Saving lost season (harvesting and drying late)

[Libor]

One should not do the same mistake again. I did. Once again I used supermarket potting soil for seedlings. By coincidence we had very strange spring here, so I thought that the weather is the reason, why the seedlings are dying. When the bag of commercial potting soil was empty I started last few seeds in my own soil - those grown normally. Deja vu. Few years ago I promised to myself never to do the same stupid thing. When I am late with putting plants outside, everything goes wrong, slugs are already big enough to damage plants, harvest is late and so is drying. That’s where I am now. I have only one matured plant, other few need about three weeks and the rest seem to be lost unless we have more than one month above 0 C (32F).



The thing that scares me the most is flesh drying. I always had problem drying leafs in lower temperature. Average November temperature here is 14 - 18 C ( 57 - 64 F) daytime and 4 - 8 C (39 - 46 F) night. Do you have any ideas?

I can use attic,


or the barn which is more humid, but have better air circulation if I leave door open. I can add electric fan in the attic and in the barn



Another option is to take this thing on the picture bellow into the house and hang it under the ceiling (right now there is about 70 F and 57% RH), there is fireplace in the room, leafs will have 20 - 35 C (68 - 95 F) depending on how high I hang it (another problem is that there is hair flying everywhere as there is borzoi dog living in the house) .




or I can use curing box that we are going to build tomorrow. The last option is smoking chamber outside the house if I only can smoke it very very lightly.

Another thing I want to ask is piling, could someone tell me few words about it? When I harvest the leafs, I let them rest for 24 - 48 hours in boxes, then it is easier for the needle to go through the stem before hanging them on the string. Do you think that I will have better chance to get right colour if I pile them up inside the house in room temperature for longer time, break the pile and build it again every second day or so? I did it once, I think that it was also late in autumn. If I remember well, I was putting aside and hanging the leafs that started to change colour to yellow.

I forgot to say that I will harvest mostly Adonis possibly some Goose Creek. a I also have two plants of Shirey that I want to dry quickly in curing box. With Adonis and Goose Creek I hope to get taste similar to zware tobacco or dark french cigarettes.

Thanks for any idea.

 

[ChinaVoodoo]

Sounds frustrating this year. My suggestion is to pile the leaves in cardboard boxes and bring them into the house where it is warm. Rotate the leaves in the boxes every day or two. Remove anything that is yellow and hang it in the warmest most dry place. If it's still too cool, or wet, hang in the kiln and run it a between 110° - 125° until they dry. You may run out of space waiting for the stems to dry, so if that's the case, you can take it out, hang it in the sun and run the next batch. It won't matter if it's freezing if the leaves have already cured. You can also remove the ribs if you weren't planning on smoking them.

 

[ChinaVoodoo]

The fireplace room is an option with leaves that have already yellowed, if you are running the fireplace every day.

 

[ChinaVoodoo]

The smoking box will not add as much smoke flavour as you might think.

Overall, I think you have a number of options and that you can relax. Just don't hang leaves unless they are mostly yellow.

 

[Libor]

Thanks for all replies. I will do piling in the house and then move it to do kiln. This year I have so few plants that there should be no problem with space.

The smoking box will not add as much smoke flavour as you might think.

I saw pictures of your fire curing box in your thread. Respect. My hands are both left. What I did with some late harvested leafs last year was this. I hanged them in meat smoking chamber built by my father back in 1980s, some leafs yellowing, most were still green, filled rest of the chamber with some chillies and made small fire every afternoon, I was adding wood till midnight and opened the door at the morning and left the autumn fog humidity come in . This I was doing more than one month. Now I add just 10 - 15 % of these leafs to my cigarette tobacco mixture and it smells s bit like Hollandish Van Nelle tobacco.
I was lucky that I started the experiment in right time of the year. Autumn humidity helped I guess.

 

[Libor]

China, I just got pictures from my friend (now in Mexico, hope he will bring me some tobacco from there). He took some photos last year:

This is where the tobacco shown on pictures above was made, you see the colour - yellow and green. The picture was taken surely a week after beginning of the experiment may be more. It was very very slow process with temperature like 30C , 40 max.








