I am very new to this and need some help. I harvested these leaves about two weeks ago and this is what they look like now. My question is what is the deal with the brown on it? I’m concerned I harvested too green. I’m ok if they aren’t salvageable as this is my first go. Thanks for your help folks.
Help with drying leaves
- Thread starter Pharmguy
- Start date
- Status
POGreen
Well-Known Member
That does not look very good , are all the leaves like that ?
I don't think they are salvageable , just get rid of them and come back next in full swing.
You have to cure the leaves in flue air or suncure them or you can build a kiln , see to that you know this til next year.
Have a look around you here in FTT , I'm am sure you will find loads of information.
Welcome to the forum
I don't think they are salvageable , just get rid of them and come back next in full swing.
You have to cure the leaves in flue air or suncure them or you can build a kiln , see to that you know this til next year.
Have a look around you here in FTT , I'm am sure you will find loads of information.
Welcome to the forum
Last edited:
Welcome to the forum, @Pharmguy. Feel free to introduce yourself in the Introduce Yourself forum.
I can't really tell what I'm looking at in the photo. May be trash. May be just in the process of curing. What variety of tobacco is that?
You should be in the process of "color-curing", rather than "drying". Regardless, if it has never fully dried, I would just let it keep going, to see what it looks like when cured. If it has actually dried like that, then it is trash.
Bob
I can't really tell what I'm looking at in the photo. May be trash. May be just in the process of curing. What variety of tobacco is that?
You should be in the process of "color-curing", rather than "drying". Regardless, if it has never fully dried, I would just let it keep going, to see what it looks like when cured. If it has actually dried like that, then it is trash.
Bob
ChinaVoodoo
Moderator
Your curing area is probably not humid enough. Until it turns yellow, it should be between 70%&75%
POGreen
Well-Known Member
They will probably never cure/yellow/brown , how many plants do you have ?
Last edited:
Is that under a porch? Have you been getting a lot of rain? If so, that may be the beginning of rot but I’m guessing in the dark. What are the cure conditions? At what stage of maturity did you prime the leaf? What variety? What is the end use, cigars, cigarettes, etc? The reason I’m asking about the end use, I prime cigar leaf when they are mature, but let cigarette leaf go longer until they are ripe, rugose, and mostly yellow. What are the black looking dots on the back side of the leaf?
I prime cigar leaf at about this stage. This is a mature leaf.
This is a mature to ripe leaf, for cigarettes I start priming at this stage or wait for even more yellow.
edit: photos courtesy of Deluxestogie.
I prime cigar leaf at about this stage. This is a mature leaf.
This is a mature to ripe leaf, for cigarettes I start priming at this stage or wait for even more yellow.
edit: photos courtesy of Deluxestogie.
That does not look very good , are all the leaves like that ?
I don't think they are salvageable , just get rid of them and come back next in full swing.
You have to cure the leaves in flue air or suncure them or you can build a kiln , see to that you know this til next year.
Have a look around you here in FTT , I'm am sure you will find loads of information.
Welcome to the forum
Yes, they are all like that with varying amount of brown. I wasn’t exactly sure where to hang them. I took a guess, wrongly apparently, hanging them under deck. I tried to read as much as possible, but I am more of a hands on learner. I am actually shocked I made it this far. I am gonna try again next year making changes I learned this year. This may be a dumb question, but what is “flue” air?
I think the root problem is harvesting too green. Next year will be better.
I had 3 plants. They have all been hung, so it’ll be next year to try another method.
Be sure to check out the New Growers' FAQ, and browse through the Index of Key Forum Threads (both linked in the menu bar). Flue-curing is a method used to take green leaves to fully cured in 5 to 7 days, using a chamber with ramping temperature (finally up to 165°F), in order to produce flue-cured leaf--cigarette or pipe tobacco leaf. Flue-curing is not used for cigar varieties (because it doesn't work).
The tobacco variety matters.
