Gavroche
Well-Known Member
a solution ?... acide acetique ? vinegar ?
Squeezyjohn's 2016 grow
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a solution ?... acide acetique ? vinegar ?
Pardon me for suggesting this, but spit (saliva) contains the enzyme amylase, which will dissolve honeydew carbohydrates, and allow it to be rinsed off. Plain water alone doesn't rinse honeydew well. A dilute solution of distilled vinegar (50:50) will inhibit mold growth.
Bob
Bob
squeezyjohn
Well-Known Member
I love the idea of the thrice brewed snuff approach ... it could just work! It's at least worth a try as an experiment given that I'm already making a casing by reducing down boiled liquorice root extract.
squeezyjohn
Well-Known Member
That's it ... finally picked the last of the Bolivian Criollo Black a good 6 weeks after topping ... the plants are looking very bare now ... still trying to sucker like crazy though!
The grapes that grow around my drying shed have made a good harvest too!
Inside the shed it's still a bit congested! I've been drying in there since the end of August and have about 6-7 hands already brought in to the house fully colour cured. The only things left have been the later pickings of BCB and some stubborn leaves of Galician Original along with a huge amount of rustica which may or may not be usable!
So the leaves I picked today have been left to wilt for a couple of days and then they'll go on the last wire. I'm not overly confident that we will have the weather left to get them to colour cure fully ... but it's been a nice sunny and warm start to October here in the south of the UK ... really good curing weather!
My contigency plan for these if they don't brown before mould sets in is to strip them and make a carrotte or two ... snus made from carrotte fermented tobacco is very nice and nutty indeed!
The grapes that grow around my drying shed have made a good harvest too!
Inside the shed it's still a bit congested! I've been drying in there since the end of August and have about 6-7 hands already brought in to the house fully colour cured. The only things left have been the later pickings of BCB and some stubborn leaves of Galician Original along with a huge amount of rustica which may or may not be usable!
So the leaves I picked today have been left to wilt for a couple of days and then they'll go on the last wire. I'm not overly confident that we will have the weather left to get them to colour cure fully ... but it's been a nice sunny and warm start to October here in the south of the UK ... really good curing weather!
My contigency plan for these if they don't brown before mould sets in is to strip them and make a carrotte or two ... snus made from carrotte fermented tobacco is very nice and nutty indeed!
DistillingJim
Well-Known Member
Good to see success on the Bolivian Criollo. I'm thinking of growing some next year
squeezyjohn
Well-Known Member
It's a handsome plant jhand45 ... and it cures so easily compared to most varieties I've tried ... definitely one for the UK climate!
Gavroche
Well-Known Member
Hello SQ, your Bolivie criollo is a burley no ?
Closer to dark air type but not sure if the grin has classified out, but I'm 99% sure it's dark air.
. wrong thread woops
squeezyjohn
Well-Known Member
I've officially taken on another half-plot allotment adjoining my own ... which means double the growing space next year!
Pure luxury! I will be able to be less stingy with my spacing for next year's tobacco which I think may have caused some of my problems this year.
The new plot has been somewhat neglected by it's 93 year old previous inhabitant, quite understandably given he was suffering from Parkinsons. I've already strimmed the weed growth down to the ground ready to start digging the perennial roots up over the winter. There's potential for a little shed extension over the fence too ... at least a lean-to drying area would work well.
All exciting for 2017!
Pure luxury! I will be able to be less stingy with my spacing for next year's tobacco which I think may have caused some of my problems this year.
The new plot has been somewhat neglected by it's 93 year old previous inhabitant, quite understandably given he was suffering from Parkinsons. I've already strimmed the weed growth down to the ground ready to start digging the perennial roots up over the winter. There's potential for a little shed extension over the fence too ... at least a lean-to drying area would work well.
All exciting for 2017!
I would use the term, "fallow". Great news.
With more space, now you can contemplate crowding in a larger number of varieties.
