Jamorros swedish indoor grow 2025

[jamorro]

High time for an update i think. I decided to cool the room a bit as it was a higher temp due to a small server running in the same area. It helped the color curing immensely and things have been curing decently by just hanging since then.
Unfortunately i had to harvest my second grow a bit too early as i was going away for 2 weeks without any ability to water the plants so i stalk cut the small stalk black mammoth and the connecticut shade a bit early.
Pic below was from december 20th.




i only had one leaf mold on me. A few of them had mold spots where the leaf med the stalk so i cut a few inches of those leaves off.

A few leaves did cure with a bit of a greeen shade though. Whats the consensus on those can they still be saved or are they too green?




In other news im currently storing the dried leaves in a brew bucket with a 69% boveda pack. Seems to hold the moisture well without molding. Currently waiting to start building a small kiln.

 

[johnny108]

High time for an update i think. I decided to cool the room a bit as it was a higher temp due to a small server running in the same area. It helped the color curing immensely and things have been curing decently by just hanging since then.
Unfortunately i had to harvest my second grow a bit too early as i was going away for 2 weeks without any ability to water the plants so i stalk cut the small stalk black mammoth and the connecticut shade a bit early.
Pic below was from december 20th.


View attachment 58645

i only had one leaf mold on me. A few of them had mold spots where the leaf med the stalk so i cut a few inches of those leaves off.

A few leaves did cure with a bit of a greeen shade though. Whats the consensus on those can they still be saved or are they too green?
View attachment 58648View attachment 58649
View attachment 58647View attachment 58646


In other news im currently storing the dried leaves in a brew bucket with a 69% boveda pack. Seems to hold the moisture well without molding. Currently waiting to start building a small kiln.

Kiln them: the green may go away in a month or two.
At least, that’s been my experience. Sometimes it works- sometimes it doesn’t.
But it’s worth trying on leaves that color.

 

[jamorro]

Kiln them: the green may go away in a month or two.
At least, that’s been my experience. Sometimes it works- sometimes it doesn’t.
But it’s worth trying on leaves that color.

Great thanks for the input.
Seems my 20w heater didnt really reach the 50c temperature goal so ill have to look for another one.

 

[jamorro]

Bought a 28w one and that seems to have done the trick if i put it on max temperature the box reaches about 36c. It came with a potentiometer control of some kind (prob a small scr) so i turned that down a bit and empty it was howering around 54c (129f). I will probably turn this down slightly more to land closer to 53c once its stabilized properly. The box houses a pair of pc fans running on low to circulate the air properly im gonna 3d print a small holder to keep the heating mat away from the polystyrene as well but atm its resting on a bit of fabric. I have a thermocouple in between bags to log the temperature and im thinking of connecting it to a relay of some kind as a safety switch. Im also gonna 3d print a small spacer to keep the top bag away from the lid, altough i think it will probably be fine either way.

 

[StoneCarver]

I imagine you are keeping up the moisture in the bags?

 

[jamorro]

I imagine you are keeping up the moisture in the bags?

Yeah the bags are closed so i dont feel like they should drop much over the month they will be in there. But i guess ill check em now and again to make sure they arent loosing too much moisture. The leaves were stored with 72% boveda packs before they went into the bags, so the leaves some moisture to start with.

Do you think i will need to be quite vigilant about the moisture in the bags?

 

[StoneCarver]

Do you think i will need to be quite vigilant about the moisture in the bags?

That's hard to say as there are many variables: bag quality, outdoor humidity, etc. I could be wrong but its my understanding the kilning process goes best when the leaves are adequately hydrated, iow in high case.

 

[jamorro]

i have yet to really get a feel for how wet or dry high vs mid/low case actually is. Might have to introduce some water into the mix. The kiln seems to be holding rock steady at 52-53c atleast depending on where i measure, so that part seems quite complete .

 

[deluxestogie]

Definition: What is "case"?

Bob

 

[jamorro]

Definition: What is "case"?

Bob

sounds like i might have to spray mine a bit then i think they are around medium to low case still.

 

[StoneCarver]

as long as your kiln temp is at least 52C you shouldn't have to worry about mold. You can dry the leaves down to a lower case after you're done kilning them.

 

[jamorro]

yeah i didnt realize that they should have been much more moist when i put em in the kiln. I think i cracked a few of the connecticut shade leaves. Either way i distilled some water and moisted em up quite a bit. Kiln is running around 54c atm so i should be fine even for leaves that might be a bit too close to the walls.

 

[jamorro]

yep they are now much easier to deal with and completely silent. They absorbed a whole lot of water, i sprayed em quite liberally once more a few hours later. It surprises me how much water they can hold

 

[StoneCarver]

Cool, if you open the bags and smell ammonia, you know you have the kilning/ageing process moving along, iirc.
It also surprises me how much water tobacco can hold and still not mold.
You distill water yourself? Pretty cool. I also use distilled water for rehydrating my tobacco. However, I buy mine from a store.

 

[jamorro]

had none at home so i set up a basic distiller with a stock pot, a bowl on a rack and an upside down lid. Great tip ill open em in a week or so and see how they are doing.

 

[StoneCarver]

I had forgotten about that way of distilling water. cheap and cheerful.

 

[jamorro]

Things are running fine so far and the leaves have darkened quite a bit. Cant say i have smelled much ammonia yet but there is a sweet earthy smell permeating the room.

 

[jamorro]

a lot of weeks have now passed and i have taken em out of the kiln and sorted them into top mid and bottom bags. Most leaves seem to have kilned well and they have a lovely color and a sweet smell. A few leaves still have a bit of a green tinge to them, so i think those might be trash unfortunately.

Im thinking i should go through and separate leaves that could be wrappers and binders. But ill have to read up a bit to be able to i feel.

Right now everything is in open plastic bags to dry out a bit from mid/high case. Im also gonna have to figure out how to store the tobacco without it turning to very dry leaf shards.

I did loose 2-3 leaves to mold but as the others were free from it im guessing it was there when they went into the kiln. Or atleast i think this looks like white mold...

 

[jamorro]

also im not entirely sure how people get their leaves to lay nice and flat mine are crumpled a bit and even after straightening em they want to return to their previous form... Im guessing its a combination of laying em flat from the start and pressing them?

 

[StoneCarver]

those white splotches are probably not anything to worry about; although, I couldn't say what they are. As to your leaves that still have some green tinge, I suppose you could just call them Claro Claro wrappers.

I've often thought about how I'd dry leaves so that they turn out flat. I suppose what I'd do is layer the leaves between a couple towels and pile some wood boards and bricks on top. Perhaps, others have better tried and true methods. Not that it matters much. If you're going to be using them for cigar wrappers, you'll be rehydrating them to make them supple enough to work with when you go to make cigars. So, It doesn't really matter how crinkly they are beforehand.