Bob
The tobacco variety matters.
Bob
Yes under my deck. No, no rain the entire time and that part is covered upper deck anyway. Cure conditions are temps between 40-90 and I have no idea the exact humidity. I’m finding out I should have hung in an alternate location based off other comments. Priming, I assume, means pulled from stem and it looked very similar to the top picture ish, but apparently too green. The variety is Virgina gold and the end goal is pipe and cigarettes. Cigars seem too complicated for me at this stage. I don’t know what the black dots are. Some leaves have them some don’t. I assume it’s damage from aphids since I had a little bit of a problem around transfer to ground. Which I was also going to ask about, any good sprays or methods for removing them? Thanks for all the specific questions. I am really seeking help and should have probably joined forum earlier. Next year will hopefully be better.
Depending on your weather conditions, hanging under the deck could be fine as long as temps and humidity are right for curing. Some guys get the perfect curing conditions, other guys have to manipulate the conditions and create their own mini climate. I cure in my shop but during rains I have to plan ahead and close the doors before the humidity shoots up and turn on a fan to help air circulation. If it is dry I close the doors during the day to prevent the shop from getting too dry inside and open the doors at night to allow the more humid air inside. Your weather may be the opposite.
They aren’t dry yet, but I think I’m going to trash anyway. I think I’m confused on what method I need to use for curing in my circumstance. I don’t have an outbuilding of any kind. I don’t know where would be the best place to hang them to cure.
A hygrometer or weather station is handy for curing season. My humidity goes up and down, so where I live it’s a must have.
I wouldn’t trash them yet, sometimes they go through some weird curing changes. Most of my leaf goes from green to yellow to brown, but I have seen some that just go from green to brown. Hang in there and see what happens.
If it is too dry, the leaf will dry out completely while it is still green. Tastes like crap and you can pretty much mulch it then.
Ideally, on most varieties and conditions, you want to keep the leaf alive and let it turn yellow, at which point it can go ahead and turn brown and dry out. But I have seen leaf go from green to brown with a hint of yellow here and there, so don’t give up just yet. Right now, you just want to keep it from drying green or having such high humidity that the leaf rots.
Last edited:
Flue curing gets a little confusing from the get go, due to the fact that flue curing is a curing method, but it is also a class of tobacco most folks know as Virginia Tobacco, or Flue Cured Tobacco. It is a market class.
I started out air curing my Flue Cured varieties (Virginia’s) as you are doing and it’s okay that way, but I then started sun curing my Flue Cure varieties the same way that Orientals (Turkish) are traditionally cured and I prefer them sun cured over air cured because the sugars are trapped? and the leaf tastes sweeter. Not quite as sweet as if it were flue cure processed, but more so than air cured. There are some home built curing box thread here on the forum. They can also double as kilns, which is basically speed curing the already cured leaf by maintaining the ideal aging conditions for a couple months, instead of naturally aging in fits and starts which can take years. It’s not as confusing as I make it sound, but I don’t make it that way on purpose either. Lol.
I really want someone to say which variety to get when to pull leaf and what I need to do after. It seems like there are “a million ways to skin a cat” here.
Yultanman
Well-Known Member
I had some air cured Virginia gold come out like that. A little darker than id like but it was smokeable. After 6 weeks in a jar at 125f once it was all brown it even the bits of green left. Its very dry here so I attributed it to my misting the leaves to slow the drying. I wouldnt give up.
The image is the final product in a jar. Everyone who tested it thought it was good
The image is the final product in a jar. Everyone who tested it thought it was good
Attachments
It’s been kinda hot, upper 80’s, here the last few days. Should I mist them with water? I don’t have a real way to measure humidity.
Yultanman
Well-Known Member
Try not to let them dry green. I cant say if misting is the best idea but it worked ok for me. Its better than a green leaf i guess.
Im a first year grower so im learning too
Im a first year grower so im learning too
- Status
