Stalk curing orientals?

[DGBAMA]

Anyone tried stalk curing orientals types?

My Prilep is a short and dense plant, and seems to be maturing quite evenly top to bottom, considering hanging them whole instead of priming to save labor of stringing each leaf.

 

[bonehead]

i stalk harvested some of my yenidje last year and it cured much darker than the leaves that i primed. i tried a corncob full and it still tasted ok but not as flavorful as the primed leaves.

 

[FmGrowit]

You should be able to stalk cure those with no trouble at all.

Wanna work out a trade for some flowers? I'm having some cigars made for some of the girls in the neighborhood and want to put some tobacco flowers in for them.

 

[DGBAMA]

You should be able to stalk cure those with no trouble at all.

Wanna work out a trade for some flowers? I'm having some cigars made for some of the girls in the neighborhood and want to put some tobacco flowers in for them.

Funny, I was thinking this evening that the super dense flower heads would make collecting flowers in quantity almost practical. Would be happy to save them for you.

 

[deluxestogie]

I have had excellent results sun-curing several varieties of stalk-cut orientals. I twist some aluminum wire on the base of each stalk, to form a hook. I hung them on the clothes line, and brought them into the shed whenever rain threatened. I've done that with Prilep, Cyprus Oriental, Cyprus Latakia and Xanthi-yaka.

Bob

 

[FmGrowit]

Yeah, you guys with that thick southern air can probably sun cure pretty successfully.

DG, a quart baggie will be plenty.

 

[DGBAMA]

I have had excellent results sun-curing several varieties of stalk-cut orientals. I twist some aluminum wire on the base of each stalk, to form a hook. I hung them on the clothes line, and brought them into the shed whenever rain threatened. I've done that with Prilep, Cyprus Oriental, Cyprus Latakia and Xanthi-yaka.

Bob

Thanks Bob, these appear to be a perfect candidate, leaves are thickening and lightening fairly evenly for the whole plant instead of the bottom leaves maturing first like most varieties. Think I will give it a go, hang em in the greenhouse.

 

[DGBAMA]

Yeah, you guys with that thick southern air can probably sun cure pretty successfully.

DG, a quart baggie will be plenty.

Don, I'm sure I can make that happen.

I'm a Sucker for a dark cigar, so maybe a sample of Maduro wrapper in exchange? Or whatever you think is fair.

 

[Jitterbugdude]

I stalk cure 100% of all my Orientals. I've not noticed any difference between priming them and stalk curing.

 

[ProfessorPangloss]

I stalk cure 100% of all my Orientals. I've not noticed any difference between priming them and stalk curing.

Except all the ass-in-chair time you get while you're not priming a few thousand leaves?

 

[Jitterbugdude]

Well the funny thing is this year I made a sun curing chamber that I will be curing (via priming) about 30 Hickory Pryor plants. I'm going to prime a couple of Turkish (Bucak and Kavala) and sun cure them just for fun.

 

[ProfessorPangloss]

Are there pics of this in another thread? How does one make a chamber that is also sunny? It's rained so damn much/often over here that if I were sun curing anything, it'd be all rotted. Are you combating the same problem?

 

[deluxestogie]

Any transparent plastic sheet, set up like a dining fly or dining canopy, can be used to sun-cure primed or stalk-cut tobacco, and will prevent exposure to rain, while allowing the leaf to catch all those photons. High humidity actually assists in allowing the leaf to cure, instead of immediately drying to green (the biggest risk of sun-curing).

Bob

 

[ProfessorPangloss]

Any transparent plastic sheet, set up like a dining fly or dining canopy, can be used to sun-cure primed or stalk-cut tobacco, and will prevent exposure to rain, while allowing the leaf to catch all those photons. High humidity actually assists in allowing the leaf to cure, instead of immediately drying to green (the biggest risk of sun-curing).

Bob

So this is why people use greenhouse-type structures as curing sheds? So if you covered your greenhouse in shade cloth or dark tarp, it'd be regular old air-curing, but the same environment opened to light would constitute sun curing? If I'm getting that right, that's pretty handy for the layperson, because a greenhouse is not very expensive and is very useful for things other than tobacco. Whereas a flue-curing chamber...not so much.

 

[DGBAMA]

I stalk cure 100% of all my Orientals. I've not noticed any difference between priming them and stalk curing.

How do you decide when to cut them? Certain amount of yellowing? After flowering is done? Etc?

 

[CT Tobaccoman]

Someone posted the idea of pre-fermenting oriental and flue cured primed leaves to get a jump on the yellow color by placing leaves in opaque plastic bags after picking for a day or longer to let the leaves get yellow before curing them. Obviously there would be danger of mold or rot so this would have to be watched carefully. I'll be trying it

 

[Jitterbugdude]

I wait about 3 weeks after bloom then I snap a lower leaf. It if snaps like celery I cut the whole stalk down.

 

[FmGrowit]

I had a successful sun cure of primed Turkish by keeping the sticks close to the ground without any cover...of course, I had to bring the sticks in every night. If the leaves start getting too dry before they color cure, all you have to do is dump a bucket of water on the ground under the sticks.

Many tobacco classes (types) are actually the curing method used for that variety. Flue Cured, Sun Cured, Air Cured, Perique (I think we defined that as a process) etc.

 

[deluxestogie]

Some tobacco varieties mature fairly uniformly after topping (e.g. CT Broadleaf). Others don't. While for most cigar wrapper, you really need to prime leaves at a specific degree of maturity, for cigar filler and for many Orientals, you don't have to be as picky. My determination of when to stalk harvest is based on the balance between losing the bottom leaf to deterioration vs. losing tip leaf because of marked immaturity (keeping in mind that the tip leaf will continue to mature while hanging on the stalk). Since I prefer to harvest all the stalks of a particular variety at the same time, I just eyeball the plants for maturity of the group as a whole, regardless of dates or timing or topping dates.

In terms of stalk-harvesting saving work, it really just shifts the task of stripping the leaf from summer to winter.

Bob

 

[DGBAMA]

Bob and JBD, both good input. Thank you.

I stalk cured some last year and found striping cured stalks straight to a storage tote for kilning much less labor intensive than priming and stringing each leaf, less labor is good, inferior finished baccy is not.