Bob
That has to be big for those with allotments. Great news! Thanks for sharing.
squeezyjohn
Well-Known Member
Thanks Chicken ... but my allotment is seriously "off-grid" - no water except from the sky - no electricity ... I run some solar LEDs in the shed ... but they don't give off much heat! Maybe I should build a little smouldering fire in the middle with some local pine wood ... Latakia anyone?
squeezyjohn
Well-Known Member
I don't think "fallow" ground creates quite such a large quantity of weed seeds! I strimmed it to the ground and created a large bonfire pile but there's no way the seeds didn't fall off all over the ground. The soil here is so fertile that it will be a green carpet of growth the minute the spring warmth arrives!
I shouldn't complain ... our climate is temperate, wet and lush with great soil ... that just means that there are hundreds of other plants competing for the resources! And hundreds of creatures competing for the vegetables! It's kind of the opposite of a desert!
I shouldn't complain ... our climate is temperate, wet and lush with great soil ... that just means that there are hundreds of other plants competing for the resources! And hundreds of creatures competing for the vegetables! It's kind of the opposite of a desert!
squeezyjohn
Well-Known Member
Today is Halloween and today is the day I noticed my first mould on the hanging leaf. 90% of it is fully browned - but not all of the stalks have managed to dry out without the mould starting in the last couple of days so this last batch of Bolivian Criollo Black upper leaves is now lying around in the house to try and get the moisture levels down a bit. The plan for these is to make them in to some sort of carrotte type thing after stripping the stems (mouldy or not!) Last time I did this it was quite successful even though a fair amount of the leaf was yellow rather than brown.
Also coming in is all my hanging rustica just to be on the safe side. It is 95% brown although many of the biggest leaves of this 1000 year old tobacco still have a bright green stem! These will all be stripped and processed in to twist chew with any damaged or holey leaves being used to make a "thrice brewed snuff" type sauce as suggested by smokesahoy.
So I suppose that concludes the end of my 2016 Grow Blog - I think the weather has been a major disadvantage this year - but despite that I have more leaf than I have ever grown in one season. Time will tell what kind of quality it ends up being!
Also coming in is all my hanging rustica just to be on the safe side. It is 95% brown although many of the biggest leaves of this 1000 year old tobacco still have a bright green stem! These will all be stripped and processed in to twist chew with any damaged or holey leaves being used to make a "thrice brewed snuff" type sauce as suggested by smokesahoy.
So I suppose that concludes the end of my 2016 Grow Blog - I think the weather has been a major disadvantage this year - but despite that I have more leaf than I have ever grown in one season. Time will tell what kind of quality it ends up being!
riverstone
Well-Known Member
I had trouble drying the stems on the last of my leaf earlier this year (southern hemisphere) so I put cuts in the stalk lengthwise. This effectively makes the stalk have more surface area so dries quicker. Might help your problem as long as you haven't a massive pile to do.
I hear you about the green stems, the gc1 I grew had basically celery stalks for midribs. Since it will be oral I prioritized drying over color curing so no mold but the brown is a greenish brown.
My sun cured rustica was divine, I will be either building a flue cure box or sun curing it all next year. No comparison between the sun cured and the air cured, sun better in every way.
Next year I will be trying a different rustica though. A pumila not a Brasilia, with smooth leaves to hopefully address issues. It's twice the nic and half the size of the GC 1 according to Jessica's thesis, and for a discreet twist size matters so I want more in less material. Also the pictures of the leaves look like they will be easier to cure.
My sun cured rustica was divine, I will be either building a flue cure box or sun curing it all next year. No comparison between the sun cured and the air cured, sun better in every way.
Next year I will be trying a different rustica though. A pumila not a Brasilia, with smooth leaves to hopefully address issues. It's twice the nic and half the size of the GC 1 according to Jessica's thesis, and for a discreet twist size matters so I want more in less material. Also the pictures of the leaves look like they will be easier to cure.
squeezyjohn
Well-Known Member
Wow - that sounds like a good strain (what is it?). I agree huge leaves are hard to make small twists from and strength is very important although the tiny thick leaves I used for some early trials of the twist chew were tricky because of their texture.
I'm also intrigued by the sun curing effect ... sadly I only have a limited amount of sun to play with here ... so I use it all in the growing but if it ripened early enough I could attempt sun curing.