I know that even worse leafs can achieve proper colour in smoking chamber, but I don't want to have all my tobacco with so strong smokey taste. For me the fire chamber is the last option for non matured leafs harvested very late. If I will have some nice leafs this year, I will do it the way you and people here proposed. Thanks for assuring me that I can make something this year, since the spring time it seemed as the worst season I ever had. Not only tobacco, other plants as well. We had really strange spring in this part of Europe.

 

[deluxestogie]

since the spring time it seemed as the worst season I ever had. Not only tobacco, other plants as well. We had really strange spring...

The same here in southwest Virginia.

Bob

 

[Libor]

Yes Bob, everything gone to hell, rotten tomatoes, rotten chillies, nearly no apples , no plums. Only vegetable that were absolutely happy this year were pumpkins.
And it is not just the garden, nearby forest is dying as well. Pine trees, spruces, European larch, cherry trees in gardens. Sad view.

 

[deluxestogie]

When the circumpolar jet stream wobbles here, it wobbles there as well.

Bob

 

[Libor]

If it's still too cool, or wet, hang in the kiln and run it a between 110° - 125° until they dry.

Is it possible to do it slower on lower temperature? The taste I want to achieve should resemble Gitanes or Galoises cigarettes or dark blend of tobacco. GCR or Adonis that I liked the most were usually drying slowly into very dark colour, on the other side when I was drying in the attic late in summer and leafs were drying quickly into lighter colours, they tasted good also, but it was not what I was looking for.

 

[Libor]

When the circumpolar jet stream wobbles here, it wobbles there as well.

100 F that they had in northern Siberia this spring is everything but normal.

 

[Libor]

Normally I would take this plant, but we have no tradition of tobacco growing in this country, may be I am doing it wrong all that years. What is your opinion. Is this little Adonis ready?

 

[deluxestogie]

For air-curing, the plants in the photos appear mature enough to harvest.

Bob

 

[Knucklehead]

This is a photo of a mature leaf. I prime for cigars at about this stage. (I’m guessing Bob does, too. I stole his photo )



Mature to ripe leaf. For cigarettes, I start priming here all the way to fully ripe for variety or outright laziness. I try not to get too excited. For cigarettes I prefer to be late rather than early.



Ripe leaf.



Tobacco getting over ripe thread by a commercial tobacco farmer.

https://fairtradetobacco.com/threads/tobacco-getting-over-ripe.7611/post-139485

 

[Libor]

Ok I will wait few more days and start with lower leafs. Thanks for the link, this is what I needed to know. My desire was to make something close to dark rolling tobacco, the info more ripe = darker and more intense is priceless. Thanks.

 

[Libor]

What a successful season! Anybody knows what disease is this? It started on lower leafs. Should I take all healthy leafs earlier? I have some plants with tops removed just about a week ago, if I take those, I will have at least something... Thanks for any reply.

 

[Knucklehead]

Check these images against what you are seeing. It’s hard for me to tell. If it is blue mold you can cut a stalk and look for a darkened area of tissue.

Blue Mold | Burley Tobacco Extension

Systemic blue mold can be severely damaging to plants after an outbreak shortly after transplanting. Infected plants may not show symptoms of systemic blue mold until later as plants attempt to grow. Plants will appear stunted and will yellow. These plants will not be productive. A cut through...

burleytobaccoextension.ca.uky.edu

blue mold Peronospora tabacina D.B. Adam

 

[ChinaVoodoo]

I think it looks like regular mottling, a sign of ripeness. It's supposed to be this way.

 

[deluxestogie]

My initial impression was that it was normal. As I study the photos again, the affected area at 6 o'clock in the second photo appears to be distinctly asymmetrical. I can't put a diagnosis on it.

Bob

 

[Libor]

It kills small young plants much faster than ripe ones (2nd picture). Affected leaf is crunchy when dried in comparison with normal healthy leather-like leaf (at same humidity level). I had the same disease in the garden previously, although I am rotating crops, but it was never so bad as this year, usually I lost just few leafs. It is very late in season, the soil is wet all the time, there are pumpkins with mold on their leafs just beside the tobacco.
One more thing: It affects Adonis but not Shirey.