2backhoe kiln

[TwoBackHoes]

The mohawk and rustica are not for smoking ... tried it anyway and its spicy on the tongue, rustica is rather pungent and doesnt cure to brown more of a deep green or olive. Mohawk will brown and is a heavy flavor and high nicotine...all my seeds came from victory seeds

 

[deluxestogie]

Good Luck.

Bob

 

[Knucklehead]

So here is the curing after color. The Stems are drying down, these have been in for about 2 days. So this is a small deep freezer that Ive got a crock pot in the bottom of it, setting on fire bricks with a dutch oven w lid inside of the crock warmer. Lid has a small hole in it to let steam out. I cant really hang leaves in this small space so Im using metal baskets. Only issue is obviously the leaves are piled into the baskets. I inspect the leaves for mold with a 100x usb scope and have not found any from this setup. I did find some on stems in the hanging closet that were tied together tightly. Only 3 small leaves but still. I open the the curing freezer daily and move the leaves around and inspect them. I read some ppl say never to open them at all. I do because im worried if i dont it may mold. Any advice would be greatly appreciated.

Mold won't be a problem above 122F. You can open the door anytime during kilning. It's flue curing that you can't open the door after the yellowing phase. It sounds like things are going well. Keep us posted. Good job.

 

[Alpine]

If your rusticas didn’t turn brown, they were harvested too soon. Since rusticas grow and reach the flowering stage so quickly, most people think that the leaves can be harvested after a couple of weeks after blooming. Wrong. Rusticas should be harvested when the leaves show signs of maturity or, even better, when they begin to ripe (I.e. begin to turn yellow while still on the plant). And this requires a month or more after flowering (and, of course, a lot of patience LOL).
If properly harvested and cured, rustica leaves cure anywhere between copper color to very dark brown, nearly black. This depends on the strain and the ambient humidity, as well as temperature during the cure.

pier

 

[TwoBackHoes]

Mold won't be a problem above 122F. You can open the door anytime during kilning. It's flue curing that you can't open the door after the yellowing phase. It sounds like things are going well. Keep us posted. Good job.

What happens if you do open it after yellowing?

 

[TwoBackHoes]

If your rusticas didn’t turn brown, they were harvested too soon. Since rusticas grow and reach the flowering stage so quickly, most people think that the leaves can be harvested after a couple of weeks after blooming. Wrong. Rusticas should be harvested when the leaves show signs of maturity or, even better, when they begin to ripe (I.e. begin to turn yellow while still on the plant). And this requires a month or more after flowering (and, of course, a lot of patience LOL).
If properly harvested and cured, rustica leaves cure anywhere between copper color to very dark brown, nearly black. This depends on the strain and the ambient humidity, as well as temperature during the cure.

pier

Im sure they are ripe. Its been over 100 days and theyve been flowering nearly the whole time. They wont yellow and theyve already been through the first frost and still trucking along like nothing happened. Ill show you some leaves ...

 

[deluxestogie]

What happens if you do open it after yellowing?

The portions of lamina or secondary stem that have already fully dried when you open the door will suck moisture out of the abruptly cooled air, and cause the flue-cure to become uneven (i.e. some patches yellow, some patches brown, some patches puffy red).

Bob

 

[TwoBackHoes]

 

[TwoBackHoes]

The portions of lamina or secondary stem that have already fully dried when you open the door will suck moisture out of the abruptly cooled air, and cause the flue-cure to become uneven (i.e. some patches yellow, some patches brown, some patches puffy red).

Bob

Ok yea I got that on all of mine so far.

 

[TwoBackHoes]

See the one leaf that has yellow stripes... i mean all of mine looks patchy. Good to know ive still got some more to cure Ill see if i can avoid it with those....

The mach1 a buddy picked up for me he found in a thrift store for 100$ works nicely, makes a thick rough cut, after a couple passes its about where I like it. Works well, not sure if Id pay 450$ for a new one though.

Im not a cigar rolling guy but this is what Im smoking on rn. Im sure as I get better at this craft Ill be more picky but for now Im more than happy with how things turned out. Looking forward to trying some new flavors and curing methods. Thanks to everyone who helped!

 

[TwoBackHoes]

The portions of lamina or secondary stem that have already fully dried when you open the door will suck moisture out of the abruptly cooled air, and cause the flue-cure to become uneven (i.e. some patches yellow, some patches brown, some patches puffy red).

Bob

One thing about it though is the ambient air is super dry here most of the time. We had 7% rh a while back which sucks the water outta everything. I think 30-35% RH is average here. Over closer to the coast its a wet beast.

 

[deluxestogie]

Relative humidity is dependent on temperature. It's a measure of how close to saturation with water vapor the current mass of air happens to be at its current temperature. A dry day becomes a dew-covered morning when the same mass of air (with the same water content) is cooled enough. The absence of sunlight allows the air temperature to fall enough for the RH to approach 100%.

Suddenly dropping the temperature inside a flue-cure chamber by 20°F can easily double the relative humidity within the chamber.

Bob

 

[TwoBackHoes]

My RH during color cure is too high to begin with running at 70-90%

 

[TwoBackHoes]

Then again i may be doing it all wrong. I need to brush up on my terminology.

 

[deluxestogie]

I'm sorry, but I now have no idea what we are discussing. Are you (?):

1. color-curing
2. kilning
3. flue-curing

Bob