plants are budding early. There seem to be half or more that are proceeding as expected. I guess I’m his season will be a learning experience (aren’t they all).
Tobaccofieldsforever
Well-Known Member
I’m confused by this statement. I could theoretically keep a leaf from drying for an absurd amount of time in the right conditions.
skychaser
Well-Known Member
Me too. ?? Here's my 2 cents worth on this.
Curing, aka color curing, basically means getting the green out. When a leaf is first picked it is still alive. You want it to stay alive until all the chlorophyll (the green) has been used up and it is gone. Chlorophyll is produced in the roots. Leaf that dries green tastes like lawn clippings and little can be done to improve it at that point. Being cured means it has turned yellow or brown. Some strains skip the yellow stage and go right to shades of brown. Color curing is best done in a warm humid environment which helps keep the leaf alive until the chlorophyll is gone. Live leaf won't mold. But once fully cured the leaf is now officially dead and mold can set in fast. At this point you want to dry it down quickly before mold sets in. It needs to go into a much dryer environment and get down to a moisture content of 15% or less to avoid molding.
Tobacco that is at 10% moisture content or below is said to be out of case. It will break and shatter when handled. At 12% the leaf will still be pliable and will make a rustling sound when handled but not break up. This is about where you want it for smoking too. Tobacco that is at 15% moisture content of above will be limp like a wet wrung out dish cloth. It is out of case in the other direction, and above that 15% point is where mold can start growing.
All freshy cured and dried tobacco tastes very harsh and nasty to me. That's where natural aging or kilning come into play. The leaf contains nitrogen compounds that slowly react with oxygen in the atmosphere and break down over time, mostly into ammonia gas that floats away. A kiln greatly speeds up the natural process of aging, and the ammonia is what sometimes gives it that cat pee smell in the first part of the process. Some strains age naturally much faster than others and can be smokable in 3-4 months. Others take 9 months to a year to be smokable. The longer tobacco ages. the better it gets. It becomes mellower and the true flavors come out even more. Kilning has other effects on tobaccos too other than just speeding up the aging process. I think that kilning is more important to many cigar strains than it is to cigarette tobacco. I'll let someone who knows more address that part of kilning. I've never kilned anything and just age all mine naturally. And I am quite happy with what I get for making cigarettes.
Tobaccofieldsforever
Well-Known Member
Now one of my Shirey plants is going to seed!! I’m at a loss. This is a plant I purchased from a farm market. This can’t be blamed on anything I have done (other than maybe giving it a watering with miracle gro??…) 
Add harrow velvet to the list as well:
Add harrow velvet to the list as well:
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