Pasi's Grow Log 2026

[Pasiasiainen]

I started wondering if it would be possible to sun-cure Samsun Maden with artificial light, or whether sunlight even plays a major role in sun curing, rather than simply acting as a source of heat.
I have no use for my flue-curing chamber this season, as I’m not growing any flue-cured varieties, so I started thinking about whether I could transform it into an artificial sun-curing chamber.

I have a few retired, fairly powerful T5 desert reptile lights, although they have lost some of their strength after about a year of use. (https://arcadiareptile.com/lighting/lamps/desert/). If I placed one or two of them inside the chamber, I would have good control over temperature, humidity, and airflow, while also adding UVB and UVA radiation.

With this setup I wouldn’t need to worry about rainy days or the leaves flash-drying.

Any thoughts — to try or not to try?

 

[Alpine]

Sun cure is the poor man’s flue cure. If you have a flue cure chamber then use it to cure your Samsun, the end result will be sweeter than Sun cured.

pier

 

[Wombat_smokes]

I would say give it a try. Flue cure a portion as a control group and "artificially" sun cure the other.

 

[Pasiasiainen]

Sun cure is the poor man’s flue cure. If you have a flue cure chamber then use it to cure your Samsun, the end result will be sweeter than Sun cured.

pier

Do you know what kind of flue-curing process should be used for orientals? As I understand it, I should be aiming for brown leaves, so I assume it can’t follow the same schedule, temperatures, and humidity levels as flue-curing Virginia tobacco.
Do I remember correctly that @deluxestogie has flue-cured orientals? How did you do it and what was the result like?

 

[Pasiasiainen]

I would say give it a try. Flue cure a portion as a control group and "artificially" sun cure the other.

Yep, this experiment is definitely starting to interest me. I could even do it so that I make one batch sun-cured, one flue-cured, and one flue-cured with UV lights added.
The only downside is that I don’t have very many plants to make proper test batches from...

 

[deluxestogie]

Do I remember correctly that @deluxestogie has flue-cured orientals? How did you do it and what was the result like?

Your memory is correct. I followed the same schedule as I would use for Virginia. The result was bright yellow leaf. It had the floral aroma of a cookie bakery. Other forum members who sampled it called it "tobacco candy." The result was lovely and interesting—and different from "traditional" Oriental sun-cured leaf.

With regard to heat vs. irradiation, I believe that there are significant photolysis reactions that occur during sun exposure. I have no way to quantify or even meaningfully qualify that.

Bob

 

[Pasiasiainen]

That sounds very interesting. Looks like this will be a flue-curing season after all. I think I’ll try traditional sun-curing and regular flue-curing, and think a bit more about that UV flue-curing idea.

 

[Wombat_smokes]

My abbreviated & paraphrased notes from how @deluxstogie flue cures:

Coloring Phase - hold between 95°F - 105°F (35°C - 40°C) until mostly yellow, but stem is still green

Wilt & Dry Leaf - raise temp & hold between 125°F - 130°F (50°C - 54°C)

Dry Stem - raise temp & hold at 165°F until stem is fully dried (74°C)

Bring back into low case for handling.

Increasing the time of the coloring or omitting the stem drying might give a more sun cured and less flue cured sugar levels. In other words, just kiln the leaves at 50°C after they colored to a good yellow until stems are dry. Add humidity if leaves dry before desired color is acheived.

 

[Pasiasiainen]

Yeah, that’s pretty much the same way as I did last year.
We’ll see how my Samsuns make it through the summer and what kind of harvest I’ll have available for curing.

 

[deluxestogie]

No paraphrasing. The yellowing temp should remain below 103°F.

Bob

 

[PvtPublic]

@deluxestogie
Did you flue cured your orientals on the stalk?

 

[deluxestogie]

Did you flue cured your orientals on the stalk?

I did not. The leaves were primed only as they showed initial signs of maturity (yellowish tip). All the leaves in a single batch were of similar maturation.

Aside from entire stalks not fitting within my chamber, the presence of the stalks would certainly complicate the flue-curing process.

Bob

 

[Pasiasiainen]

A frost front is coming very close next Wednesday-Thursday night. It seems to be very difficult to forecast the upcoming weather, as the forecasts have been changing a lot.



Need to start preparing for the cold nights with some protection. I’ll put on a double layer of frost cloth, and I’ve also heard that “paper hats” or cones made out of newspaper placed over the plants might help too. Some of my plants are still small enough to fit under that kind of shield.

 

[Pasiasiainen]

I should now be ready for the cold nights. I put a double layer of garden fleece over the plants. I also added whatever supports I could find to keep the fleece from touching the leaves, as there will be some fairly strong winds. The first time I covered the plants with fleece to protect them from the scorching sun, I noticed that a few leaves broke when the wind moved the fleece around and caused it to flap against the leaves.



I placed some weights (timber, metal rods, stones) around the edges to keep the fleece tightly against the ground or raised beds so cold air won’t linger underneath the cloth.

One thing still left to do is to wet the soil, as I’ve read that moist soil retains heat better, and that has traditionally been the way to protect against frost here. The soil just needs to be watered during the warm part of the day so it has time to absorb some heat beforehand. It should start raining tomorrow though, so I’ll see whether I need to do anything at all or if nature will take care of it for me. On the other hand, wet leaves and frost don’t sound like a very good combination. Well, it’s entirely possible that frost won’t even hit this particular spot, but at least I’ve now prepared for the worst.

 

[Pasiasiainen]

The cold front has moved away. I removed the covers, and as expected, there was no damage to the plants since the temperatures didn’t drop that low.
The lowest temperature was 4.1 C during the night, so fortunately there was no frost here. We did have two cold days with temperatures staying between 4 and 8 C. Hopefully that didn’t do too much harm for the plants.

It has now been 13 days since transplanting, and next week is expected to be 20–23 C, so I’m hoping growth to really take off.

All of the plants have survived transplanting surprisingly well. There has been no wilting, and some growth is already visible. Corojo 99 is the only one that seems to need a bit more time to adjust, as growth has been minimal so far.
Samsun Maden keeps growing nicely despite the cold weather. There’s a lot of pollen in the air at the moment, and the leaves are speckled with it.

 

[JukkaPekka]

Good looking plants!

 

[Pasiasiainen]

Good looking plants!

Thanks JP, things are looking good so far!