Yellowing leaves

[Tricomike]

I watched a good video where the guy would pile his leaves then wrap in towels to yellow them. He would rotate the pile twice daily and dab any moisture of the leaves. After about a week the leaves were a nice banana yellow then he hung to cure. Was wondering if anyone here has tried this method and how did it work out?

 

[docpierce]

Interesting method. Seems legit. Might be too labor intensive for any amount greater than a few plants.

For my part, I tend to look to old books and am especially attentive to simple methods from well documented sources.
I like to put my trust in methods that our wily and observant grandparents had their success with. Yootube videos are really help too, though.

 

[Radagast]

I watched a good video where the guy would pile his leaves then wrap in towels to yellow them. He would rotate the pile twice daily and dab any moisture of the leaves. After about a week the leaves were a nice banana yellow then he hung to cure. Was wondering if anyone here has tried this method and how did it work out?

Would you send me a link to that? I'd love to watch it.

 

[Tricomike]

View: https://youtu.be/y_h8rvVi1bM

 

[Oldfella]

I watched a good video where the guy would pile his leaves then wrap in towels to yellow them. He would rotate the pile twice daily and dab any moisture of the leaves. After about a week the leaves were a nice banana yellow then he hung to cure. Was wondering if anyone here has tried this method and how did it work out?

I watched the same video. Seems to work,but maybe to much work. I prefer the cardboard box method. It's tried and proven.
Cheers Oldfella

 

[Radagast]

I watched the same video. Seems to work,but maybe to much work. I prefer the cardboard box method. It's tried and proven.
Cheers Oldfella

And you put a layer a newspaper between each leaf right?

 

[Oldfella]

And you put a layer a newspaper between each leaf right?

Yep that's what I do. Check daily, if all is ok ( no mold) sometimes every 2 days.

 

[Radagast]

Yep that's what I do. Check daily, if all is ok ( no mold) sometimes every 2 days.

That sounds way easier. I'll start there.

 

[Radagast]

The guy in this video seems like he may be trying to tap into that old banana trick (supposedly if you put a ripe banana with unripened fruit, it somehow causes them to ripen). I've been wondering if that trick is applicable in the tobacco ripening process but have been to embarrassed to ask.

 

[deluxestogie]

The increased rate of ripening from banana peels within a closed container is due to the release of methane from the banana peels. Ripening fruit naturally releases methane, which serves to synchronize ripening.

I actually tried that with green tobacco within a closed, steel trash can. I noticed no difference in rate of ripening the tobacco.

Bob

EDIT: ethylene...ETHYLENE is the correct gas emitted from ripening fruit. Methane is what is released from a brain fart.

 

[ChinaVoodoo]

I don't use newspaper. I don't even use a box. I prefer to hang tobacco right away, but life rarely let's me, so I pile everything on the counter and throw a tarp over it. Rotate piles every couple days. I'll get to hanging when I get to it.

 

[Oldfella]

I don't use newspaper. I don't even use a box. I prefer to hang tobacco right away, but life rarely let's me, so I pile everything on the counter and throw a tarp over it. Rotate piles every couple days. I'll get to hanging when I get to it.

Probably be a zillion ways of yellowing leaves, I guess it's whatever works for you.
Cheers Oldfella

 

[Charly]

The key is to find which method works best for you in your location.
I use the cardboard method to help my leaves yellowing then I hang them to dry.
If I don't use the cardboard, then dry green too often...

 

[deluxestogie]

I boldly misspoke. Ethylene is the correct gas that is emitted from ripening fruit. Thank you to @ChinaVoodoo for pointing out my error.

Bob

 

[Radagast]

I also misspoke and use the wrong "to". "Too many o's" was my mnemonic device for learning the difference as a child. Too many brain farts in here. Open a window.

 

[Knucklehead]

I see pile/box curing as a tool in your toolbox. If your humidity is really low, it is an excellent way to yellow leaves that would otherwise dry green. I had to use it one season during a drought when the humidity went way down. The other times I could just hang the leaf in the shop. If you have a huge crop, hanging is much easier if your climate allows it. If your humidity is high, be sure to rotate the leaves more often. I didn’t watch mine close enough and some of the lamina turned black with rot and the stems turned soft and spongy with rot and it happened in a hurry. Mold wasn’t an issue but rot was. My main problem was user error, so just keep an eye on it. As Charly said, it’s usefulness as a technique may depend on conditions and climate.

