Trials and tribulations of my first attempt

[Bex]

Hmmm....I've never smoked raw tobacco. I did a 'process' last year that I found on the internet, by towelling the leaves and putting them into a seed propagator (which, funnily enough, I have since found heats up to 95F. Life can be a strange thing). I would open them each day, re-arrange them, roll them up in the towels again, and put them back until the following day. After about 3 days, the leaves had turned fairly yellow. But then the technique kind of strayed. At first, I tried 'wadding' the leaves, as per the internet instructions, rolling them up tightly into a little wad, tying them tightly, putting them into a plastic container over the range (I have no central heat here - it's a solid fuel range that heats the kitchen, and, in that instance, the wadded tobacco). Each day, again, the wad was unrolled, re-arranged, and re-rolled. The leaves would sweat in the wad, be very moist, and become very thin. A poor man's perique?? I would lay them out to dry when they were done - and upon trying to smoke them, they were pretty darned harsh. A couple of times I tried drying them in the microwave, and upon opening the door, the steam that emanated from it was truly eye-watering with ammonia. Conversely, a few times I took the yellow, towelled leaf, and just hung it by the window for months. It still tasted pretty harsh and grassy when I tried smoking it. Aside from the rather unpleasant result, the thought of finding enough towels, and buying enough propagators to service the number of plants that grew this year was a bit overwhelming.
The few cigarettes that I've sampled from my flue curing has none of this harshness, however, so I guess this is a positive sign. So, onward and upward....!!

 

[Knucklehead]

Aside from the fact that, sadly, it is still too mild for a standalone smoke for me....hence my interest in red Virginia.
Thanks for your reply....

The weakness of the leaf is due to harvesting too early. The longer you let them go, the stronger the flavor and the higher the nicotine (up to a certain point). The color of the finished product is only one small part of the equation. Achieving that bright yellow color should not come at the expense of flavor or that lovely right on nicotine hit. Yellow, rugose, thick, and gnarly at harvest is what you want in a cigarette leaf.

 

[Bex]

Yes, Knucklehead - I am quickly learning this. I think that my approach was basically to practice on lower - and immature - leaves so that by the time my plants actually mature, I wasn't frantically trying to learn how to do this, when my best leaf was being used. Of course, once I got some semblance of the right color - with the unripe leaves - I got spoiled, and started looking for perfection. Certainly everything that I have read indicates that the maturity of the leaf is truly important in this. I must say that, even though I have not (as yet) produced a product that I am 'proud' of, this has certainly been a learning experience, and fun to do, as well. And everyone on the forum has been really helpful.
Now, my only fear is that my little plants on the hill, sitting under that plastic tunnel, run out of time before the truly bad weather comes. I am not too concerned with the cold - the tunnel will extend the growing season for me - but the wind is really an issue here, and I am thinking of ways of stabilizing the plastic on the tunnel - possibly securing it down with fishnet or something similar, so that the wind doesn't rip it to shreds....

 

[deluxestogie]

You might see if a local garden shop carries inexpensive bird netting to cover the tunnel.

Bob

 

[Bex]

Hmm...I never thought of that - a great idea! A friend of mine gave me some illegal fishing drift net that he had in his shed, which might work - but now I have an alternative. It's about 40 feet long - which is plenty long enough to go up the back 'wall' of the tunnel, along the length of it and down the front. I stretched it out myself, so couldn't really determine the width of it yet. My thought was to attach weights to the perimeter of it, so that it's weighted down, kind of like they do with silage pits here. The plastic sides of the tunnel are buried under about 18 inches or more of soil.
I went up to the tunnel when the storm started the other night - it is placed in the most sheltered area of my field, protected on two sides by a shed and bushes. The south side of it faces the leeward side of the hill (so, from my reading, slower wind but more turbulent) The east is fairly bare, with trees about 60 feet away. While I was up there, a gust came along, and the entire tunnel puffed up like a blow fish. I have it pretty well sealed, visually, so perhaps this was due to air pressure (or holes that I haven't found). Securing it is now another project, and the bird netting....ah, it pays to communicate!! Thanks!

