Some questions in the process of Grow/Curing

[Dreamsoul]

Hi people

First of all a big thanks to everyone that write and made the grow blogs , i read a lot of them and learn somethings.

This year I intend to grow some tobacco plants for the first time and i have two or three doubts.

In some grow blogs that i read sometimes the process start to be a little complicated , i intend to do something simple and not take me too much time.

In Portugal the spring came in end of March, normally the temperatures in the day will go to 16/17º Celsius degrees, the sumer came in end of June the temperatures in the day will go to 25/30º Celsius degrees.

So i think January will be the perfect time to seed right ?

I saw in some blogs that use artificial light , and i don't intend to do that , i have two greenhouses where i have orchids , and now i have one empty , its made in cement and bricks and the roof semi transparent polyester plate, and have more or less 30 square meters .

The light that pass trow the plate will be enough ? The temperature inside of the greenhouse its enough to keep the orchids in good health and as you know they are relative fragile so i thinks that will fit the tobacco needs, right ?

Other doubt that i have is about curing/aging the leafs, i get from my supplier of leafs some seeds from the leafs that I'm used to smoke, the bag of seeds had written Virginia K236 bright, i discover that is a flue cured variate, i don't have a kiln and its in my plans to build one , my question is could i use the greenhouse to cure the leafs ? Just hanging the leafs and put bucket of water inside to keep humidity? The temperature in summer inside of the greenhouse will go to 30º Celsius degree or more.

About the soil , i intend to transplant the plants in march or april because its more or less the time that i plant the potatoes , for the preparation of the soil i use manure of horse and cow, so if it is good for potatoes it will be good for the tobacco right ?

Like i said in the beginning , i want to keep it simple , maybe in the next grow i could made some improvements , but this year its a test run, do you think that can run well ?

Sorry for my bad English.

 

[Knucklehead]

The greenhouse should do fine for starting seeds, and for curing as long as you can keep the humidity around an average of 70RH. Flue cure varieties can be flue cured, air cured, or sun cured. The sweetness of sun cured flue cure varieties will fall somewhere between that of flue cured and air cured. I have good success sun curing mine.

 

[DGBAMA]

If simplicity is a goal for the first year, a light burley like Yellow Twist Bud, Gold Burley, or Harrow Velvet might be a good choice. They lend themselves well to stalk curing instead of priming and smoke well with minimal aging.

 

[DGBAMA]

As Knucks said, sun curing is fairly easy. String leaves and hang in greenhouse until mostly yellow, then move to full sun to dry/finish.

 

[Dreamsoul]

Thanks Knucklehead and DGBAMA for the reply.

About other type of seeds its not very easy to get , and i like this type of leaf, i smoke this type more than a year and for me its perfect.

About the sun curing i never thought in this method , i will investigate.


Something i was thinking about the curing is try to isolate the better i can the windows and door of the greenhouse , put a bucket of water inside with a towel hanged touching the water , and maybe using one heater like the one in photo to help the temperature go higher and help the air circulate .