Green green leaves

[Old Gasman]

Dear tobacco friends at the start of the growing season I gave my chum a few of my spare plants of which he only got 1 to grow well, it was a MD609. He had it in his garden for 3 months before his Mrs got fed up with the sight of it so he bagged up all the leaves and dropped them at my door. The leaves are massive but very dark green. If I manage to colour cure them by wrapping them up in towels do you think they'll be any good or am I wasting my time given that summer is rapidly coming to an end and it's turning darker and damper.
Here's a photo of the leaves.

Thanks chaps

 

[ChinaVoodoo]

Those leaves look mature. You can see mottling in most of them. With care and patience, you should be able to cure them and they will likely be good to smoke after some aging. I can't really comment on the towel method. Personally, I would either cardboard box them until yellow, then hang them in a dryer place, or skip the cardboard box and hang them in a humidity controlled space at 90°F and 75-80% rh with good air movement, then reduce it to 70% rh once they become much more yellow.

 

[Old Gasman]

Oh thank you that's very encouraging to hear. Alas I have no humidity controlled space so I'll try either the towel method or pop them in a cardboard box.
Thanks again.

 

[ChinaVoodoo]

I have found that a couple days in a plastic bag, while risking rot of any damaged leaf, can initiate faster yellowing. I believe it is due to the effect of ethylene gas concentrating in the bag. I also think cardboard may work partly on the same, but less extreme, principle.

Rotate the leaves in the box every few days to prevent excessively wet areas in the pile.

 

[deluxestogie]

I agree with @ChinaVoodoo. Those are beautiful, mature MD 609 leaves. My choice would have been to cut the whole stalk, and cure it on the stalk. Too late for that now. Do thank your friend's spouse for her productively maintained garden soil. (I would be proud to display such a MD 609 plant in my yard, and sad when it was harvested.)

After color-curing, that should kiln to a wonderful base for pipe blends, Cavendish, etc.

Bob

 

[Old Gasman]

Thank you all very much for your advice, for some reason I'd got it into my head that if the leaves don't start to yellow on the plant they're no good. That's something else I've learned for next year should i be spared.

 

[ChinaVoodoo]

Thank you all very much for your advice, for some reason I'd got it into my head that if the leaves don't start to yellow on the plant they're no good. That's something else I've learned for next year should i be spared.

They have started turning yellow, though.

 

[Hazen]

The one time I had a good crop, probably 60 plants I heaped them in a pile as I was picking them on a warm day in the sun. By the end of the day they had yellowed a lot, the pile was actually quite warm inside almost like a compost pile. a few days later I had them curing in the barn

 

[Old Gasman]

They have started turning yellow, though.

View attachment 43660
View attachment 43661

They have now for sure, I've had them wrapped up in some old towels

 

[Old Gasman]

Well then chaps I needn't have fretted about those green green leaves, with a bit of patience they've turned out to be some of my best looking ones now,,,

 

[baccy]

Hi @Old Gasman , for how long you kept them wrapped? And did you shuffle them every day or less? Also how many leafs you wrapped per bunch?

 

[Old Gasman]

I had them wrapped up in old towels for about a week and a half I guess behind the window in my garage and every day i gave them a shuffle.

 

[esyren]

one gentleman mentioned ethylene gas, this comes off of ripening bananas to a great extent and is why they turn brown when put into refrigerator, bananas that is; because when cold, this gas hovers more over the bananas as less volitile when cold.
i'm now searching for a banana peel, thanks to this reminder about ethylene. if i find it, i'll put it into a bag with these green virginia tobacco leaves i've just picked, ripe but green.
and compare with the method i've just used which was putting into in semi-sealed ceramic tea vase ~0.25 ft^2 of space, then into toaster of set at 175 for 4min, allow to come up to temp within vase and left to dwell in cooling oven for 1-2 hours; vase method works fairly well but ~20 percent
of ~40percent of those leaves remained green after two itterations of above proceedure allowing to dry on line somewhat before and after second time, maybe use of too much ammonium suphate fertilizer which now trying to compensate for with potassium carbonate(ash) on younger crop with same dirt.

 

[deluxestogie]

Yikes! 175°F will ruin the green leaf. Ripe tobacco leaves release their own ethylene gas. That is one of the factors in ripening a stack of green leaves inside a cardboard box (shuffling daily).

Bob

 

[Old Gasman]

one gentleman mentioned ethylene gas, this comes off of ripening bananas to a great extent and is why they turn brown when put into refrigerator, bananas that is; because when cold, this gas hovers more over the bananas as less volitile when cold.
i'm now searching for a banana peel, thanks to this reminder about ethylene. if i find it, i'll put it into a bag with these green virginia tobacco leaves i've just picked, ripe but green.
and compare with the method i've just used which was putting into in semi-sealed ceramic tea vase ~0.25 ft^2 of space, then into toaster of set at 175 for 4min, allow to come up to temp within vase and left to dwell in cooling oven for 1-2 hours; vase method works fairly well but ~20 percent
of ~40percent of those leaves remained green after two itterations of above proceedure allowing to dry on line somewhat before and after second time, maybe use of too much ammonium suphate fertilizer which now trying to compensate for with potassium carbonate(ash) on younger crop with same dirt.

If you look at my photo you'll see banana skins. Not sure if they're necessary but I've used them in the past to help ripen green tomatoes. The best thing to use is just lots of patience.

 

[esyren]

Yikes! 175°F will ruin the green leaf. Ripe tobacco leaves release their own ethylene gas. That is one of the factors in ripening a stack of green leaves inside a cardboard box (shuffling daily).

Bob

right, but it has some insulation in the way parchment paper around leaves inside jar that keeps it from going much, if at all, past 145 within the four minutes oven is on.
i've decided a waste of energy anyway when box or towel method can be used as it seems to not make difference in removing green from leaves.
the banana experiment is up in the air, the leaves were perhaps to dry or only a few grams of banana used that were not ripened fully when i tried, so did not remove green from leaves to noticable extent. i will try again when set with fresh leaves and ripe bananas.

 

[esyren]

The one time I had a good crop, probably 60 plants I heaped them in a pile as I was picking them on a warm day in the sun. By the end of the day they had yellowed a lot, the pile was actually quite warm inside almost like a compost pile. a few days later I had them curing in the barn

it's already too cold and or rainy for my particular crop which is grown not outdoors but under lights; so i have used a hot water bottle under stack insulted on top with paper and plastic, much moisture being sponged off of turned leaves for first three days.

 

[BristolBaccy]

Just filled my attic with my final harvest - but it's pretty cold here now (Southwest UK), I might go for the towel method instead if I can get them without the wife catching me

 

[Old Gasman]

Hi chaps here's an update to this thread. The majority of my MD609 I cured by a mixture of priming and stalk curing in my garage then I bagged it in a large zip lock bag and salted it away. Its been about six months since bagging and I check them every month or so and so far they just smell like leaves. Now the other plant that my pal grew for me I cured by wrapping in towels and blankets till the leaves turned yellow then I air dried them in my garage. When I check that zip lock bag the first thing I notice is that the bag is very slightly inflated, the second thing I notice is that the leaves are darker, but the clincher is that they actually smell of tobacco. I might give that method a try this year to see if i can replicate the result.