 

[deluxestogie]

A tunnel that blocks wind from passing smoothly along the ground acts as an airfoil. As the wind passes over it (a longer distance than passing over flat ground), pressure on the outer surface of the tunnel is decreased relative to the pressure inside the tunnel, and so the tunnel attempts to lift off the ground--like an airplane wing.

Placing netting over it will not alter that, but it does increase the strength of the surface, hopefully preventing it from tearing. The key to preventing the whole thing from blowing away is the strength of its anchors to the ground.

Bob

 

[Bex]

Thank you. It's good to understand things like this, so thanks for the explanation - I had an innate feeling that pressure had something to do with this, but the explanation makes it more sensible. Hopefully, the 18 inches of soil that the ends of the plastic are buried under, along with whatever weights I will use to hold the netting down, will make this secure enough so that I can at least see the end of my harvest.

 

[Bex]

Now that you've started, you might as well see how long it takes to yellow or dry green. If you're venting, at some point you might need to add water to the crockpot.

I am finding this now. My leaves are still not yellowed sufficiently, but I am finding that the RH - where it was easily sitting at 97/98% with the freezer slightly vented, is now dropping below 95% with the same temperatures and vent. I have added water to the crockpot, and temporarily closed the vent, which has raised the RH back up again. Is the logic of this because the leaves have given off the majority of their moisture, so that now I must humidify the container artificially to keep the RH up??

 

[leverhead]

...Is the logic of this because the leaves have given off the majority of their moisture, so that now I must humidify the container artificially to keep the RH up??

Yea, the leaves need some amount of moisture to stay alive long enough to yellow. Then you can kill them by dehydration.

 

[Bex]

Does anyone have a phone number for the Guinness Book of Records? I am now into my 100th hour of yellowing - maybe that's a record? The leaves are very slowly starting to turn yellow, but there is still quite a way to go. Conversely, I might be able to start a leaf sanctuary for abused and homeless leaves, where they can get a new lease on life and continue to live a long and fruitful life, in the warmth and comfort of my freezer.....

 

[leverhead]

It sounds like your patience and equipment is up to flue-curing. Now you need a flue-cure variety that's up to your weather.

"...in the warmth and comfort of my freezer"

Your in the right forum to say that without law enforcement getting involved.

 

[Bex]

"...in the warmth and comfort of my freezer"

Your in the right forum to say that without law enforcement getting involved.

Hmmm.....perhaps also in the right location, as well....
The fault of my crop is totally my own - I planted the seeds fairly late (beginning of May) as the weather here was horrible until then. I was inundated with a load of seedlings. And sadly, I believe in the tenet of 'no seedling left behind'. I transplanted well over 100 of them into my greenhouse in June, and quickly realized I needed another venue for them, so bought and erected the polytunnel in July. About 3/4 of the plants went into it in early August, and the rest in the middle of August. In the British Isles, August is already considered autumn....Fortunately, we had a really good September - the best on record, actually - so I was somewhat fortunate. Of course, the weather has since turned. But I may get no frost here until January - some years I get none at all, and last year my plants that my friend had in his unheated greenhouse continued to grow until the end of November, when a windstorm trashed all the glass - we only took them down then, as they no longer had any protection. But strangely, now that I think back, those plants had been in his greenhouse for months - they had flowered and continued to grow etc., but I never saw them begin to ripen. Those plants were planted in the beginning of May, were about 8 feet tall, and even by November, were still perfectly green. Strange. Of course, I have no idea what on earth I'm growing. Maybe magic, never-ripening tobacco.....

 

[DGBAMA]

Likely, the enclosure (lack of direct sun) is hindering natural yellowing/ripening on the plant).

 

[Bex]

Eck - and that's about to get worse, as well. Because we are so far north, and I live on the north side of a hill, at some point this month the sun will no longer get high enough in the sky and the tunnel, as well as my house, will basically be in the shadow of the hill until some time in March. While I imagine that this is an issue, I was hopeful, as my cabbage, brussel sprouts, spinach, etc., continue to grow throughout the winter. Of course, tobacco is not cabbage. Last year, however, the plants that I left in the greenhouse (also in shade) seemed to stop growing physically in November or so, stagnated over the winter, and then began to grow again in March. Perhaps it's a good thing that I'm practicing on unripe tobacco - that may be all that I'm able to achieve this year.....