 

[Oldfella]

I see pile/box curing as a tool in your toolbox. If your humidity is really low, it is an excellent way to yellow leaves that would otherwise dry green. I had to use it one season during a drought when the humidity went way down. The other times I could just hang the leaf in the shop. If you have a huge crop, hanging is much easier if your climate allows it. If your humidity is high, be sure to rotate the leaves more often. I didn’t watch mine close enough and some of the lamina turned black with rot and the stems turned soft and spongy with rot and it happened in a hurry. Mold wasn’t an issue but rot was. My main problem was user error, so just keep an eye on it. As Charly said, it’s usefulness as a technique may depend on conditions and climate.

I would agree with that. I really only need to do the cardboard box thing in winter. The leaves would never yellow otherwise, and green baccy tastes yuky.
Cheers oldfella

 

[Darkthirty]

I use 2X2X2 cardboard boxes. Dump them in 2 days, pull out and hang the yellow and shuffle the stack. Open paperclips so they look like an S, pierce the stem with one end then hang them on wire. Stems take a month to dry down, so you gotta watch for mold. I'm usually swamped with work that time o the year and box curing is fast and reliable. Watch for hornworms, they can ruin a lot of leaves in the box!

 

[paintercote]

I watched a good video where the guy would pile his leaves then wrap in towels to yellow them. He would rotate the pile twice daily and dab any moisture of the leaves. After about a week the leaves were a nice banana yellow then he hung to cure. Was wondering if anyone here has tried this method and how did it work out?

I am in Wa. state where one cannot air dry the Tobago without a controlled environment. Winter came upon us and I pulled my plants and used the method in the video you watched. It worked beautifully. Turn the pile in the morning and then in the evening. Leaves in the middle go to the outside and vice-a-verssa. After they begin to show signs of yellowing, check the pile more often and when they really begin to yellow, rotate them morning, afternoon and night. The way it works is that when they start the yellowing process they are releasing gases and these gases accelerate the process from one leave to another. The process kind of feeds on itself. So, its good not to check pile too often, but keep up on the flipping schedule. If a leaf is being stubborn, put it between 2 leaves that are yellowing like crazy and they / the gases will influence the green leaf. when yellowing is moving along, You will see some brown spots begin to grow within the yellow but don't be alarmed. As long as its not black mold or white powdery mold, whatever grows in your area. My average temp in my garage is 50-60 degrees and it took about a week for my leaves to yellow. I hung them as they began to get brown spots and still had some green at the large stem. In the south, you guys got it made for hanging. Here, I have to be very careful not to hang too soon/green or the leaf begins to dry too soon. I hope I explained everything right and good luck to you. feel free to question.

 

[GonzoAcres]

I don't use newspaper. I don't even use a box. I prefer to hang tobacco right away, but life rarely let's me, so I pile everything on the counter and throw a tarp over it. Rotate piles every couple days. I'll get to hanging when I get to it.

This is very comforting to hear, I'm in my first growing season here in SE Colorado, (arid high dessert, not mountains), as fortune, or misfortune would have it the weather this year has been a complete curveball, by far the wettest spring in the 15 years I've been here, while also simultaneously being warmer than average (last frost was mid april, nearly a month before it normally is) and colder than average, with the day times being cooler and rainier keeping the soil from warming up rapidly as it usually does (We are the region responsible for the Pueblo Green Chile or "mirasol" green chile, which is a superior variety of roasting green chile to the much more well known "hatch" green chile, due largely to our hot days and cool nights). Add to that the most devastating hail storms in the 15 years i've been a grower here. Each hail storm seemingly strategically spaced out to happen just as everything was begging to bounce back from previous thrashing (Thought there was light at the end of the tunnel today when I realized I had gotten nearly all of the damaged leaves on the 140 tobacco plants I have been helicopter parenting like a suburban stay at home mom who's read to many parenting blogs, and just after dark I heard commotion outside which stopped before I could even make it out to see what was going on, 45 seconds of hail is plenty of time to wreck a tobacco plant, or at least it was plenty of time to wreck mine, again for the 4th time since they've been in the ground..) I've been pulling any leaves that are so damaged that the pose a risk as points of entry for pathogens etc, leaving any portion of the leaf that was still connected well enough not to wither.

Once I realized just how much tobacco I was going to have to figure out how to cure, even after the losses from hail damage, 140 plants may have been a bit excessive for my first year growing, even as a commercial grower of other typical farmers market crops like chiles and tomatoes, so I started harvesting the most remaining living but damaged leaves a little bit earlier and more unripe than I would have liked in hopes of cutting my teeth on the yellowing process with the damaged ones so that I may be better at it when the undamaged leaves are ready to harvest (assuming I actually have any to harvest without damage on them), been running around neurotically for days trying to over parent the damaged leaves that have been harvested so far. It is somewhat comforting to know that chances are the tobacco will be fine in the various makeshift yellowing processes I have going on at the moment lol