Rustica ideas

[johnny108]

Last night after a nightcap (paint thinner and toilet duck- don’t judge, money is tight), the Good Idea fairy visited, and I wondered if anyone has cavendished a Rustica, and what were the results. (Saw some posts about it, but no results mentioned)
I also wondered, since rusticas are so strongly flavored, and indoor/hydroponic growing makes for bland tobacco- has anyone grown a Rustica indoors, in a hydroponic system, in the hopes that it would be milder, and could be cured more easily with its nutrients cut back before priming…..

 

[deluxestogie]

Grown outdoors, my Sacred Cornplanter (N. rustica) smelled like cat urine after curing. I cooked some into Cavendish. It then smelled like cooked cat urine.

Bob

 

[Alpine]

But rusticas are definitely NOT strongly flavored… if properly grown, cured and kilned rusticas have a mild floral taste. What is strong is the nicotine content, not the flavor. Probably if grown indoors with the hydroponic system the nicotine content would be lower but then, grow N.tabacum that has better yields and is far more easy to cure. And has no wet hunting dog smell during growing and kilning.

pier

 

[deluxestogie]

if properly grown, cured and kilned

I readily admit that my N. rustica, though properly grown, was primed at the "mature" stage, rather than "ripe". So it failed to color-cure properly in the shed. I did kiln it, to no avail. I harvested it like N. tabacum, which was a mistake.

Bob

 

[johnny108]

What is the best method for curing them?
Are they low sugar, making them similar to burley for the right curing method?
I can’t imagine a wild plant having enough sugar that flue curing would be ideal.
Sun curing, maybe?
They seem to need to be dead ripe for curing to work, and avoid off flavors- Is there any literature on their enzymic activity?
What non-Rustica strains of tobacco are hard to cure, and are the problems similar?

 

[Alpine]

1- air cure
2- yes, they are low in sugar (nearly none, I dare to say)
3- yes, the riper (is it a word???) the better
4- I have limited experience, but none of the (admittedly few) N. tabacum I grew has been harder to cure than a rustica
@JessicaNicot all things rustica:

Assessment of the Diversity and Disease Resistance Properties within a Collection of Nicotiana rustica.

repository.lib.ncsu.edu

Taken from here:

High yield N. rustica varieties

This year I grew a Turkish variety of N. rustica called Hasankeyf. Although I'm quite happy with the results, it's better to have a high yielder variety. So a question for the N. rustica growers : which varieties of N. rustica yield high ?

fairtradetobacco.com

pier