 

[leverhead]

...Maybe magic, never-ripening tobacco.....

This is just a guess... How much fertilizer did your plants get?

 

[Bex]

None, actually. The tunnel was erected on 'virgin soil' - just grassland basically. On my vegetables, if I am industrious, I do a seaweed 'application' once a year, or else get rotted chicken manure from my neighbor. However, I have found a site that is right up my alley - no till gardening, so no double digging, etc. The woman covers her area with mulch - which is basically the 'trick'. She uses about 8 inches of hay (which I have plenty of), covers her entire planting area with it, and then just makes a small holes where she plants whatever she is planting - the hay breaks down over the course of the season, feeds the ground beneath it, keeps it from compacting, and keeps it from drying out. Sounds like a win-win to me, if it really works.

In the meantime, my saga continues. Today, at the 120th hour of yellowing, I looked in the container and lo and behold, the leaves are about 50-60% yellow. Magic has happened overnight. I am going to let them continue on until tomorrow morning, and then if they are appreciably yellowed, will start slowly advancing the temperature, and attempting to get down the humidity. Of course, a new 'adventure' arises - I have been attempting to keep the humidity up at around 97/98% to keep these little darlings alive until they yellowed. My 'system of adding water to the crockpot is decent enough, as you don't have to open the container to do so. But the downside is that you are adding water just by virtue of the RH, without knowing how much water is actually in the crockpot. This morning, when I checked the leaves and saw them yellowing, I looked in the crockpot - it was about half full. Yet, if I vented more, to try to reduce the amount of water in it, the RH would drop. So, I kept the vent as it was - slightly open. The RH has been stable all afternoon, again at 97/98%. Checking about 5 hours later or so, the amount of water in the crockpot is now down a bit, maybe slightly less than half.

So my next question (or experiment) is, while I know that I can reduce the humidity solely by venting, even if water remains in the crockpot - does that water that remains affect the process in any way, or is it ok that there is still some water in there, when I go into wilting?? I imagine I'm about to find out, first hand - while my immediate reaction was to remove the pot and dump the water, I am hoping that the venting - as well as the slow increase in temps - will remove the water for me....????

 

[DGBAMA]

I don't dump mine out. By the time wilting is done, the pot is always dry. I think it actually helps the rh fall in a steady manner, not too fast. I just vent as needed.

 

[Bex]

Thanks, Dgbama, that was what I was hoping to hear!

 

[DGBAMA]

Remember, bright yellow is not always the objective in final color. Nice even brown is just as good for some varieties. Your objective is a good cure, despite your outdoor conditions. Some varieties refuse to stay yellow (like my Crillo Black, always comes out brown. But I am very happy with it, maybe even a note of coffee in the smoke. I can't taste the color of the baccy. I am OK with brown, but not green.

 

[Bex]

If nothing else, this current run has taught me the absolute and utter importance in ensuring that the yellowing process has actually started on the plant, before picking them for curing. While the plants from which I took these leaves had been topped about 2 weeks ago, they still apparently weren't ready. I started this run last Saturday - it is now the following Friday - I have kept the leaves 'alive', moist, warm, supple, at about 95F/98%. The leaves remained a pale green until Thursday, when some of them indicated a slight yellow. I kept going at the same temp/RH. This morning (Friday) more of the leaves are starting to look yellow to my eye. I took a photo of them to upload, but strangely, in the photo, they look more green than yellow - ah, which is more accurate, the eye or the camera?? The midribs and veins are still green. I decided to slowly hike up the temp this morning, and see what the RH does - I have set the thermostat for 98F and will check back in a couple of hours.
But I wonder if it is possible that, despite the longevity of my process, there are leaves that just will never yellow - perhaps turning from green to brown, or staying pale green, etc. My ultimate problem, of course, is that while I hope to have another month or so of growing, these plants never mature and I am stuck with either doing a similar run as this one - thus far unsuccessfully - or what? Dumping the lot of them and starting again next year??