Rotting or curing?

[ChiefScreamingBug]

Hi,

I have grown two small orientals indoors to "practice" for my first growing season next year.
I am now at the stage of needing to cure these leaves.
I first made a somewhat botched attempt at flue curing with a bit too high humidity at around 40C but this seemed too wet, and I have now transferred these leaves into paper towel pile curing.

These leaves have now turned out somewhat brown, somewhat yellow... but they have some strange transluscent areas on them and some of these browner areas look almost red. They are not dry, still moist.
Are they rotting? or is this them just curing or browning before drying out? I was initially terrified of drying them green but I think maybe I went too far in the other direction.
Here are the leaves in question. They released some brown liquid also which seemed not that great. They smell okay.

Sorry if these are stupid questions, I have not done any of this before and am struggling to "distinguish crap from cinnamon" as they say. Also I have very few leaves harvested due to the small size of these plants, so I want to be sure if they are good or crap before I decide to potentially discard them. Thanks for any feedback.

 

[deluxestogie]

Welcome to the forum. Feel free to introduce yourself in the Introduce Yourself forum. Read the New Growers' FAQ, linked in the menu bar. You may wish to scan through the topics in our Index of Key Forum Threads, also linked in the menu bar.

If your leaves have not yet fully dried (i.e. dead), then they appear to be in the process of curing. Once they fully dry, then curing will no longer progress.

I've found that, with Orientals, a minimum of 1 week of sun-curing will allow them to complete their curing in the shade. I know nothing about pile curing.

Bob

 

[ChiefScreamingBug]

Thanks Bob. I live in an apartment so everything I do has to be done indoors, for now, next year me and a friend will grow plants in his yard.
For now I will take these out of the pile, since they are mostly colour cured, to air cure. Since I only have precious few leaves I am maybe overthinking this....

 

[Kushtaka]

Keep in mind this was my first year curing any kind of tobacco. I tried different curing methods to find what worked best in my environment. I had a similar experience with rustica in a high humidity environment. I tried pile curing in some towels, turning and wiping excess moisture daily. But, any damaged part of the leaf was first to rot away. The brown color is the goal but if it is too moist it will turn to rotten sludge quickly. I lost a lot less material hanging leaves on a string and using spacing to control moisture.

 

[deluxestogie]

Since I only have precious few leaves I am maybe overthinking this....

Everyone's first year of growing tobacco is a learning year. With few plants and few leaves, atypical growing conditions (indoors), and in-home curing, knowing what is typical can be a challenge. Below is a photo of some of my tobacco from this year during its early days of stalk-curing in my shed.

The base leaves (on the top, in the photo) look wonderful. The tip leaves (toward the bottom of the photo) haven't yet started to cure. But in between, the leaves look truly frightening, with streaks and blotches and a medley of colors. It's all typical progression.

Bob