All of my rustica is a lovely dark brown apart from the green stems on some leaves ... however it smells horrendous at the moment ... like an unbathed arsehole ... I now know this is a normal part of curing the leaf and that smell will completely disappear over time ... but it's very off putting!
I'm also intrigued by the sun curing effect ... sadly I only have a limited amount of sun to play with here ... so I use it all in the growing but if it ripened early enough I could attempt sun curing.
All of my rustica is a lovely dark brown apart from the green stems on some leaves ... however it smells horrendous at the moment ... like an unbathed arsehole ... I now know this is a normal part of curing the leaf and that smell will completely disappear over time ... but it's very off putting!
squeezyjohn
Well-Known Member
Aside from the rustica ... a little note on the little written about Galician Original now it is cured and beginning to age:
The plants of this Galician Original grew very well and made tall 7-8 ft plants with good yielding large leaves of a glowing light green which yellowed to a very pale colour readily on the plant. They flowered at around 7 weeks from transplanting out.
Obviously this tobacco needs some ageing to really know what it will end up being like - and as I'm an oral tobacco user I can't comment on how it smokes. The colour I got from air-curing these leaves was a kind of red/orange rather than a brown ... some leaves appear almost fixed at the yellow stage in the centre and they look remarkably like a sun-cured oriental in colour. The leaf lamina is on the thin side - but I'm not sure whether that is a trait of the variety or down to growing in a fairly cloudy British summer!
Already the leaf in storage is giving off what I would call a classic "virginia" cigarette tobacco smell in it's bags - which is what I was hoping for. Tasting the leaf by chewing orally it has quite a lot of residual sugars in it despite being air-cured - which probably explains the colour, there is also quite a bit of bitterness which accompanies a much stronger nicotine kick than I was expecting. The aroma in the mouth is very mild at this stage of ageing and reminds me of the smell of hay with a little coconut thrown in ... in my experience this is exactly the flavours I get from unaged colour-cured bright leaf varieties.
So in conclusion I'm pretty sure I'd class it as a brightleaf type and I'd love to see how it does if it's flue cured - I imagine you'd get some great pale yellow leaf that is very sweet and strong. It is much higher nicotine than any brightleaf I've grown on my plot though ... it feels stronger than the rustica I grew this year and has levels that seem as high as a good strong dark air variety!
All in all I think this is an interesting variety that grew very strongly in a more northern climate. I would guess it would be great in a cigarette blend.
The plants of this Galician Original grew very well and made tall 7-8 ft plants with good yielding large leaves of a glowing light green which yellowed to a very pale colour readily on the plant. They flowered at around 7 weeks from transplanting out.
Obviously this tobacco needs some ageing to really know what it will end up being like - and as I'm an oral tobacco user I can't comment on how it smokes. The colour I got from air-curing these leaves was a kind of red/orange rather than a brown ... some leaves appear almost fixed at the yellow stage in the centre and they look remarkably like a sun-cured oriental in colour. The leaf lamina is on the thin side - but I'm not sure whether that is a trait of the variety or down to growing in a fairly cloudy British summer!
Already the leaf in storage is giving off what I would call a classic "virginia" cigarette tobacco smell in it's bags - which is what I was hoping for. Tasting the leaf by chewing orally it has quite a lot of residual sugars in it despite being air-cured - which probably explains the colour, there is also quite a bit of bitterness which accompanies a much stronger nicotine kick than I was expecting. The aroma in the mouth is very mild at this stage of ageing and reminds me of the smell of hay with a little coconut thrown in ... in my experience this is exactly the flavours I get from unaged colour-cured bright leaf varieties.
So in conclusion I'm pretty sure I'd class it as a brightleaf type and I'd love to see how it does if it's flue cured - I imagine you'd get some great pale yellow leaf that is very sweet and strong. It is much higher nicotine than any brightleaf I've grown on my plot though ... it feels stronger than the rustica I grew this year and has levels that seem as high as a good strong dark air variety!
All in all I think this is an interesting variety that grew very strongly in a more northern climate. I would guess it would be great in a cigarette blend.
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