Some leaf is curing green - can I reverse it?

[squeezyjohn]

Hi there - just had a bit of a worry with my small Rustica harvest which has been air curing in my greenhouse where the watering of the plant beds keeps the RH in the right kind of territory.

I noticed that at one end of a wire of hanging leaves that I had some that were definitely not curing brown all the way - quite patchy with some bits still quite green - this seemed to correlate with a draft hole in the greenhouse I'd not noticed. These rustica leaves don't really yellow - they just go straight to brown although there are sometimes patches which stay green where the leaf curls in on itself.

My question is - now I have plugged up the holes. Is there anything I can do to stop the leaf staying green forever? And is it normal for there patches of dark brown/green to remain on the part of the leaf that naturally folds in on itself when it curls. This leaf was picked slightly under-ripe and is about a month in to the process.

Cheers

Squeezy

 

[darren1979]

Is the leaf fully dried out? crispy to the touch. If its still flexible then id let nature take its coarse and not worry too much, but if the leaf its crispy and the mid rib has dried then the green patches will stay im afraid theres not a lot that can be done.

 

[squeezyjohn]

Not crispy - but goes in and out of case like the others but stays pretty green. I'm afraid tht the draft has dried it too fast - but I will continue to hang it with the rest and hope for the best.

Thanks for the help.

Squeezy

 

[Boboro]

If it ant to green I'd put a caseing on it an mix with it.

 

[Chicken]

could you post some pic's.

so we know what type of '' green '' your referring to,

 

[BigBonner]

Green house the sun will be stronger and will sun burn tobacco quickly . When tobacco sun burns the green will set in.With Most tobacco the green never comes out from the burn .Burley tobacco is one that will let the green out after a long period of time . I would avoid curing tobacco in the sun unless it is a sun cure type of tobacco .

In early spring it will be cold outside and inside my green house it will be warm . It will give you a sun burn tan to.

 

[squeezyjohn]

Here are some pics of what it's looking like:



I was worried about the sun burn thing - but this summer here in the UK there has been hardly any sun! I'm not sure that's what has happened. Maybe someone can tell me if it looks like it just hasn't colour cured fully yet.

The thing is, this is my first year's attempt at growing & curing and currently the greenhouse is the best option for me as it's the only place I have with the correct kind of humidity - everything in my shed was drying to a crisp in a few days without thinking of changing colour - and I have no electricity supply to get in to altering these things.

The other thing to bear in mind is that the season here has been so slow, cold and wet that I'm pretty sure that the tobacco is really under-ripe when picked - so I would imagine it is going to be harder to cure than if it was yellowing/browning on the plant to start with.

Thanks for all your help so far

Squeezy

 

[johnlee1933]

That looks pretty much like the way my leaves look part way thru color cure. How long have they been hanging? What are the temp/humidity averages in the green house?
You say the leaf in your shed dries too fast and comment on no sun and lots of rain. I don't understand as those conditions usually produce mold not sum burning.

John

 

[squeezyjohn]

Hi John - they've been there about a month and the temperatures in the days have been around 15 - 25 degrees C (that's between 60 and 80 in Farenheit) - I haven't got a hygrometer in the greenhouse - but it feels like about 40-50% in the daytimes and 70% at nights.

The reason the shed dries things to a crisp is because it has holes and drafts everywhere and is on a very windy site where the winds whistles through the thing! Also with the sort of low temperatures we've been having here - the humidity doesn't go up as fast as it would in a hot climate when it rains. The British weather is odd - it changes very often compared to continental climates.

Anyway - thanks for the advice on how they look - I think that they're maybe just curing really slowly as the temperature has been low at the end of summer and I'm not heating artificially.

Cheers

Squeezy

 

[johnlee1933]

Some of mine have been hanging six weeks and are still a bit green in the stems. I sure won't tie hands of them for storage yet. Do you plan on kilning at all? If so you can put those with green stems in the kiln. Otherwise just let them do their thing. In a year or so you'll have a passable smoke.

John

 

[squeezyjohn]

That's good to know!

No - I won't be kilning as I want to develop a way of air-curing. I'm not in a rush and can let stuff hang in the shed forever once it's colour cured (then I can plug up all the holes

I am going to experiment with a few of the rustica leaves before they're fully colour cured making a few ropes of twist for chewing.

Cheers

Squeezy