Color Curing Green Leaf

[Hemlock]

Hi All

I grew some rustica past summer and failed to get yellow leaves despite best efforts with humid hang drying conditions on the stalk. Is there any way to color cure the leaf long after harvest?

Here’s what they look like.

 

[deluxestogie]

Sun exposure will bleach away the green color, so it will look better, but will still leave you with awful tasting tobacco. Alteration of the taste from green tobacco to color-cured must happen while the leaf is still alive.

The most success at color-curing N. rustica in particular is to allow the leaf to yellow on the plant, prior to harvesting.

Bob

 

[Hemlock]

Sun exposure will bleach away the green color, so it will look better, but will still leave you with awful tasting tobacco. Alteration of the taste from green tobacco to color-cured must happen while the leaf is still alive.

The most success at color-curing N. rustica in particular is to allow the leaf to yellow on the plant, prior to harvesting.

Bob

Thank Bob. I harvested everything while green, thinking it would be easy to air cure in the shed. It just dried too fast. I guess I will use this leaf in the potpourri or over the fire as an offering to the gods!

 

[deluxestogie]

My advice for easier color-curing comes from the experience of other members, rather than me. I grew N. rustica (Sacred Cornplanter) a decade ago. I even studiously removed all the suckers, and produced dinner-platter-size, thick leaves. I primed them as I would any other tobacco, and air-cured them. While they did color-cure in a patchy pattern, I never found any use for it that was worth the effort. I cooked some into Cavendish. I pressure-cured some into Perique. Nothing could hide the aroma of a kitty litter box.

It was after that experience that other members posted a better method. I've never grown it again, since my original intention was to demonstrate by crossing experiments with the Sacred Cornplanter that two tobacco varieties being marketed as "rustica" (Mt. Pima and Papante) were in fact N. tabacum (a fact that should have been obvious from their pink blossoms). That goal having been accomplished, I have seen no application of N. rustica in my cigars and pipe blends.

Bob

 

[Anders A]

Hi All

I grew some rustica past summer and failed to get yellow leaves despite best efforts with humid hang drying conditions on the stalk. Is there any way to color cure the leaf long after harvest?

Here’s what they look like.
View attachment 44970

Hi,

I have grown tobacco for two years, and also had some rustica plants (Svensk Bondtobak ( Swedish Farmer tobacco) ). My attempts to cure these plants by hanging the leaves individually did not go well, it dried easily green. Then I tried hanging whole plants and then they cured nicely over to brown. But it took a very long time. So the difficulty of curing them, all the time it takes, and the poor yield means that this year I will not grow them anymore.

I have heard from friends that green-dried rustica can turn yellow and then brown if it is allowed to hang or lie very long (years in other words), but then it is important to keep an eye on the humidity so that it does not mold.

 

[skychaser]

Hi All

I grew some rustica past summer and failed to get yellow leaves despite best efforts with humid hang drying conditions on the stalk. Is there any way to color cure the leaf long after harvest?

Here’s what they look like.
View attachment 44970

Have you tried smoking any of it yet? It may not be to bad, especially the leaf that is yellow or light green. Rustica has always been difficult for me to cure and get a nice color to it. Anders leaf looks pretty darn good for a Rustica. The real trick is to leave it on the plant until it starts to yellow on its own in the field. Then prime it, or hang the whole plant. I have primed it before it has fully yellowed and cured it like other tobaccos, and mine usually ends up a dull greenish brown mix of colors. But unlike most toobacco, the leaf with some green in it usually smokes pretty good. It doesn't seem to have that lawn clippings green flavor other leaf does when it dries green. You never know until you try it.

 

[Alpine]

The most common mistake rustica growers make, is to harvest the leaves (or the whole plant) too early. Since rusticas grow and bloom faster than tabacum (some strains go from seed to flower in less than a month!) new growers think they can treat it like tabacum: “a couple of weeks after flowering and I’m good to go”. Nope, rusticas require the same amount of time that tabacum does, in other words… no less than 60 to 70 days after transplant even though you have flowers and mature seed pods in a month or so.

pier

 

[deluxestogie]

This discussion has come up frequently enough, that I've added this thread to our Index of Key Forum Threads (under Curing: other).

Bob

 

[loui loui]

I wonder what would happen if sprayed with water and lactic acid bacteria and packed tight in foil and left to ferment, maybe at a warm place over night.
I guess it will become brown.
May be worth a try.

 

[Hemlock]

My advice for easier color-curing comes from the experience of other members, rather than me. I grew N. rustica (Sacred Cornplanter) a decade ago. I even studiously removed all the suckers, and produced dinner-platter-size, thick leaves. I primed them as I would any other tobacco, and air-cured them. While they did color-cure in a patchy pattern, I never found any use for it that was worth the effort. I cooked some into Cavendish. I pressure-cured some into Perique. Nothing could hide the aroma of a kitty litter box.

It was after that experience that other members posted a better method. I've never grown it again, since my original intention was to demonstrate by crossing experiments with the Sacred Cornplanter that two tobacco varieties being marketed as "rustica" (Mt. Pima and Papante) were in fact N. tabacum (a fact that should have been obvious from their pink blossoms). That goal having been accomplished, I have seen no application of N. rustica in my cigars and pipe blends.

Bob

Interesting feedback. Truthfully I only grew it for the potential of a nicotine contribution in blends. I think I will try a Virginia for smoking leaves next time, and leave the Rustica as an ornamental. Those things flowered a long time last year and looked pretty most of the summer! Only had a few

 

[Hemlock]

The most common mistake rustica growers make, is to harvest the leaves (or the whole plant) too early. Since rusticas grow and bloom faster than tabacum (some strains go from seed to flower in less than a month!) new growers think they can treat it like tabacum: “a couple of weeks after flowering and I’m good to go”. Nope, rusticas require the same amount of time that tabacum does, in other words… no less than 60 to 70 days after transplant even though you have flowers and mature seed pods in a month or so.

pier

Thanks for the tip!

 

[Hemlock]

Have you tried smoking any of it yet? It may not be to bad, especially the leaf that is yellow or light green. Rustica has always been difficult for me to cure and get a nice color to it. Anders leaf looks pretty darn good for a Rustica. The real trick is to leave it on the plant until it starts to yellow on its own in the field. Then prime it, or hang the whole plant. I have primed it before it has fully yellowed and cured it like other tobaccos, and mine usually ends up a dull greenish brown mix of colors. But unlike most toobacco, the leaf with some green in it usually smokes pretty good. It doesn't seem to have that lawn clippings green flavor other leaf does when it dries green. You never know until you try it.

Will give it a shot. I only got a couple ounces so no big loss if it’s a dud for the the pipe. . I rolled a truly yellow leaf into a cigarette and it was fine, if not a bit bland.