PressuredLeaf
Well-Known Member
Nice work! I really like your improvised evaporative cooler/humidifier.
WillQuantrill 2024: starting on time.
- Thread starter WillQuantrill
- Start date
WillQuantrill
Well-Known Member
Thanks fella! I fear that this fancy thermometer/hygrometer provides me enough raw data to obsess about improving the process and the cooler was an improvised buffer. As Bob pointed out I'll keep tweaking the shed to mitigate the swings.
WillQuantrill
Well-Known Member
81 days from transplant, and working out the curing shed rhythm. The weather has been more favorable the last week with highs in the low 90's not to toast my leaf. Most helpful change I've made is I will turn on the fan shortly after sundown and turn it back off shortly after sun up. Took me a few days to figure out the fan was just drying the leaf even more in the heat of the day when humidity is below mold growth anyway. Starting to see better results already. SSBM seco is hanging this week, as well as Vallejano Viso, Criollo Viso. Even though the plants were transplanted the same day they are not maturing at the same time so I prime a little each day as well as removing suckers. Actually pleasantly surprised I got about 25 Viso leaves of Vallejano from 5 plants. They are hanging front center.
WillQuantrill
Well-Known Member
If you read my grow blog from this year I whined alot about how underwhelming they were from Day 1. Haha. Through the seedling phase I didn't even know if I would have anything to transplant but I will say they didn't take much maintenance once in the ground. Very low sucker rate and bugs don't like em. After I kiln em I'll taste it in a pipe and report back.
WillQuantrill
Well-Known Member
87 days from transplant, priming is in full swing. First picture is Vallejano ligero fleshly picked. This leaf is thick, sticky and dark. Looking forward to see what the color ferments to. All of my cigar leaf seco, and viso is drying. Very surprised how much wrapper grade I've already primed compared to last year. Long Red is especially impressive for quality and production. Burley has me perplexed, my KY17 hasn't flowered yet, but my Gutter Burley that was planted 2 weeks later flowered 2 weeks ago. I'm gonna let it ride and top as soon as I can but damn it seems like a long time to mature. Second picture is Long Red Seco yup...huge wrapper grade. Included a picture of the curing shed. So much leaf so far I will 
keep kilning to a minimum 6 weeks as it'll take atleast 2 rotations to ferment it all.
keep kilning to a minimum 6 weeks as it'll take atleast 2 rotations to ferment it all.
The plants kicked it into high gear. They look great. 
WillQuantrill
Well-Known Member
This is the year I felt more confident in getting the plants to grow but it now occurs to me that maybe the number of plants was overly ambitious. Ha. Good thing leaf ages well!The plants kicked it into high gear. They look great.
WillQuantrill
Well-Known Member
94 days from Transplant and I'm glad I've been keeping a grow blog. Getting impatient to start stuffing the kiln but 3 weeks is a little early. Harvested Florida Sumatra seed today as pictured and very happy with the outcome. That's alot of seed off of 1 plant. I put the vials out in the sun to heat up and gas off any leftover humidity then I'll leave them in a sealed Tupperware for a week with the lids off and desiccant packs before they go in the fridge. As for cigar leaf just have a couple Long Red and FL Sumatra ligeros left to prime but I want em nice and ripe before I cure em. My fan/tub cooler is working fairly well in the heat of the day I opened the door of the shed and RH dropped 13% immediately. Last picture is my local Gutter Burley that's about 6 foot right now and has yet to flower. Leaving the KY17 and SSBM to soak up the sun for a few more weeks.
WillQuantrill
Well-Known Member
101 days from transplant and things are about to wrap up in the ground. Only leaf left on the plant are some Ligero for late bloomer Long Red, SSBM, and the Burleys. Completed first priming on my KY 17 this week and finished hanging all of the FL Sumatra. Should have got some better pictures of the curing process but my Vallejano leaf is getting a very nice dark red shade to it. There is enough leaf hanging in the shed now in various stages of curing it actually has that tobacco curing aroma when I check and close the doors in the morning. The first leaf I harvested was Criollo about 4 weeks ago and after checking it today I'm gonna let it hang for 1 more week before it goes into the kiln. Im new to DAC but holy cow is my SSBM sticky icky. Priming the leaves I noticed how much more sticky they are then any other variety Ive grown. Starting to get pretty excited to taste some of these varieties. I included the data from my gauge in the shed, this week has been unseasonably cool for us with highs in the upper 80's. Ya won't get any complaints out of me though.
