all i know about curing non mature plants is one of my corjo's blew down a month ago, breaking all roots so i hung it in my curing room. its still only half brown. the whole top half is still very green and flexible like its a fresh plant. also you have a large variation of size if there were all started the same time. i was thinking i would fertilize the small ones but i dont know at this time of year how the trade off would work between gaining plant mass vs ease of curing. and you said this is new dirt to you. did you till this ground up or just cover and plant. if not maybe your just unlucky and theres a big rock under each of the small plants. in any case theres something funky with the plot of soil if theres that much variance. lots of Hindsight Harold advice i could give for making plants happy next year, but im not sure what the proper advice is for now
Can I color cure a live plant?
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Oldfella
Well-Known Member
I agree with Knucklehead, your plants look a week older. Try not to panic and rush things, you'll only be disappointed with the results. Any plants take time to reach maturity and develop their full flavors.
Oldfella
Oldfella
Re-standing tobacco plants as soon as possible after a storm will minimize the stalk curvature, and keep the lower leaf off the mud. So now is better than later.
Bob
Bob
They seem to have grown some since your last photo. If they are still rooted I would try to stand them up and stake them if necessary. They could still use some maturity. They will color cure much easier if you can wait.
Try using your foot to press down on the roots on the opposite side that the stalk fell over, while pulling on the thickest part of the stalk. If may not stand straight back up but that‘s okay. You just need it off the ground. The new growth will grow straight up and form a crook. That crook won’t hurt anything. Just try to keep it alive until the leaves are mature enough to harvest. Stake it if necessary to keep it in place and off the ground.
(if the ground is dry, some moisture may help while you move the stalk back in place)
They usually come back. The longer you wait, the crookeder they get.
From a derecho in 2012:
Bob
Bonobo posted a way with grade stakes and the color coded tying tape they sell for them. 80%+ of a few hundred plants blew over during a storm this summer. I happened across his post and stood everything back up before the ground dried like it said over the next two days. The plants took it like a champ and you couldn't tell within a week.
They seem to be turning yellow some. I picked a few while it was warm because I think with the weather I'll be able to get them to yellow ok and at least I'll have some leaves if the rest don't work out. It was 80/90 last week when I did it and humidity didn't drop below 60%. looks like next week is calling for cooler dryer weather so I don't think I should harvest any next week. I feel so much better with some coaching. Thank you all for caring.
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The yellow-ish plant in that photo could be harvested now. The only risk of allowing tobacco to fully yellow in the field is that it increases the physical risk to the leaf from foul weather. Otherwise, just about everything but cigar wrapper can bask in the sun until fully ripe. The only issue with cigar wrapper, is the lamina becomes more rumpled.
Bob
I had a plant that wasn't ripe so I dug it up and brought it into the shop to finish out. the plant and a few leaves got forgotten about. This spring with the sun from the window it started shooting new leaves. My seedlings are only an inch tall so ive got a huge jump on them by using this plant. I just wanted to update my post from before incase someone else ever wondered about the possibility of over wintering plants or ripening and coloring leaves on the plant.