WillQuantrill
Well-Known Member
Thought I would show you guys the fantastic coloration I'm getting from my Vallejano Ligero that's air curing. Nice thick leaf too. Will make for some meaty wrapper! The flash on my camera kind of takes away from it but I have yet to hang a drop light in the shed.
Anders A
Well-Known Member
Looks great
WillQuantrill
Well-Known Member
110 days from transplant, everything has been primed except my P3 KY17. Really getting a better sense of volume of leaf with the aroma that fills the shed. 2nd picture is the Vallejano Ligero coloring I commented on in a previous post. If it was a Crayola color I would go with Indian Red... beautiful. 3rd Picture is FL Sumatra Ligero looking tasty as it cures and the last picture are the Burleys hanging. "Gutter Burley" was fantasticly productive so let's hope it tastes good. I harvested seeds from it and definitely made the cut to grow again in the future. On 8-19 I loaded all of my Cigar Seco into the kiln and it is sweating it out. 1 issue worth noting, some of the plants that took longer to mature are hanging with already cured of the same variety. Best plan I have is to let them catch up so they can go into the kiln at the same time. Kind of a pain in the ass to delay that long but I'm certainly not going to have 5 different kiln start dates and leave a chance for error in guessing which leaf went in on a particular date simply by aesthetics. Suppose I could label each hand by kiln date but as there doesn't seem to be much downside to aircuring longer I'll just wait till all of that variety is ready to go in the sauna.
Be sure to allow your burley varieties to hang in the curing shed for 3-6 weeks after their color looks nice. They still have metabolic work to accomplish prior to kilning.
Bob
Bob
WillQuantrill
Well-Known Member
Thank you for pointing that out. My kiln will not hold all of the leaf currently hanging so I'll run all of the cigar and SSBM through on the first 6 week cycle while the Burley can hang in the shed till I'm ready.
WillQuantrill
Well-Known Member
115 days from transplant and it's a wrap for the grow portion of this season. I primed the rest of my KY17 P3 today and hung it while the shed was toasty 115*. Second picture is my Vallejano's second coming that has actually bloomed. While everything else is naked I'll let the seed pods mature and harvest the seed. Sucker bloom seed sounds like a grunge song. For a variety that was slow to start my Vallejano just keeps growing more arms and leaves! 3rd picture is my Long Red Ligero, let's hope it tastes as good as it looks. 4th picture is inside the shed, 3 stringers turned out to be the perfect length for the 43 plants. Last picture is the kiln getting filled. All P1 and half of P2 cigar are starting to sweat it out.
WillQuantrill
Well-Known Member
13 days in the kiln, and it's loaded with all SECO cigar, and a couple visos. Still letting my Long Red Visos and Ligeros cure due to a couple slow plants. All the Burley is still curing along with all 3 primings of SSBM. 
1st picture is the curing shed but most of the view is obscured by the KY17 hanging in front. Second picture is my sacrificial SSBM P2 and KY17 P3 I hung on the fence to Sun cure. The SSBM I found mold on so I figured I would experiment and monitor the color change which has been very rapid comparatively to the same in the shed. The far right hand is KY17 I will shred and smoke in pipe to note differences.
1st picture is the curing shed but most of the view is obscured by the KY17 hanging in front. Second picture is my sacrificial SSBM P2 and KY17 P3 I hung on the fence to Sun cure. The SSBM I found mold on so I figured I would experiment and monitor the color change which has been very rapid comparatively to the same in the shed. The far right hand is KY17 I will shred and smoke in pipe to note differences.
Looks like a tasty smoke
WillQuantrill
Well-Known Member
If I had to pick, I'm most intrigued to taste the Vallejano from this year. Something tells me it's gonna be Spicy!
Is that a cigar variety?
